SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior Re­porter

Shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

An­i­mal lover Sasha Ram­nanan-Ho­sein paid a hunter $2,500 for a cap­tive male deer with a rope tied around his neck. She bought the beady-eyed buck to pre­vent him from be­ing slaugh­tered, and his meat sold at $100 a pound. That was two years ago and the start of a wildlife sanc­tu­ary for Ram­nanan-Ho­sein, 39, and her hus­band, Zaid Ho­sein, 43, on their three-acre farm at Con­nec­tor Road, Carlsen Field, known in the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty as the En­chant­ed Ever­green Es­tate.

The sanc­tu­ary is home to al­most a dozen or­phaned wildlife an­i­mals com­pris­ing deer, agouti, man­i­cou, and lappe that live in large en­clo­sures on the mega farm.

The cou­ple, who has a teenage son, al­so pro­vides shel­ter to 16 stray cats ei­ther aban­doned by their own­ers or found in­jured.

In ad­di­tion to 200 goats, sheep, ducks and chick­ens, the fam­i­ly has a tilapia pond, dozens of fruit trees, an ar­ray of herbs, short-term crops, a beau­ti­ful gar­den, a hy­dro­pon­ic sys­tem and a re­lax­ing area to pic­nic on their farm.

The es­tate is vis­it­ed by pri­ma­ry school pupils who learn about an­i­mals, wildlife, and the ben­e­fits of grow­ing and eat­ing healthy foods. The pupils are even giv­en seedlings and ba­by chick­ens to en­cour­age them to get in­volved in agri­cul­ture, which Ram­nanan-Ho­sein be­lieves is dy­ing and needs to have new life breathe in­to it.

As a child, Ram­nanan-Ho­sein ad­mit­ted, she al­ways had a spe­cial love for an­i­mals.

“When I was younger, I hon­est­ly want­ed to be­come a vet. But when I re­alise part of a vet’s job is to eu­thanise an­i­mals, I changed my mind. I don’t have the stom­ach to do that.”

Grow­ing up, she re­called, she was al­ways pick­ing up pup­pies and kit­tens that were dumped at the side of the road to care for them.

“I just couldn’t leave them there to suf­fer. I hate when peo­ple ill-treat an­i­mals,” she said.

That deep love for an­i­mals has stayed with Ram­nanan-Ho­sein to this day.

This is ev­i­dent at her farm which she start­ed 12 years ago with her hus­band.

The cou­ple first start­ed rear­ing a few ducks and chick­ens.

They then branched off in­to goat and cow pro­duc­tion pri­mar­i­ly for their milk.

“We sell our an­i­mals on­ly for breed­ing pur­pos­es and dairy pro­duc­tion, not to be killed for its meat,” Ram­nanan-Ho­sein said.

The cou­ple ad­mit­ted that they treat their an­i­mals as fam­i­ly and call each one by name.

Two years ago, she said, her heart broke for a deer who was be­ing sold by a farmer dur­ing the hunt­ing sea­son.

“My heart just broke when I saw the deer’s eyes which were cry­ing out for help. I fell in love with the deer. I know if I didn’t res­cue this an­i­mal he would have been killed and his meat sold for $100 a pound.”

To save the an­i­mal from be­ing slaugh­tered, she paid the hunter $2,500, and named the an­i­mal Jol­ly. The next day, she erect­ed a large en­clo­sure for the 70-pound deer that has now grown very at­tached to and fond of her.

Last year, to Ram­nanan-Ho­sein’s sur­prise, a friend gave her a fe­male deer as a gift.

“From there, our wildlife fam­i­ly start­ed to grow. We got a few lappes, man­i­cous and three agoutis.”

One of the agoutis was pur­chased for $500. He, too, would have been killed for his meat.

She has ob­tained per­mits from the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture for these pro­tect­ed an­i­mals.

“A few wild meat lovers have of­fered to buy the agouti and lappe, but I re­fused to sell. I tell these peo­ple these an­i­mals are not for sale, they are my pets.”

Ram­nanan-Ho­sein has two rams for sale but would not sell to just any­one.

“A guy came to buy the rams for prayers, and I told him no. I am wait­ing un­til I get a buy­er who wants them for breed­ing pur­pos­es.”

The wildlife an­i­mals are kept away from the herds and stray cats.

The cats which are spayed and neutered to con­trol their pop­u­la­tion roam freely on the farm or re­lax in a cage de­signed with beds and steps.

“I gave some of the cats to peo­ple who want­ed them as pets and I re­gret­ted do­ing that. When I went back to check on the cats the own­ers did not have them, say­ing that the cats ran away and they could not find them. I stopped find­ing homes for them.”

The cats, she said, are safer with her.

Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, Ram­nanan-Ho­sein res­cued sev­er­al cats with col­lars that were thrown at the side of the road by their own­ers.

“You would see them run­ning all over the road con­fused. So, you know some­body just threw them out.”

Al­though she has two dogs, she would put dog chow every day in front of her gate to feed the stray dogs that show up.

The cost to main­tain and pro­vide vet­eri­nary ser­vices for the an­i­mals, she said, does not come cheap.

While Zaid would fork out $10,000 a month to main­tain his live­stock, she spends $700 every month on cat chow alone.

“At one time the cat bill was $500 a week,” said Zaid, who op­er­ates a small stock­pile on his farm.

“My hus­band threat­ened to put me out be­cause I was tak­ing in too many stray cats,” she laughed.

Ram­nanan-Ho­sein said a few weeks ago they had a pow­er out­age and some­one en­tered their farm to steal Jol­ly, who be­came er­rat­ic and se­vere­ly in­jured one of his eyes.

“Jol­ly’s vet bill was $2,500. At the end of the month, I don’t check my over­all bill. I be­lieve in the say­ing ‘It is bet­ter to give than re­ceive.’ Ram­nanan-Ho­sein, who earns her in­come sell­ing ma­nure, ex­ot­ic plants, fresh cow and goat’s milk and cloth­ing, be­lieves “The more you give and help these un­for­tu­nate and suf­fer­ing an­i­mals, the more you will re­ceive.”