Help Center

Thank you for caring about animals. Whilst witnessing cruelty or neglect is hard, please remember you may be the only one to speak up for the animal, or you may inspire those around you to care as well.

Sadly we receive many requests to help animals in need and given our limited resources (that are already pushed to the max) and our lack of legal powers to enter property, compel people to act or seize animals, we are not the best place to assist in the first instance. Please consider also that as we have not witnessed the situation as you have, you really are in the best place to speak up and relay the circumstances of the animal/s concerned.

The following relates to cruelty complaints in Victoria, Australia. Please note states, territories and countries will have similar equivalents.

Action Checklist

1. Contact owner of the animal/s direct or the property owner if they can be identified, and if you are comfortable doing this.
2. Contact both the local ranger/shire or council and the RSPCA if less than ten (10) cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, deer and fifty (50) in the case of poultry, otherwise Agriculture Victoria.
3. If the matter is a priority and you have been unsuccessful in making contact with any of the aforementioned parties, please contact the local police as a matter of urgency.
4. If no action has been taken and the animal/s remain in peril contacting the media may be of assistance in rattling the necessary cage to get the matter resolved. You may also wish to contact the 1800 cruelty hotline number, 1800 751 770. This number applies Australia wide.

It is helpful to record as much information as possible including time, date, weather conditions, state of the animal. Photos, without trespass or breech of privacy can readily convey conditions to responders as well.

Once again we sincerely thank you caring and understanding our position on this important matter.

We can fully understand and are deeply humbled that many turn to Edgar’s Mission when they can no longer provide for an animal in their care.

However, the daily task of caring for over 400 sanctuary residents is no small feat for our small team of dedicated staff and volunteers. Many of our animal friends require countless hours, days, weeks and even months of care in the path to their rehabilitation, and with an ageing population such as ours, they too require additional daily care to ensure they have lives truly worth living.

Whilst we wish we could save them all, the sad reality is that we too have reached the point where we need to rehome animals where possible. As a not for profit, and given our land size and current animal numbers, our ability to take in more is very limited. Should we attempt to provide sanctuary for every animal that came our way, the physical, financial, logistical, environmental and emotional duty would cripple us and diminish the care we were able to provide.

Edgar’s Mission’s goal, in part, is to open people’s hearts and minds to what truly wonderful individuals farmed animals really are, rather than merely thinking about them when their lives have ended or the commodities that they can produce. As such, outreach has become a very important part of the work of Edgar’s Mission. Every animal we take in impacts on our ability to fulfil this important charter.

Furthermore, it simply does not make sense for a charity to take in an animal someone wishes to rehome, then Edgar’s Mission take on the task of rehoming that same animal. It is not the best use of our limited resources and most importantly not in the best interests of the animal being moved more times than necessary.

So who can we rescue?

Edgar’s Mission was created to rescue farmed animals who have absolutely not a friend in the world to look out for them – the lost, abandoned and neglected ones.

One of our great challenges is working out which animals need our care and which humans need a hand and guidance to rehome the animals in their care. While we would never begrudge helping an animal in need, we do not wish to encourage people to abdicate their responsibility to the animals in their care.

Finding a forever home for your animal

As advocates for animals, we strive daily to guide people to see animals as living, breathing, thinking and feeling individuals who require a lifetime of care and commitment. To this end, we encourage you to take ownership of the situation, and we can work with you in finding ways to assist with the rehoming process of the animal – after all, you are in the best position to know the needs and nuances of the animal in your care in order to secure the best outcome for everyone.

