Halfpenny-Farm Animal Sanctuary

Halfpenny-Farm Animal Sanctuary At the time we are closed to the public. A place in the country that gives old, ill or animals at risk a fresh start and a safe home. SC041616

Animals who come here stay here, we don't rehome.

The rugs have come off the horses for the last few days due to the lovely weather.A ménage a trois, of Bournville, Bumbl...
08/03/2025

The rugs have come off the horses for the last few days due to the lovely weather.
A ménage a trois, of Bournville, Bumble and Belle having a mutual grooming session!

*** Nuisance is spending the night in the vet on a drip. She’s doing well and will hopefully be home tomorrow morning.**...
06/03/2025

*** Nuisance is spending the night in the vet on a drip. She’s doing well and will hopefully be home tomorrow morning.***

Dropping little Nuisance off for her dental. A bit anxious because we’ve discovered she has a very fast heart rate. She’s on meds to help but it obviously means a bigger risk, however her teeth are causing her pain so we must do it.
Nuisance is 16 now and came when her owner went into care last August.

We are gobsmacked, humbled and very grateful for the support so far.I’ve had a minute to tot up all donations which have...
04/03/2025

We are gobsmacked, humbled and very grateful for the support so far.
I’ve had a minute to tot up all donations which have come in, so the go fund me, donor box, cash, cheques and a raffle held by ER.Events Scotland who raised £448 ( thank you Elmma)
This adds up to £28,224.63, we are nearly halfway there in 3 weeks, you’re all amazing!
We’ve also had an influx of wishes from our Amazon wishlist, which again is a huge help. Thank you so, so much.
Belle is 10, she came here at the age of 4 because she was unrideable due to a wonky leg. She has stiffness already in her knee and if she has a silly run around can be a bit lame the next day. She is happy with her friends though and although a bit of a prima donna, she’s also very sweet.
She’s wondering if we can make it to £30,000 by next week.
We’re so sorry to keep asking, but if you have already donated or cannot donate, please share.
Thank you again.

01/03/2025

Meet Janet, described as the mascot of Halfpenny by one of our volunteers.
She came here at the age of 2 with a ring in her nose and going to be culled because her owner had sold the land. We had the ring removed, which was very painful but allowed her to root around in the earth, as she should be able to do.
Janet is the friendliest, most beautiful of pigs but is 10 years old now, so an old lady, and has bad arthritis.
We give her horse metacam and 12 paracetamol twice a day ( hidden in sliced bananas) to make it more palatable for her.
She’s in over winter due to the mud, we keep her in a pen with lots of straw and a heat lamp, she’s where everyone goes by and is often treated to some fruit by the volunteers.
Your donations are allowing her to continue living her life warm and pain free.
Thank you.

28/02/2025

Hi my name is Leanne, I’m a fundraiser at Halfpenny Farm Animal Sanctuary. At the sanctuary… Leanne Masson needs your support for Halfpenny need your help

Thank you all who have donated so far, we have surpassed the £15,000, we are a quarter of the way there in less than a f...
28/02/2025

Thank you all who have donated so far, we have surpassed the £15,000, we are a quarter of the way there in less than a fortnight. Please keep it going!
We are so greatful, as are Danny and Dillon, and all the other animals.
You guys are amazing!!!

Batfink the chinchilla looks like a wee alien in this photo. I wonder what’s going through his head. He’s 16 and always ...
28/02/2025

Batfink the chinchilla looks like a wee alien in this photo. I wonder what’s going through his head.
He’s 16 and always waiting for his morning fenugreek crunchie.
Photo by Ellie.

We are nearly at the £15,000 mark, absolutely amazing. Thank you all so much.Nearly a quarter of the way towards our mar...
27/02/2025

We are nearly at the £15,000 mark, absolutely amazing. Thank you all so much.
Nearly a quarter of the way towards our mark in a week!!
Dare we hope to hit the £15,000 by the beginning of next week. Please help us get there. It means so much to animals like these.

Morag, the big sheep at the back came here a few years ago as a lamb, she is blind and has a pretty bad overbite so needs extra care. We don’t know why she is blind, but she copes well in familiar surroundings. She’s stabled at night and in the winter with her companion Claudia and goes out during the day when it’s better weather.
Claudia, with the Mohican, is an easy care sheep who came here when she injured her leg. It’s taken a while to heal but she’s pretty much better, she’s Claudia’s friend and support.
Photo by Ellie.

