The retirees enjoying their hay breakfast yesterday, before the snow came. Little Alice likes to stick her whole head in the end rather than eating it through the wire. Freddy (owner of the bottom in the foreground) likes to rush us at the gate for an early mouthful, no doubt as quality control. He has thus been renamed Freddy the Food Critic.
The smallest, brown-faced donkey in this video is Ingrid. When she came to us last year she was very lame with arthritis and hoof problems caused by a past owner never having her hoofs trimmed. A popular, non-vegan animal sanctuary told us (repeatedly, for 11 months) to have her put to sleep without trying to help her, because her x-rays were so bad. Our vet disagreed, as did we. To quote our vet: her x-rays may be terrible, but the donkey that stands before me is not. We gave her extra bedding, we began a course of arthritis medication that we knew from prior experience to be very effective, we got her a coat to keep her joints warm in cold weather and we provided pain relief as required. It didn’t take long for her to improve, and here she is today, running about and playing with her friends, living her best life. The key difference between vegan and non-vegan animal sanctuaries is that while the latter are concerned with ‘animal welfare’, vegan sanctuaries are instead focused on ANIMAL RIGHTS. As vegans, we recognise that Ingrid has inherent rights as a sentient being, and it is no more acceptable to kill her without attempting treatment than it would be to put a human to death for having arthritis. ‘Animal welfare’ seeks to reduce the suffering of animals who are being exploited by humans, and to do so in a way that best suits the humans in terms of ease and expense. Vegans seek to cease the exploitation of animals by humans altogether, and to respect the inherent rights animals have as sentient beings – their rights are our primary concern, not convenience or expense.
(Also, apologies for the lack of posts this week, the week has been a bit crazy!)
Whenever the donkey girls want something from us, they bray extremely loudly, often all four of them at once, to get our attention. Often it sounds like an orchestra warming up and I have wanted to get a clip of it for ages. Today they kicked off as they wanted this gate open, so I rushed over with my phone to get a clip. The instant they saw I had the camera out, this is what happened. Total silence. That's donkeys for you! 😆
Given Patti's anxiety around the older hens, today we let the new girls out for a free range on their own. It seemed that Patti had already decided that today was the day, as she marched straight up to the gate as soon as she saw us, clearly intent on coming out with the others. You can see her here with the orange ankle band, enjoying a scratch in the compost bays. It was great to see her out, getting used to the wider world for the first time in her life.
Yesterday two of the new girls - Dolly and Joni - had their first free range with the older hens (Patti is still too unsure to mingle much). They watched the others and got the hang of scratching in the compost bay pretty quickly. Here you can see Dolly in the foreground at the start, then she moves around and settles in for a sunbathe with Joni. Joni is very much a sunlover! It's wonderful to see them enjoying their lives after the horrors they have been through in the egg industry. Our hearts go out to all their peers who never had this chance, who instead went from 18 months of torture directly to slaughter. Eggs are cruel.
Rescue hens
It's been 2 weeks since Dolly, Joni and Patti received their contraceptive implants and their egg production ceased, and look at all the new feathers they have coming through! It shows you how much egg-laying takes out of them. Wild chickens lay between 10 and 20 eggs per year, while these girls have been bred to lay 365 eggs per year. You can see the impact that has on their physical condition. After 18 months, they are so worn out by excessive egg production and maltreatment that they are sent to the slaughterhouse for non-vegans to eat. A tiny percentage get the chance of a real life at a vegan sanctuary, but millions each year do not. Eggs are cruel.
We would also like to say a huge THANK YOU to Sharon and Liz, who contributed towards the costs of the implants - much appreciated!
Patti, Joni and Dolly have been with us for a week now and they are doing well. They are eating up their food like there is no tomorrow and are particularly excited to have salads now that they have learned how to eat them (they had clearly never seen anything like it before). The rest of the flock have stopped shrieking whenever they see the new girls, and the new girls are getting interested in the world beyond their small quarantine space. Next week they will be getting their implants which will give them a break from laying eggs, meaning the huge amount of bodily resources eggs take to produce will instead go towards regrowing their feathers and restoring their bodies to health. The implants have gone up to a whopping €106 each, so if you can help us to cover these costs at all, it would be most appreciated.
https://donorbox.org/support-alcheringa-animal-sanctuary-2
https://donorbox.org/support-alcheringa-animal-sanctuary-2
Today's King of the Pile is Baby Fox, calling to his subjects (sound on!). As vegans, we respect all animals without exception, and try to make our property as nature-friendly as possible.
People are often surprised that we can identify each sheep at the sanctuary by their voice alone, but they are usually people who view all sheep as the same. In reality, each sheep is an individual with likes and dislikes, friends, family, habits and unique characteristics such as their voice. Westie, the first sheep to speak in this video, has a particularly deep voice and I always think he should be at the opera!
Westie would also like to remind you that we are hoping people will sign up to donate €1 per week to the sanctuary. If everyone who follows our page donated just €1 per week to us, we could cover our bedding, feed and veterinary supplies. If you can help us out, the link is here:
https://donorbox.org/support-alcheringa-animal-sanctuary-2
Ingrid loves a roll in the dirt. Now that her arthritis and hoof problems are being treated, she can get down and up again easily.
When they hit just the right spot... Oh Gracie, you make us laugh! 😆
When Ingrid (the smallest brown donkey) came to us, she could hardly walk. A lifetime of neglect had left her arthritic and with severe hoof problems. As we are vegan, we do not believe an animal's life is worth less than a human life. Simply killing Ingrid - as one party recommended to us - without first trying to address her problems was not an option we were willing to consider. Ingrid had such a spark of life in her, we wanted to give her every chance to have some quality of life after so many years of pain. Working closely with our vet, we put her on a course of arthritis medication that we knew from previous experience worked well. She responded beautifully. Here you can see her overtaking her pals to lead the herd up the hill, kicking her legs in joy. We think finally she is living her best life <3
