THE JOURNEY SO FAR

It was in 1988 when the first seedlings of Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary were sown. Carole Webb, a former veterinary nurse heard about a very poorly new-born lamb at a local farm in Hertfordshire. Not expected to survive, she asked the farmer if she could adopt the tiny lamb. The farmer agreed. Naming him Larry, she took him home to hand rear, but Larry certainly wasn’t the last! Next came premature lamb triplets, who she named the Didley family. All three had to be fed every few hours and just like Larry they thrived.

By 1992 Carole’s flock of animals had grown and she relocated to Cambridgeshire. She bought a house with some land in a small village called Fen Drayton. At one stage, she was caring for over 800 rescued animals, and it wasn’t long before Carole and her flock had outgrown the premises. Carole finally made the decision to sell the property. So, in 1999 she moved back to Hertfordshire, putting the small amount of money left over from the sale into the sanctuary. She also gave up the luxury of bricks and mortar, choosing to live in a mobile home on a site with some land for her rescued animals. It wasn’t a great move for Carole though. Continued vandalism caused numerous problems and made life extremely difficult.

Finally, in 2000, Carole and her rescued animals made one final move. Transporting all the animals and the mobile home to their new home proved a massive project, but it was worth it for the long-term future of the sanctuary.  The founder of Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary had at last found some stability at Woolly Park Farm in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Carole signed a long-term lease on the 59-acre site at Wolverton, where FARS still resides today.

At 74, Carole has also had her fair share of personal heartache, and this is what makes her story even more inspirational. Carole’s 32 year old disabled daughter named Melanie, sadly died of a heart attack in her arms. If this wasn’t devastating enough, Carole’s mother also passed away shortly afterwards, having lost her brave battle with breast cancer. But although Carole’s life had been ripped apart, this was when she also realised her true vocation. To rescue, protect, heal and care for the voiceless.

This year Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary celebrates 30 years. From her first adoptee Larry, Carole has achieved so much. With the help of a small team, trusted friends and volunteers she has overcome hardships, disappointments and adversity, because she is driven by her compassion and kindness.

“Those who protect and save other animals lead the way in protecting and saving humanity and earth.”  Anthony Douglas Williams – Inside the Divine Pattern

Best-selling American author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson visited Carole when he was researching his book The Pig Who Sang To The Moon that was published in 2003. The sanctuary was then sited in Cambridgeshire.Masson wrote: “I don’t think I have met anyone to whom sheep are dearer … many of the sheep at her sanctuary had various disabilities such as Remus, a three-legged ram who seems unaware of his disability … Carole Webb knew the name of every sheep she was caring for (at least one hundred) and what I was able to see with my own eyes was that the sheep felt similarly about her.”