Our Story
About Us
Little Oak Sanctuary provides ongoing care to over 180 farmed animals. Situated on over 250 acres of land, located under an hour from Canberra - Australia's National Capital, an hour from the coast, under an hour from Goulburn and three hours to Sydney.
Our Mission
Little Oak Sanctuary Incorporated is a not-for-profit, registered charity that offers sanctuary to animals in need while promoting compassion for all animals through education and cruelty-free living.
Our Name
In 2012, we adopted two piglets, one girl, and one boy. We named these two Heavenly Hiranni Tiger Piggy (or Tiger, for short) and Little Timmy Piglet.
Little did we know the place these two amazing beings would take in our hearts!
As we were very soon to learn, pigs, like the dogs and cats we typically share our homes with, have very unique personalities. Tiger was full of in your face curiosity, and like a human baby everything had to go into her mouth – edible or not! She would bound around the corner after her breakfast and make “bok bok bok” grunts (which is a friendly noise pigs make when meeting friends) before launching an assault on whatever toy or ‘thing’ she could find. To this day she cannot resist buttons, zippers, buckles or shoelaces! She has to have a trial nibble
Little Timmy Piglet on the other hand, was a more snugly baby. He was a boy of lap cuddles and belly-rubs, with the occasional mad fit of dancing thrown in for good measure.
As the piglets grew, so did these personalities, with Timmy always keen for a belly rub, and Tiger always needing to know what was going on. The two were now living outside, enjoying digging the dirt with their noses and cooling themselves in their wallow.
Sadly our Little Timmy Piglet, towards the end of 2012, became ill. Our brave man battled recurring infections that ended with him losing his life. In December, the infection must have tragically reached his brain and he passed away suddenly during a vet examination.
That was January 4th of 2013. This little man will not be forgotten. He planted a seed in our hearts, and we will continue to share the message of living with compassion for all living creatures.
We planted an oak tree over his grave – it seemed to fit well - Timmy was a tiny piglet whom grew to be a young pig of great strength and yet great gentleness. We know his time on this earth although short, was one of great meaning. Little Timmy Piglets’ Oak tree – although small, is a tree of great strength.
We named the sanctuary “Little Oak” to reflect this and honour Timmy. It is a sanctuary that is small in size, but hopes to be one of great strength – the strength of both compassion and information.
