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Animal lover finds home for herd in La Honda

Green aims to launch therapeutic nonprofit with goats

By Greg Thomas [ greg@hmbreview.com ]
Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009 - 11:00:15 am PDT

When Amy Kinion got a desperate phone call from a stranger earlier this month, asking if she would retain a herd of farm animals on her 15-acre property in La Honda, she hardly hesitated before saying yes.

“Any animal that needs help I will help out,” says Kinion, a horse owner and occasional volunteer at Marin Humane Society.

Kinion says that kind of resolute generosity stems from small-town values she inherited growing up in Montara and San Gregorio, where people miles apart greet each other as neighbors, understanding that, in a pinch, they might be each other’s only support.


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Lisa Green found herself frantically reaching for a helping hand earlier this month after her landlords sold the Woodside pasture where she had fashioned a makeshift animal shelter. They needed her and her animals out by the end of last week.

Three years ago, Green bought a goat for her 10-year-old son, which she lodged at a friend’s stable, along with a handful of chickens. When her friend moved, Green found space for the animals at the intersection of Hacienda Drive and Woodside Road -- a fenced pasture easily visible to drivers passing through Woodside on Highway 84. The public display attracted attention from nearby residents, attention she hadn’t anticipated.

“People asked if we could take their goats … and little by little, the pasture grew,” Green says.

As the pack swelled, people dubbed the roadside pasture “Goat Hill.” The spectacle then began attracting visitors – “people coming with children on their way to Stanford hospital, people from out of the country, people who said they want their children to learn about animals and not be afraid,” Green said.

Seeing the “profound impact” on visitors gave Green the idea to start a nonprofit foundation. She was in the midst of six-month search for a permanent station for the animals when her landlords gave her a three-day notice to vacate.

The urgency placed her in an awkward circumstance – finding a new home for a pack of homebred and informally adopted animals.

Scrambling, Green scoured the Internet in search of a safe and available space. She stumbled upon an outdated posting on Craigslist advertising a land lease on Kinion’s property. The lease was already filled, but Kinion was willing to make an exception to help a fellow animal-lover in such straits.

Borrowing crates, trucks, trailers, time and energy from a hodgepodge of helpful La Hondans, as well as people from as far as San Francisco and Fremont, Green moved the herd last week to a new home on a new hill along Highway 84.

“It was incredibly heartening. … I don’t know that it was really about me – they wanted to see that those animals were taken care of,” Green said.

Green and Kinion worked out a deal to store the animals for at least a little while, until Green can push her nonprofit idea into motion.

“This gives me some breathing space … to talk to other organizations – Elkus (Ranch) and Square Peg (Foundation) – that I’d like to coordinate with,” Green said. “This gives us some time to think about how we can work together to make this

 

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