A personal message from Mary Droessler of Winterpast Farm

I am writing regarding the allegations currently being made about myself, my family, and Winterpast Farm online. These claims are being made online by people who do not live in North Carolina, have never visited my farm, and perpetrate completely false information. Furthermore, they are spreading this misinformation through direct messages to all of our followers on social media, posting reviews on the web (despite not having been to our farm before), and encouraging harassment of myself, my family, and friends of the farm.

Please see the bottom of this post for details on how you can help the farm during this difficult time.

As a single mother of four adult children, I have been carrying out my childhood dream of providing a safe home for animals since moving to the farm in 2003.

Over the last seventeen years, tens of thousands of people have visited my ten-acre farm.

Winterpast Farm has been an official 501(c)(3) non-profit since November 7, 2019 (EIN 84–3620099). The farm has cooperated multiple times with routine inspections by Wake County Animal Control officials, and has never received a negative report or a citation of any kind from Wake County Animal Control. Winterpast Farm complies with all requirements for Agritourism under N.C.G.S. § 99E-30(3).

Here is a link to a News & Observer article about the farm: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article223569350.html

While I would normally not spend my time responding to completely unfounded claims, such as those being raised by this group, I think it is important to share the facts.

Claim: There is no record of a nonprofit or corporation under the farm’s name or owner’s name found in the state of NC.

1. Winterpast Farm has been an official 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit since November 7, 2019 (EIN 84–3620099). I was so excited to receive this designation that would allow me to continue to grow the farm’s efforts! We are aware that the farm is not showing up in searches of the IRS 501(c)(3) database, and have reached out to the IRS to ask why this is. Please see below for a photo of our acceptance letter.

Claim: There is proof from both photographic evidence and firsthand visitor accounts revealing animals’ hooves are overgrown

1. This is inaccurate. I am trained in animal hoof care and regularly trim the hoofs of the goats and other animals as needed. One goat was donated with poor hooves and her hooves are trimmed monthly.
2. I work directly with professional farriers twice per year to ensure that hoofs are always cared for appropriately.

Claim: There are inadequate hand washing facilities

1. This is false. I have a sink with hot running water, Dawn dish soap, antibacterial liquid soap, hand sanitizer, paper and clean cloth towels, and clorox wipes located next to the parking lot that I direct visitors to use. There is a stool for small children to enable them to reach the sink. There is a sign at the exit gate directing visitors to stop and wash their hands on their way out.

Claim: The farm is not an animal sanctuary as it claims

1. Many people define “sanctuary” in different ways. The dictionary defines it as “a place of refuge and safety”. Winterpast Farm is a sanctuary to animals and humans alike. Families can enjoy an environment that teaches people of all ages about a wide variety of animals and how to care for them.
2. Winterpast Farm is also a sanctuary for teens with anxiety, depression, special needs and more who find purpose volunteering and caring for the animals at Winterpast Farm. I have two adopted children and one with special needs who have grown up on the farm and had an opportunity to enjoy all that it has to offer.
3. Winterpast Farm is a sanctuary for many unwanted animals. Examples include a pig born without a back left foot, Helen Keller the blind bunny who was donated by a breeder when she began to show signs of visual impairment and Dutchess the bunny with a stripe the wrong width that breeders found flawed. There has been a recent trend of local teen girls buying baby ducklings and then donating them to Winterpast Farm when the animals are no longer cute and small. I am offered a pet pig who “grew bigger than the breeder said it would” at least once a month. I usually refer them to pig sanctuaries and occasionally takes one in. Some taken in are eventually re-homed to other small family farms as are some ducks, goats and sheep.  Animals are regularly left at or even thrown over the fence at  the front gate of Winterpast Farm.

Claim: Renting/hosting animals is animal abuse

1. There are many reasons families choose to host animals from the farm.
2. All families are provided with extensive training prior to hosting. Please see the next item for more info.
3. A common reason for hosting is to test whether or not a person or child is ready to take on the responsibilities of being an owner.  Over 90 percent who rent find that a week of caring for a small pet gets them or their children over the idea of “owning” a small pet.  Adoptions do occur, but I rarely post about it as it can make other people think they need to adopt too.
4. This is a far better alternative to buying bunnies and then people “getting rid of them” when they no longer want them. This sadly happens all of the time. We hear many stories of bunnies being left at the side of the road, being left behind when people move, or even thrown in the trash — this is what we are working every day to prevent.
5. Hosting helps to discourage small animal overpopulation that is currently rampant.
6. Typical class “pets” are highly vulnerable to illness and neglect, as explained by PETA: https://www.peta.org/teachkind/humane-classroom/whats-problem-classroom-pets/ Instead, a temporary class pet is a great way to get kids interested in working with animals and ensuring that the pets are well treated and not neglected.  I have taken in several elderly classroom pets over the years and they lived at Winterpast Farm their entire natural lifespan.
7. Hosting an animal is a great way for kids to learn responsibility.
8. Hosted animals are not in any way neglected.
9. I am available 24/7 to address any concerns and questions of families hosting animals.

