At the edge of a wood, in spacious and well-maintained enclosures, some 120 animals (goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, etc.) live happy days under the benevolent care of Typhaine Genty and her husband, co-founders of “featherweight sanctuary”. Animal lovers and sensitive to the animal cause, they created their association in 2015 and transformed it this year into a sanctuary, that is to say a place of permanent reception over 6,000 m2.
They have chosen to specialize in the care of new pets (NAC), small in size because there are few reception structures for them. Before their arrival at the sanctuary, these animals all have a difficult past in common.
Used for laboratory experiments
“We recovered pigs on which there had been skin tests of cream and mice which were used mainly for behavioral studies”, explains Typhaine Genty. When the experimental protocols come to an end, the Grail Association, specializing in the rehabilitation of laboratory animals, is looking for places for them. “Lab animals, when it comes to cats and dogs, there are a lot of shelters that take them, but it’s more difficult for NACs,” comments Typhaine Genty, who explains that the sanctuary cannot always meet the demand, to guarantee good living conditions for his little ones. So far, 140 mice and six pigs from laboratories have taken up residence in the Charente haven of peace. That day, the little Göttingen pig, a breed created for laboratories, enjoys a nap in the sun in an enclosure that it shares with a fellow animal.
A very strict protocol is applied to animals leaving the laboratory. “Animals must not present any risks to the environment or to humans, with a veterinary certificate in support”, testifies the co-founder of the sanctuary. The departmental directorate for the protection of populations (DDPP) must also validate its transfer. Although the sanctuary team is not in favor of animal testing, it has never observed any particular health concerns in those it has welcomed. If they are sometimes fearful, they are rather social animals because they are handled a lot for humans. “It is more difficult to socialize our three-legged sheep which has been abandoned in a meadow”, observes Typhaine Genty.
Abused or abandoned
Snuggled up in her cage, Judy the chinchilla was released from illegal breeding, blind and with a broken leg. The hamsters were collected from a pet store because they were not “saleable”, the gerbils from another which was closing. Phoebe, a pigeon, was picked up by the association after being locked in a very small cage because her owner “did not realize that she needed more space”, says, understanding, the co-founder of the sanctuary. . She now coos willingly in the arms of Manon, a volunteer at the Sanctuary. The guinea pigs were abandoned, one lot at the bottom of a building and the other in front of a pet store, “as if she was going to take them back”, sighs Typhaine Genty.
Eleven rabbits were placed in a box near the river that borders the couple’s property. Surely from an industrial farm, they accumulate a lot of diseases: pasteurellosis, ringworm, ear mites etc. and require a lot of care. “One of them stayed in quarantine with us for two months,” points out Typhaine Genty. There are also hens culled from breeding because they are no longer profitable and a few ducks from a foie gras duck farm. “They are sexed in the bud and piled up in large bins and come what may of them,” she says. Torti had a neck problem and I gave him physio sessions several times a day to straighten his head. She has become super social. A little goat remained abandoned in a meadow for two years and had to have one leg amputated. The sanctuary had him made with a prosthesis, which the healers are working on getting him to accept.
A call for donations to continue
Typhaine Genty remembers the 15,000 staples affixed to the main aviary with her husband. If some works were commissioned from craftsmen, many were carried out gradually by them. Family companions and parents of two young children, they need to hire two caregivers to carry out the activity of the sanctuary. But, after a sudden drop in the subsidy, one of their subsidized contracts is threatened. So they launched a call for donations which continues until Friday to continue to deal with placement requests, which are daily for rabbits for example.
“We save a few animals here, but we need to act more upstream to change things, for example by imposing a little more control on sales or by offering sterilized animals in pet stores,” says the co-founder.