A Visit to Farm Sanctuary

Gene Baur began his career selling veggie hotdogs out of a VW can at Geatful Dead concerts to fund farm animal rescues and is now the President and Co-Founder of  Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s largest and most effective farm animal rescue and protection organization. Farm Sanctuary posts on their website that their mission is “To protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats animals, and promote compassionate vegan living” (cite). They do so by focusing on three principle efforts: rescue, education, and advocacy.

            Farm Sanctuary has three sanctuaries located in Watkins Glen NY, Orland CA, and Los Angeles CA. I myself have had the immense pleasure to visit the sanctuary in Watkins Glen (only about a 2 hour drive from here, you should all check it out!) on multiple occasions and experience the work that Farm Sanctuary is doing first hand.

            When driving up to the Farm for the first time, the first thing that I noticed were the two big red barns right beside the parking lot, one labeled “Animal Barn” and the other, “People Barn”.  Upon entering the appropriate Barn, I was able to look around at the displays of actual battery cages and holding pens obtained from slaughterhouses and try to imagine a cow, probably up to 3 times my size, spending it’s whole life in quarters that are so tight, they often do not have enough room to sit down or turn around. For anyone who has closterphobic tendencies, this scenario seems nightmarish. Fortunately, not too much time is spent on the depressing, horrific details of the meat industry in America, and before long I was walking outside towards the barns where they keep all kinds of farm animals such as chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys, goats, and many more. I was able to pet and interact with these loving and adorable animals and learn fun facts such as:

            -The staff need to put sunscreen on the pigs whenever they go outside because they burn easily

            -Cows form grooming partnerships similar to monkeys, learn from one another, and make decisions based on altruism and compassion

            -sheep are almost notoriously friendly. They wag their tails like dogs when they see people approaching and have been known to knock over a small child or two in their attempts to get attention

I finished the tour feeling such a strong connection with these lovable animals, as well as an overwhelming sadness that these lucky few who get to live out their lives at the sanctuary are just a fraction of a percent of the billions of farm animals that live our their lives in factory farms and end their lives in slaughterhouses. I have since gone back to the sanctuary in Watkins Glen two more times and have acquired a sister (pictured with my human sister Laura on the right) who spends her days rolling around in the mud at the sanctuary and having sunscreen applied to her skin by the staff.