06:50 PM PST on Wednesday, February 15, 2006

By KGW reporter Vince Patton

SALEM -- A Salem man has decided to ensure that victims of animal cruelty have a chance to live in peace.

KGW photo

Lighthouse Farm in Salem is a sanctuary for farm animals.

After years of witnessing case after case of cruelty as Animal Welfare Director of the Willamette Valley Humane Society, Wayne Geiger decided he wanted to make a difference for the animals after their rescues.

Now, nestled near Salem on a remote rural road, sits Lighthouse Farm, unlike any of the surrounding farms. No animals will be fattened for slaughter. None of the livestock will become food.

Grace, a horse with a severe swayback, came from Oregon's largest case of animal abuse when an owner left more than 100 horses neglected and starving near Bend.

Most of those horses went to new homes at auction. No one took Grace.

"She would have been euthanized or destroyed," says Geiger. So he took her.

There is no shortage of animals at the farm because there seems to be no lack of brutal humans.

Carmen, a turkey, was seen being thrown out of a car near rural Eugene. Broccoli, a goat, was so weak from starvation she collapsed three times on the way to the home.

"We've heard of people cutting them up, feeding them to their dogs," said Guy Robinson, a farrier who often works at the farm. "Most of these animals came from outright cruelty, neglect. Many of these animals came from someone's backyard."

One of the oldest animals at the farm is Poppa, the burro. Poppa once roamed wild in the Grand Canyon. Before government agents could come in to shoot the wild herd 26 years ago, he was saved in a helicopter airlift. He moved through several sanctuaries over the years, eventually landing at Lighthouse.

As a farrier, Robinson trims the hooves of all the burros and horses. He admires the treatment the animals receive.

"Wayne just brings them in and seems to do a pretty good job with them," he said.

Lighthouse Farm accepts only farm animals. No pets or exotics are allowed. In all the farm is home to 145 turkeys, pigs, cows, goats, llamas, chickens and more.

"They get all the food they want," said Geiger as he let Marty the llama take a carrot from his teeth. "They get to live as natural a life as possible. They can go in and out."

Geiger says his background as a Humane Society investigator prepares him for the abuse he sees, but it does not make it any easier.

"I don't know, he said. "It's beyond my comprehension. These are sentient beings which means they have feelings and can show emotions.'

No matter what the animals may have endured before, they have found a place of peace now.

"These animals now get to live out here, live without fear of being slaughtered or abused or beaten," Geiger said.