Christine Whelan FEO, June 22, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 22

The family behind Happy Days Sanctuary has spent a lifetime caring for and nurturing a variety of animals. But it wasn’t until 2018 that the decision was made to make it a more lifetime priority commitment.

Ann Swinson founded Happy Days Sanctuary, 35 acres of rural land in Stevensville she calls home, with one main building acting as the main shelter, in 2016. In 2018, it was registered as a not-for-profit corporation and a Canadian charity.

Ann reflected on the earlier, growing days of her creation. “Once we became a charity, we established a board of directors. My son is on the board.”

A Family Business

Ann has two sons. “We’ve always worked together.

“Shane is here in Ontario and we work closely together, creating the new and improved Happy Days so we can take in more animals. He’s also helping to get sponsorships.”

“Ryan’s on the east coast but when he’s home, he works hard around the sanctuary, getting things in order, fixing what needs to be fixed.”

The Animals of the Sanctuary: Those Who Have Nowhere Else To Go

“We don’t take in strays here,” Ann explained. “We’re not like the SPCA or Humane Society. Although we both are charities. In that way, we are kind of the same. But they also have government contracts. So, they get paid to take in the strays. We don’t get any funding.”

She shared that they considered the idea of taking on the Fort Erie contract when it was up for grabs, “But that’s not our thing. What I want to focus on are the animals that have nowhere else to go.”

Swinson continued, “We have different kinds of birds here. Guinea hens and turkeys, a couple of goats.” Benjamin and Bentley are goats that were surrendered to Happy Days Sanctuary.

After getting a call last year about two geese that had had their wings clipped, the Happy Days crew built them a building, “It’s right beside the pond. They still reside here.”

Ann continued to describe the rest of the residents at the sanctuary. “We have a whole group of disabled cats. We have a cat that was born with no eyes. We have a lot of CH cats, which are also called wobbly cats, cats who were affected by medication their mothers were taking during pregnancy.

“We get calls from the SPCA about farm animals that aren’t being taken care of properly.” They do get the odd stray.

Some of the animals are in physiotherapy. “We have a wonderful physiotherapist from Bowen Physio who is working with us on a volunteer basis. They’re helping three of our CH kittens.”

CH cats are cats with cerebellar hypoplasia. “It covers anything that causes injury to the cerebellum, like cerebral palsy in a person. They are totally normal cats. They just have a wobbly walk.”

Years ago, according to Ann, these cats were automatically euthanized. “But people love them. They are often very affectionate because they get so much attention.”

She talked about the cats. Some of them come in feral, then suddenly decide they like people, and are able to be adopted out and get a forever home. Some of them stay feral and continue to live at the sanctuary as their forever home.

Happy Days work in partnership with the SPCA. “If a mom cat with her litter comes into the SPCA and mom is feral, they’ll keep the litter and we get mom.

“In my run where I have my ferals and my semi-socialized ones, probably half of them are from all the SPCAs and rescue groups that did not have a place for them.

Ann explained the sanctuary typically doesn’t take surrenders. She says the Humane Society can handle them. They get the funding for that service.

“We don’t take in wildlife. We’re not equipped right now.” She will direct them to wildlife sanctuaries in the area.

How is this paid for?

Happy Days Sanctuary has been funded by the founding family owners, “We rely on donations. We have some fundraisers. We’re just doing what we can, like most charities are doing these days.”

When food starts getting low, they put the call out and the community responds. “Places like Costco, Amazon, and different companies give donations of damaged boxes.”

There seems to be an organized safety net, “There’s actually an interior network to get that food. So, if the packaging is damaged, some of it goes to food banks, some of it comes to shelters like ours.”

The pandemic years were really hard on the sanctuary. “We stayed open. Not too many people stayed open but we did.” In the beginning, they thought, what’s a couple of weeks? Two weeks turned into three years. During that time, they went from a few residents to 140.

Swinson talked with gratitude about some of the donors. “We get some people who will just phone and say they want to drop off a case of wet food, and they do. I just want to kiss their feet,” mentioning the price of animal food “has gone up ridiculously”.

Corporate Sponsor

“We’re now in partnership with a company called First Onsite. They are a restoration company that handles catastrophic claims. My son works for the company.” She explained, they see first-hand, the animals that get displaced by hurricanes and wildfires, for example. First Onsite is the sanctuary’s first corporate sponsor.

“We’ve got a few projects on the go.” She shared, “They’re helping us with renovations to restore the large building, like a warehouse, so we can house more animals.

“When they do have a catastrophic claim in this area or close by if they get displaced animals, we’ll have a place to put them. They protect people and their property. Now they are protecting pets, too.”

If you would like to learn more about the sanctuary’s Corporate Sponsorship Initiatives, you can email for further information:  info@hdsanctuary.org

Volunteers

Happy Days operate solely by volunteer power. “We started taking on volunteers about three years ago when we started getting so busy during COVID.

 “We have a wonderful group of volunteers. We need more. We don’t have enough, not nearly enough.” There are 30 volunteers, according to Ann. “And we have about the same amount of animals.”

They recently put a call out on Facebook for farm fans — teenagers who need community hours and seniors who love to spend time on a farm.”

It would require about two hours at a time. “They’d come here, let all the farm animals out, feed them. The building is cleaned out about once every couple of weeks.

“Quite a few high school kids come in to work their community hours. Some stay, and continue on after their 40 hours are up. Others move on with their lives. Some go off to school. One of our volunteers is in Guelph becoming a vet,” Ann added proudly.

“Some of our volunteers’ husbands will come in ad fix a shelf or help out with something else that needs doing, something they are skilled to do.”

Future Dreams

Swinson shared her future dreams for the sanctuary, including a seniors building, where beloved older pets of those who have passed away can go.

“We’re looking at building a barn. We can only take so many farm animals right now. What we did was we built them all their own little barns, their own little houses.” She explained that the animals had to have heated spaces in the winter.

“Now, if we get an actual barn, it will be easier to accept more farm animals,” Swinson stated that there are rescues out there for farm animals but they are all full. They are turning animals down every day.

Ann defines rescues as spaces that “are about giving the animals time. That’s what we give our animals — our cats, dogs, and farm animals — we give them time.”

If you are interested in donating or volunteering at the sanctuary, please email info@hdsanctuary.org

Photo provided by Angie Pellegrino, volunteer with Happy Days Sanctuary