The past year and a half has taken my life on a mental roller coaster. Like all roller coasters there are ups and downs, fun parts, scary parts, exciting parts, and parts that make you wish you were any place else.
In the past 18 months I have gone from vegetarian to vegan, from sad and single to happily attached, from carefree and careless to carefree and aware. On this journey I discovered an amazing organization called The Gentle Barn which stands for so much of what I believe in and what this blog is about.
The Gentle Barn (may be referred to as "GB") is an animal sanctuary located in Santa Clarita in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles. Their mission is "to rescue, rehabilitate and give sanctuary to abused animals. Through the interaction with our animals, people learn reverence for all life." While I already had reverence for all life (Hello! I am the one relocating picnic ants from the shower before I turn the tap on!), I gained an even greater reverence upon visiting them this past May.
Before going, I already knew of the torture, torment, and trauma endured by animals born and bred for human consumption. It turns out it's worse than I thought. During my visit, I met their (then) most recent rescues, Mercy, Bob, Ari, and Roy, four calves rescued from the E6 Cattle Company in Hart, Texas.
At E6, calves are no more than a by-product of the dairy industry. They are not raised for veal nor are they euthanized; some are sold for minimal profit, but all are merely waiting to die. One of the rescued calves was found in a box in a dumpster still alive. I consider him lucky. Some calves are like that one, quietly starving and awaiting their decease. Most are not. At E6, the chosen methods of murder resemble what one might see on a gory, psycho-thriller TV crime drama. The methods? Hammers, pickaxes, pipes, you-name-it to the head. We're not talking one blow, we're talking four, five, six... Sometimes the calves would be knocked unconscious, sometimes they would die; for some, they were left to suffer with shattered skulls, open head wounds and in incomprehensible pain. Many had terrible infections or wounds and were never given medical treatment (why spend money on something you don't want?).
Now, back to The Gentle Barn... Ellie and Jay, the GB directors, worked closely with an undercover investigator from Mercy for Animals who documented what went on behind closed doors at E6. (There is a graphic video on the link. Feel free to pause it and skip it to read the article.) Once the investigator gave the go-ahead, Jay drove from L.A. to Texas, and, posing as a buyer of calves he was able to save those for calves. Here is their amazing rescue (may be too graphic for some):
Ari, Mercy, Roy, and Bob were still very weak when I met them, but they are much stronger than when they first were brought home to the Gentle Barn. Here are some pictures of them during my visit:
Ari
Michelle with Bob and Roy (and Ari's tush!)
Mercy
Mercy
The little guys were desperate to nurse, and without a mother, they figured the next best thing would be me. Take a look:
Back in November, the GB had a fundraiser of sorts so that, with a minimum donation of $20, a lucky winner might get the naming rights to the GB's (then) newest cow. Well, I donated my $20 and put my chosen name into the drawing. Shortly after Thanksgiving I received an email from Ellie saying that my name had been drawn.
When The Gentle Barn rescued Serenity, she was extremely unweight and had no trust in humans. Right around New Year's she was let out of quarantine and in to the pasture with the herd. On New Year's Eve a video was posted on The Gentle Barn's Facebook page. Here is the post: "Serenity has never been treated gently by humans. We rescued her from slaughter and she was terrified of us! We vowed that one day she would trust us and we would give her a hug and brush her. Well, that day was today! This is what we live for and work so hard for!" The video reveals a remarkable improvement in Serenity:
It seemed Serenity had finally gained some trust in humans again. In March, I was checking my updates on Facebook to discover the most wonderfully surprising setback: Serenity had become a mommy! Little Rumi is the spitting image of his mother. Even at four hours old, he is very strong. Like a good mother, Serenity's maternal instincts took over; since all of her babies before Rumi had been taken away, her progress regarding her trust in humans took two giant steps back. That being said, she was very willing to let me feed and pet him but always stood close with a watchful eye.
Mommy Serenity with little Rumi
Feeding Rumi some grass
Serenity keeps a watchful eye on us and Rumi while we feed him grass and let him lick our hands.
Serenity gets in on snacktime too!
The Gentle Barn is such an amazing place and these animals truly have been blessed with a second chance at life. I should probably should say "first chance" at life since what they were doing pre-Gentle Barn wasn't living and it certainly wasn't a life.
It's funny: all the videos and writing about the E6 Cattle Company I had marked as being potentially too graphic for some to stomach, and yet, many people reading this blog will actually stomach it. That is to say that this is where your hamburgers, hotdogs, and filet mignons come from. This is where your food, shoes, belts, furniture, and car interiors come from. Those of you who have read this blog know that I am not one to preach to someone to "make them" change their ways; I will, however, try to educate someone or make resources available to them, so that they can make an educated decision about their food and lifestyle choices.
So many people I have spoken to say things like "oh, no, I would never buy milk, cheese, butter, etc. from a place that treat their animals inhumanely." Well, when you go to your local grocer, do you KNOW what dairy your dairy comes from? No? Then how do you know the cows were treated well? Because the store says so? Let's be honest; if they said, "no, we only buy from farms that beat their animals to steal their milk," would you still buy dairy products from them? Probably not. The point is, unless you KNOW exactly where your products that are animal-derived/contain animal-derived ingredients actually come from, each time you buy beef, dairy, bacon, chicken, eggs, shampoo, soap, sunscreen, etc, you are SUPPORTING the mistreatment of animals.
There is so much more to tell and SO many more animals to see. To learn more about The Gentle Barn, their work, and the wonderful animals they save, please visit the following resources and websites:
Yeah, for some reason the links at the very bottom wouldn't change (red is my default link color), but those are NOT too graphic for weak stomachs and young eyes. They are links you SHOULD click!
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