Sanctuary owner Shawn Bishop gave up valuable time to show us around the property and introduce us to many of the inhabitants including a talking tui, healthy former battery hens, pigs, donkeys, ducks and goats. She had even managed to bake us some vegan muffins!

The Sanctuary has been operating for eight years and only accepts animals that have had a hard time in their former homes or animals needing rescuing. Each animal has their own distinct personality and unique story as to how they arrived in their new home.

shawn Not all are fortunate. While showing us around Shawn discovered a recently rescued morepork had died during night. In contrast, Shawn says she has been surprised by the progress made by Cassidy, the talking tui, who remains in the main house due to the severity of his injuries. Shawn says each time she has thought he wouldn't improve anymore, he has.

"Cassidy is coming closer to leading a normal, natural life," she says. "He is now flying and almost ready to be returned back into the wild. He has also developed the art of mimicking human speech in a deep voice."

Visitors from different countries apparently swear it sounds like he is talking in their own language!

My personal favourites were the very friendly and gentle-natured Jerusalem donkeys, Solomon and Bartholomew (named for the cross-like markings on their shoulders). They were in the barn as one was recovering from surgery. They loved all the new attention from us.

It was a great to actually spend time with animals since we spend so much of our time and energy working for the animals. It was a refreshing trip and reminded us of why we do it.

To find out more visit sanctuary

In addition to working as SAFE's campaign officer Sacha Dowell is founder and person-in-charge of Cat Rescue. Sacha aids in the rescue and rehoming of stray cats in Christchurch. Cats like Dempsey.

Disposable animals?

What is it with people? Humans keep all sorts of animals in tiny cages, kill ‘useless' male chicks soon after birth, kill animals for sport and take the lives of thousands every day for food. Where does the cruelty stop? More....

Most people these days view companion animals such as cats and dogs as worthy of our compassion, unlike, in their view, the animals that they use for sport, entertainment, clothing, science or food. But do they? The number of stray companion animals in New Zealand, especially cats, is phenomenal.

Every year tens of thousands of companion animals are needlessly killed in shelters because they were abandoned or lost and, with no identification, unable to be reunited with their human friends. Far too many people allow their animals to breed because they are unaware that many more babies are born than the number of people wanting to adopt them, therefore the ‘excess supply' are killed. Also rather depressing is seeing the number of ‘free to a good home' ads online and in newspapers, signifying the disposability of our furry ‘friends'. Once they become inconvenient we rid ourselves of them by rehoming, surrendering them to shelters or worse.

Dempsey was one of those disposable animals, well to the heartless person who abandoned him anyway. The 2-day-old kitten was just last week dumped in a rubbish skip, which was then transported to a refuse station. He was completely helpless. Luckily a worker discovered him amongst all the rubbish and called me for help (as I am currently catching stray cats to be neutered and returned to their current ‘home' where they will be fed and watched out for by myself and my helpers, as they are too unused to people to be rehomed). I arranged for a helper to go and pick the kitten up, one who is very experienced raising orphan kittens in the US. She named him Dempsey, after a dumpster company. She is now bottle feeding him until he's big enough to eat solid food then he'll be coming to my place until he's old enough to be desexed and a good forever home found. He's one of the very few lucky ones who has a chance.

If you or anyone you know is considering letting their companion animal breed, even "just one litter," please think of Dempsey and those thousands of ‘surplus' animals, and have your animal desexed. And please give a forever home to a rescued companion animal rather than buying one from a pet shop or breeder.

Veteran campaigner Hans Kriek shares his thoughts on the state of animals in society.

Having been involved in animal rights for nearly three decades, nothing much surprises me when it comes to the many ways people manage to abuse animals. I have read dozens of books, hundreds of magazines and thousands of articles and seen many videos about human oppression of animals.

I have seen positive changes over all these years but I am also aware that animal exploitation today is greater than it ever was. In New Zealand and much of the Western world animal rights is no longer seen as fringe or extreme. With awareness has come some sort of acceptance and very slow change. On the other hand, animal use is increasing at an enormous pace in many other parts of the world, especially in Asia. With little or no animal protection laws in place, the suffering of animals in research, entertainment and especially in farming is mind boggling. The numbers of mistreated animals here and overseas is so huge that most people feel overwhelmed and helpless. In large numbers animals become anonymous and are easier to ignore. The challenge for animal advocacy groups is to make people see the individuals behind the numbers. This was reinforced to me the other day when I was looking for a quote. I come across these words from Christian Barnard, the surgeon who carried out the world's first heart transplant.

"I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland. They lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I used one as a heart donor. When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly. We attached no great significance to this, but it must have made a great impression on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room, the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. The incident made a deep impression on me. I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures".

In a few weeks SAFE will be in Napier to highlight the plight of companion animals in research. Come and join us. For more info click here.

A new feature where you get to read the views, news and personal ramblings of key SAFE personnel. Bravely putting her hand up to kick off this new feature is humane education officer Nichola Kriek.

Nichola Kriek Nichola has worked as a humane educator in New Zealand for over a decade working for the Wellington SPCA before joining SAFE in 2004. Nichola has developed successful outreach school programmes, children's magazines and resources as well as implementing an animal-assisted therapy programme. Last year she launched SAFE's ‘Animals & Us,' a humane education programme for secondary schools which is one of SAFE's proudest achievements. Nichola is married to Hans, SAFE's campaign director.

What did I want to be when I grew up? A teacher, a nurse or a movie star? Certainly, working for an animal rights organisation wasn't on my list. Don't get me wrong, I liked animals when I was young, but the definition of liking animals at my house was a dog and cat in the garden, a budgie in a cage and lambs, cows, pigs and chickens on the BBQ.

If I had been able to peer through the cosmos to see my future self I'm sure I would have been quite shocked and surprised. Within my family and circle of friends there were no vegetarians, let along vegans. People didn't concern themselves with animals or animal rights, they were too busy thinking about whether Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue would get together on Neighbours or if Duran Duran was better than Spandau Ballet (showing my age here!). Over the years things changed - for me anyway.

How did it happen? It was like Monday morning when the alarm clock goes off. At first I tried to convince myself that this wasn't really happening, animal abuse wasn't my problem. The ‘leave me alone, I want to go back to sleep,' hit the snooze button phase. Then as the facts became clearer and harder to ignore, I started to see how my lifestyle affected animals. I entered the grumpy ‘alright, alright I'm getting up,' stumble out of bed phase. Finally, the real transformation and ‘wake-up call' happened in the shower. Like a cold shower reality hit me in the face and I knew there was no turning back.

Animals matter, their lives are just as important to them as mine is to me. They don't wake up in the morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed just so they can become a fur-trim fashion accessory. They don't want to wake up in a laboratory or a battery cage and they certainly don't want to be turned into breakfast sausages.

Growing up is hard, and sometimes there are still days I wish I could pull up the covers and imagine animals live in a peaceful and compassionate world. It's usually at about this time that the cat decides to exercise his claws on my neck. So, in reflection maybe I didn't become a nurse or a movie star, but I'm not losing any sleep over those dreams failing to come true. Working for animal rights is not what I expected to be doing with my life, but then I'm sure pigs don't expect to become pork chops! I'm pretty happy with my alternative.
Nichola Kriek
Education officer

If you wish to contact Nichola email her at: nichola@safe.org.nz