1 Tonight on Sunday, someone to love ` we look at how marriage, family, love has changed over the past 50 years. Love does that to a girl. Huge social change. ...to pronounce you wife and wife. Freedom to create... I love you. ...a new family unit. How did you choose a donor? That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. What role do men play? So, those men are` are pretty much on the margins of society. Then ` abandoned as babies, unaware each other existed ` The dots all started lining up. I said, 'He could be my brother.' four orphans reunited. Look at us. We found each other. Here we go. < Oh! And a new life... Everyday, there are people saying, 'Help. You're our last chance.' ...for the animals... We underestimated her. She's actually a little bit super clever. ...no one wants. Clever little girl. Yes, you are. Copyright Able 2015 Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. A great line-up for you tonight, all about that most basic human emotion, love. So first, John Hudson goes looking for someone to love. It's the second in our four-part series asking ` are NZers really getting what we want in life? Now, we were inspired by the words of former prime minister Norman Kirk. 40 years ago, he said, 'NZers, they don't ask for much ` 'someone to love, somewhere to live, somewhere to work and something to hope for.' So four decades on, are we getting what we want when it comes to love? WOMEN LAUGH, CHATTER Yeah, I'm easy. Whatever you wanna do, baby. WOMAN: You saved the day. Sasha is getting ready for her wedding. I didn't actually think I'd ever get married. (SINGS TUNE) I just thought, 'Oh, nah. It's not for me.' OK, guys. Now you have to bugger off. Yet you got married in a white dress and the whole traditional... > Yeah. I know. (CHUCKLES) > Love does get to a girl. # Love and marriage. # Love and marriage. Across town, Taryn is also preparing for her big day. So exciting, and I had all my most favourite people around me. I'm so excited, but my face is all red, cos I've had so much champagne. # ...other. # Yeah, I wasn't really nervous. I was just overly excited, like a 5 year old. I just couldn't contain it. and I, sort of, feel things deeply as it is, so then feeling all that love and excitement all at once, I was just like, 'Ah!' (CHUCKLES) # Finally, you put my love on top. # The moment has arrived ` the venue has been decorated, the guests are waiting, the celebrant is ready, and here comes the beautiful bride, Taryn, and waiting for her, Sasha, the woman she loves. It was really celebrating, like, not just our love but also, like, our country, I suppose. Yeah. A lot of people were really excited to be there, cos it was their first, you know, gay wedding or whatever,... Same-sex marriage, yeah. ...and they were really excited, and we really excited, and` and the whole place was just... ...brimming with love. It was just like,... (IMITATES ELECTRICAL CURRENT). Like this. They both feel like the lucky one ` they both hit the jackpot and scored the hottest chick they know. I think what's happening now is that we're just growing up. It's not about gay marriage; it's` it's about civil rights. It's about civil rights for women, civil rights for gay marriage. I'm honoured to now pronounce you wife and wife. CHEERING, WHISTLING I think that, um, what's happening is there are just` it's increased representation of people that are different to the nuclear family, and people are realising that the world doesn't end when people are allowed to love freely. # At last... # 50 years ago weddings were very popular, but you could only love freely if you chose someone of the opposite sex. The average age for '60s bride, just 20, and when she put on her white wedding gown and climbed into Uncle Bruce's Chrysler Valiant, you knew she was off to church. The man she would marry was on average, 23. In the '60s, this was the way to start a nuclear family. ETTA JAMES' 'AT LAST' CONTINUES When it comes to weddings, there have been big changes over the past 50 years. The average bride these days is 28, and her groom, 30 ` if, in fact, she's marrying a man. The happy couple are likely to have a child already, and there's even a greater chance that they won't be getting married in a church. But here's the really big difference ` over the past 50 years, the popularity of marriage has declined. Boy finds girl; boy loses girl; boy finds girl ` the classic formula. Love, marriage, family ` it had been that way for centuries, just as long as you were heterosexual. CHILDREN CHUCKLE It was very much the idea of` of a` a