UPDATE: The Oswego County SPCA, the town of Palermo, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and neighbors of the farm have raised concerns about the apparent lack of shelter, water and proper care of the animals. Read more here.

Liverpool woman raises money for animal rescue

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

When Dawn Brocious met Mary Lorini at an event at Tractor Supply Company in Baldwinsville, they realized they had the same mission: helping animals in need.

Brocious, of Clay, works at the CNY SPCA and sells handmade jewelry to raise money for rescue organizations. Lorini, of Liverpool, has started her own rescue farm in Central Square, unofficially named “Hooves, Claws and Paws.”

“What a wonderful thing she’s doing,” Brocious recalled thinking. “That’s something I’d want to be able to do.”

Brocious decided to help Lorini “whatever way I could,” she said. Lorini has not yet registered her farm as a 501(c)(3) organization, but Brocious has created a GoFundMe for her, cleverly titled “Mary Saved a Little Lamb.”

Lorini’s farm, which a friend of hers purchased about two years ago, is home to a 35-year-old horse named Dreamer, four potbellied pigs, three alpacas, three goats, twin calves and numerous rabbits, ducks, turkeys, cats and dogs — as well as the lamb featured in the GoFundMe title.

“Now she’s an even littler lamb,” Lorini said of the recently sheared sheep.

A lifelong animal lover, Lorini grew up on a horse farm and has worked in wildlife rehabilitation. She works nights at a restaurant and spends her days hauling hay and water to her animals and tending to their medical needs. Dreamer, the 35-year-old horse, came to Lorini 150 pounds underweight with severe dental issues.

“She was so badly starved she had been eating rocks and gravel,” Lorini said.

Lorini said she is a vegetarian because of her love of animals.

“They have feelings, they have thoughts, and they have emotions and they become attached to you,” she said. “I can’t see how people can discard them and [think] everything is just food.”

While Lorini is attached to her menagerie, love doesn’t pay the vet bills or fill the mangers. Lorini estimated she spends upwards of $1,000 each month for the care and keeping of her animals. The farm lacks a water source, so she has to haul water to the animals every day.

“She’s got a tanker truck that delivers, but to have a well on the property would be huge,” Brocious said. “Hauling tons and tons of five-gallon buckets a day is a lot.”

Lorini said she attempted to adopt some of the animals out to people she knew, but many of them returned when it proved too difficult or time-consuming for the new owners to care for them.

“Primarily, they stay with me and they’ll be there until they die,” she said.

As her herd expands, so does Lorini’s need for adequate fencing, shelter outbuildings and cages.

“She’s got this whole pasture she can use, so little by little she’s working on fencing it in,” Brocious said.

In addition to operating the GoFundMe, Brocious is accepting donations of fencing and building materials, cages and crates for Lorini. (See sidebar, “How to help.”)

As her flock grows, many of the animals Lorini has rescued are a part of her family.

“Nobody loves you more than your animals,” she said.

One of the potbellied pigs likes to lay his head in Lorini’s lap and roll over like a dog for scratches on his belly. She bottle-fed the two calves, who now follow her around the farm.

“I’m the mama — they come to me. They want to hug me and rub on me,” she said, adding, “Who rescued who? Did they rescue me?”