Little Oak Animal Sanctuary – Bungendore – ACT – November 2015

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ACT, Australia, Bungendore, canberra, Little Oak Animal Sanctuary

A visit to a local Animal Sanctuary

There is a wonderful farm animal sanctuary about a thirty minute drive from Canberra in a country town call Bungendore.

The sanctuary is situated on over 200 acres of land and as the website says…

‘Little Oak Sanctuary Incorporated is a not-for-profit, registered charity that offers sanctuary to animals in need while promoting compassion for all animals through education and cruelty-free living’

The sanctuary holds open days and this month a few friends and I drove out to a small town called Bungendore where we were picked up in 4-wheel drive vehicles and taken to the sanctuary.  We had to hop into the 4-wheel drive vehicles as we had to drive over a flowing river and on a very bumpy dirt road to reach the sanctuary.

There was about twenty of us and the entry fee of $25 goes towards the upkeep of the sanctuary and the animals; so we were very happy to pay and we were given a nice vegan BBQ at the end of our visit including vegan chocolate pie and apple and berry crumble.  My dear friend Simone had actually told me about the open day and then could not come as she had to work; so her daughter and her friend came in her place; I am sure we will go back and she can see the sanctuary for herself.

We were shown around the sanctuary and our first stop was a visit to the sheep then the calves.

All the animals have wonderfully large areas to play, eat and sleep.  They each are named after humans for example the calves are called ‘Jack Black’ and ‘James Brown’ and a couple of the pigs are named ‘Pablo Pigcasso’ [a rather humorous play on Picasso] and ‘Dr Seuss’.

Our next stop was the pig area where two huge pigs live…one male and one female.  We were told that they had dug their own bath and when filled with water, they both loved to hop in and get dirty (as pigs do).

All the animals are rescue animals and now have a wonderful life in this beautiful part of Canberra.

During our walks we were given the history of the sanctuary and how each animal came to live at the sanctuary and additional information on the plight that animals face in Australia; including how we can help by living compassionately.

Our next stop on our walk was to see the goats who were just delightful – so cute and all coming up to the fence to receive some snacks; some more pushy than others, jumping up onto the fence, which was funny to see.

My friend’s daughter was taking ‘selfies’ with the animals and I managed to capture her with the ‘pushy’ goat who was still up on the fence waiting for food. 

Next to the goats we saw the horses which included two huge Clydesdales…beautiful animals and just so big.  These were found in a paddock one year after their owner died, skinny and near death…but now they live in this huge paddock and are healthy and well cared for.

The sanctuary’s mission is to promote compassion to all animals through education and cruelty-free living and Little Oak looks forward to creating many more projects and planting lots of seeds of compassion in the hearts of Australians.

(source: website of Little Oak Sanctuary)

 A great day out and lovely to see rescue farm animals living a lovely life!!