OTTAWA – For Michelle Dondo-Tardiff, the saddest part of the end-of-August fire that wiped out a lot of history at Ottawa’s Central Experimental Farm was the friends she lost.
For the director of the national agriculture museum, they were friends like Lion and Bright, two rare ancient White Park oxen that perished when flames consumed the cattle barn and the 107-year-old McNeely residence that housed her offices.
They were friends like the four-horned Jacob sheep, whose ancestors date back to biblical times.
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And especially, they were friends like Knight Cap, an eight-year-old Hereford bull that weighed 3,216 pounds and was a favorite of the tens of thousands of children who visited the farm every year to learn about life on the farm.
“He was really a gentle giant,” Dondo-Tardiff said from a makeshift office amid the smell of charred records spread out nearby to dry.
“The fire destroyed a lot but the saddest part are the animals. They were friends, you know?”
In the middle of the night Aug. 30, fire swept through the livestock barn, killing 59 animals including 11 cattle, two pot-bellied pigs, 20 piglets, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys and rabbits, including some rare breeds.
It almost ignited the dairy barn and although the dairy herd was in its night pasture nearby, destruction of the barn would have added significantly to the loss.
As it was, losses were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – perhaps several million dollars if the buildings were to be rebuilt in their heritage style. In recent years, the farm has been under the budget-cutting gun like all federal institutions.
The national museum of science and technology, which now operates the Central Experimental Farm as a tourist attraction, has not decided what reconstruction will take place.
The farm, located in the centre of Ottawa and the oldest federal agriculture station in Canada, offers a mix of tourism and working agriculture.
It attracts 135,000 tourists a year to see farm animals, equipment and fields in their natural farm condition.
It also has a working dairy herd which earns $150,000 per year for the farm, covering more than 20 percent of the $700,000 annual operating budget.
Several years ago, the farm was transferred from Agriculture Canada to the museum branch and it is a major showcase for agriculture in Canada’s fourth largest urban area.
Continue activities
“We have programs and tours and lots of events to educate urban kids about what it means to have an agriculture industry in Canada,” said Dondo-Tardiff, who was raised on a Manitoba farm. “Despite the fire, it is important we carry on with our activities.”
Meanwhile, the farm’s urban friends continue to mourn the loss.
One of the more poignant stories of the blaze was that of the calf Roseanne, the sole survivor from the livestock barn.
Bob McLelland from the Agriculture Canada research division has been associated with the farm for years. Last week he was fielding calls from people who had visited and befriended the animals.
“I had a call from a man whose son wanted to send a get well card to Roseanne and wanted to know where to send it,” he said. “There is a real connection between the farm, the animals and the public in this town, a real feeling of ownership.”
