January 7, 2024
A forever home for animals rescued from abuse, neglect, and abandonment, this winter 2024 at Sunset Farms Sanctuary in Cove, Arkansas, Phil and Ramsey (brother goats), their goat and sheep friends, along with Zeppelin, Loverboy, Domino, Malcolm and Bowie, and their cow friends, all face euthanasia for lack of funds to purchase winter hay.
"Hay or grass is the foundation of the diet for all grazing animals and can provide as much as 100% of the fodder required for an animal. Hay is usually fed to an animal during times when winter, drought, or other conditions make pasture unavailable." Wikipedia (I am a monthly donor)
An ongoing challenge at the sanctuary is obtaining hay to feed the animals during the winter. Climate change has had a direct impact on the availability of hay. Previously, it was normal for hay farmers to get 3 cuttings a year, compared with 2 cuttings last year, resulting in more than doubling the price of a 1,000 lbs. bale from $40 to $90.
The sanctuary animals consume roughly 1,000 lbs. daily from December through March. The sanctuary can supplement the supply of hay from its pastures in October, November, April, and May.
Sanctuary animals are often purchased from farmers (some with birth defects) to save them from destruction or slaughterhouse trauma and cruelties (such as being shocked and bled alive) so that they can live out their natural lifespans rather than their slaughterhouse-shortened ones:
15 - 20 years. vs. 4 years for DAIRY COWS
15 - 20 years vs. 1 to 24 weeks for “VEAL” CALVES
Up to 8 years. vs. 1 day for MALE CHICKS (Machine macerated alive)
Up to 8 years. vs. 5 - 7 weeks for CHICKENS (BROILERS / MEET BREEDS)
6 - 8 years vs. 7 - 8 weeks for DUCKS
8 - 12 years vs. 10 - 12 weeks for RABBITS
12 - 14 years vs. 12 -20 weeks for GOATS
8 - 15 years vs. 15 -20 weeks for GEESE
Up to 15 years vs. 10 - 17 weeks for TURKEYS
10 -12 years vs. 5 - 6 weeks for PIGS
12 - 14 years vs. 4 - 12 months for LAMBS
15 - 20 years vs. 18 months for “BEEF” CATTLE
Up to 8 years vs. 18 months for CHICKENS (EGG LAYING HENS)
10 to 12 years vs. 3 - 5 years. for PIGS (BREEDING SOWS)
Today, medical advances allow for increased human longevity, and no more evolutionary advantages to high caloric meat consumption, rather many health disadvantages, slaughterhouse cruelties, the denial of a natural lifespan to our fellow sentient beings, massive worldwide pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, disease, and significant worldwide consumption of land, food, and water, the latter exacerbating food insecurity.
Bottom line: Animal agriculture inflicts unconscionable cruelties onto our fellow sentient beings, dramatically shortening their natural lifespans; but, more selfishly, let us recognize its massive harm to our environment and our collective well-being. There is no Planet B.
"We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace." Albert Schweitzer
“It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.” Sitting Bull
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL OR LARGE!
If we all come to a conscious awareness of the large-scale environmental harms and cruelties of corporate animal agriculture and meat consumption, we will see the meat counters at our grocery stores in a new light, mindful of Big Ag's consequences for our fellow sentient farm animals, and for our environment and our Planet A.
PLEASE HELP OUR SANCTUARY ANIMALS SURVIVE THE WINTER.
John Vallimarescu
Chairman, Sunset Farms Sanctuary Board of Directors
john.vallimarescu@gmail.com
