Tucked away in Alexandria, Ontario, an unsung animal hero named Nicole Joncas quietly spends her days caring for a brood of rescued farmed animals at Teja’s Animal Refuge. Over the last few decades, Nicole has given a chance at life to horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, hens, ducks and geese, not to mention cats and dogs. She’s rescued hundreds of animals, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Nicole came to rescue work through chronic illness. Bedridden for two years and struggling to cope, she rescued a horse named Jessica. This, says Nicole, changed everything. With animals who rely on her, she can’t afford to allow illness to get the best of her. Selflessly, Nicole points out that, “my tour on planet earth is not about me, it’s about what I can do to help the sentient beings that cross my path.” As many people learn when they open their hearts to animals, we not only can save them–they can save us.
It’s clear that one animal, a steer named Harry Del Bosco (AKA “Pouty Face”), holds a special place in Nicole’s heart. This boy was born premature outside on a cold and stormy winter’s night. He was to be left for dead. Nicole stepped up, sending her vet to help, and preparing to welcome the tiny calf to her home if he survived.
When he was only three days old, Nicole became Pouty Face’s surrogate mom. She bottle fed and nurtured him to health, and when he was strong enough, he chose to join the herd of cows. Nicole would go out to check up on him many times a day. “Where’s my baby,” she’d say, as the others looked in his direction in response. Because he was born premature, he’ll always be small, and Nicole and the others in the herd can’t help but act protectively towards him.
Like our beloved dogs and cats, the farmed animals at Teja’s love to have fun. The sheep and goats playfully jump on and off of large bales, and Nicole has set up wooden stands for them to jump from. Eight former factory-farmed pigs, who were abandoned as piglets by farmers following a demonstration in Toronto, love to play with soccer balls before basking in the sun and taking mud baths.
These animals are lucky: hundreds of millions of farmed animals like them are confined indoors, in filthy, cramped conditions, where misery and deprivation are standard.
But at Teja’s, the animals are loved and cared for as friends, and their joy is Nicole’s joy. The animals at Teja’s are ambassadors for how farmed animals desire and deserve to live. And putting her money where her mouth is, Nicole Joncas is an ambassador for what it truly means to love animals.
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