Lane Foot Petting Farm to close on Friday

Lane Foot Petting Farm in Littleborough will close its doors on Friday (31 August).

The small petting farm, also known as the charity Pastures New, retrains and rehabilitates ex-racehorses, and also have miniature horses, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens, all of which are rescued.

However, due to a lack of visitors, the petting farm will be forced to close at the end of the week, although animals can still be sponsored.

A representativesaid: “Friday is our last day, but we are open 11am-3pm each day until then and come see us one last time.

“Thanks to everyone who has supported us, especially those who came regularly.

“Unfortunately lack of staff and visitors means it is just not a viable income source for the charity, which was the sole purpose of us opening our doors. We saw a definite downturn when we introduced a children’s admission fee of £2.

“Previously, it had been donations, but it became evident a lot weren’t paying. This has been confirmed further by the lack of attendance, but this takes absolutely nothing away from the amazingly generous people who paid, donated their change and paid more than expected.

“We never really wanted to be a petting farm: we just wanted to let people in to see what we did and hopefully leave a donation

“Following a complaint, Rochdale Borough Council said we couldn’t do that and we would have to apply to be a petting farm to let people in. This we did, I think it cost £800.

"We enquired about a sign at the visitors’ centre car park, for this they wanted £2,000 which we simply couldn’t justify.

“We had to make it on foot only, understandably, so not many come when it is raining.

“It has been costing us more in bedding, feed, treats and haylage keeping the horses in than we have been receiving.

“So, again, thank you so much to all those who supported us, came to visit, volunteered, etc. but I am beyond exhausted and need to spend time with my family and concentrate on retraining the horses – the purpose of the charity – and the equine therapy and Care Farm.

“Our sponsors can still visit as many times as you like, but it’s best to text, message, email or phone to make sure I am in and we have the horses in for you.

“This costs £10 per month if anyone is interested in becoming a sponsor – you can sponsor any animal here.”