Claim: There is inadequate training for hosted animals

1. All families looking to host animals are given specific instructions to ensure safety. I ensure that all families totally understand the care of the animal they will be hosting. I am also available 24/7 to answer questions and concerns.
2. I often provide host animals to people who regularly visit Winterpast Farm. I demonstrate how to get the animal out of the cage, how to hold it, how to feed it, how to safely have the animal outdoors, how to place the animal in the cage, and how to make the animal feel safe and secure at all times.
3. For example I demonstrate how at the farm people who want to hold animals must sit down on a chair or bench with their legs together and a flat lap. The lap is always covered with a doubled over cloth we call a “nest”. The person is provided with with a small soft brush and a variety of small bits of appropriate  food treats are offered.
4. Cage must be cleaned out a minimum of once a day. Food pellets and hay are to be available all the time.
5. A training book and printed instructions are provided. Age appropriate story books are also sometimes offered.
6. Parents are the ones to get the bunny out of the cage, and then put them on protected laps. As at the farm a grownup is expected to supervise holding and outdoor time with the animal at all times.
7. Newspaper is provided (helps to make feces visible rather than bedding).

Claim: Enclosures are too small

1. All animals at the farm are housed in enclosures of adequate or above adequate size. Many rabbits, for example, live in professionally-constructed two and three-story hutches with more than enough room. In winter small animals are moved to a heated garage. In summer the deep shade combined with frozen water bottles help keep the small animals healthy.
2. Travel cages for hosted animals are smaller and are for a maximum of one week.  This is no different than a hotel room is smaller then your entire home during your vacation from your home.
3. Folding pens and outdoor enclosures often go along with hosted animals. Instructions are provided for a safe animal experience.

Claim: Farmer Mary claims that animals are dropped off as “unwanted pets”, but we have seen messages from others alleging Mary has asked people to buy her more animals and then donate them to her so she can use them in her rent-a-pet program.

1. People are welcome to buy animals and then donate them to Winterpast Farm. One person collected guinea pigs from craigslist posts and dropped them off here. This is not encouraged. Some people have brought animals they found along the side of the highway. Some were discovered loose in backyards or neighborhoods. I would rather them donate the animals so that they can live out a happy life than dispose of them in other ways.

Claim: Pens are seen filled inches with feces and animals are injured

1. I do not take vacations, and I work from sun up to sun down every day to care for all of the animals.
2. All water buckets are cleaned out and replenished every day.
3. All pens and enclosures are cleaned regularly.  In winter the pens and barn are filled with layers of straw which insulates the animals. It is regularly replenished and in the spring I move this soiled bedding to a compost area.
4. There are no injured animals living at Winterpast Farm unless they are animals brought here after an injury occurring away from the farm that are here for rehab and recovery.  There is a pig who was born without her back left foot, a duck and some chickens with twisted beaks, a bunny with poor eyesight and a goat donated with poor hooves living at Winterpast Farm. All of their needs are filled.

Claim: Sheep have matted overgrown wool and look dirty

1. Sheep are shorn by a professional shearer once per year. It is not warm enough weather to shear the sheep yet this year with lambing so late. I do not allow shearing of hugely pregnant sheep nor sheep who have recently given birth.
2. They look dirty in some photos because their wool is white and it has been raining and muddy here in Wake Forest, NC.

Claim: Baby bunnies are not being held properly

1. Bunnies of any age are only allowed to be touched briefly under closer supervision at all times.
2. Clear instructions are always given on how to hold them, and anyone who does not follow these instructions is immediately disallowed from holding them.
3. All young visitors are required to have a grownup stand directly in front of them while they hold animals. There is a very deliberate procedure of being seated with legs together, a cloth places on laps, and a small brush in one hand.

Claim: Blind rabbit Helen Keller is not being cared for properly

1. Helen Keller was donated by a breeder because her sight was failing. She is not totally blind. I provide her with all the loving care she needs and makes sure her pen stays the same with the house in one corner, water bottle always in the same place at the same height, food and hay in the same place both at the farm and on her limited hosting opportunities.
2. Helen Keller has some special needs and is only tended to by special families. She is only allowed to be hosted by trusted families who have been coming and volunteering for years.
3. Extra instruction is always provided regarding her care.

