Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary, a new, state-certified, nonprofit haven for abused, orphaned, surrendered or abandoned animals, offers an alternative to suffering and, oftentimes, death for animals in dire need of care, rehabilitation and compassion.

Peaceworks, owned by animal lovers Ray Brouillette and Sheila Jacks, is at 24 Old Bedford Road. Every day, the couple open email from concerned people at many shelters and rescue organizations along the East Coast and elsewhere. Most messages say, “Urgent. Will die tomorrow” and include disturbing facts about a starving dog, an injured horse or another animal.

Too often, a subsequent status email arrives and the last message in the chain of correspondences contains one word – gone.

Brouillette and Jacks, who relocated from Massachusetts six months ago to the 12-acre, one-barn former sheep farm in Bedford, have launched into action many times to recover an animal before its demise. They spend untold hours driving to and from the farm to pick up an animal in distress. They go themselves, or they coordinate a group of volunteers who will oversee the transport of the animal on various legs of the journey, including to Tennessee, Texas and New York.

Jacks is the owner of a landscaping company, Peaceworks Land Care, based in Massachusetts. As proprietor, she has some flexibility to arrange her schedule, so the frequent mercy missions and the animals’ schedule of daily care, including a four-hour stretch just for feeding, can be completed in a timely manner.

Brouillette works for Bransfield Tree in Acton, Mass., and has duties that can be accomplished, time-wise, with some flexibility. He does not cut trees. He is “the guy who keeps them healthy,” he said, noting his preference for high-quality, natural fertilizers and compost teas that enrich the various species.

Everything they do at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary assists helpless animals, but every operation costs money, they said. The couple’s needs for financial assistance in the form of donations are extreme. A presence on Facebook, where a donation button can be accessed, is a help.

Brouillette recently said people don’t understand the costs involved in helping the animals. Building pens and corrals incur expenses. Traveling to pull an animal from a near-death experience entails expenditures for gas, oil and vehicle maintenance. Veterinary expenses for the care of their animals, especially large animals’ injuries, hoof care and dental care, are sky-high. Grain and hay and the many healthy ingredients that go into the food prepared for the horses, dogs, potbelly pigs, chickens and chinchillas on site are costly items.

“We’ve grown so much, people are asking more and more from us,” Brouillette said, noting that the pair of chinchillas now in residence was left on the porch of their farmhouse. “We don’t get adoption fees. We are not an adoption agency. We are a sanctuary. These animals come to us as lifers.”

The animals at Peaceworks go to forever homes only when arrangements are made through recognized agencies that are well-known to Jacks and Brouillette. Most of the animals that are part of the Peaceworks family will spend their lives being loved and cared for by the couple. The help of two frequent volunteers, Jacks’ daughters Michaella Jacks, 15, and Jasmine Hunter, 19, is appreciated.

Jacks said one of the three horses living at the sanctuary was among 26 horses recently rescued from a pasture in Littleton, Mass. The horses were dying of neglect and standing in deep muck. Jacks said officials from the police department and the Department of Agriculture contacted Live and Let Live Farm in Chichester, and the farm’s owner, Theresa Paradis, led the retrieval of the animals. Jacks and Brouillette helped with the rescue and took in Sheila, a gentle, brown quarterhorse whose stomach was grossly distended with parasites. Today, she’s remarkably improved, they said.

Also living at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary, along with quarterhorses Sheila and Thunder, is another special case – a one-eyed thoroughbred, Lefty, whose right eye is thought to have been accidently kicked out by his mother’s hoof during birth. Lefty, despite his condition, won about $120,000 in prize money during his racing career.

Another lifer is Trip, a three-legged dog, whose fourth limb is deformed due to a birth defect. That dog was befriended by Dexter, a deaf dog, and by several dogs of the “bully” variety. Jacks and Brouillette said.

A dog named Jolie, who not long ago was starved to the bone, is thriving and has her own Facebook page. People who access Jolie on Facebook see the story of her heartbreaking voyage from a near skeleton to a healthy dog. Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary also has documented on its Facebook page her rehabilitation and climb back to health. Many viewers click on a button, accessible on both sites, that accepts donation for her care or that of other residents of the sanctuary.

Jolie will be featured on Animal Planet in January during a 10 p.m. broadcast of “Pit Bulls & Parolees,” a televised reality show in which Brouillette and Jacks are seen, alongside show host Tia Marie Torres, as they welcome Jolie to begin a new life and a new forever home at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary in Bedford.

Elsewhere at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary, a black-and-white splotched chicken, Lady Gaga, rules the roost. Potbelly pig Lola presides over two other potbellies. Corn, apples, celery and other edibles are quickly dispatched. A lovable rat terrier, GiGi, is a rescue from Hurricane Katrina. She goes on long runs with Jacks and Brouillette, avid marathoners who compete with the Greater Lowell Road Runners.

Jacks looked over a new construction at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary. It is a “run-in” that Brouillette is building out of hemlock boards, a wood that horses do not chew. A run-in is not a stall. It is a partially covered shelter that is a come-and-go place where a horse can stay out of the wind or rain. There always is a job to do at Peaceworks, he said. The stalls have no doors, so horses can come and go at will and feel unconfined. They do not wear metal shoes and go for long rides around the property in their natural state. Jacks and Brouilette are the only riders.

The couple is preparing to take in a retired police horse, a 20-year veteran of Boston police whose transfer is being facilitated by New England Equine Rescue. It will find a home, peace and compassion at Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary.

“It’s all about working with nature,” Jacks said.

For more information about Peaceworks Animal Sanctuary, visit that page on Facebook, where a donate button can be accessed, as well as a collection of photos and the latest news that is constantly uploaded. Other inquiries can be made via email to peaceworksanimalsanctuary@gmail.com or by calling 1-978-496-4652, until a New Hampshire phone listing is obtained.

Loretta Jackson can be reached at 594-6549 or ljackson@nashuatelegraph.com.