family unit with a male breadwinner and a woman who may work until they got married or had children and then left, um, and supported the family. Social researcher Dr Paul Callister says finding a life-long partner has enormous benefits. There's a huge correlation between partnering and` and good outcomes, and the people who are in long-term partnerships have much better wealth; they're more likely to own their houses. I mean, you've got two people to pay the mortgage. You've got two people to look after the kids. You've got two people, if one falls sick, to` to keep` one works, and one looks after the other. So there's` there's a lot of advantages in` in being partnered. But love, marriage and family have changed dramatically. The marriage rate peaked in 1971. Today it's a third of what it was back then. Many kiwis adults are now in de facto relationships, while others are on their own. < Most kiwi kids are still born into families where Mum and Dad are either married or in a long-term relationship, but some parents are choosing to bring up children by themselves. Why is that? Well, I guess before the twins came along, I didn't really know what real love was. You know, the` from the moment they were born, I felt love with an intensity that I had never ever felt before. Liz Wilson loves her children, 4-year-old twins Milly and Oscar, but a few years ago, she was divorced and childless. I was really aware that I was running out of time to meet somebody, so I went down the path of, um, choosing a donor and having fertility treatment. Why didn't you wait to find Mr Right? At 35, to, sort of, meet somebody and, uh` and to move very quickly into, um, creating a family seemed like an undue pressure to put on any relationship. At 35, Liz stopped looking for a partner and started searching for a sperm donor. What did your mum and dad and the rest of your family have to say about this? Mum was` Mum was supportive. Dad took a bit to get his head round it, I think, um, but when I left that afternoon, he said to me, 'Mum will have the bassinet ready for you when the child arrives,' which to me, was dad saying he accepted, um, my choice. How do you choose a donor? That is probably the hardest` one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. Um, I had 12 to choose from, which was actually almost overwhelming, and eventually, it came to my choice, which was choosing someone based on their values and, um, their reason for being a do` for being a donor. And that someone was Steve Fall, a man who has stayed in touch with the Wilsons. I was very lucky that, um, in his profile, Steve said he was open to contact, and when the twins were 4 months old, it was Christmas, and I wrote to him, um, via the fertility clinic and thanked him for the gift of family. Um, subsequently, I decided that it would be great if Oscar and Milly grow` grew up knowing their father, knowing Steve, and wrote to him again and asked him if he'd like to come and meet with us. Steve has become a regular visitor. How do they regard him? They refer to Steve as their father, which, um, I'm thrilled about, because he is, and, um, he responds well to that. They love him. Um, they really look forward to his visits. Is it he best thing you've ever done? Absolutely. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Are you still open to finding Mr Right? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Um, perhaps just not yet. Um, at the moment, I'm not sure I've got space for` for someone else. You know, that` that will probably change as the children grow older. And, you know, they are my number one priority. With help from her family and friends, Liz has reached the stage where her twins are about the begin school, while Taryn and Sasha are just about to start their family. They've also found a father, but it hasn't been easy. You start at the top of the list, which is usually really good-looking friends, right? And then you have them over for dinner, and it's awkward; it's like a first date, and you sit there kind of trying to, um, prove your worth as` as` to be parents, which is super super weird. It's, yeah, like a first date. And then, um, they would always leave pleased with the meal and the conversation and optimistic, and then they'd think about it, talk to family, and they'd go, 'I, um- I don't think I can do it.' How we found a donor was that we decided after, sort of, a few failed attempts that we were gonna ask friends to ask for us. And we did that through Facebook. After the break ` is there really a man drought? When you go home to Italy, does your