Here’s a great start for achieving this;

• We created a Facebook page – Edgar’s Mission Farm Animal Adoption Friends to connect those wishing to rehome animals with those who are able to love and care for the animals for the remainder of their years. Like the page to join this network, go to the ‘Mentions’ tab to create your post, and we will share once approved. Please note these adoptions are independent to our work and both parties are to conduct due diligence. Please take a look at our prospective adoption page to guide you with the questions you should ask prospective adopters.
• Social media is a great tool for connecting with people, so why not use it to help find a new home for your animal friend. You can try posting in the Friendly Vegans in Melbourne Facebook Group or similar groups for animal lovers.
• Reach out to your local community via your local newspaper.  They are always on the lookout for human interest stories, and an opportunity exists to raise awareness that farmed animals are indeed companion animals too, or in the case of roosters the dire situation that face in our society (this is especially so if the roosters, have resulted from ill-conceived chicken hatching programs).
• If your animal came from a breeder (who is not breeding animals for food or fibre), try contacting them as they need to be made aware of your situation. They, too, have a duty to the animal they have brought into this world.
• Be wary of advertising “free to good home” on Internet websites or forums. Often people looking for free animals do not have the animal’s best interests at heart.

We strongly advise that, where possible, your animal is desexed to ensure that only genuine animal lovers enquire and not someone looking for a breeding proposition.

Emergency accommodation options

Should your situation be urgent, and you require temporary options until a permanent home is found please consider the following:

• Your local showgrounds
• Your local stockyards
• Your local pound

Although it may take patience and time to find the right home, as a duty to the animal you have taken responsibility for, it is the least you can do for them. Remember they will have come to see you as a part of their family, someone they rely on, and will not understand the circumstances calling for their relocation. It will be difficult for them too.

Sadly, this is a request we hear almost every day and we have reached a point where we simply cannot accommodate every request to take in a rooster.

Our ability to take in roosters is subject to how many we have here at one time. To go beyond this capacity would severely impact on the quality of care we can offer the roosters and our 400+ other rescued animals, as well as the most important animal advocacy work we engage in.

It is not as simple as just adding another rooster to the flock as is the case of hens. Large numbers of roosters are problematic to care for, for a number of reasons. Crowing aside, roosters will fight and compete with one another for the hens. Hens can become injured and/or stressed as a result of this. Roosters cannot be safely kept with hens when the ratio imbalance favours the males. A good mix would ideally be one rooster for every five to ten hens, with plenty of room in between. One is unable to safely surgically castrate a rooster and chemical castration, in a bid to reduce aggression, has been shown to be a very costly exercise with an equally poor result.

In cases where we are not able to provide a suitable home for an animal, we work with individuals to assist in the rehoming of the said animal. However, in the case of roosters, chances are the very reasons why you no longer are in a position to keep the rooster will be the same reason no one will wish to take them on.

As an organisation dedicated to the protection of farmed animals, it pains us greatly as we struggle to find a solution for the ever growing problem of unwanted roosters. This is compounded by the fact we personally know what wonderful and quirky little guys roosters are, each and every one an individual.

We are most hesitant in regards to rehoming roosters as the only people who tend to want them either wish to eat them, or breed with them, either case is not acceptable to us. In the case of the former, we could never allow this, and in the case of the latter, we would simply be moving the problem on as 50% of the chicks that would hatch would also be roosters and we could then well expect more calls down the track to take in more unwanted roosters.

Something that should be borne in mind by all those involved in breeding animals is, what becomes of the offsprings? As guardians of animals, we have a duty to those we care for, and also those we bring into this world. It is for this reason we most strongly advise against hatching out chicks, unless you are able to personally provide, or secure, lifelong homes for the resulting chicks, be they hens or roosters. It is totally irresponsible to expect someone else to take on the responsibility for a creature you have brought into being simply because they did not meet your expectations.

Roosters have wonderful and endearing personalities. They, like any other animal, want to have a life worth living, one of meaning and purpose. They are intelligent and fun loving and can even learn their name. It is heartbreaking to know that our society treats these intelligent birds with such disdain that right now, for every laying hen, a rooster was killed before it got to see the light of its second day of life. Deemed unproductive by the egg laying industry, baby roosters have become an inconvenient by-product so much so that around 12 million are killed each year in Australia alone.

Our ‘Hatching a good idea‘ campaign seeks to end chicken hatching projects in schools, another huge source of unwanted roosters.

Many of the problems associated with people needing to find a new home for their rooster could have been avoided with a little forethought prior to taking the animal on.

Please refer to the ‘Can you take my animal’ section above for rehoming options for your rooster.

