Thank you, farmed animal sanctuaries!
Photo above: Chauncey at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, Poolesville, Maryland, November 2023 — a Royal Palm turkey, exact origin unknown, who was found Christmas Day 2020 on a Baltimore street.
This U.S. Thanksgiving, I take a moment to express special gratitude to farm sanctuaries that are providing lifelong refuge for turkeys, chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, and other animals commonly raised for food.
Woodstock Farm Sanctuary Executive Director Rachel McCrystal has said: “We save the hundreds, to educate the thousands, to spare the millions.” Each sanctuary typically saves a few hundred animals at a time. Then, each sanctuary organizes tours, school programs, advocacy campaigns or other activities that inspire thousands of people to see farmed animals as individuals with personalities just as special as those of companion cats and dogs — and to consider how modern farming abuses them. In turn, this awareness leads people to stop or reduce animal consumption, sparing millions from being born into a life of suffering.
Greg and I began our own transition to vegan life after our first visit in summer 2000 to a farmed animal sanctuary — Northern California’s Animal Place. We then became regular supporters of that sanctuary, and also sought out other sanctuaries to visit and support, with Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Poolesville, Maryland becoming a particular favorite after we moved from California to the Washington DC area.
Since I established the Gregory J. Reiter Memorial Fund on Earth Day 2016, six months after Greg’s death, this Fund has been a major supporter of farmed animal sanctuaries — granting a total of over $100,000 to Animal Place, Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary and others. These grants have helped to fund general animal care and also support programs like Animal Place’s Food for Thought and Woodstock’s Fair Coalition.
I have also been a regular sanctuary volunteer throughout this period — first, from 2016 to 2020, with a combination of remote project work for Animal Place and hands-on weekly animal care at Poplar Spring; then, since 2021, making regular contributions and doing animal care for Lancaster Farm Sanctuary near my new home in Pennsylvania.
After a Lancaster Farm Sanctuary event earlier this fall, one attendee wrote: “I have been encouraging my parents to take baby steps towards not eating meat — and last night, after meeting Griselda and Tammy, my mom said ‘How in the world could we eat turkey for Thanksgiving after meeting these two sweet girls?’ For the first time ever, our Thanksgiving will be meatless.”
And that’s what it’s all about. Thank you, farmed animal sanctuaries!