mother say to you, 'Giuseppe, it's time for you to get married'? > BOTH CHUCKLE Remember, also, our brothers and sisters. Some Kiwis aren't searching for someone to love... BOTH: Through him and with him and in him. ...but ways to love everyone. I think, ultimately, everybody's searching ` searching for happiness, searching for love. Steve Lowe is on a mission from God to love everyone. Priesthood was never on my agenda for life. I wanted to travel, I wanted to get married, and I wanted to have children ` in that order. But then Steve got the call from God. It really shocked me at the time, and then God started working on my life more and more, until finally, I had to... really bow down before him and say, 'OK, um, I'll give it a go.' And has giving it a go been worthwhile? It certainly has. I` I entered the seminary 25 years ago, um, in 1990, and it's been an amazing journey. I've just met so many amazing people, and God has done so many amazing things in my life. Steve Lowe is still bowing down to God. That's him prostrate before the altar earlier this year when he was ordained Catholic Bishop of Hamilton. His job now, to love everyone from south of Gisborne to the Bombay Hills. Falling in love is the most amazing human experience, but if the relationship's to grow, it has to, uh, grow beyond that infatuation, and from that perspective, um, that's what the relationship with God is like as well. PEOPLE SING, FEET STOMP Over the past 40 years, Catholicism has grown at a rate slightly faster than the world population, but overall, the number of Kiwis who describe themselves as Christian has plummeted from nearly 90% 50 years ago to fewer than half today. It's just not a shift away from organised religion or the church community; it's, I think, a real crisis of commitment. There's been a huge change in the commitment to marriage. There's been a huge change in commitment to the likes of service groups, and it's the same with the commitment to` to life, uh, the Christian life, as living as part of a Christian community. Uh, people are finding it more and more difficult to really give of themselves and to give of themselves totally, into` to these groups. So we're part of a massive sociological change. That social change has brought new freedoms for gay people, like Taryn and Sasha, to celebrate their love for each other; for women like Liz Wilson to have Milly and Oscar. But there have been economic changes that have left far more men, in particular, living on their own. Well, what our data shows is that if you're not in work, there's a good chance that you're not in a relationship, and there's also a good chance that even if you have children, you're not living with your children. So those men are on` are pretty much on the margins of society. In the '60s and '70s, NZ's breadwinner model ensured close to full employment for low-skilled men. You had very strong unions. You had a lot of industries that were growing. There were a lot of other industries, like the meat works, freezing works, those sort of things, that were very high employment, and so even low-skilled men had quite good jobs. What's the situation today? Well-educated men are still in work, but you look at men with no formal qualifications, 20% of them are not in paid work, and so there's been a group of men at the bottom end of society who have really suffered, really post the 1980s when the restructuring occurred. So is there a relationship between employment and marriageability? Absolutely. Even though the media has focussed on young women, well-educated women, you know, trying to find partners, they're` they're partnering in the same rates they always have. You do one, uh` one ball, two players. Guiseppe Martegani would seem to be quite a catch, ideal marriage material ` Few more minutes. Little bit faster. he's fit and healthy, got a job teaching football to kids, and he founded a charity, the Brighten Foundation, for poor kids. But after 20 years in NZ, Guiseppe is still looking for someone to love. I would say a few years ago, I was more actively searching, like going out and make connective, uh, um, action to meet the` the woman, or my partner. Without a partner, are you lonely? Uh, yeah. I do occasionally have those moments when I feel lonely, and, uh, I would like to be close to one person, or share the life with a person. I'm... I'm open and ready for` to meet someone that wants to go to the next step. That's what you'd like? Uh, yes. Yes. Marriage? (INHALES) Oh, that's a big, uh... (CHUCKLES) Um... When you go home to Italy, does your mother say