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Sparkle (3)
After visiting the Farm Sanctuary in New York earlier this year, I made a point to visit their California facility... purely for research, of course. Much like it's Eastern counterpart, the western FS is a blessed place, where farm animals once slated for slaughter or facing a life of cruel neglect become individuals with personalities. There, at last, they find peace... and many butt rubs.
I scooped up my BlogHer colleague and pal, Beth Terry, and we headed to the tiny town of Orland, about 2.5 hrs. north of Oakland. And there, of course, we fell in love again and again. We met up with Leanne Cronquist, the California Shelter Manager, who kindly showed us around the 300-acre property and made personal introductions -- no small feat as the shelter currently houses 380 animals.
Residents include: 100 sheep, 31 cattle, 27 goats, 18 geese, 18 ducks (including one with testicular cancer), 17 pigs, 17 turkeys, five donkeys, three rabbits and about 144 chickens, including roosters. Now living happily on the sanctuary's golden meadows, each animal comes with their own sad story or near-death experience.
We came across a herd of wild sheep, mostly rescues from Santa Cruz Island. Evidently, The Nature Conservancy is on a mission to restore the channel islands to their original sheep-less habitat, so they've ended up here. Unlike most of the residents here at FS, these sheep are not used to humans and keep their distance. Says Leanne, "We respect the fact that they’d rather be with their herd than be with us.”
This statement essentially sums the Farm Sanctuary philosophy -- to offer a place where animals originally raised for humans can now live free from human harassment. 'You don't want to be pals with mankind? No problem. Here's a giant grazing field. You want a head scratch or a butt rub? Here ya go, pal. Whatever you want, that's what you get.' It's like the Barnyard Ritz Carlton and yes, I'm a tad envious.
Next, we come upon some wild donkeys that had been rounded up in Death Valley by Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of their standard efforts at controlling the wild burro/equine populations. A shy, almost-white-but-mostly-grey donkey blinked at us. "Quartz has been with us a while now," said Leanne. "We've got some domesticated donkeys too."
With regards to how many 'new' animals the FS receives every year, Leanne says it fluctuates wildly. "Sometimes we’ll get large rescues of chickens (40-80) and sometimes we get big animals. It all depends on what our current population is, if we have iso-space." (When a new animal arrives, they must be isolated to make sure they're healthy before integrating them with the current population.) "Some years we’ll do 50-80, sometimes we’ll do 150-200. It varies so much."
As for how the animals get to the sanctuary, the back stories are just as varied. There's Melvin, a super sweet Angora goat, who was existing as a "neglected lawn mower" in somebody's yard. Ultimately, a caring neighbor noticed that the entire back end of his beautiful white coat was stained and soaked with urine. A call was made and he lives here now. (Many are brought to the sanctuary by Animal Control officers who occasionally end up with a goat or pig instead of a cat or dog.)
There's Harrison (in the first photo, with Beth), a massive, cuddly steer who was found as a baby, nearly dead in a field. Blossom, a newly arrived pig, had escaped from a farm and was found on a Red Bluff couple's lawn. Indigo, the gorgeous black-and-white hen rescued from a meth lab ….. And so on.
But the best story -- and not an uncommon one -- might be that of Lilly the pig who launched herself off a truck headed for the slaughterhouse. Amazing but true, Lilly is the not the first animal to make a break for freedom. In fact, the New York facility has several such cases, the late Cincinnati Freedom, probably being the most famous.
"And definitely you can tell that that’s their personality because you know that something sparked them to say, ‘I need to get out of here. I want to go.’ Lilly’s pretty calm but Mateo (a steer who had also willfully escaped a gruesome fate) was still
