Paul: "I am 6 years old.  I came to Farm Animal Sanctuary when I was quite young.  Before then I’d been kept with lots of other geese in a shed with no roof where we were standing in mud. We didn’t have any access to water and we were all very filthy. 

Then the person who had bred us roughly stuffed us all into a small crate with slated sides and took us to this horrendous place. The noise and smell were frightening. The people there were coarse, uncaring and, in some instances, downright cruel.

Some of my friends just collapsed with shock – we geese do not cope well with any form of stress – so I decided they needed some attention, took my courage in my beak, stuck my head out through one of the slated sides and started shouting for help. 

Little did I know that by doing this I was creating a turning point in our miserable lives.  Janet Taylor, the sanctuary's founder,  alerted by all the noise I was making, bought us and so we came to the Sanctuary.  It was like heaven and still is. 

For a very long time I had the company of a lovely lady goose. But she's not there anymore.  I was very sad when she left, because us geese stay together for the rest of our lives. So Janet tried to ease my pain and bought me some female companions: Goosey and Grizelda and their two sisters."

Grizelda interrupts Paul mockingly: "Yeh, well, we were supposed to keep him company. And do you know what he did? He just flew off to see the turkey Stan. We've heard that he was very fond of his previous lady who was a lot older than we are, and that she was a bit posh too. So perhaps we are too common for Paul. Well, we can’t help where we are bred. Anyway he’s had his nose put out of joint, because Stan was given some girlfriends of his own."

Goosey, her sister: "But we are very happy to be here, aren't we Grizelda? We actually came here on a cold afternoon just before Christmas. Janet bought us from this person who kept us in a field outside. It really was not bad where we were, but there wasn’t any water for us to play in, like there is here.  And we do like water, don't we?"

Paul: "We are lucky. And I am the luckiest of all because I am not lonely anymore. Now I have a chum called Mark.  He is the new Muscovy duck around here and he comes to call on me every morning.  Actually he wakes me up by banging on the side of my wooden house. He is a very sociable chap.

We all have water to swim and play in, good food, we can wander the fields as much as we like and our accommodation has a roof. So I, 'aristo-goose',  don’t have to stand or sit in the mud anymore and get my feathers all dirty,  or go to that horrendous place where some of my friends died through shock. I really wish they were here with us."

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