to you, 'Giuseppe, it's time for you to get married'? BOTH CHUCKLE Um, yeah. It's a classic ` that she` she almost given up, but she always ask, and also, when we speak, uh, weekly on the phone, she always ask me, 'Anything new, Giuseppe, on the` on the girlfriend side?' But, um, yeah. (CHUCKLES) One go... In the past 40 years, it seems that finding someone to love has become harder for some, easier for others, and fewer are finding God's love. However, staying in love is, for many Kiwis, now much harder. So what is love? Love is everything. I was born out of love. Love is, uh, on a sun shiny day. Providing for and raising Oscar and Milly... Who turned out the lights? ...and creating a childhood full of happy and fond memories. Mummy! Mummy! The green grass. I'm growing in love,... Love is the most important thing to me. Playing football with the boys,... ...and I hope one day to reach the fullness of love. ...where you can feel the experience and see the joys of life. I love you! I love you. Literally, love is all you need. Everything else is secondary. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # Love is all you need. # # Love is all you need. # Oh, love. Makes me so happy. All right. After the break, a remarkable family reunion ` four siblings, abandoned as babies, who didn't know each other existed until now. It's all right. Here we go. < Oh! REPORTER SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY (EXHALES) Big deep breath, mate. Welcome back. Steve, Julie, Gary and Kim grew up with completely different lives. A family of orphans, the four brothers and sisters found each other under what would seem impossible circumstances. They were all abandoned by the same mother. None of them knew each other existed. Then an extraordinary twist of fate set off a chain of discovery. Here's Rahni Sadler. If there was any chance that Valerie was still alive and happened to be watching this, what would you say to her? Valerie,... what was going through your mind when you left us for dead, and why did you do it? We wanna tell you that we're OK, and, um,... we're ready to talk to you if you wanna talk to us. And, uh, we've done the best with our lives, and I think you'd be proud to hear our stories from all of us. If you are out there watching this and, you know... Here we are. I say we made it, and we've found each other and... (INHALES) (SIGHS) Four orphans ` Steve,... Julie, Gary and Kim ` raised in different households, living very different lives, unaware of each other. This is the story of how they discovered they were brothers and sisters abandoned by the same mother. It's a story that begins with the oldest, Steve. < STEVE SHOUTS INSTRUCTION (EXHALES) Ichi, ni, san... I always heard that I was adopted, and` and it was never discussed. Steve Hardy grew up in a loving family but always felt different and often alone. And I blamed my mother, and I` I` I really think I had a chip on my shoulder for a long time, because I thought my mother abandoned me in a really bad condition. (EXHALES SHARPLY) For most of his life, Steve had no interest in finding out who his biological parents were, but the question was forced upon him six years ago. He was about to set off for his first overseas trip ` the World Karate Championships in Japan. I needed a passport and... we had a lot of trouble with that, because I still had no record of birth, and I contacted the, uh, government, and they had no record. Steve had to find out who he was and where he came from. He enlisted the help of an adoption adviser, who uncovered a police file that revealed he'd been abandoned in a movie theatre. Back then, the story made the newspapers. READS: Police have not yet found the woman who abandoned a 3-week-old baby boy in the retiring room of the Civic Theatre, Haymarket, city, on Thursday evening. TENSE MUSIC For me, it was an ongoing thought that there` there was` could possibly be someone out there still alive that had lived a lifetime wondering what happened a child that she left in a picture theatre. Steve's wife, Monica, felt he needed to know more and came up with a plan to flush out the truth. I decided to approach the newspaper that had done the original article on Steve back in 1949. Sydney's Sun-Herald agreed to do a follow-up story. It was printed in May last year to help Steve try to find his missing mum. What he found instead was completely unexpected. Reading the article at a cafe near her home in western Sydney was former detective, Julie Seinor. And there was this big story about Steve, and I started to read it and I` the hair