By Lisa Carolin
The Barn Sanctuary in Sylvan Township is going to have its own television show.
The nonprofit is dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating abused and neglected farmed animals and creating a safe haven for them to recover and thrive, and that is the impetus for the new show.
A link to the video announcement from Barn Sanctuary’s founder Dan McKernan can be found here.
Filming is about to begin at the farm, which is located at 20179 McKernan Dr., and the program will air on the Animal Planet network at the end of 2019.
“Animal Planet has decided to do 12, one-hour long episodes documenting what we’re doing at the Barn Sanctuary,” said Dan McKernan, founder of the nonprofit. “They’ll be filming for the next six months. We are so excited.”
The program will document the life-saving work Barn Sanctuary does, and will feature McKernan and his family working to save farm animals from difficult situations and giving them a place to live safely. The program will focus on rescue stories, unique medical cases, and follow the rehabilitation and hard work it takes to accomplish the rescues.
McKernan filed for nonprofit status in August of 2016, at which time he rescued Barn Sanctuary’s first two animals, calves Henry and Cora, now adult cows. He was working at a full-time tech job in Austin, Texas and flying to Barn Sanctuary every two weeks. His dad, Tom McKernan (now the farm operations manager and Sylvan Township supervisor) helped care for the calves.
It’s the McKernan family’s generations-old farm that has been converted into a rescue for barnyard animals. Barn Sanctuary takes farm animals with critical health conditions and those that have been abandoned, abused, and neglected and gives them a permanent home.
“All of us at Barn Sanctuary are thrilled to open our barn doors to Animal Planet’s millions of viewers,” said McKernan. “This show will give farmed animals the chance to be seen in a different light as we rescue, rehabilitate, and provide a loving home to abused and neglected farmed animals.”
For more information on the upcoming series about Barn Sanctuary, go to show.barnsanctuary.org.
This is exciting news. Thanks for your great work in helping these animals in desperate need.
Congrats to Dan, Tom, and your team! You do amazing work.