GLO Farm Sanctuary welcomes rescued farm animals
BIDWELL ROAD—A visit to the GLO Farm website states: ‘GLO Farm Sanctuary provides a safe and loving forever home to rescued farm animals, ensuring that their physical, social and emotional needs are not just met but exceeded. We strive to ensure that each individual is thriving from the day they arrive to their final days. We are compassion in action.’
A visit to the actual GLO Farm Sanctuary, on Bidwell Road near Manitowaning, is proof positive—they are compassion in action.
How it all began? Ali Valentine was a city girl; grew up in the city, lived in the city, worked in the city and about a decade or more ago, she switched to veganism. Someone suggested to her that to get her family on board, she should take them to an animal sanctuary. She was married at the time, and she has a daughter. The belief was, ‘if you meet them, you can’t eat them.’
“For my daughter, that was it, she was sold and to this day, she is still vegan. My ex unfortunately is not, but that’s the least unfortunate part about my ex…and you are welcome to print that!”
Ms. Valentine didn’t know at that point in time that she needed sheep and goats and cows in her life, but there was a volunteer program at that particular sanctuary and that’s where it all began for her. She volunteered there for about four years and then, once she learned all that was involved in running a sanctuary, she sold her house and bought a farm.
“But it wasn’t until I got animals in my care that I realized: you can plan for a cow or a pig or a sheep, but how do you plan for Patricia, or Maria or Wayne?” Ms. Valentine shared. “They all come from such unique circumstances and they all have such unique needs. So, the best thing that we did, and here’s my favourite analogy, we are a long term care home for farm animals. They rely on us to meet every single one of their needs, from the day they arrive to the day they pass away and we try to not only keep them alive, but give them a life worth living.”
All the animals are rescues. They come from a variety of different cases. “We have one potbellied pig named Pixie, she came from a domestic violence call. When the police arrived on scene, not only was there the issue of domestic violence, there were also children in the home as well as a whole bunch of animals. Pixie was in a really bad way when she came to us. We weren’t sure we’d be able to rehab her, but with the exception of being blind—which does not slow her down at all—she is absolutely living her best life now.”
Since moving to Manitoulin, they are committed to supporting the businesses on the Island. They’ve switched all of their contracts for farm supplies to Rob Pennie, who runs the Agromart. In a few weeks the new barn roof will be done by Rob Maguire of Terrastar Roofing.
Wayne and Garth (get it? Party on Wayne, party on Garth) are goats that came from a really bad neglect case. When they first arrived, they were so emaciated it was not possible to give them vaccines or pull blood work, because they were just skin and bones. “We had to get some weight on them before we could properly vet them. Luckily, they were disease free. That’s one thing that’s super important to us, being the long term care home. Rescues do really important work, but we’re not a rescue, we are a sanctuary; we work with either the Ontario veterinary college for private quarantine, or we have private foster homes that will quarantine animals before any of them step foot onto our property. They have full blood work as well as a battery of tests, to make sure we are not bringing disease onto our property.”
GLO Farm Sanctuary first came into operation in East Garafraxa. When it became apparent the farm wasn’t big enough to suit their needs, they found this farm on Manitoulin Island. “We took possession of the property on September 26 and we had the other property till December 31. In that time, we had to get fencing up and we had to get hydro and water to the barn, so we could get the animals here. The barn was also filled to the rafters with junk. We had to empty the barn and clean it so we could get all our hay and straw and all our supplies in there. It was an absolute hustle. We are very fortunate to have three people here on site: myself, I’m the founder and executive director, Dr. Sarah Dodd, our private veterinarian and then we have Richard who is our property manager. Richard built the paddock and the yard in five weeks. He is absolutely super human!”
“In East Garafraxa we knew no one, but everyone here on Manitoulin Island has been so welcoming and so helpful,” Ms. Valentine continued. “The barn doors fell off in a storm in the winter, and Terry Moggy from down the road built our barn doors for us. We were afraid we were not going to have enough hay, but everyone helped us in that respect too. We got through with the help of our neighbours. Rob Pennie has been a tremendous help. We’ve actually hired his son. Rylan Pennie is our part time animal caregiver and he is amazing! He’s so gentle and patient with the animals and you can’t ask for more than that.”
When asked how the sanctuary is funded, Ali laughed. “We beg, beg, beg,” she said. “Our biggest source of income is Patreon which is a monthly paid subscription. People interested in supporting us can go to our website and learn more about that. We’ve been in operation since 2015, but in 2021 we did go the route of becoming a registered Canadian charity so that hopefully we can get more corporate donations. We are looking for corporate business partners and we’d be happy to work with local businesses if anyone is looking to sponsor a project; we have a lot of projects,” she said and laughed again. “Like many small-scale, family-run sanctuaries, we rely on donations. Every dollar donated goes directly into caring for the animals, which for feeding cows alone costs about $20 per day throughout the winter.”
Volunteers are also a tremendous help to the daily operations. “At our old farm, we had 100 volunteers. We have eight volunteers here on Manitoulin, but we haven’t been here long.” Volunteers can also go to their website, www.glofarm.org, for more information. It’s hard to believe that anyone meeting Martin, Patricia, Pixel, Wayne and Russel Crow wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend a lot more time with them.
“My goal is to be doing this by myself in 10 years, because I still work a day job. I work from home, which gives me the flexibility to take an hour at lunch and come out here, then go back to work. In 10 years I hope to retire from my day job and just do this all day every day. Create the job that you don’t need a vacation from, right?” Ms. Valentine said with a smile. “I just love it. This is what I was meant to do.”