on the back of my neck just went 'ping!', and I had goosebumps, and it was like I was reading the newspaper article written about me all those years ago. You know, that he'd been abandoned one street back, in George Street, from where I was abandoned. I said, 'He could be my brother, and I know who his mother is.' PENSIVE VIOLIN MUSIC Julie had already begun to investigate her own orphan past. In 1956, she too was abandoned, dumped at The People's Palace Salvation Army hostel, a few streets away from where Steve had been found. She was 6 weeks old. But this time, the mysterious woman who'd left her child was arrested. I found the` the newspaper clippings about 'a woman was arrested', so I put two and two together on that. The woman was 26. Her name was Valerie Mirams, and she was charged with having left her child without proper care and attention. The records led Julie to the address where Valerie lived when Julie was born. It's now a vacant block. It's kind of eerie to think that your mother was right here in 1957 making the decision to let you go. Makes you a bit goosebumpy, doesn't it? (CHUCKLES) Yeah, all these years later. Yeah. So, yeah, this is where it happened. Julie wondered if her mother was still alive. In 2000, she posted a message on an adoption website. Six years later, she got a response. I got an email from someone saying, 'I'm your sister.' You know, 'My mother's name's Valerie Isla Mirams, and I'm your sister,' and I went, 'Yeah, right.' (LAUGHS) 'Yeah, right. But, um, I better ring this lady any way.' I sort of said to her, you know, 'Don't freak out,... 'but my name's this, I've been given this, and you've got my mother's details.' And she goes, you know, like, 'What do you mean?' And in the process, because Julie's an ex-policeman, she was writing this down as a policeman on the phone. Kim's saying Julie's` We had a, um... a difficult conversation. I was, you know, weary. I could always hear in Julie's voice she just wasn't convinced, but I already knew. I just knew. Great for the face. Oh, yeah. It's` It's ni` It is nice. Kim has an older brother, Gary. They both live in Melbourne, and they were both abandoned by the same mother, Valerie. # There are stars # in the southern sky. # Kim and Gary have been searching for their birth mother all their lives. She simply walked out on them. They were found at home alone and taken into care. PENSIVE MUSIC And there was a note. What did it say? > Just said, 'I can't cope. I'm going.' That's as far as I know. That's all I know. She just disappeared. Boom. And just left her 3�-year-old and 1-year-old in the house on their own. > Yep. SOMBRE MUSIC Gary and Kim spent years in and out of children's homes. At times they lived with their father, who refused to tell them anything about their mother. But they found a clue in his belongings ` a single photograph of Valerie. Everyone wants to know... that. Everyone wants to know that,... whether you got left or not. You've still gotta find that... root. (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) You know, she's my mum. She's meant to be my mum, so I kind of blame her a little bit for, um,... maybe the person I... grew up to be and... (SIGHS) I don't know. I don't know. How much of a whole has been in your life? > (EXHALES) Probably from the day she left me. What do you know of why she did that? Do you know anything? > Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. It's the biggest mystery I think we all have, is why ` why would she do that, for a start, and what possessed her to do it. Gary and Kim's hopes of finding answers were lifted when they saw Julie's message on the adoption website, but Julie remained suspicious. She rang me, and we talked, and the dots all started lining up, and Julie, being a very protective-type person... 'Nah.' I said, 'I need proof. I` I need some proof here, you know?' < Like a good police officer? Yeah, so we went and` and did the DNA. Yeah. The DNA test came back 99.999. So... she's my sister. There's no question about that. I can tell straight away. So in 2007, Gary and Kim made the trip to Sydney to Julie's house... Hi. Hello. ...to finally meet their older sister. (SOBS) And he just put his arms around me, and we hugged, and then I pulled back and had a look at him,... and I just saw his eyes, and it was me, you know? And it was just` It was like coming home. I was shattered. I was shattered. I just` I was shaking. Like, I was` It was frightening. But once... I` I give her a hug,... wow, it was like all these little tentacles came out, and they were just... You