Yang and Shammie pose for a photograph in their yard in Shepherdstown. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — In 1989, painter Robin Young moved to Shepherdstown, and soon after opened a studio gallery near German Street. But as her parents grew older, Young decided to move back to Arkansas to be near them and purchased her grandparents’ farm from her uncle, where she began pursuing a new passion — taking in rescue animals.

In 2017, Young moved back to Shepherdstown with her animals.

“I’ve rescued 29 animals over the last 25 years. All my animals have been rescues,” Young said. “When I moved here, I had four cats and five dogs and the horses and the donkeys. What I have now is the two horses who are 28; two donkeys — one is 16 and the other’s age is unknown, as it had been dumped in a national forest, so we have no idea how old he is and donkeys live a long time; I have two dogs that are 14 and a cat that is 16, and that’s all I have right now. I keep them until their end. The ones I have now are aging out, but for however much longer I have them, I’m responsible to keep them safe.”

Right now, keeping them safe has become a harder task than ever before. When Young moved back to Shepherdstown, she purchased a three-acre farm for her animals and leased a neighboring five-acre pasture for her donkeys and horses to graze on. But in 2020, the pasture and 18 other acres, which surround three sides of Young’s farm, were sold to Lutman Land Development, LLC. The developer declined to consider renewing the lease with Young when it ends in November, and is set to build six houses over the 23 acres. The loss of that pastureland will mean a doubling in food costs for the horses and donkeys, according to Young, along with a need to erect fencing to protect her animals from the development.

“People who are already here, like me, are getting squeezed out,” Young said. “It is a situation of developers taking farmland, just encroaching more and more. But what can you do? It’s all legal.”

Phelan and Mr. Baker relax together in their former, five-acre pasture. Courtesy photo

Previously, during the winter months, Young has had to purchase about 30 bales of hay per month, for $8 each, to make sure her horses and donkeys are well fed. With the loss of the five-acre pasture, Young will have to purchase twice as much — $480 of hay per month.

“I’ll just have to buy more hay through the winter, to supplement the loss of the pasture. In the winter there’s just nothing out there to eat,” Young said.

With the five-acre pasture, Young had a fence surrounding it, which kept her horses and donkeys from running onto anyone else’s land. That fencing is of no use to the developer, so Young plans to repurpose it, by using it to build a fence around the three sides of her land exposed to the six-house development. This project, which Young calls “Part A,” will fence off one acre of land her horses and donkeys can safely graze on. If she is able to afford it, Young will also have a second fence around the acre behind her house built, which she is calling “Part B.” In total, Young has received a bid for $7,000, to do complete the two fences with the repurposed fencing.

“Fencing is so expensive! It’s just amazing how much it costs,” Young said. “I’m retired. I live on Social Security and have a part-time job in downtown Shepherdstown. I don’t have that kind of money!”

Due to the financial challenge and immediate need to complete Part A before her lease ends in November, Young decided a GoFundMe account needed to be set up, to raise the funds. To contribute to the fence fundraiser, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/fences-4-robins-4-rescues or contact Young at Robin Young Studio on Facebook.