Community farm looking for help to save animals
A family-run farm is looking for help from the community after being told it needs to leave its current home.
Funsford Mini Farm is currently based on land near Penn Common, in Wolverhampton, serving as a home for rescued, old and pet animals, including North Ronaldsay sheep, pigs, goats, geese and ducks.
However, the family-run farm, which has been based at the location for 18 months, has been told by its landlord that it can no longer have all the animals on site and would need to leave by December 31.
Co-owner David Dunford said the request from the landlord had hit him and his family very hard.
He said: "I was absolutely gutted when I heard from the landlord about this as we've sunk everything we had into this for our two children who are autistic and love being outside.
"It has helped them to stay calm and focussed and the mere thought of having to euthanise any of the animals because we can't keep them doesn't bear thinking about because the children would never forgive me.
"What the landlord said was that we couldn't keep all the animals here and could only have a maximum of 20 poultry or four geese, four pigs, four sheep or four goats."
Mr Dunford said he had spent a lot of time clearing the land near Colton Hills Community School, which was primarily a dog walking patch, and putting up fencing around the area to keep the animals safe.
He said the community had really got behind the farm as well, with hundreds of children and other people coming to see the animals and talk to the family about the farm.
"I've had so many children come and ask questions about the animals as they're not used to seeing them in a natural setting and they've loved getting to feed them," he said.
"What I'd like to be able to do is move to a corner of a farm owned by a benevolent farmer or take over a derelict farm and build it up."
Mr Dunford and his daughter Chloe have started up a Go Fund Me page to help raise money to ensure the farm can move all of the animals without having to take drastic measures.
He said: "To start from scratch and build up a farm would cost around £5,000, so we would like our supporters to help us out in some way.
"We want to keep the farm local to the community and we need a space so that they can still enjoy it, so any help people can give would be greatly appreciated."
To make a donation to the Go Fund Me campaign, go to gofundme.com/f/save-funfords-mini-farm, or for further information about the farm and to get in contact, visit facebook.com/funfords