know? I knew straight away that she was my sister. It's just the weirdest feeling. You were a bit nervous? Oh,... I couldn't` Yeah. I could hard` I couldn't even hardly walk. I couldn't talk. I couldn't` I was crying. Always crying. It was just... It was emotionally heartbreaking but in the best way. Like, it really was. That's how I felt. I felt like my heart was breaking but in such a... in a good way, because like you say, now there's` there's just that one person ` mightn't be Val, but it's something. Back then, they thought this was it, but seven years later, Julie sat down to read that newspaper article about a baby abandoned in a cinema, Steve Hardy. Yes, and after the break, Steve makes contact, and we see another very emotional family reunion. What was that phone call like, when he said, 'Hello. It's Steve'? Look, I started crying on the phone. (CHUCKLES) I was trying to keep it together, but I was excited for him ` not for me and not for Gary, not for Kim but for him, because I thought I had the key to unlock the mystery for him. It's all right. Here we go. < Oh! 1 It's a Sunday morning in Ballarat. Here we go. BOTH GASP (CHUCKLES) Kim, Gary and Julie are catching up before the big moment ` How are you going? (SMOOCHES) Mm. the moment they'll all be together with older brother Steve for the first time. You guys are almost exactly the same height as well. Oh, I've got` I've got heels on. Ah. Yeah, so have I. Oh, have you? Yeah. ALL LAUGH Otherwise we'd be short. Not just red hair ` short and red hair. God, I feel so privileged. I mean, I'm always the one that's called the midget, cos I'm so little. Everyone is nervous, because the big brother they didn't know they had is about to walk into their lives. Grab our hands. PIANO MUSIC It's all right. Here we go. < Oh. REPORTER SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY (EXHALES SHARPLY) Big deep breath, mate. (MUTTERS, SNIFFS) (SOBS) < It's all right, mate. < Come over here. (MUTTERS INDISTINCTLY) You all right? Yep. (CHUCKLES) Shit, this is cr... No swearing, no swearing. (CHUCKLES) Did you give them...? Those are my flowers. Thank you. Good to meet you. Hi. Aw, the four of you together. It's cr... That's the first` (SOBS) It's all right, mate. WHISPERS: First time. Just breathe. Oh, sh... Big breath. And it's tough for all of us. Don't worry. 64 years in the making, mate. Is your hand all right? No. It's all right. Don't worry about my hand. Just... take a deep breath and gather your thoughts. Yeah, I'm good now. I'm good now. < Are you all right, Steve? You good? Oh yeah. I'm good. It's worse than a wedding. ALL CHUCKLE Steve, it's the million-dollar question. How do you feel? I think it's` Today's the first day of many first things. < Yeah. We've got 60 years to catch up. That's a lot of birthday presents. ALL CHUCKLE How much has Val missed out on? > Heaps. Everything, because we turned out great kids, and I'd` that's something I'd really like to show her. I think that would be my biggest... I'd love to stand in front of us, all of us kids, and stand in front of her and you` and just say, 'You know what? Look at us. Look at us. 'We found each other.' If, uh, Valerie appeared, that'd be great, but is that necessary for us to enjoy the rest of our lives? So, it would a` close to a miracle but possible, because this is impossible. < (CHUCKLES) So we're on the right road. We're following the impossible road. Hey, boy. Hey, darling. I know you've got a big family. From having no family... That's Gary. ...the four orphans now have a huge one ` Hi, Matt. How are you? new cousins, nieces, nephews... How big is he? and one more surprise for Steve. Have you ever, in all your life, seen a photo of your mum? No, I haven't. Would you like to? I would. BOTH CHUCKLE This is Valerie. (GASPS) Strike me. Strike me? Strike me. Have a look. Look at that. Look at that. That's your Mum. Wow. Funnily, it doesn't look that fuzzy. < Yeah, I know. Is it what you kind of thought? Sort of, yeah. I never thought about it, actually. > She looks like you, Kim. I've got her shaped face. She looks like you. This is just a shocking day. (LAUGHS) Gary, who's one of many singers in the family, has invited his quartet along to help celebrate this special day ` # Hello, Mary Lou... a family together. But there's one person who's still missing. # So in love with you. # We just wanna know that you're OK and that you're happy. And,... um,... (INHALES) it would be really nice` It'd be nice to see you. If you want to, it'd be nice to see you. But we're OK. We're OK. I think that's what