Vegan-Run Animal Sanctuaries by Roger Yates

DO you - as I do - sometimes ponder if we get an overly rosy picture of vegan-run animal sanctuaries? Those sunny images of visitors kissing pigs and cuddling chickens.

Cows frolicking with oversized footballs, and turkeys who want nothing more than to be cuddled all day. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching such peaceful scenes too; for one thing, it is a blessed relief from all the graphic animal use footage that flies around the social media world - but I also know that running an animal sanctuary is damn hard work, all year round, and sometimes 24/7. It’s expensive too, and takes a physical and often psychological toll on the people running them.

My first experiences of helping at an animal sanctuary was in the 1980s in Liverpool. I remember the owner of the sanctuary taking heart-breaking and scary phone calls. Emotional blackmail was standard - take this animal or we’ll kill “it” was a regular threat. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had a memory of a caller saying they wanted to “swop their dog” because they had recently redecorated and their existing animal companion no longer “matched” the wallpaper. Over the years, I started to think I’d made that up: surely people, I started to tell myself - even speciesists - cannot be that utterly shallow. However, I met the owner several years later in Wales at a vegan event and she confirmed the memory.

Vegan-run animal sanctuaries often end up being the ones that take the individual other animals no other sanctuary will burden themselves with. This often results in them trying to look after disabled other animals over a long period of time. Moreover, as a general matter, the farmed animal sanctuaries are routinely looking after other animals way beyond their “kill-by” date. Take pigs, for example. Modern day pig farming “designs” their victims to last until they are, say, 6-8 months old. After all, the animal farmer’s job is to keep other animals living long enough and, generally speaking, healthy enough to get them to slaughter weight. The irony of having a job that involves tending to other animals’ health concerns sufficiently well enough in order to get them to the house of slaughter before they are deemed too ill to be slaughtered. Therefore, you’ll notice that pigs rescued from the pig killing industry tend to be massive individuals who may develop mobility issues way before their free-living counterparts would. This means that vet bills can be enormous. One case I often relate is about an ALF rescued pig individual the activists - they thought ironically, while others think controversially - named “Rasher.” When Rasher experienced some health problems, an agricultural vet was called out to treat him. However, the vet said that he did not really have much of a clue as to what ailed Rasher and, when asked why that was, he replied, “I’ve never seen a pig this old before.”

the children had been told that the 800 were “going to the factory.” The farmers were not pleased when one of our party told them what that meant.

I cared for some rescued broiler chickens several years ago. The broilers are the ones bred to provide “meat.” They grow very fast and are often killed when they are just 42-47 days old. They spend those pitifully few days in large broiler sheds, typically windowless. There are no “free-range” broiler hens, not that “freerange” has much meaning any more. Anyway, all farmed animals’ rights are violated regardless of their treatment while alive. Many arrived with deformed feet and some died in the early days. After that, those strong enough to survive had a decent life. This story virtually repeated itself this last summer (2021) when a “freerange”

egg farm that had 1000 hens and a contract to kill 800 of them, asked the Back Into Daylight animal sanctuary in Ireland if they would take the remaining 200. We had less than 24 hours to get everything organised and arrived at the farm which itself looked like a broiler unit. We were told that the birds were usually let out into a large paddock twice a day. They were not in good condition despite being only about one year old. The children who lived at the farm had come to watch proceedings and we were struck by how little they seemed aware of what was happening. I used to argue that there is a distinct rural/urban divide in terms of awareness to animal farming practices but now I’m not so sure since,

here at least, the realities of egg production had been hidden to some degree from these farm kids. In Ireland, slaughterhouses are euphemistically known as “factories,” and the children had been told that the 800 were “going to the factory.” The farmers were not pleased when one of our party told them what that meant.

The painful business of separating out 200 from 1000 began and, two hours later, the lucky ones arrived at the sanctuary. Although now classified as “end-of-lay” hens, they were still laying prolifically, creating problems like prolapses. For several weeks afterwards, sections of the sanctuary resembled a chicken hospital. Thankfully, things have settled down now and, again, those who survived are doing very well. Feathers on their backs have regrown, their once floppy combs are healthy again. In essence, the sanctuary was transformed overnight from one with 400 other animal and bird residents to one with 600, meaning that teams of volunteers have worked ever since to create extra accommodation and, in effect, juggle the sanctuary compound arrangements around to cope with the influx of newcomers. The hens are quite curious and affectionate, particularly liking to gently peck at visitors boots and jeans. Their beaks are very sensitive and they use them to explore as well as to eat. One of the greatest crimes the egg industry commit is the routine cutting off of birds’ beaks (de-beaking or, as the industry would prefer to call it, “beak trimming”).

The deaths of the other animal residents of animal sanctuaries are, naturally enough, sad occurrences - but inevitable non-the-less. Please bear the points made above in this article in mind the next time you see a video from a vegan-run animal sanctuary and, hopefully, you’ll appreciate even more the work that is involved in maintaining them.

By Dr. Roger Yates

Co-host of The Animal Rights Show & Organising Volunteer for Vegan Information Project