***update on Harry, he is doing much better today. He’s still not himself but eating and more steady on his feet.☺️***We...
26/02/2025

***update on Harry, he is doing much better today. He’s still not himself but eating and more steady on his feet.☺️***

We had a rush to the vet with Harry this morning, after I found him very wobbly, with nystagmus and having been sick and toileted in the house overnight.
Harry has a sad story, where he was found collapsed in Macedonia in a terrible state. He was weak, thin, had damage to his hips and a broken front leg which had healed badly. In Macedonia he was treated and a plate was put in his leg. He was then sent to Britain and ended up in a home that really wasn’t suited to him. Harry resource guards, doesn’t really like other dogs and needs a large amount of pain relief to keep him comfortable.
He found himself with limited options and we were asked to help.
Harry is only about 5 years old and loves people, and had done really well since coming here.
Sadly this morning he wasn’t himself, a vet visit was undecided as to the issue, either an inner ear infection or a vestibular episode. He has been given treatment and we wait to see if he recovers fully as many dogs can be left with a head tilt.
He’s eaten and is more comfortable after the antisickness injection he was given. Fingers crossed he continues to improve.
The animals we have came with health issues, were elderly and are getting older, this means a large monthly vet bill, about £2000 a month to keep everybody comfortable.

Please, if you can, help us to survive. Thank you.
25/02/2025

Please, if you can, help us to survive. Thank you.

Hi my name is Leanne, I’m a fundraiser at Halfpenny Farm Animal Sanctuary. At the sanctuary… Leanne Masson needs your support for Halfpenny need your help

Yesterday we had to let our big, handsome boy, Jasper, go.Jasper was nearly 16 and had started to suffer from a degenera...
25/02/2025

Yesterday we had to let our big, handsome boy, Jasper, go.
Jasper was nearly 16 and had started to suffer from a degenerative neurological condition which caused him to lose the use of his back legs. He was also suffering from kidney failure and along with the neurological problems had become incontinent.
This weekend he deteriorated quite rapidly and couldn’t get himself up without help.
We decided it was kindest to let him go.
Jasper came to us 14 years ago after he was taken to the vet to be put to sleep after biting a child, his owner was distraught but because they had children they were obviously concerned he would bite again. They tried various rescues, but none could help. We had a chat and decided we would take him home. He settled quickly with the family and had great joy playing with the other dogs and chasing a ball.
He was a blood donor for 5 dogs and saved 3 lives in doing so.
When he ruptured his cruciate, we put out an appeal to help pay for the referral to AVR, for his op. Many lovely people donated and after 6 weeks recovery he was back to his old self.
Sadly last year he was diagnosed with renal disease, but had been doing well on his renal diet, then we noticed him struggling on his back legs, it was not so much arthritis but neurological and it progressed fairly quickly until this weekend when he couldn’t get up without help.
He will be sadly missed, our regal, happy boy.
Jasperado our desperado, Jaspy boy rest easy, you were loved so much.

This is Jigsaw, Puzzle’s best friend. Jigsaw was booked to be put to sleep when we were asked to help him. He was aggres...
24/02/2025

This is Jigsaw, Puzzle’s best friend. Jigsaw was booked to be put to sleep when we were asked to help him. He was aggressive with other animals and an entire Billy goat. He was castrated, they have settled so well here, and we keep them seperate from the other animals to avoid any injuries.Both boys were pretty timid on arrival, but are now always up looking for attention.
Your donations will allow them to continue living happily and safe in their own secure world.
Photo by Rosie.

Wow, we were hoping to hit £10,000 before the end of the weekend, and we are nearly at £12,000, but we still have a long...
23/02/2025

Wow, we were hoping to hit £10,000 before the end of the weekend, and we are nearly at £12,000, but we still have a long way to go!
Thank you so much, we are gobsmacked!
You are amazing!
Please keep sharing, commenting and if possible donating.
This is Puzzle, he came with his friend Jigsaw, who was going to be put to sleep due to aggression.
They are kept together, because they are the best of friends.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/halfpenny-need-your-help?attribution_id=sl:85ddd2e9-d7ee-4a53-8950-115163c60e7c&lang=en_GB&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp13_c-amp14_c&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=messenger

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Aberdeen

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+447737653402

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Videos

Meet Janet, described as the mascot of Halfpenny by one of our volunteers. She came here at the age of 2 with a ring in her nose and going to be culled because her owner had sold the land. We had the ring removed, which was very painful but allowed her to root around in the earth, as she should be able to do. Janet is the friendliest, most beautiful of pigs but is 10 years old now, so an old lady, and has bad arthritis. We give her horse metacam and 12 paracetamol twice a day ( hidden in sliced bananas) to make it more palatable for her. She’s in over winter due to the mud, we keep her in a pen with lots of straw and a heat lamp, she’s where everyone goes by and is often treated to some fruit by the volunteers. Your donations are allowing her to continue living her life warm and pain free. Thank you.