I'd say. Cheers! Oh, cheers, everybody. Cheers to a happy friendship and happy family. Whoo! ALL CHEER Told you tonight was all about love. (SIGHS) The family are still hoping for that one more reunion with their mother. So, after the break, animal reform school ` how does this fit into love? Well, this is a sanctuary taking law breakers and turning them into law makers. You could hide things, you could throw things, you could stash things, and she would sniff it out, and she would find it, and she was exceptional. You look at her here now. She's almost fully trained. We're almost graduated out as a fully operational explosives-detector dog team. Yes! (CHUCKLES) Ooh! (CHUCKLES) Eh? Hello again. Once Jazz was just an underdog, a mongrel, one of thousands to be put down at the pound every year, but Carolyn Press-McKenzie has made it her mission to rescue unwanted animals, like Jazz, from death row, offering them a new life in the most extraordinary places, and Jazz's story is one of the most remarkable. This from Ian Sinclair. PLAYFUL MUSIC Meet Jazz ` a nosey pooch who should be dead. She was on death row, and she was due to be put to sleep. Jazz was rescued by animal rights campaigners... Clever girl! ...Carolyn Press-McKenzie and Claire Thornton. She's a beautiful little dog. I mean, she looks like a really great family pet. So, we got to know her, fell in love with her. Today Jazz has a chance to prove whether that nose can be a powerful weapon in the war on terror. We underestimated her, because she's actually a little bit super-clever. She's just buzzing. Look at her. Jazz's challenge is to sniff out explosives at NZ airports. Good girl. This from a dog who was meant to be one of thousands routinely scheduled for destruction. And, you know, it's not the councils that are to blame; it's society, and it's really really sad. Good boy, darling. Good boy. Unless, of course, they end up with Carolyn. This is Max. He's at HUHA because he attacks people,... Good boy. (CHUCKLES) ...but we love him to pieces just the way he is. BANJO MUSIC HUHA ` Helping You Help Animals ` is the organisation she runs with the support of husband Jim. It has 30,000 followers on Facebook alone. We've got Geoffrey the goose. She's about 15 years old. She has been at the shelter her whole life, and she's got angel wing, which is a deformity to her wing. Their shelter, at Kaitoke, north of Wellington, is home to a menagerie. One-eyed Willie is a pretty special boy. He was at a pound when we were collecting other dogs. He was on death row. From horses... (GRUNTS) ...to pigs and emus ` all animal rejects. For Carolyn, it all began with her first love ` a cat called Blue. For me, he was part of the family. Everything we did in every day, we considered where he was and what his feelings were. So it was the way I was raised ` animals are part of what you do, and` and they are to be considered and respected. It wasn't till she trained as a vet nurse that she saw NZ's meaner side of animal life. People were bringing in dogs that perhaps were barking inappropriate in a backyard or cats that were urinating inappropriately. And they were bringing them into the vets to be put to sleep. And I learnt very early that if you change the environment, you can change the animal. Time to step up to the plate. Carolyn's animal rescue began as a house bus. I started finding ways to solve problems instead of just accepting things the way they were, and I managed to get a job as an animal trainer for movies, so that was an experience. Even spotting star potential in the most unlikely places ` take Ned the disabled dog, for example. We got the contract for King Kong. (BARKS) Ned, our marauding dog, he` he had to maraud the city streets. (ROARS) I love behaviour. I really enjoy, sort of, getting in behind what makes an animal tick. By the time Jim arrived on the scene, his bride came with a whole new family. Yeah he's pretty spesh. He, um, puts up with a lot. (LAUGHS) He's` So, he came along when I was totally ensconced with everything I'm doing. I couldn't be luckier. He wrangles monkeys. He` He puts up with so much, and, yet, you know, he came from a` a one-dog household. He was normal before he met me. < Good girl. But the relationships with their animals can be anything but normal. No, that's her kissy-kissy face. Take Carol, an ex-circus monkey. In Carol's mind, there's only room in Jim's world for one woman, and it ain't Carolyn. For once, she stays on the outside. I mean, why you and not Carolyn? I mean, Carolyn is normally the star of the animal show here, isn't