I Left my Heart at Heartland Farm Sanctuary
I’m a huge animal lover. HUGE. And not just that, I think the least we can do in the world is not harm animals when we have no reason to.
We can live and thrive wonderfully without harming others and by living vegan.
In honor of World Farm Animals Day, I’m doing the #fastforslaughter on October 2nd. Learn more here: www.dayforanimals.org/
I’ve now been vegan for 4 years after reading The Kind Diet and watching some documentaries and videos on YouTube that changed my heart and mind forever and Jerrod’s too. We never really realized the harm that was caused by just the things we do everyday. Things we don’t need to do to survive like our ancestors did. Things that are easy to do like just paying attention to what we are buying and making more cruelty-free choices. The animal agriculture industry is now a monster of producing mass quantities of meat, eggs and dairy to the detriment of the animals, the planet and our health.
People are breeding so many animals right now that use up TONS of resources that we could be using more sustainably. For example, water. One pound of animal protein requires about 100 times more water than producing one pound of grain protein. Animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gases than all transportation (cars, trains, planes) COMBINED.
56 billion animals are slaughtered for food every year. Animals no different than the ones we visited at the sanctuary, and no different than the cats and dogs most people love dearly.
We use animals for food, entertainment and clothing when we don’t need to. It’s unsustainable and there are better, more sustainable, less cruel options in the modern world that don’t involve the suffering of animals.
Visiting the Heartland Farm Sanctuary makes it glaringly obvious the effects our habits have on the animals. Each and every one of these animals are living, feeling sentient beings who have suffered by the hands of humans and were rescued and now can live in peace (although some suffer life-long health problems due to the way they were bred and their lives are cut short.)
Spending time with these animals you KNOW they can feel and they can feel your love. Each animal is an individual, with individual likes, dislikes, habits and personalities. They are my friends, not food!
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- I fell sooo in love with Winnie the pig! She had the most laid back, gentle vibe and smiled so big when we stroked her belly! Winnie’s story from their website: “At only 6 weeks old and 14 lbs, Winnie fell off a transport truck onto the highway, and tumbled into oncoming traffic! She was on the way to put her in a gestation crate to await slaughter with many other pigs like her. Bleeding and disoriented, Winnie was spotted by her rescuers. Two families stopped to help her, slowing traffic by partially blocking lanes. Before they were able to catch her, another passerby stopped. However, this driver had only one thing in mind: getting her off the road however he could, which included trying to run her over. When that didn’t work, he kicked her until she could no longer get up. He then grabbed her by the hind leg and thrust her at her rescuers. The good Samaritans wrapped her in a blanket and began making calls, trying to figure out where to get help. After many failed calls to police, the sheriff, and local animal shelters, they found the number of Dana Barre, founder of Heartland Farm Sanctuary. Dana told them to give the piglet water and take her to the nearest shelter where Heartland staffers would pick her up.”
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- Awww such a big yawn she blurred the pic!
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- Clara and Winnie.
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- Sarah and Dan drove us over to Wisconsin- 5 hours there and back! It was so worth it!
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- Cute!
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- The precious donkeys!
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- It’s Chachi and Fonzi!
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- Frosty got his name from his ears that were frostbitten so severely, his eartips fell off.
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- Me and Frosty <3
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- Gentle and precious.
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- THIS is Baine! Baine is disabled, but still so gentle and loving!
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- Baine’s Friend
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- Wallace 🙂
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- Wallace likes to be rubbed under the armpits!
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- She was a backyard chicken. Chickens are gentle, loving beings – when you don’t steal from them! I think this girl’s name is Isis, like the goddess! A woman at the sanctuary paid out of her own pocket for Isis to receive hormone replacement to stop her from producing eggs. Producing so many eggs cause hens bred like her a lot of pain as they produce 180 some eggs every year instead of the 15 they may lay in the wild. It’s horrible what we put animals through for something we don’t even have the need to consume. This is why I don’t eat eggs or use anything that comes from any animal. They were bred to suffer and die very young.
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- This guy was a feisty one!
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- Zeus!
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- He posed on the table just for me!
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- And gave the most adorable look.
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- Cute pose, Zeus!
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- Ducks and other birds that are raised for meat grow at an unusually fast rate, which causes their legs to get weak and break. They limp around miserably unable to hold their body weight. They do what they can to keep their weight down as much as possible so the ducks can lead a quality life while they are still alive. — at Heartland Farm Sanctuary.
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- A duck rescued from slaughter.
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- Lily and Lola the cutest.
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- Lily comes to say hi to me!
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- Lily has a wet nose!
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- I am superior! Charlotte says so! 😉
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- Lola laid down and made a purring sound when we rubbed her tummy!!
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- Thanks Clara for the tummy rubs!
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- I love pigs!
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- Hi Lily again!
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- Maxine says hi! She’s a gorgeous pig!
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- Maxine has beautiful eyes, so much emotion!
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- Thor
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- Roosters saved from a cockfighting ring and some saved from slaughter. They have to be separated for a time from the others to be acclimated to get out of fighting mode and kill each other. So sad what we do to animals.
We also stopped at this amazing 100% vegan restaurant on the way near Wisconsin Dells called The Cheeze Factory! It was SO YUMMY. Apparently, they used to serve cheese, but found a great alternative and wanted to promote veganism. Very brave in the heart of the Dairyland! But it’s a very popular restaurant that even non-vegans LOVE. Well, of course they do. Vegan food rules.
I COULD NOT DECIDE cause they had such a great menu, but I decided on the ‘Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise’ House Specialty- highly recommend!, and we got the Rattlesnake Tofu as an appetizer and their AMAZING cheezecake, made out of cashews! It’s so yum!
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Roadtrip success with my compassionate vegan friends! Dan, Sarah, me and Clara… you gotta check out Sarah’s website at www.whyveganism.com!
And if you’d like to visit The Heartland Farm Sanctuary, check out their website here: http://heartlandfarmsanctuary.org/
Peace. Love. Travel.
~Brooke