In the vein of posts about animal sanctuaries, Farm Sanctuary is hosting a national “Walk for Farm Animals” this fall to raise money for animal advocacy and for the care of formerly farmed animals who are in need of rehabilitation and a safe place to live out their days. Farm Sanctuary has done a tremendous amount of work, both directly for individual animals, as well as widespread educational iniatives to improve the lives of farmed animals every where.
I’ve joined a local walk team in Seattle and will be walking for ‘Blitzen,’ one of many calves who are the thrown-away ‘by-products’ of the dairy industry. Blitzen’s story is below, and is representative of the experience of too many calves in the dairy and meat industries:
Blitzen and his two friends, Lawrence and Alexander, were rescued as calves from brutal conditions at a stockyard. One of the calves was “a downer” – too sick to even stand – and his suffering was ignored by the stockyard staff for hours. The other two were tormented by workers for their tiny size and mocked for their obvious distress. When they failed to sell, the calves were callously thrown away. Blitzen, the smallest baby, came to Farm Sanctuary with low protein levels, pneumonia, and in need of a plasma transfusion. Luckily, Blitzen is on the mend and will never again know such cruelty. He and his pals now spend their days with our New York shelter’s older, special-needs herd, where they are mothered by dairy cows who were never permitted to keep their own babies. ~Farm Sanctuary Website
If you’d like to make a donation to support my fundraising goal of $1000 when I walk for Farm Sanctuary on Oct. 23rd, you can click here (and Thank you, Thank you! in advance). Or if you’d like to join a team locally, or see if there is a walk in your city, click here.
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