If you’ve ever heard the phrase "hog heaven," there really is such a place here on Earth. It’s called Farm Sanctuary. This summer, I had the wonderful experience of spending a weekend at the sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY (there is another in northern California). A national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the exploitation of animals used for food production, Farm Sanctuary was founded in the mid-1980s by Gene and Lorri Bauston. Theirs was the first such shelter in the country to rescue, rehabilitate, and provide life-long care for hundreds of animals rescued from factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses.
The day before I headed up to Watkins Glen, I received a flyer in the mail from another farm animal protection group. Beneath a photo of the face of a terrified cow at a slaughterhouse, it read, in part, "He’s been skinned all the way to his head . . . his legs have been cut off . . . and he’s still conscious." I often lie awake nights with these sorts of images in my head because I know that these shocking abuses toward billions of farmed animals occur every day. After spending a day at Farm Sanctuary I was able to lay my head down on a pillow with visions of happy pigs playing in a beautiful pond and sleeping in cool mud under a sunny sky.
The animals who somehow wind up at Farm Sanctuary are certainly the fortunate few. The ones who have been there for some time are obvious. They no longer fear people, and they blissfully eat or sleep among lots of activity. The indoor living quarters are clean and dry. The animals all have large outdoor areas in which to run, play, graze, or take a siesta. Their food is fresh and plentiful, and not laden with antibiotics. They are simply allowed to live out the rest of their natural lives free from stress, discomfort, and pain.
On a visit to Farm Sanctuary, you can snooze in a pile of pigs, commune with cows in the field, gather with goats, really talk turkey, and connect with chickens. One wonders what atrocities these animals went through as you look into their eyes. Some are still recovering from their upbringing and many are not yet available to meet visitors. With love, patience, veterinary care, and time, their fear will someday be a distant memory, too.
No matter how many pictures one sees of veal crates or battery cages, there’s nothing like the real thing. I crawled into a "child-size" cage for just a few minutes, to get a feel for what those confined animals endure for their ENTIRE lives! You can’t stand up, lie down, or stretch, and the wire floor is very painful (even through clothing). I couldn’t take it for more than five minutes. And I was alone in there. Just imagine being crowded in with others of your species, and then imagine being among thousands and thousands of others in an enclosed building. The constant noise, stench, whirring of machinery, day after day after day after day. Nothing to do but possibly mutilate yourself out of boredom or eventual insanity. If you become sick, you’re simply left to suffer. This is the "lives" of most farmed animals in America today.
Before you sit down to another Thanksgiving dinner I would advise anyone who wants to know where their food comes from to visit Farm Sanctuary and hang out with a turkey. Despite their reputation, they are not stupid. (If they were, then why are wild turkeys widely acknowledged to be one of the most challenging animals to successfully hunt?) But perhaps your mind would be a bit dulled, too, if you never felt the wind, never knew a kind touch or a loving word, never flew though you had wings to fly with, were never allowed to search for your own food or raise your young. If you’ve ever looked closely at a wild turkey, you can also see just how unnatural the domestic turkey that winds up at the grocery store is. They are bred to be grossly overweight causing a number of common diseases which necessitate the use of antibiotics for their survival. Many are made so heavy they aren’t even able to stand up.
What you don’t see is that their upper beaks and toes are amputated, without anesthesia, to keep the overcrowded birds from pecking or scratching each other. And, like all poultry in the United States, turkeys are not protected by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. They go to the knife fully conscious, filled with fear, and often boiled alive.
Many people give thanks during the holiday season WITHOUT a dead bird disgracing the dinner table. If you would like to visit Farm Sanctuary at any time of the year, you can call 607-583-2225, or log on to their web site at www.farmsanctuary.org.
Return to Vegetarian: For Your Health, for the
Animals, for the Planet
by Teresa D'Amico