she? She is, um, but Carol does have a thing for men, and, um, I think we just had a bond straight away. She hasn't shown much interest in me. No. Well,... (SIGHS) facial hair. Oh, I see. Facial hair's the key. She likes beards. Carol has a sad backstory. She has to eat with no thumbs. The theory that the zoo had before that we got her from, um, was that she was circus, so they were removed so she couldn't grab people. (CLICKS TONGUE) Tell me, are Kiwis` are they kind to their animals, or are they cruel? I would love to say they're kind, and I think the people I grew up with were kind, but the more I do rescue` I don't know if it's being unkind or if it's just ignorance. And then you look at, um, factory farming. I mean, that is just horrendous. And it's factory farming that led to perhaps her most famous rescue, Piggy Sue. She was basically freed the same time Mike King decided to stand up against the Pork Board. Going undercover for the Sunday programme, Carolyn bought Piggy Sue from a factory farm to liberate her in Kaitoke. (GASPS) Is that grass? We all, I think, held our breath because she'd never seen grass before. When she stepped on that grass, and she walked and she kept walking, and you just knew that was such a significant time in her life and, hopefully, in NZ's. Piggy Sue has passed on, but Carolyn's work continues. Yep, perfect. All right. Keep in touch, then. See you later. Bye! These days, HUHA gets a thousand distress calls a month. Hey, it's Carolyn here from HUHA. I'm just returning your call. Ultimately, no dog should be chained in a backyard. Hiya. So, what's the story? What sort home life is he used to? Every day there are people saying, 'Help. You are our last chance,' and sadly, actually, we're getting more and more phone calls where we're the first place people call. It's not about saying 'no' full stop and walking away; it's about saying, 'We're full at the moment, but these are things you can do to` to problem-solve.' But for the animals with nowhere to go,... They've had him at home for about three weeks. ...they do have two other shelters. This one's for cats. So, he's good now. Why don't you hop in there? That looks like fun. DOGS BARK An hour away is HUHA's third shelter. A pillow under the head, a comfy mattress ` not your usual dog pound. One other difference ` none of these dogs are on death row. At this shelter we've got about 50. Um, it's a lot of dogs, but we're constantly under demand to take more. Um, but, yeah, 50 is probably our limit, yeah. Are you Mr Fancy-pants? This is where social rejects get a second chance ` rejects like Jazz. So this was effectively Jazz's reform school? Yeah, it was. Jazz was rescued from the pound. She was on death row. She was due to be put to sleep. We often go into pounds, actually, and see dogs that have no future, and we'll see something good in them and bring them home here to the shelter and give them love until we can find them that happy ever after. Then HUHA volunteers realised Jazz had a very special talent. You could hide things, you could throw things, you could stash things, and she would sniff it out and she would find it. And she was exceptional. Like, nothing would stop her from getting the thing that she thought she needed. Which is how jazz was recruited to aviation security, teamed up with handler Blair Ridgley. You look at her here now. She's almost fully trained. We're almost graduated out as a fully operational explosives-detector dog team. But there's still the practical exam to pass. Can she find the explosives? And bingo. Yes! Clever little girl. Yes, you are. Eh? (GROWLS PLAYFULLY) What you got there? (CHUCKLES) Whoo! Time for a reunion with her old mates Carolyn and Claire of HUHA. And a glowing report from Blair. She's certainly got the X factor. She's been going great guns. She's not a menace to society. She's protecting our country! (CHUCKLES) Do you see that potential being lost in other animals? Yeah, we do. We see potential in animals a lot. It's about thinking outside the square and getting to know them, and I think it's probably like with children. You know, you can't make them who they're not. Hey! And when you give animals like Jazz a second chance, says Carolyn, who knows what surprises may lie in store? Hey, gorgeous girl. Hey, gorgeous girl. Aw, isn't she lovely? Now, Jazz is fully graduated now and working the beat at Auckland International Airport. And you can read about Carolyn and her animals in a new book she's written, Animal Magic. That's our show for tonight. Do join us on Facebook and Twitter, Sunday TVNZ.