Although it may take patience and time to find the right home, as a duty to the animal you have taken responsibility for, it is the least you can do for them. Remember they will have come to see you as a part of their family and will not understand the circumstances calling for their relocation. It will be difficult for them also – they rely on you for everything.

*Reference: Sydney Morning Herald article here.

Over the years we have recognised the need for safe havens for owned farmed animals, as sadly we are unable to accommodate them all.

We created a Facebook page – Edgar’s Mission Farm Animal Adoption Friends to connect those wishing to rehome animals with those who are able to love and care for the animals for the remainder of their years. Like the page to join this network, go to the ‘Mentions’ tab to create your post, and we will share once approved.

Please note these adoptions are independent to our work, and both parties are to conduct due diligence.

We recommend having a look at our prospective adoption page to guide you with the questions you should ask prospective adopters.

Gosh, fewer requests pull at our heart strings as much as this one.

Firstly, thank you for your caring about the plight of animals in these situations. Whilst we wish nothing more than for every animal to be spared suffering and an untimely death, sadly the logistics of doing so are not practical or possible.

Please understand that rescuing a farmed animal is actually the easy part. Each animal comes with a lifetime of care and commitment, husbandry and often heartache. Our goal as a sanctuary is not to keep on accumulating animals, because there is a point where land, finances and human resources will not keep up and we could never live with the thought of not being able to provide the quality of care we do, which includes treating the animals as individuals and ensuring that each and every one of our many residents has a life truly worth living.

Our view is that it is not consistent with the spirit of rescuing animals to be paying for them. Please bear in mind that paying for farmed animals is supporting the very industries/producers/breeders who view animals as property or production units. And, as is most often the case, the animal purchased will only be replaced with another animal to meet the same fate.

Another very important point to bear in mind here is that if we were to say “yes” in your instance, we would be compelled out of fairness and consistency to say “yes” to every other similar request we receive.

We understand your disappointment with this answer, but please understand the spirit in which it is given and that we believe that our, and your, limited resources need to be used to help the most animals we possibly can by the most effective means we can, and this does not involve supporting those who reduce animals to the status of “things”. By buying animals, we become consumers and not rescuers. Whilst there may sometimes be a situation where money would need to be exchanged to save a life, in this case, we recommend that you avoid becoming party to a trade in animals.

Early on in our Founder Pam’s advocacy for farmed animal days, she was inside a factory farm for pigs. The situation around her seemed insurmountable and she stood there feeling helpless, desperately wanting to rescue each and every one of those pigs, even buying them if she could. But she realised she could not. Her pledge as she walked out that door to those pigs was: “I will tell your story, and I will keep telling your story until people understand what beautiful, sentient beings you all are”. And that is what she has been doing ever since.

Once again, thank you for caring about these animals and we encourage you to continue to be a voice for farmed animals wherever they may be.

Whilst Edgar’s Mission cares deeply about all animals it has been determined that our limited resources must be directed to rescuing and caring for farmed animals in need. We truly believe through our outreach and advocacy work we shine a light on caring for all animals regardless of the shape they are, our familiarity with them or our use of them. We promote kindness without borders.

No. As a not-for-profit sanctuary for rescued animals, we do not undertake commercial activities such as agistment. To do so would take time and space away from the essential work of rescuing, caring for and advocating of behalf of farmed animals.

If you need to rehome your animals, please do your due diligence to ensure they are going to a loving forever home who can meet their specific needs. Here are some recommended questions you can ask:

Animal information

• Why are you interested in adopting?
• Do you have other animals? You can ask if males are desexed to ensure no breeding.
• Have you had any experience with [species] before? If not, explain their specific needs or refer them to Open Sanctuary’s care guides.
• How often will you check the animal/s? *

Your Property

• What address would the animal/s be living? You are entitled to ask to do a property inspection or get photos of where the animal will live including fencing and shelter.
• What shelter would you will be able to provide for them?
• Please describe your fencing, pasture and land size available for them?
• Do you own the property where the animals will live? If you are renting, do you have permission from the landlord?
• Have you checked with your local council to ensure you are legally permitted to keep the species on your property?
• Do you have a Property Identification Code (PIC)? This is a legal requirement to adopt farmed animals other than chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese (unless you have 50 or more birds). If they don’t have one, it’s quick, free and easy to get one here.
• Are you ready to accept the animal/s now? If not when?
• If you left your current address, would the animals be taken with you?

