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Her training as a
teacher and an upbringing where everyone worked hard for long hours
set her in good stead for developing the farm as a field study
centre and rare breads farm and she began bringing school parties
from the cities for extended stays.
As she had to feed
all these people and provide them with accommodation, as well as
helping them to benefit from their stay at the farm, she was soon
working harder than she had ever done before.
Her first experience
with more unusual animals was her acquisition of a Vietnamese pig,
followed by some small Marmoset monkeys, all of which delighted her
young visitors. Next came various Goats, Capybaras, more Pigs,
Horses, Miniature Horses, etc, and Cefn-yr-Erw soon became a very
interesting place to stay.
In 1994 Jan married
Graham (above right), who was a very practical person and an
engineer. With Graham's help the development of the farm continued
apace with the building of a larger restaurant and more attractions
for visitors and the local public.
Penscynor Wildlife
Park, a local wildlife centre, was forced to close it's doors in
October 1998 and the land was sold off to property developers. Jan
and Graham went to see which of the unwanted animals they could
accommodate at Cefn-yr-Erw and were particularly distressed by the
plight of the chimpanzees, who were suffering psychological
problems. Being unwanted by other zoos the chimps were condemned to
be shot.
Jan and Graham went
every day to feed the seven chimps and whilst they were well aware
of the enormity of the task of adopting them, moving them to the
farm, housing them, feeding them, and properly caring for them, they
knew that somehow they had to do it. It was as if the chimps
knew that Jan and Graham were their last hope of survival as their
demeanour changed from nervous hostility to genuine affection as
soon as Jan and Graham arrived.
With help from the
council, the local army camp, local supermarkets, a local
brickworks, other suppliers and service providers they worked around
the clock to re-house the chimps at Cefn-yr-Erw.
In addition to
transferring the cage from Penscynor to Cefn-yr-Erw Graham designed
and built new cages, sleeping quarters, food stores, veterinary
facilities, and viewing facilities for visitors, incorporating them
into one purpose built complex.
Being an experienced
welder and fabricator Graham was able to make the specialised
galvanised steel structures, doors, locking systems, racking etc
himself, thus not only saving costs but accelerating the rate of the
development. From a standing start in January 1999 the new
facilities for the chimps were built and made fully operational by
April 1999. Jan and Graham were able to actually move their seven
new family members to Cefn-yr Erw on February 21st 1999.
Since then many more
primates have been rescued from home and abroad and the number of
species now in care at the sanctuary has grown significantly. You
can see some of these animals by clicking on the buttons at the top
of this page.
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