When you say the words ‘News of the World journalist’ what comes to mind? Not Janet Taylor, that I’ll guarantee. But she was one and it was her work for Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday paper that led to the founding of Farm Animal Sanctuary at Middle Littleton, near Evesham in Worcestershire.

“This was in the days when the News of the World did great campaigning work,” says Janet, nostalgically. She was convinced that British lambs were being illegally exported from Belgium to other parts of Europe so she and a colleague went to investigate. Sure enough, the consignments were travelling non-stop through Belgium and on to France. She tracked one lorry to Perpignan and was shocked to the core when she saw the animals being shot – inaccurately – as they came down the lorry’s tailboard.

Perhaps that awakening accounts for why there are so many sheep on this well-ordered, 80 acre farm in heart of Archers land. You can almost hear Phil practising the organ in the village church which abuts the farm.

Are they stupid – the sheep that is, not the Archers? Janet laughs: “You must be joking. There’s the gang of three and working together they can open any gate on this farm. They stick their tongues through the holes in latch gates; if a bolt is stiff, one will lean against the gate to ease the pressure while another slides the bolt back with his mouth and the third kicks it open.”

As we speak, a bitter November wind brings driving sleet from the north and Janet throws open the gates separating the farmyard from the field, and a string of young but fully grown animals trot in line for the shelter of the barn and its welcoming straw beds. They might have thick coats but there’s no doubt about where they prefer to be.

In another sheltered pen are the geriatric old ladies – rheumatic and stiff and some with spreading cataracts but Janet knows them all by name and their little preferences. Three of them give a deep throated snicker as Janet gives them all their daily treat of fruit shortcake biscuits. All these old ladies know that their aches and pains will be dealt with, their feed will always be there and that there will never be a shortage of loving and encouraging words. The way Janet speaks to them reminds me of a particularly good and caring nursing home I once visited.

Some of these sheep were bought as sickly or injured lambs at local markets. There is an argument that by buying animals you are contributing to the trade but Janet is much more pragmatic than that. She has the animals inspected by her vet and compiles a report which she then uses as a stick to beat the market and veterinary authorities. It has led to some genuine improvements in the appalling and callous handling of animals at market.

Like many of us, Janet cannot comprehend the brutal attitude of market and meat industry vets. One dejected little New Forest mare who was bleeding profusely was passed as fit to travel and would probably have been illegally sent to Belgium for meat. Janet bought her for a few pounds and took her home. She had recently foaled and complications had led to the bleeding. Janet’s vet also suspected severe kidney damage, which was confirmed when the poor little creature died. When confronted with the post mortem results, the market vet just shrugged disinterestedly and insisted she had been fit to travel. But he now knows he’s being watched.

The beautiful Friesian/Hereford cross, Daisy, who has a permanent quizzical look on her face, was in such a sad state as a market calf she could not even stand on her hind legs. Again, she was passed fit to travel. When Janet objected, the vet replied: “It won’t matter that she can’t stand where she’s going!” She was destined for a continental veal crate.

The most extraordinary story of all is that of Kellogg, the extremely handsome, strutting white cockerel. As you watch him proudly pacing around his bevy of rescued battery hens, it is almost impossible to believe his story. He also was the product of battery farming but as a male, his fate was to be gassed with CO2 at a day old because male battery chickens can’t lay eggs and are too scrawny for meat.

After emerging from the gas chamber he was frozen, along with the thousands of other innocent little rejects. He, and several other supposedly dead, frozen chicks, were bought by a falconer and were defrosted ready to be fed to the hawks. When Kellogg twitched in the warming sun on the falconer’s window sill, it saved his life and ensured him a long and natural future at Janet’s sanctuary.

He has the company of the cheekiest and prettiest goat I’ve ever seen, pigs, ducks, geese, a turkey and a whole variety of other wonderful creatures who have been turned from mere commodities into powerful personalities. How we devalue animals by eating them – and how much more rewarding they are when we take the time to know them. This is the important lesson that Janet and others who run sanctuaries teach us.

Janet has only one other paid member of staff and relies on volunteers for help on the farm. Every week she has to raise £1,500 to provide food, veterinary care and the amenities each animal needs, increasing difficult – especially after her charity shop based in a Birmingham suburb was burned down in an arson attack.

By adopting one of Janet’s rescued farm animals for only £18 a year (or £2 a month standing order), you’ll be helping to feed and care for your chosen adoptee as half your donation goes straight to Farm Animal Sanctuary. The other half is divided between Viva! and the VVF to help save thousands more lives – animal and human – through their campaigns against factory farming and promote vegetarianism.

Find out the latest sanctuary news at www.thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.uk

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