Ongoing Care

• Will you be able to provide physically and financially should the need for a vet arise?
• Do you have access to a local vet who treats farmed animals?
• Do you intend to tether the animal at any time?
• Do you understand and undertake that the animal/s will not be used for breeding, given away or sold?
• Do you understand and undertake that these animals are never to be killed (unless humane euthanasia is necessary)?
• Do you have an animal emergency plan in the event of a natural disaster (i.e. bushfire, flood)?

Our adoption program seeks to find loving forever homes for our rescued farmed animals. Learn more here. 

Our Best Buddy program enables you to sponsor one of our rescued residents. Find out more here. 

To ensure the highest standards, the lambs drink Wambaroo Sheep Milk Replacer and the kids drink Passwell Formula One, both give the orphans and their compromised immune systems the best fighting chance possible.

The formulas are made from cow milk derivatives, unfortunately we, like every other sanctuary, are stuck between a rock and a hard place in this regard. We could allow the lambs and kid goats to perish or we can save them, if they are to live we must feed them formula. If there was another option to products that contain dairy, we would certainly use it.

The sad reality is orphaned lambs and goats should not be in this situation to begin with, they should be drinking their own mother’s milk. But on that note, the fact that they have arrived at our sanctuary means they have been spared the dire fate of most commercially bred animals. We only hope that as the message of kindness spreads and concern for farmed animals grows, bottles of formula will no longer be needed.

Whilst it is very commendable that you wish to start a sanctuary for rescued farmed animals, there are many things to consider beforehand that can prevent much heartache down the track. Here is a snapshot of a few considerations from our Founder, Pam Ahern.

Edgar’s Mission was established, almost unintentionally, under the watchful eye of our inspirational and much-loved first resident, Edgar Alan Pig.

The feelings that inspired me to found Edgar’s Mission are likely to be the same feelings that inspire you to start your own sanctuary – our abhorrence for the scale and injustice of suffering inflicted upon many individual farmed animals around the world and the need to not only offer those we can safety, compassion and lives worth living, but to be a much needed voice for those we cannot.

We strive for our residents to be ambassadors for their kin, whose suffering behind closed doors and gates is out of the sight and minds of most people. And we strive to offer a means for people to learn about farmed animals and what their lives are really like, allowing them to make informed choices that reflect their own sense of justice, kindness and compassion.

Whilst these reasons are entirely sound, the undertaking of such a mission must be very carefully considered. It must be understood that in order to provide the best level of care for the animals dependent upon you, the dedication required is all-consuming.

As the person responsible for the entire functioning of the sanctuary, it requires that you spend varying amounts of time cleaning, medicating, socialising, feeding and watering the animals, answering emails and telephone calls, collecting animals, conducting the financial affairs of the organisation, co-ordinating volunteers, promoting your organisation, fundraising, and a myriad of other day-to-day tasks that take up time, as well as catching a few hours sleep.

Not only does this require an enormous physical commitment but an emotional and financial one as well, not to mention an enormous amount of knowledge. The days are long and tiring and days off are few.

None of this is to say that the joy we can bring to these animals’ lives is not worth it, but in order for sanctuaries to provide the best lives they can to their residents, those who operate them must forego most of what most people would call ‘normal lives’.

