Following the appearance of the article, I sent the following letter to the editor, which was published- not on the front page, however.

Dear Editor,

I am writing in connection with the article “Blood Bath -- Sheep found slaughtered at Cedar farm.” Nanaimo Daily News, November 26.

I was surprised that your article made no mention of the many volunteers who were working all day long to try to help the injured sheep while the McGuires were away at work. They showed true community spirit.

The efforts of Stephanie Walker of the Cedar Animal Rescue Centre, her husband Dave, Leila Tremblay and Dr. Runnells of Benson View Veterinary Hospital were heroic. Stephanie and Leila were there all day long. They tried to stem the bleeding, wrapped towels around the slashed throats, disinfected many wounds, built a makeshift pen to hold the animals, carried the helpless sheep to the pen, and in general, kept a vigilant eye on them. Many tears were shed over this horrible scene. It seemed as if the sheep just couldn’t die. Stephanie Walker called in Dr. Runnells in the afternoon, as we realized that there was little we could do without veterinary assistance. Even with assistance, most would inevitably die a slow death by bleeding unless they could be euthanised. It was a privilege to work with Dr. Runnells. He had a caring, gentle way with the sheep and he tried to alleviate their suffering as much as possible.

Yours truly,

Jean Martin