Ladybird Animal Sanctuary

Registered Canadian Charity: 815911318RR0001 We are the Ladybirds - Melissa McClelland, Lisa Winn and Janine Stoll; best friends and musicians who have spent over a decade sharing in each other’s music. Through recording as the Ladybird Sideshow Project, touring Canada or simply singing three ­part harmonies in each other’s living rooms over a bottle of wine, our collective passion for music has always been the glue to our friendship. As our music careers veered in different directions over the years, our friendship held strong and our shared passion for animal welfare eventually helped us conceive of Ladybird Animal Sanctuary, bonding the three of us even closer. It all started with a cat named Oliver who had been abandoned at a local shelter where Ladybird Lisa was working at the time. After spending a year in a cage, and some time not being able to shake what seemed like a cold, he was diagnosed with feline leukemia. In some shelters, this is a death sentence, even though FeLV cats can live long, healthy lives, despite the diagnosis. Oliver was snuggly, affectionate, full of life and certainly not deserving of death just because of his diagnoses. Lisa brought him home and spent months trying to find him a suitable home, as she already had her share of rescue animals. It was sweet Oliver who sparked our idea for Ladybird Animal Sanctuary. With one foster home, one rescue cat, a website design from our extraordinary web genius Janine and some serious word of mouth, we watched Ladybird grow from one simple idea to a registered Canadian charity with a system of 30 plus volunteer foster homes, and hundreds of domestic animals rescued from high-­kill shelters. Each animal eventually adopted out to a loving forever home, or becoming “Permanent Resident” when they are not suitable for adoption. We are working hard towards our dream of opening a physical sanctuary in the Southern Ontario region. This will be a safe haven for animals, where we can continue to rescue dogs, cats, small animals and birds, and where we can also take in farm animals. This will also be a place for our Ladybird community to gather and grow. We will welcome anyone who is willing to help, learn, engage and celebrate the lives of these wonderful creatures. There are steep learning curves at every turn, but we are up for the challenge because there is an important task at hand. With every success story, every rescue mission, every grateful furry little face, we know we are doing our jobs as animal defenders. We could not, and cannot possibly do this alone, so please join us on our Ladybird journey!