The practicalities of starting an animal sanctuary are many fold:

• It is essential to own land that is suitable for the animals who will live in your sanctuary. Things you will need to consider are, but by no means limited to; rainfall, carrying capacity, water supply, natural shelter, distance to veterinary assistance, accessibility, bushfire threats, existing use of the land, existing and proposed use of neighbouring land and current infrastructure.
• You must consult the local council to ensure your planned activity complies with council regulations and bylaws. You will also need to consider neighbours. Will they be receptive?
• Consider the cost and practicalities of installing/erecting suitable infrastructure such as housing and fencing, which may be different for each species.
• Ensure you have the necessary funds to be able to feed, water and medicate as necessary, all of the animals in your care with a back-up of at least two months’ outgoings in case of emergency. Securing funds involves fund-raising, establishing and encouraging monthly and one-off donations and applying for grants, all of which are labour-intensive.
• Administration must also be considered including applying for, and operating under a not-for-profit or charitable status, obtaining tax-deductible status, and buying public liability insurance if you wish to allow people to visit. You must also ensure that financial matters are taken care of, including receipts for donations, fulfilling statutory requirements, payment of bills, purchase of supplies, etc.
• The animals you rescue will come from different circumstances, including terrible situations of neglect, cruelty and abandonment, and you may rescue from stockyards and farmers who would otherwise slaughter the animals. The problem is not finding animals in need of rescue; it is hearing of those who desperately need help and being unable to offer it to them. You will receive many calls from people who want you to help them, and you may find, with a heavy heart, you will have to say “No”. You must know how many animals you are able to care for at any one time and not exceed this limit in order not to compromise the welfare of the existing residents. This will be one of your greatest challenges.
• Record keeping will form a large part of your work, both for the sanctuary and animals you care for. For each rescued animal you will need to keep extensive records, where they came from, health status, other pertinent information along with any veterinary treatments you provide.

We hope this information is of use to you, but because of differing circumstances please don’t take it to be an exhaustive account of the requirements of establishing and running a farmed animal sanctuary. Each case will, of course, be very individual.

From experience, I can say with certainly that the mission I undertake now is the hardest path I could have taken in life. It requires dedication to the point of exclusion of many other aspects of life, and frustration, sadness, anger, despondency, tiredness and desperation are felt alongside the joy, satisfaction, pleasure and sense of privilege, that are experienced when spending all day, every day, working on behalf of rescued farmed animals.

Establishing a place of safety and compassion is one of the most rewarding undertakings you could consider. It will bring an enormous amount of joy into your life as well as an enormous amount of hard work. However, the most important thing to consider is that once the animals are in your care, they are your responsibility and they will rely on you for everything. You must never let them down. This is an enormous undertaking.

With very best wishes for your venture – the animals need as many compassionate people working on their behalf as possible. Please also consider lending a hand or interning at existing sanctuary first to gain valuable insights.

For further resources and information about how to start a sanctuary please visit Open Sanctuary.

The legal requirements of establishing a not-for-profit are very strict, and for good reason. If you are in Australia and would like more information on the legal requirements of establishing a not-for-profit you can learn more here.

There are many ways to donate to Edgar’s Mission.

Donate online
You can do so securely here – the easiest way to donate.

Donate by phone 
Call 03 7046 4776 between 9am to 5pm AEST , Monday to Friday.

Donate by bank transfer
Please remember to add your surname to the donation description and email us your contact details and amount donated so we can send you a tax receipt!

Bendigo Bank
Account Name: Edgars Mission
BSB: 633 000
Account Number: 126545250

Please note that international cheques are no longer accepted by our bank, and cheques within Australia are being phased out by banks too. Please visit your bank and give our Account Number 126545250 to make a donation.

Donations from Australian residents (including Gift of Kindness and Best Buddies) over $2 are tax deductible and are greatly appreciated.

If your circumstances change and you need to cancel a recurring donation, please follow the steps below.

1. Click on My Account and login to your account.

2. Open the account menu on the right side of your account page and select My Donations from the menu.

3. On the donations page select the Manage Recurring Donations button.

4. On the recurring donations page you can cancel or update your payment details.

Donations can be made via a bank transfer to our bank account via the details below.

Please remember to add your surname to the donation description and email us your contact details and amount donated so we can send you a tax receipt!

Bendigo Bank
Account Name: Edgars Mission
BSB: 633 000
Account Number: 126545250

Please note that international cheques are no longer accepted by our bank.

Cheques within Australia are being phased out by banks too, so instead please visit your bank and give our Account Number 126545250 to make a donation, or see one of the alternative options above.

