GASPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — Four months is all it took for Whispering River Rescue to go from a dream to a reality.
"We ended up having an amazing crew that is just as passionate about the animals as I am and they said we need to change the way animals are treated. Farm animals. There's a lot of different dog and cat rescues, thank God. But the farm animals… people need to know the appreciation of them and how actually loved they are," Jacquie Serrano, the president of Whispering River Rescue, said.
The farm animals no one else seems to want are welcomed at the rescue in Gasport. The rescue has taken in all kinds of animals, such as goats, a pig, chickens, cats, donkeys, an alpaca, and a horse.
"We've had animals come here from a kill pen. They're from a situation where they're all really hudled into a small area. They're fighting. They're scared. They're nervous. They're hungry. They're not being taken care of. They're beaten, and so they get saved. They get put in a trailer and brought here," Brian Markovich, Whispering River Rescue's contractor and trustee, said.
"We can't save them all. But the ones we can we want to adopt them out and change the world for those few animals," Serrano said.
The rescue welcomes families of all shapes and sizes to come visit the animals.
"People are staying for four or five hours. They're actually laying with the animals and they're telling me that the animals are actually changing their life. That's what I really want to do," Serrano said.
"Once you see a kid for the first time with farm animals, it touches your heart," Markovich said.
It's become a classic case of who rescued who.
"People come out here and say how much it's actually changed their life. I want everybody else to have that effect that I have when I came upon the rescue," Serrano said.
The team has plans to expand the rescue so they can take in and re-home more animals.
"The animals, they want love. There's no better place to come and feel loved," Markovich said.
To find out how to visit, volunteer or donate head to Whispering River Rescue's website.
