Animal Farm

My husband petting a cow

Well actually it was called an Animal Sanctuary. I just like saying Animal Farm because of the George Orwell book. Apparently the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary is much more humane than either the book or apparently most farms. It was a place that was recommended to me to visit during our weekend there. My husband loves animals so I knew he would enjoy it. I had this whole idyllic, Charlotte’s Web image in my head the whole time but our tour guide was very plain about the fact that he was going to tell us about all the animals there but that he would also tell us horrific things that would possibly make us, uncomfortable, sad and or angry and depressed.

YAAAAY!!!

Let’s just say this. I’m a vegetarian who was raised vegan and after that tour I was feeling sorry for carnivores. I mean the things you have to do to manage and rationalize your contribution to the regulated murder and torture of animals while you watch them grazing is something I really struggle with. Apparently, we’re not even supposed to drink the milk of goats or cows because of the way in which they are treated. Listen, I’m not preaching at all. I’m just saying what I heard. I eat something with cow’s milk in it probably every day and I never think about the shitty, awful horrific conditions of the thousands of farmed cows while I’m eating it. After this tour I thought I would. Oh man. Morrissey hates me. Oh well.

I will say that the first most immediate reaction I had to the animal sanctuary is just how huge these animals were. I mean huge! Cows walking around in their grazing patches could probably hurt you by accident if you  got in the way of their swatting tails. They are gigantic. But they are also very humbling in their large slow stature and the one we engaged with was clearly used to people and relatively interested in us. There were kids there, college students, older people and the sun was beaming like crazy. It smelled like farm which wasn't bad but you have to really surrender yourself. There’s poop in animal pens. You’re not getting away from it.

The pig house was so clean! I mean I approached the pigs with so much trepidation, not only because of the whole dirty pig stigma (I mean they are pigs) but because these pigs were humongous! As we approached the pig barn, I was amazed not only by how clean it was but the fact that it actually smelled nice. This sanctuary is really fully functional and really well looked after by staff and volunteers. That being said, I had no interest in petting or touching pigs. I kept a safe distance. I will say that while we were checking out the sheep across the way, we could hear the pigs going crazy during feeding time and I was totally freaked out by how human they sounded. It was a bit alarming and the guide was like “Don’t worry. They’re just pumped for feeding time.” Okay.

There was no baaing by the way

My favorite animals were the sheep and goats. You don’t know wool until your fingers are deep in sheep back. I mean it’s hard not to love sheep. I realize that it’s all romantic idyllic conditioning but seeing the sheep was just so normal to me. It was so easy to be around them.  The only question I asked during the tour because I love to work with yarn is whether it was possible to shear sheep without hurting them and being brutal to them which is often the case apparently. He said it was but that it was not often the practice. He tended to tell us the all the worst stories about the ways in which food, milk and wool were taken from farm animals. I and I’m sure many of us on the tour were  looking for ways in which we could perhaps get what we feel we needed from animal without feeling like horrible people, though no one actually said it. This one young girl was wearing a black t-shirt which read Vegan. Under that was a list of things about non-violence. But she didn't say anything, didn’t preach or ask questions I can recall.

Here’s the thing. Whenever a city gal like me is on a drive through rural New York or America and I see cows, horses, or goats grazing on some farm, I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside that has zero to do with reality. These animals are not pets. They are property, being fed, breed and or injected to produce for someone’s livelihood. Can’t I even keep the sweet image of dairy maids in my head? I mean I was brainwashed like every other child in America and I was home schooled and vegan! My mom used to kill the chickens they raised with her bare hands when she was a girl. That’s a lot to process; how what we like to believe or have been conditioned to believe has no place in actual reality. But there is an even deeper question here, a question of morality mostly and of just how much violence and torture if any with regards to livestock is manageable.  My husband and I talked about it afterwards and he was making the argument that the tour guide obviously had an agenda because he didn't talk about the fact that even eating plants and plant based food requires the killing of plants.

I haven’t really formed an opinion on that as yet. I do know that people need to eat in order to live and if we can’t eat plants, we’re definitely screwed. I mean we’ve been eating plants since the beginning.  So there is something to human life and the sustaining of life in general through a natural food chain but I feel like there has to be some balance there and I haven’t quite figured out what that means yet. 

Trust me, rectangle

I’ll tell you what I do know. Goats have rectangle pupils . They are rectangle and vertical. I stared at enough goats at the sanctuary and noticed this and I have no idea why this fascinates me but it does. I know more about how the cat eye works having had a cat for years as a girl. And I think that cat’s eyes are more accurately represented in popular culture than perhaps any other animal. But I think that vertical rectangle pupil in Goats are something I missed when mom was reading us “Billy Goat’s Gruff.”