Our Best Buddy sponsorship program gives you the opportunity to support an animal and share in their lives. But, of course, the funding goes to help feed and care for all of the animals here at Edgar’s Mission.

We would love nothing more than to expand our Best Buddy program to include the everyone’s favourite residents. However, the administrative logistics of running the sponsorship program with the current animals, while also caring for over 400 animals is almost more than we can handle.

We apologise that we are unable to open the Best Buddy program up to include all of our residents and we trust you understand our reasons. We, and all of our animal residents, appreciate your support.

We have been overwhelmed by kind donations of animal coats (including lamb jackets), towels, blankets, washcloths, and stuffed toys and do not have space to accept any more at this time. Thank ewe!

If you have experienced any difficulties using PayPal, please contact us or try using a credit card instead. Sometimes for reasons out of our control a PayPal donation might not go through.

Known PayPal bug

We are aware of a bug with PayPal that has affected some donors on monthly or weekly plans. Firstly, it is nothing to be concerned about and is more an inconvenience rather than a serious issue.

The Issue

You might have noticed that you are not receiving your monthly or weekly receipts from Edgar’s Mission, or that your monthly or weekly payments are not appearing on your account page. If this is happening to you it is because our site has lost connection to your subscription in PayPal. Unfortunately this is a technical bug that is out of our control.

The Fix

Rest assured your donation is processing correctly. If you need a receipt with all your donations itemised, please contact us and we can do this for you manually. Please mention PayPal and include the email you used to make your PayPal donation.

Another option is to change your payment method by signing up to a new recurring donation using a credit card instead of PayPal. If you do this, please contact us and we will then cancel your PayPal donation. This means you will receive your monthly or weekly receipts.

Apologies for any inconvenience, and once again thank you for your kind donation.

Please refer to Australia Post’s International Post Guide to find any restrictions by country.

Go to: Shop

Orders over $100 within Australia get free shipping. 

Orders under $100 within Australia have a flat shipping rate of $11.

Additional fees apply for international orders. 

Go to: Shop

We offer free shipping within Australia for orders over $100.

Go to: Shop

If your order is incorrect or damaged, please contact us so we can help. Please check your order and sizes carefully to avoid returns.

Go to: Shop

If you have any issues with your order, please email us with your order number and we will be happy to assist you.

Go to: Shop

Key information for visitors: 

Bookings are essential and tours fill up fast, so please book early here to avoid disappointment!

Biosecurity

To keep our animals safe from disease, please follow these important biosecurity measures:

• If you are an Australian citizen who has travelled overseas or an international citizen in ANY country outside of Australia, please do not visit the sanctuary for 7 days after your return as per the Victorian Government directive. Please contact us if you have booked a visit and this applies to you.
• If you have visited a factory/intensive farm do not visit the sanctuary for 7 days.
• Please ensure your footwear, clothing and equipment is free of any mud, animal manure or other contaminants before visiting.
• It is essential upon arrival at Edgar’s Mission, that you step on the foot bath at the entrance to ensure your shoes are clean.

Thank you in anticipation of your kindness and cooperation. Please remember that biosecurity is EVERYONE’S responsibility.

Age limitations – For children under 10, please book on a Kids/Short Tour. Standard and Premium Tours are strictly for ages 10 and over.

For people with limited mobility including those using wheelchairs or walkers, please book on a Kids/Short Tour.

Dogs are not allowed at the sanctuary for the safety and wellbeing of our rescued animal residents.

For full visitor terms and conditions, please visit our legal page.

You can visit our beautiful sanctuary by pre-booking one of the following (please note visits are strictly by appointment only):

Tour options can be found here including:

• Tours – free and premium tour options
• School visits – free
• Community and bus group tours – free
• Virtual tours for school and community groups – free

Volunteer options can be found here.

Please note that we cannot admit people to the sanctuary if they have not booked. With over 400 animals in our care and small team, we simply don’t have the resources to accompany guests without prior arrangement.

We are closed over winter and on days of severe fire warning.

