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Nora and her boyfriend Chuck are the perfect couple. Nora’s a quiet girl who is coming out of her shell a little more every day. The way to her heart is any kind of potato: chips, French fries, even mashed.
She loves potatoes and she loves Chuck, the resident supervisor, a personable guy with high standards, who will follow you around to make sure you’re cleaning up after yourself. Nora and Chuck live happily together with 58 or so of their closest friends on the grounds of Free From Farm, Manitoba’s newest animal sanctuary, a 25-minute drive outside the east Perimeter Highway in St. Genevieve.
Nora is a duck. Chuck is a goose. They’re an odd couple. Now there’s a new duck in town named Brian. Nora seems really taken with him; she likes hanging out with another duck. There’s no shortage of entertaining interactions, moments of drama, suspense, cuteness and fun.
JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Felicity the pig
It’s no secret that spending time with animals is good for our overall well-being. They make us laugh, provide companionship and support, and teach us about compassion and living in the moment.
Free From Farm founder Christine Mason and her partner Tom Jillette know this, and have been living it every day since they made the new sanctuary official in December 2021. Both feel proud and lucky to give a home to animals in need where they are loved and cherished.
Free From Farm provides permanent homes for unwanted, abandoned and abused farm animals, and education on various practices they’ve come from, including auction houses, slaughter plants and breeding programs.
They currently have about 60 animals, including horses, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, pigs, a dog, a mule, two ducks, a goose and a llama.
“I love what we do,” said Mason, who has been vegan for the last four years and was vegetarian for eight years before that. “I love spending time with the animals, being outside. I’m their mom, they are absolutely no different than the dogs and cats we have. I’ve been an animal lover and an environmentalist since I was a wee girl.
“We can stand on the side of the road with signs, post graphic pictures and videos, but what really catches people is seeing them and meeting them,” she added, addressing the powerful impact of spending time with animals and getting to know them.
While attending an event in connection with the now defunct Good Place sanctuary, Mason learned about an upcoming animal auction, and the need for rescuing, adopting, and donations.
“It was traumatizing; some of them were babies, others were old horses. They have no idea what’s going on. I ended up adopting an old horse. His name was Gus, and he lived to be over 20. He passed away last year. That was the beginning. We adopted another horse, then I fell head over heels with another horse,” Mason said, adding that she knew they needed to get land.
So they bought 20 acres and Free From Farm was created.
JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Daise the goat
“I wanted both my animal activism and the sanctuary. I also wanted to point out that the animals are happy because they are no longer in agriculture, that’s how I came up with the name. I started getting people asking me to take animals, it has just grown.”
Janine Watts remembers meeting Tom and Christine at a Manitoba Animal Save rescue event.
“I felt an instant connection. Our values and views aligned,” said the animal lover whose own family includes four cats, a blind dog and three pigs: Charlotte, Henry and Pickles.
“When they said they were buying a property I couldn’t be more happy for them,” Watts said, noting that her trio lives happily alongside residents Willy and Angus.
“The five piggies all share the pig palace that was built by my husband and one of our friends who boards his horse at the sanctuary. I really thought my piggies were happy at the place they were before but I was truly amazed by the transformation in them in this past year. They seem more secure, confident, affectionate and they love their area. It’s home. The environment is positive and full of kindness.
“We laugh together, cry together and pull together when we need to work with the animals. When something needs to get done we all rally to lend a hand. Animals are respected, valued and loved at Free From Farm.”
Watts makes daily visits to feed the pigs their dinner and to clean their area and help out in anyway needed.
“It is the best way to end my day. I can’t imagine my life without them. Animals make my heart happy.”
Photos by
JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Christine Mason feeds her sheep at Free From Farm, an animal sanctuary she runs with her husband Tom Jillette.
With both Mason and her partner working full-time jobs, visits to the sanctuary are by appointment only. From June to October, Free From Farm will be open the first Saturday of every month.
“We’ve got secure penning and safe areas. We don’t even have a tractor; we rely on the goodness of our neighbours to move bales for us. The area that we are in has supported us,” Mason said of their rural community.
“If an animal escapes, the neighbours corral them up and send them back. When we adopted Molly, she’d been seized by the provincial vet. It has to be a horrendous situation for that to happen. Pigs are very social. When we moved her to our property, we could not keep her in anything. She ended up at one of our neighbours. They brought her into a fenced area. Another neighbour volunteers his time and tractor to move things around, provides us with farming supplies, offers of hay and straw sources. We’ve had nothing but positive comments from the community,” she said, adding that her dream is for the sanctuary to become a registered charity with committed volunteers, consistent sources of money, and a strong infrastructure.
You can become a monthly sponsor and receive updates and pictures of your chosen animal with the option of coming out to visit. All funds are used to ensure animal care, veterinarian services and supplies. Donations of beet pulp, senior feed and alfalfa cubes are always welcome.
Visit: http://freefromfarmsanctuary.ca.
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