TAILS FROM THE TRAILS
If you’re free on Saturday, June 28, you might want to mosey on over to Red Barn Feed & Supply in Loxahatchee Groves. The business is celebrating its silver anniversary with games, prizes, raffles and sales.
Established in 1989 by Jerry and Betty Case, Red Barn provides a wide selection of products for the animal community. Growing from a feed store specializing in horse feed, hay and shavings 25 years ago, Red Barn now offers more than 20,000 square feet of locally owned retail space with products for both animals and their owners.
Far more than a feed store, Red Barn carries a wide array of supplies and products for grooming, housing and bedding, as well as a great selection of fencing and lawn care products for the home and farm. The staff can obtain any feed you need for any animal. Products include supplies for house pets, livestock and exotics such as ferrets and turtles — from aardvarks to zebras, they can find what you need!
Red Barn stocks a variety of hay and shavings to meet any diet and budget. A Purina Certified Expert Dealer, the store also offers a complete line of Purina feed products and has knowledgeable associates who can answer nutritional questions.
Also in stock are large selections of pet toys, dog collars, halters and leads, buckets, feeding and watering troughs, fly control products, nutritional supplements, hoof care options, grooming supplies and a number of used saddles. Then there are the clothes. Whether you’re going out on the town or working at the ranch, Red Barn carries a great selection of Western shirts, boots, jeans and accessories.
The bird area boasts a wide variety of bird seed for every sort of avian, from finches to chickens to parrots, 3 pounds to 50. There are birds for sale, including cockatiels, parakeets, chicks, goslings and the occasional duckling. They also sell chicken coops for the backyard chicken farmer.
Best of all, just about everything is going to be on sale come June 28.
“We’ll have specials all day long throughout the store,” manager Trina Molgard said. “In past years, we’ve had lots of specials, but this year everything in the store is going to be marked down from 10 percent to 25 percent. Everything. That includes clothing, hay, feed and shavings.”
Molgard expects a crowd for the event.
“It’s a great family day, a good place to chat and mingle with friends and neighbors,” she said. “A Purina rep will be on hand to answer nutrition questions. We’ll have a DJ, a huge 74-foot water slide (bring your own towel), face painting, a balloon artist, lots of coupons for special deals, and free giveaways, like hats and T-shirts.”
Molgard invited everyone to drop by.
“For us, these events are a way to give back to the community and thank everyone for their support throughout the year. I think it’s great any time you can get the items you need and also save some money,” she said.
“It is all about thanking everyone,” agreed Mario Mejia, another store manager. “We enjoy helping our customers find exactly what they’re after and answering their questions. I hope everyone comes to this event, finds great stuff at great prices and basically has a lot of fun.”
Each year, Red Barn supports a local animal charity. This year, the raffles support McCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary, a nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation facility.
McCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary has treated hundreds of native animals that were sick or injured, everything from foxes to bobcats, sand hill cranes to pelicans, hawks and owls. Many of the exotic animals have been donated by wildlife officers who confiscated these creatures from the previous owners because of neglect, abuse or illegal possession. Some were pets that owners could no longer care for and felt McCarthy’s would provide the animals a safe haven.
With more 100 permanent resident animals at the sanctuary, the cost of housing them is staggering. Twenty-two of the animals are large cats, including tigers and leopards, which consume a thousand pounds of meat each week.
All of the sanctuary’s financing comes from the community.
Owner Mark McCarthy will be on hand to do two free wildlife demonstrations, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. He may be bringing a Siberian lynx, a scarlet macaw, a barred owl, a 2-foot alligator, a rose-hair tarantula, a Gila monster, a kinkajou, a ringtail lemur and an 8-foot albino Burmese python.
“We have a few different raffles this year,” Molgard explained. “The $1 prizes include a horse basket, a dog basket, a TV, a chicken coop and gift cards. The $5 tickets is for the grand prize of a John Deer Gator utility cart worth more than $6,000. All of the proceeds of the raffles will be donated to McCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary. They’re a great organization. What they do is fantastic. Including them in our celebration is just another way we can give back to the community.”
Red Barn Feed & Supply is located at 12948 Okeechobee Blvd. For more information, call (561) 790-0004 or visit www.redbarn1.com.