Claim: The animals are not getting proper food or shelter

1. This is entirely inaccurate. All the animals at Winterpast Farm receive an extremely high level of love, attention, care, and quality food. Round bales of hay are provided as well as extra hay in three hay feeders in the barn. Nursing mothers in maternity pens get special hay, feed, and extra care. The food treats brought by farm visitors when the farm is open and food donated by Friends of the Farm are only a fraction of what the animals eat. I routinely buy large loads of feed regularly at Tractor Supply and Southern States and have a huge feed tent with cans of each food.
2. All animals have adequate shelter. We have a historic barn with a run-in shelter, as well as many covered enclosures which provide warmth and protection to the animals.
3. In the winter, enclosures are “winterized” in order to ensure that all animals stay warm & safe.  Small animals are moved to the heated garage.

Claim: Aedin’s Law requires a permit from NCDA&CS for all animal contact exhibits at sanctioned agricultural fairs in NC

1. This is not applicable. Winterpast Farm is not exhibiting animals at a sanctioned agricultural fair (example: the NC State Fair). Per NC G.S. 106–520.3A, the farm does not need a permit to operate.

Claim: Buckets for visitors have random foods that may not be in animal’s diets

1. All animals are fed regular appropriate animal feed in addition to a small amount of food that visitors bring.
2. Clear instructions are given on which food to bring, and the foods are verified prior to being used.
3. Carrots, celery, romaine, kale, blueberries, cheerios, apples. White bread or too many whole wheat crackers are not allowed. I will confiscate snack food, sugary cereal, white bread and other inappropriate food that some farm visitors bring. I have buckets of appropriate feed available for purchase which include seasonal and other fruit and vegetables.

Claim: It is suspected that Farmer Mary is not complying with state or federal laws regarding animal exhibition, renting out animals for profit, petting zoos, homing wild deer or selling various animal meats she slaughters.

1. Winterpast Farm complies with all requirements for Agritourism operations under N.C.G.S. § 99E-30(3).
2. There are not and never have been any deer housed at the farm.
3. Winterpast Farm does not sell animal meat. I do not slaughter animals for meat. Many years ago after purchasing the farm I took training through NC State Agricultural Extension and was certified as a North Carolina Certified Meat Goat Cooperator. This was when goat raising was growing in popularity and I was exploring agritourism possibilities and other ways to use my farm.  I found, after the training was complete, that this was not something I wanted to pursue.

There are also a variety of photos taken from my social media accounts and overlaid with assumptive, hurtful, and false accusations.

A few examples can be seen below:

Our two Emus are never restrained from their nests. To assert this from a single photo out of context is incorrect. Emus often get up a roam in between spans of sitting on eggs.

It was not warm enough of a climate in Wake Forest, NC to have shorn sheep at the time of this photo, especially for sheep that primarily spend time in shady areas. I have professionals come to sheer the sheep once per year. I do not shear pregnant sheep or those that recently given birth. (It was a late year for lambing this year.)

The bandanas are not tied too tight — this is an illusion due to the length of the goat’s hair.

Goats are naturally curious and playful creatures — they always land on their feet and require playground equipment such as this for leisure. They are not in danger in any way.

The black tube is only added for aesthetic purposes. Of course it is not actual shelter. To assume that it would be shelter does not make sense.

This simply goes to show the massive assumptions that are being made and misinformation spread based on individual photos taken out of context.

Please do not encourage harassment and doxxing online. The misleading and false information is spurring people to send hateful messages and is resulting in extreme levels of defamation of myself as a person and of Winterpast Farm, which I have built over the course of 17 years.

These individuals are from Toronto, Colorado, South Africa and many other parts of the US. They have threatened to send people to pretend to be farm volunteers to try to “shame farmer Mary”. They have cursed at and directly harassed friends of the farm online. They are also encouraging people who have never visited our farm to leave reviews online, which is against Facebook’s community guidelines and the guidelines of other websites such as Google, TripAdvisor, and Yelp.

I would encourage everyone to direct this energy in a more productive direction, such as by finding a nearby animal rescue with which to volunteer.

It is incredibly disheartening to have my personal and professional reputation defamed by individuals from around the country on social media who have never had any personal experience at the farm.

I have been in contact with Wake County Animal Control and I hope to put these issues to rest once and for all by sharing the results of their report when it is made available to me.  I have taken in animals for Wake County Animal Control and the officers appreciate the number of animals I personally keep out of overcrowded animal shelters.

Thank you so much to all of our friends of the farm who have helped us through this difficult time. I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support from the community.

I am asking these groups to cease and desist from all public defamation of Winterpast Farm and of myself. I simply want to be left in peace to care for the many animals who call Winterpast Farm home.

Winterpast Farm makes a difference, not just to unwanted “imperfect” animals but to families and individuals of all ages. When you support our small business you are supporting me to care for and feed all the discarded and “imperfect” animals for their lifetime and more to come.

I agree with the core mission here — all animals deserve to be treated well and have safe & loving living conditions. There is nothing but love for all at Winterpast Farm. I have been blessed to live out my purpose of caring for animals every day for the last 17 years, and look forward to many more.

Thank you,

Mary Droessler