animal sanctuaries

To learn more about food industry animals and to vist those that have been rescued why not visit a sanctuary?





We just returned from a trip to New York State where we visited 3 sanctuaries.





For many years we have travelled to Farm Sanctuary in beautiful Watkins Glen, NY. Farm Sanctuary has a second farm in Orland, CA. Please visit their site at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/.





Farm Sanctuary does so much for farm animals - they are incredible! Farm Sanctuary co-founder, Gene Baur, will be speaking at the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair this year. Jump in the car, take the train, whatever, get to the Food Fair this September. Google it.



Annually Farm Sanctuary has a Hoe Down at each of it's locations. The NY Hoe Down takes place on the Canadian long weekend in August. You can also visit them other times...see their website for details on tours and their B&B cabins.

This year, after we departed the Hoe Down we drove to Saugerties, NY. There we camped 30 mins from one sanctuary and 15 mins from another! Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary (woodstockfas.org) is a lovely sanctuary in Willow, NY just outside of hippie Woodstock. After our tour of the sanctuary, we went into Woodstock...checked out some shops and ate a vegan dinner at Garden Cafe.

The following day we drove 15 mins from our campground to Catskill Animal Sanctuary in Saugerties, NY. I've always been a big fan of pigs so I was very pleased to visit with their farm roaming pot bellied pigs! They are just like dogs! Catskill Animal Sanctuary (casanctuary.org) also takes in horses and donkeys.

We had hoped to travel to West Virginia also to Pigs, A Sanctuary (pigs.org). We had visited them years ago when their shelter was in PA. We contacted them prior to visiting and were advised that, for the safety of their animals, they are not doing tours at this time (H1N1). The pigs at the sanctuary are perfectly healthy...they don't want humans to make them sick. I totally understand. In the future we shall travel to WV to see my porcine friends!

These sanctuaries promote animal friendly lifestyles...vegan living. They rescue and rehabilitate these wonderful creatures. They adopt out some of their rescues to suitable farms/owners. The animals are rescued from stockyards, slaughterhouses, abandonment, floods, hurrianes, abuse...each animal has a story. The sanctuaries name their critters. The animals are never exploited and never eaten. They live their natural lives...much longer than man would allow them in the cruel food industry.

There are sanctuaries all over. Look for them. Visit them.