SOUTH BAR, N.S. — A South Bar woman who rescues animals isn’t looking for donations or volunteers — she needs people to speak up.
Shelly MacLeod said hay is crucial to the rescue work she and her husband Bruce MacLeod do, yet some individuals are ripping up farmers' fields in the area with all-terrain vehicles and trucks, limiting the amount of desperately needed hay available.
“I’m not looking for donations, I’m hoping people will spread the word on what this reckless behaviour does to hay ... I’m looking for voices, she said. “Less hay means less animals we can help this year.”
For years the MacLeods have rescued all types of animals including parrots, feral cats, dogs and horses. These days they have four miniature donkeys — three which were rescued and one rehomed — among the animals on their farm.
They got their first miniature donkey Thistle seven years ago. After being told about a severely neglected 20-year-old miniature donkey, she visited the property and eventually took that animal home before she knew if it could be rehabilitated.
MacLeod brought in a veterinarian to have it assessed.
“Within three weeks she showed us she had the will to live.”
The most recent miniature donkey they rescued, Fiona, arrived in April, following a farm seizure in Cape Breton.
“She couldn’t even stand for five minutes, she was that shaky,” MacLeod said. “Because we had extra hay at the time, we were able to take her.”
With the help of a veterinarian and Jeremy Hoyt from Sound Alternatives — equine therapeutics from New Brunswick — Fiona has been progressing back to health.
“Not only had her hooves overgrown but because she was kept in such poor conditions, her body had no muscle mass,” she said.
MacLeod said there are a number of wonderful farms in New Victoria and South Bar and they have personal relationships with the farmers who have generously allowed them to cut hay for their animals.
MacLeod said hay for animals has to be completely dry and the humid Cape Breton weather and rainy periods, sometimes makes that difficult to achieve.
And with people recklessly driving trucks and ATVs through the fields, much-needed hay is being destroyed, she said.
She says farms in the area have experienced everything from having their fences cut down to hay destroyed by fire as people go four-wheeling through fields doing donuts.
“They don’t know what they’re running over,” MacLeod said. “There’s all kinds of food stocks on people’s fields. They are tearing fields up and it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and time to repair them.”
A few days ago MacLeod said they checked MacLennan's fields, the property between the South Bar Highway and Browns Lake where they have been cutting hay for a few years.
“Sadly this field has been almost ruined by vehicles and we will get very little hay off it this year, which means less animals we can help,” she said. “When a hay field is drove over it produces less hay, in fact it usually grows weeds the next year. Weeds that are toxic to a lot of animals when baled into hay.
“That extra hay we would have gotten off that field (which can be sold) would have helped with some of our expenses."
MacLeod said she knows it’s not members of the local ATV clubs who are doing damage, adding they are responsible and enjoy the many trails provided. It’s people not following the rules and respecting people’s property with whom she has issues.
MacLeod said she and her husband are private people, busy with their greenhouse, farm and animals and do not want people to drop off donations or visit and they do not want volunteers. Although they appreciate the kindness of the public, many of the animals they have rescued have lived traumatized lives and they are concentrating on giving them peaceful lives.
“People have literally dropped off animals on our doorstep,” she said. “Right now we’re not in the position to take any more animals.”
Anyone unable to look after their animal should either call the Nova Scotia SPCA or the Department of Environment.
Dan Fraser, president of the Isle Royale ATV Club, said he and the owner of one of the properties in question in the South Bar/New Victoria area, did a lot of work on the property and reckless individuals in vehicles tore it down.
“It’s a mess out there, it’s criminal what they are doing,” he said.
“They are out there all hours of the night, out there with trucks, cars, jeeps and some ATVS, and it’s very unfortunate as the hay out there is valuable to a lot of people and the property out there is valuable to a lot of people,” he said. “The lake area is also being abused by some of these individuals and it’s so wrong.”