We had a very sad day, today. Firstly we said goodbye to Leo, who came to us about 5 years ago. He had been born in a Romanian shelter and was taken to Britain at the age of 10 to find a home. Leo was very nervous and fearful and when he had to find another foster place due to a change of circumstances, we offered him a permanent home. He was not a dog who was happy to be handled by people and we never forced him. We did over time get him happy to have a lead put on and cope with vet visits. He went in last year for a full mot and all was good, however he had a vestibular episode at Christmas time and took a long time to start eating again. A further exam showed he had an abdominal tumour. He had been failing over the last few weeks so he went in for further tests. The tumour had spread and was in his liver, spleen and base of his heart. The tumours in his liver were on the verge of rupturing, so we decided the kindest thing was to let him go. The vet doesn’t think he had been in pain but at anytime that could have changed. He was not an easy dog, he didn’t really want human company, but got on happily with the other dogs. We are glad he came here and we loved him dearly, he will be sadly missed.

At least somebody is enjoying the snow, for us it’s just a slog to try and make sure everybody is kept warm, fed and watered!

Boozy ( the dark ferret) may be elderly and suffer from low grade lymphoma, but he still likes to play with his buddy, Baggins.

Shamrock thought he would help with cleaning up. Video by Ellie.

I wish all the animals were as good at taking their meds as Slinky is, he’s such a good boy.

Danny trying to prepare for a roll, while Dillon was taking the mick! Video by Ellie.

We were donated some play pit balls, which we have used to entertain the ferrets, although there has been a mixed reaction. Boozy and Baggins seemed interested! Video by Cameron.

Many thanks to Caitlyn who came for a couple of weeks work experience, she was a great help and even managed to feed the healthy sheep without too much difficulty! We hope she enjoyed her visit.

It seems to have been a particularly bad year for ragwort, which is great for invertebrate wildlife but not so great for other types if eaten. We have spent weeks removing it for the fields. If you choose to volunteer, this is one of the jobs you could end up doing during the summer. Our fields are almost clear now, thanks to the volunteers!

We had to get the vet out to our big girl, Janet, yesterday. She’s an old lady now and has been slowing down due to arthritis, however she has been getting slower and yesterday didn’t want to get up for her breakfast, in fact she just would not get up at all. The vet came out and she was uncomfortable but we are not really sure what was wrong, although her droppings seemed quite dry. We have given her some lactulose, in case she is constipated, which is not uncommon in older pigs and have increased her dose of metacam because we may have been underdosing her. This morning she was up for breakfast, has passed softer droppings and this is her eating a fruit salad of apples, bananas and melon with a bit of oil to give fibre and fluids to help with the constipation. Janet is well loved and a favourite of many of the volunteers here due to her social and friendly nature. Fingers crossed she is now on the mend.

We’ve had a very busy week and got lots done. On top of the routine jobs, we had quite a few visits from potential volunteers and a visit from Brian, who is happy to do maintenance/ building jobs and started with fixing our digger, many thanks. We also had a good clean out of the feed store, by Mike H, and our horse rugs have had a through tidy up and organisation. We had Kirsty this week doing some work experience and she was a great help, on top of doing the routine jobs she was involved in sorting out the rugs. Everybody else cracked on with full cleans, health checks, poop picking and digging up ragwort. I did also mean to thank Jules, who wants to be a vet and came for a week’s work experience a few weeks ago. She also mucked in and helped us get so much further ahead. I have answered to quite a few emails requesting information on volunteering, but have not had replies. If you have messaged, please check your spam if you are waiting for a reply or call me on 07737653402 to discuss volunteering further.

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Our story

We’re an animal sanctuary just outside Inverurie in Aberdeenshire that gives old, ill or animals at risk a fresh start and a safe home. Animals who come here stay here, we don't rehome.

We are Mike & Louise;

We moved here in 2002 and have steadily increased our flock to a stage where we are now pretty much at capacity. We have always had an interest in animals but had not realised how deep it ran until we moved here.

Over time we came to realise there were many animals with various issues who had nowhere to go so we have become a sanctuary for those animals. They may be struggling to find a home due to behavioural problems, untreatable illness, they are now unwanted or there is just nobody else who can take them. Many of the animals were saved from being put to sleep, or have been dumped, left to fend for themselves.