New York Times
by Karen Jones
1 Nov 11
Miss Mejia-Schnaufer, 21, and Sophie [a goat] met at the Gentle Barn, a six-acre ranch in Santa Clarita, Calif. The facility heals and rehabilitates abused farm animals and invites visitors with emotional and physical challenges to interact with them. Bonding with Sophie was “a life-changing experience,” says Miss Mejia-Schnaufer, whose battle with depression and eating disorders led to a suicide attempt this year. She credits Sophie, a rescue from an abusive petting zoo, with making her recovery possible.
“Before I came to the Gentle Barn, nothing gave me hope that life was worth living,” she says. “But when I met Sophie, I thought she had the most incredible calm and open energy. There was this flow of love back and forth between us that I was feeling so in need of.”
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The Gentle Barn is the fulfillment of a childhood dream, says its founder, Ellie Weiner: “I was one of those children that brought stray and injured animals home. My parents were not amused.” She adds that it was her love of animals that helped her through her own abusive childhood. “The animals saved me and healed me. If they could do that for me, then they could do it for others.”
In 1999, Ms. Weiner opened the barn doors to visitors, and she is well known for her programs for “at risk” youth, arranged through local family and children’s services. Here, inner-city gang members, drug addicts and abused youngsters can feed a cow, hug a pig or just try to find peace in a pastoral setting. Before groups meet the animals, Ms. Weiner, or her husband, Jay Weiner, tell their stories of abuse and recovery.
This is critical to reaching troubled children, says Jamie Lynn Cantor, children’s services administrator for the Department of Children and Family Services in northwest Los Angeles County. “They hear the recovery stories of these animals who, after their horrific abuse, have learned to love and trust again. More important, they learn there is hope for the future, and they can have a life filled with love and people to love them. They are not hopeless anymore.”
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During one visit, there was a “very tough, very hard” gang member who stood silent while hearing the story of a horse that had suffered repeated beatings....[and the young man had also suffered severe abuse]. “The young man in question was later spotted in the back of the stable crying and softly petting the horse on the head, saying over and over, ‘No one is going to hurt you now.’ ”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/gi...ther.html?_r=1