Edgar’s Mission is situated in Lancefield, Victoria, Australia, just over an hour’s drive north of Melbourne.

81 Bridies Lane, Lancefield, VIC 3435, Australia.

A map will be supplied when you make a booking.

Our postal address is:

Edgar’s Mission
PO BOX 270
Lancefield VIC 3435
Australia

Unfortunately there is no public transport directly to the sanctuary. The closest train station (Woodend) is a 20 minute drive away. If you do not have a car, the best way to get here is to hire one.

As our sanctuary is situated on 153 beautiful rolling acres, our unmade roadways go up hill and down dale and our tours venture into many animal paddocks where our visitors have the chance to interact with our residents.

While pathways could be negotiated by wheelchairs or walkers, the journey around the sanctuary is several kilometres and can be bumpy. For safety reasons we would not be able to grant access to animal paddocks or enclosures.

We recommend booking on a Kids/Short Tour which goes for 1 hour across 2km here. Tours for disability groups can also be arranged by contacting us.

A toilet with disability access is available onsite.

Edgar’s Kind Kitchen is now open on Saturdays, thanks to Conscious Cravings! These hearty, plant-based meals and treats can be enjoyed in our peaceful picnic area.

At other times we have snacks, sweets, non-dairy ice creams and cold drinks available for purchase.

If you bring something to eat and drink, out of respect for our animal residents, we request that no animal products make their way onto the sanctuary grounds via your lunch box (this includes meat, dairy and eggs). And avocado is banned as it is deadly to our birds. Thank ewe!

We love dogs and we know we’d love yours, however not all of our residents may. It is for this reason we advise you to leave you beloved pooch at home (not in your car – that is not safe).

If you are unable to attend a tour, it’s important to please cancel your ticket so another person can go in your place. To cancel a ticket go to your account page. Select Tickets from the account menu and complete a cancelation request.

Key information for volunteers: 

• Participants must be 18 years and over. For safety reasons, 15- to 17-year-olds must be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
• A level of fitness and mobility is required to complete tasks involving bending and lifting (unless you are a Reading Volunteer)
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Willingness to work quietly to create a peaceful environment for our animals residents
• Comfortable around animals of all sizes, including chickens, goats, and pigs

Biosecurity

To keep our animals safe from disease, please follow these important biosecurity measures:

• If you are an Australian citizen who has travelled overseas or an international citizen in ANY country outside of Australia, please do not visit the sanctuary for 7 days after your return as per the Victorian Government directive. Please contact us if you have booked a visit and this applies to you.
• If you have visited a factory/intensive farm do not visit the sanctuary for 7 days.
• Please ensure your footwear, clothing and equipment is free of any mud, animal manure or other contaminants before visiting.
• It is essential upon arrival at Edgar’s Mission, that you step on the foot bath at the entrance to ensure your shoes are clean.

Thank you in anticipation of your kindness and cooperation. Please remember that biosecurity is EVERYONE’S responsibility.

Please visit our volunteer page for information on the different ways you can lend a hand. Please note that volunteering is strictly by appointment only.

Whilst the saying goes “many hands make light work”, we take the role of caring for our animal residents and their sanctuary grounds very seriously. For this reason, much time goes into training our regular volunteers.

Alas we do not have the resources to train and guide new recruits for short term assistance around the sanctuary while still maintaining our high standards of animal care.

Our Helping Hand days run most Saturdays and are great for a one-off volunteer day. You can book online here.

Please note that due to public liability issues we are not able to offer volunteering opportunities for persons under the age of 15 years.

We do!

Please visit our volunteer page and click on ‘Groups’ to be taken to our corporate group volunteer information here.

If you are unable to attend a Helping Hands volunteer day, it’s important to please cancel your ticket so another person can go in your place. To cancel a ticket go to your account page. Select Tickets from the account menu and complete a cancelation request.

We regret to advise that with over 400 animals and a small team, we have had to suspend our popular work experience program.

Whilst we hate to disappoint, please understand that we strive to give everyone who attends our sanctuary the best and most meaningful experience possible, and we simply do not have the resources to dedicate operating a work experience program and maintaining the current high standards of animal care.

