Written by Nicola Vernon, Founder of Greyton Farm Animal Sanctuary
Professional photography by Rima Geffen Photography
For many people in rural South Africa, raising animals for meat is both a way of earning an income and putting food on the table. However, it’s hard to provide for the needs of farm animals in informal settings…
The problem of pigs
Pigs, in particular, are challenging. Their intelligence gives them the ability to find ways of breaking out of makeshift shelters, so unless the farmer’s prepared to invest heavily in infrastructure, his pigs are going to become a public nuisance and a health hazard as they tear up neighbours’ gardens and spread parasites and zoonotic diseases around the community.
It’s impossible to meet the requirements of the Animals Protection Act (APA). Just one vet call-out can wipe out the profit on the entire herd, let alone the pig being treated. Their strong snouts will overturn food and water bowls unless they’re cemented to the ground. They reduce any enclosure to a muddy quagmire within days, which is impossible to keep clean. Piles of faeces build up, are mixed up with their food and water, and the pigs get sick and require antibiotics just to stay alive.
A tall order
Greyton Farm Animal Sanctuary works with local farmers. Our agenda is clear: we want them to give up farming animals. But first we have to build trust. We emphasise that we don’t want to take their income away from them.
We want to stop animal suffering, create a healthy alternative business and, after our intervention, leave behind a happy farmer who enjoys a new source of clean, ethical income that nurtures him and his family.
It’s a tall order and requires time, patience and constant support and respect from us in the face of distrust, resentment and, sometimes, abuse. We work alongside the NSPCA when they investigate complaints. At first, we’re there to help the farmer become more compliant with the APA, to relieve suffering, and to help with resources such as feed, straw and building materials. From the start, we tell the farmer that we’ll help him transition from pigs to plants when he’s ready.
Saving the Sauls’ pigs
Three months ago, a farmer we’d been working with for two years called us. Andre Sauls had, at one time, 54 pigs. He struggled constantly to keep them healthy. Individual pigs would stamp their personalities on his heart. His whole family, without realising it, were battling with their natural empathy, suppressing it in order to continue to farm the pigs. One day it became too much: Andre came home to a dead piglet, and that was it. He asked if the offer was still there and we swung into action.
The next day we went to the site to make a plan, and the day after we ferried the remaining five adults and 12 piglets from the piggery to the farm. We broke through rusted roof sheeting and various odd bits of fencing and ragged metal to reach them and then literally picked them up, one by one, loaded them onto bakkies (pick-up trucks) and brought them to the sanctuary.
To prepare for their arrival, we’d moved six of our pigs out of a shelter and back into their previous home. (They were already familiar with the old place so were happy to go.) We cleaned out the shelter, filled it with bales and bales of fresh, dry straw, filled up water troughs with sparkling fresh water, freshened up the muddy wallow, and prepared a welcome meal of our specially formulated mash with chopped veggies. Sanctuary staff, volunteers, and veterinarian Sarah Viljoen were in attendance as the pigs arrived. Each one was checked, injected for mange, and some sick piglets were placed in SCU.
Now, all the pigs and piglets have been sterilised and are living their best life at the sanctuary. This is their forever home. They’ll live here as a family for the rest of their natural life.
We’re supporting Andre and his family to create a vegetable garden on over an acre of space. He’s fenced in the area with materials provided by us, and we’re busy helping him plant seedlings and fruit trees; we’ll soon help him build a greenhouse where he can grow seeds.
We want to work with him to create a lapa where he and his wife, Jenny, and their sons can sit and admire their garden as it grows. We’ve promised to buy all his surplus vegetables, as there’s a huge demand for organically grown local produce in Greyton, and we have a vegan café in the village from where we can both cook with and sell his produce. Andre has pledged to pay it forward and to dedicate a part of his garden to grow vegetables for his neighbours and to build food security in his immediate community. This is what Greyton Farm Animal Sanctuary is about and what we continue to strive towards.
About Greyton Farm Animal Sanctuary
Located on a small farm in Greyton, Western Cape, this farm animal-focused organisation started with the rescue of a pig named Bella. Today, it’s home to many pigs, as well as sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, and more.
For more information about Greyton Farm Animal Sanctuary, read the Happy Tails article here and follow them on Facebook and Instagram: @greytonfarmanimalsanctuary.
