New lives for unwanted animals

Jacqui Emmett's daughter, Charlea Bentley.

Helping hands are wanted for LARA, an animal rescue and farm sanctuary in the Waikato.

The registered charity at Te Akau is looking for volunteers across the region to help this summer.

LARA is Jacqui Emmett and her daughter Charlea Bentley's labour of love, aimed at rescuing unwanted animals from all over the North Island. They have been doing this for five years.

"We rescue unwanted animals of all shapes and sizes from tropical fish to horses, goats, pigs, cats, dogs, sheep, alpacas, chickens, ducks and peacocks.

"We have worked with dairy farms across the North Island, taking their unwanted livestock, providing them with medical care and treatment, food and shelter and love," volunteer Linzee McCutcheon said.

Now, running the farm with her partner Barry, Jacqui rehomes the animals across the country for a $50 fee.

"It goes towards the cost of fuel to rescue the animals, blankets and coats made for the animals, food and drink, medicine, hay, electricity to heat and light the outside barns and stables," Jacqui said.

The sanctuary is also part of a 'pay it forward' community project.

It focuses on hosting free workshops for kids to get familiar with animals and raise awareness of animal cruelty.

"We are also developing the farm to make it wheelchair accessible to allow schools to bring their students to the farm to learn about farm animals, handle and pet the animals and feed them.

This will be a free service to families to come out and enjoy the animals.

We are also growing fruit and vegetables to donate to impoverished families as well as donating milk and eggs to the families free of charge," Linzee said.

This summer, LARA needs grooming and gardening volunteers and a campaign manager to help the sanctuary's development.

The couple works more than 70 hours a week and other fulltime volunteers help cleaning out the barns, feeding the animals and even sewing coats for the babies to keep them warm.

"We are a small local charity that cannot afford flash TV campaigns, so nobody really knows about us and the great work we do," Jacqui said.

The sanctuary recently rescued 117 unwanted one to three-week old goats from a goat farm where they were on the list to be culled.

"Luckily, through networking and trying to get on-side with farmers we have built some good relationships, but it has taken some time to gain their trust.

"They called us and we made umpteen visits to and from the farm, " she said.

The goats all received vet checks and proper nutrition before rehoming. The last two goats were re-homed a couple of months ago.

Linzee says this is just a drop in the ocean.

"Unfortunately, every year thousands of lambs, kids, horses, calves, dogs, cats, roosters/ chickens, ducks etc get put down for no other reason than 'they can not afford to keep them all' which is a huge waste of a life," she said.

Rescue operations cost the centre in material, fuel for transport, food and medical care for the animals.

In the last year it has rehomed 363 goats, 482 chickens, 37 peacocks, 17 rabbits, 11 orphan lambs, and many other animals from lifestyle blocks.

How to help:

* Become a volunteer.
* Make a donation, either money or materials.
* For more information, visit www.littleacresfarm.co.nz or visit the LARA - Animal Rescue & Farm Sanctuary Facebook page, or contact the sanctuary larafarmrescue@gmail.com