A few goats at the Forever Home Sanctuary in Lavington. (photos courtesy of Angie Ioakimidou)

By Liam Verster

Forever Home Sanctuary

Local couple operating sanctuary for neglected and abused farm animals

Jan 26, 2022 | 11:53 AM

A local couple have turned their property in Lavington into a sanctuary for farm animals in need with the hope healing the animals and using them to heal and educate people.

Angie Ioakimidou told Vernon Matters she and her husband Ron founded the Forever Home Sanctuary on their Bluenose Mountain area property in September.

“As far as we know, we’re the only farm animal sanctuary here in Vernon. Our mission is to provide a healthy, caring, loving and safe home to abused and neglected farm animals, and we also home animals when the owners are not able to care for them anymore,” said Ioakimidou.

Since launching the sanctuary, Ioakimidou has taken over the care and housing of a horse, a sheep, six goats, a rooster, and three chickens. They do not currently take in pets like cats and dogs.

Animals at the Forever Home Sanctuary (photos courtesy of Angie Ioakinidou)

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Animals at the Forever Home Sanctuary (photos courtesy of Angie Ioakinidou)

She noted they do not have the capacity to house any more animals right now, but are working to build more spaces for animals in the future.

Ioakimidou told Vernon Matters that the plans do not stop with providing these animals with just a new home.

“Our vision, what we’re looking to create, is not only a farm animal sanctuary but a human sanctuary. We want to act as advocates on behalf of the farm animals, and to educate and create a healing space between the animals and the humans,” Ioakimidou explained, adding that she was inspired to create such a space while volunteering at Turtle Mountain Donkey Sanctuary.

Ioakimidou said she and her husband spent the past four years researching and educating themselves on how to care for farm animals, adding that the donkey sanctuary has been a helpful resource in establishing the Forever Home Sanctuary.

She said a lot of work still needs to be done on the property, including replacing fences, clearing some trees, and repairing barns, but does plan to open the farm to the public starting in the fall.

“We want to create a healing space for humans, we want to create an educational space for humans. We want Girl Guides to come up and camp and get educated on the care of farm animals and the environment,” said Ioakimidou .

Ioakimidou and her husband both work full-time jobs and care for the animals in their off time.

She said they have done fundraisers to support the upkeep of the farm and feeding and caring of the animals, and plan to hold more in the future. So far, the sanctuary has not re-homed any animals.

Ioakimidou said the sanctuary just earned non-profit status in October and that they want to ensure all paperwork and bylaws are in place before they move forward with re-homing animals.

She told Vernon Matters that the goal is to become a full charity, but they will need to operate as a non-profit for a while before they can make that transition.

“We have to be a non-profit society and run as a non-profit society for, I believe, a year. We have to go through our first [Annual General Meeting], and then we can start looking at applying for a charity [status], and that’s where everything starts falling into place,” said Ioakimidou.

“So we have a year ahead of us where we can only be a non-profit until we can do the rest of the paperwork to become a charity.”

The Forever Home Sanctuary will run some fundraisers in the coming months to raise money to fix up the property in time to open to the public in the fall. The farm can be contacted through its social media pages by people who wish to volunteer some time at the sanctuary.