HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

A report about a place that helps animals heal.

Gentle Barn

Gentle Barn is a place where abused animals can find a home.  Ellie Laks started Gentle Barn in nineteen ninety-nine.  Faith Lapidus has more about this special place.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Like many people, Ellie Laks loves animals.  She has turned that love into an effort to save abused animals and help young people at the same time.

Ellie Laks started the Gentle Barn in 1999

Gentle Barn is a ranch on more than two hectares of land in Santa Clarita, California.  It is a place where abused animals can find shelter and care. Miz Laks has rescued sixty farm animals including horses, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys.  Some had been raised for food.  Others were in petting zoos where they did not receive the care they needed.  All have been saved from some form of abuse.

Ellie, her husband, Jay Weiner, and others provide treatment and care for the animals at Gentle Barn. Twenty to thirty people offer to work with the animals without pay.  The animals usually grow to accept and love people.  And they build close relationships with their keepers.

Visitors can touch and hold animals they would normally never have a chance to see.  As many as three hundred visitors come to Gentle Barn each week.  Most are young people ages four to eighteen.  Some are from inner city schools.  Some are children with special needs.  Some of the children were abused or come from families with problems.

Ellie Laks says the animals provide examples for the young people that abuse can be overcome. She says young people see a different side of themselves when they are near animals. They feel they can develop a connection with an animal whose story is similar to their own.

Since it opened, Gentle Barn has had more than one hundred thousand visitors.  Ellie Laks and Jay Weiner dream of some day opening Gentle Barns all over the world. 

You can visit Gentle Barn and read the stories of many of the animals online at www.gentlebarn.org.