We trust the future will bring us more resources to get our work experience program up and running again. We wish you the best on all your endeavours and thank you for your interest and understanding!

Thank you for working so hard to make our world a better place. It is because of people like you that we are hopeful of a kinder future for all.

On a daily basis, we receive a number of similar requests from those seeking to create change and if we were to say yes to one, we really would have to say yes to them all. This places us in a difficult position of bombarding of our supporters with multiple posts, which would see them losing their important impact. For this reason, we trust you will understand that regretfully we are unable to promote your cause on our socials and website.

We do however invite you to share your link on our Facebook wall, where those who follow our page will be able to see it. This means that we are able to go ahead with our scheduled content for the day (we plan days, weeks and months in advance for many posts), whilst you share your cause alongside it.  This will allow visitors to our page to see both.

Again, we are sorry if this is not the answer you were hoping to receive, however we adopted this policy some time ago in the name of fairness and we really must stick by it. Thank you again for continuing to do the work that you do and for supporting Edgar’s Mission, it really does make a world of difference.

You certainly can! We are heartened to learn of the enthusiasm by caring individuals and groups who wish to help us meet our ever-present need for funds.

Please head to our fundraising page to get ideas and check our guidelines here.

Your Account is your own personalised hub to access all of your online transactions with Edgar’s Mission including donations, shop purchases, tour tickets, animal sponsorships and more. If you have donated on our new site this is also where you can see your private donation updates.

When you make a transaction on Edgar’s Mission’s new website from 13 July 2022 including donations, shop purchases, tour tickets, or animal sponsorships, your account will automatically be set up.

You will receive an email after making the transaction with your account login details for future visits. You can then login and check your transactions any time.

If you cannot find your account login details or are having trouble logging in, please contact us.

If you are unable to attend a tour or volunteer day, it’s important to please cancel your ticket so another person can go in your place. To cancel a ticket go to your account page. Select Tickets from the account menu and complete a cancelation request.

If you have a purchased or donated on our new website then an account has been automatically made for you. If you are having trouble accessing your account then please follow the steps below.

1. When you first donated or ordered on our new website then you should have received an email from Edgar’s Mission with your account details. Please also check your junk folder if you can’t find it. Login with your details here: Login

2. If you did not receive the account email or cannot find it then please follow the steps below to reset your password.
– Go to the login page: Login
– Click forgot password? In the green box.
– Add your email and click reset password.
You will then receive an email with a link for you to reset your password. Use your email and new password to login to your Edgar’s Mission account: Login

If your circumstances have changed and you need to cancel a recurring donation, please follow the steps below.

1. Click on My Account and login to your account.

2. Open the account menu on the right side of your account page and select My Donations from the menu.

3. On the donations page select the Manage Recurring Donations button.

4. On the recurring donations page you can cancel or update your payment details.

We sure do! Find information about our humane education program including school visits here. Bookings are essential.

The photographs, videos and text that appear on our website, edgarsmission.org.au, and social media accounts including, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Vimeo and YouTube form part of our campaign on behalf of farmed animals. The photographs, videos and text, our “content”, remain the exclusive property of Edgar’s Mission and are protected under Australian and International Copyright Laws.

Please note we are unable to provide content rights to third parties. Our content is shared with a small number of partner organisations whose values and mission align closely with ours in order to maintain the integrity of our animals and their stories.

Our content may not be reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated. This includes, but is not limited to, editing or adding text or graphics of any kind to our photographs or videos.

For an alternative, royalty-free images and video clips of farmed animals can be found at We Animals.

We love inviting our friends from near and far on tours around the property to meet some of our many residents and learn about what we do. While at Edgar’s Mission any content, including photographs or videos taken by you, our guests and volunteers, can be used for personal use only, thus not for commercial or any other use.

If you have taken photographs or any other content and wish to use or share it beyond your own personal circles or for a special project, we ask that you contact us for permission first.

Please visit our contact page here.

Edgar’s Mission
PO BOX 270
Lancefield, Victoria 3435
Australia