a voice for the voiceless
The Barneys
The Barneys – or at least Barney (with the black beak) and his three friends – came to the sanctuary after spending most of their life on the farm of a man who loved them very much. But when he died, his kids wanted to sell the place, and wanted the geese gone.
Luckily a kind-hearted person found the sanctuary, so that these geese would have a safe and happy place to live. Only one of them came with a name – Barney. He’s the only one who is easily distinguished from his friends, with his black beak.
They’re pretty friendly and curious about people. They’re clearly used to people-as-treat-dispensers, but mostly they just go off and do their own thing, always the four of them together.
I’ve been taking “meta” pictures lately, purely for my own amusement. Jonathan is fun and interesting to volunteer with – not only does he know a lot about animals, he thinks a lot about animals, and in ways that are often a bit different than the rest of us. It’s the scientist in him, gathering information and impressions, and doing mini tests on hypothesis percolating in his brain. He’s fascinated by things that I tend to take for granted.
Jonathan and Charlene
Last week one of the things that caught his attention was the dust rising from Charlene’s back as he patted her. He was trying to get a picture of it. I’m not sure if he succeeded, but I got a picture of him taking a picture!
The cows were all hanging around, so I gave Mini Moo a chin scratch. He loves to have his chin scratched! I was thinking to myself that it was too bad that it was impossible to get a picture while scratching his chin, but just a few minutes later Amy gave him a chin scratch, and I took advantage of the opportunity to take a few pictures.
Amy and Mini Moo
I love this because it is so clear how much Mini Moo is enjoying himself. I posted it on Facebook, and (as expected) there was at least one comment about how their cat does the same thing. Taking pleasure in life is not limited to humans. Anyone who has ever lived with an animal will be thinking “duh”, but oddly enough the scientific community is only recently coming around to agreeing that this is a valid viewpoint.
Amy and Mini Moo
Luckily there are scientists like Jonathan Balcombe, who pursue that line of study despite the scientific community’s disdain for the topic. Hopefully things have progressed by now. From the outside, at least, it seems to have.
If you haven’t read any of Jonathan’s books, and are interested in the topic, definitely check them out. If you like pictures (and since you are “reading” this blog, you probably do), you’ll want to pick up a copy of Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure, which actually has a lot of great words in it, not just pictures. I need to go back and read the book; I am guilty of focusing on the pictures and skipping over most of the words.
Now for some local announcements:
Aggie and a volunteer
Last Saturday we had a big group of Veg Society of DC volunteers at the sanctuary. I think it was more than 20. It was a lot! They were split up into several smaller groups, which made it much more manageable. It’s harder than you’d think to organize large groups of new people into getting work done!
The group that worked in the same area as I was in were people, based on overheard conversations, who had either never been to the sanctuary before, or had been a time or two at events. It’s always nice to introduce people to the sanctuary.
Volunteers taking their portrait with Lily, rescued from a veal auction, in the background
The big hay pile at the top of the goat yard needed to be removed now that winter has passed.
Malcolm helping us with the hay pile
It took several loads in the spreader before we had gotten rid of the pile. In between we’d wait while Terry emptied the spreader in a nearby field. It was a gorgeous day – sunny and in the 70’s – pretty much perfect weather for both the helpers and the residents.
Mini Moo was cracking me up – he was very casually scratching his chin on Carlyle’s horn. Not something I have ever seen before! And Carlye just looks as relaxed as can be.
Mini Moo scratching his neck on Carlyle's horn. Carlyle is one of the few male dairy cows at the sanctuary.
Two new residents arrived at the sanctuary last week: a pig and a goat who are best friends.
Roxanne
They are very sweet. The goat is a bit more cautious before he approaches, but once he’s had a chance to observe you, he’ll come right up and ask for treats.
"I was hoping for a treat...."
Remember when I talked about the Washington Post photographer who spent the morning with us, following Jonathan for an upcoming feature in the paper? It is to be published tomorrow (Saturday, April 14), but it’s already online. Check it out!
I especially liked the pictures he had of people with the animals. The one with Monty really struck a chord for me. It is so tender! Monty is a love.
Speaking of a tender moment, when I first arrived at the sanctuary last weekend, it was to this sight:
Jacob and Emliy
Jacob is the bigger one, and Emily is the blind cow who came a couple years ago. You can’t actually see it in the picture, but he was licking her neck. Very sweet!
In the pig yard we always joke around about practicing for the poop catching olympics. It’s a special talent to catch the poop in action, so to speak, and it’s quite efficient also to let the poop land on your rake and put it into the bucket, rather than having the ground as a middle man.
Ben upped the game last weekend. He caught Harley’s poop directly into the bucket!
Harley, and Ben's bucket
Pretty sure Harley is grinning.
And then little Patty, sneaking under a gate in the pig yard. She and her sister, Paige, as well as a couple of the older pigs who need a bit extra food, get fed extra in a section of the yard that can be gated shut, so that they can eat without fuss from the other pigs. Patty didn’t let something like a gate keep her in! When she was ready to go, she just scooted right out. (And then back in, and then back out!)
Patty scooting under the gate
She’s so cute. I think that she’ll lose the “curly” hair when she sheds her winter coat, but in the meantime, it is so adorable!
In the chicken yard, Dusty wandered by where Jonathan and I were petting Tilly. I take a lot of pictures of Dusty, I admit! This past year, my parents gave me a gift of two chicken sponsorships. I’d been asking for a sponsorship of an animal at the sanctuary for years, and they never went for it. This year, in frustration, I put nothing else on my wish list. I guess that did the trick!
I had to choose two chickens for the official sponsorship, and that was hard for me. I try to not have favorites. I love them all, and I want to get to know them all, and having favorites just feels wrong for me.
I decided on Alina right away (because who doesn’t want to cuddle that little ball of sweetness? but also because she’d had a bit of a fight with a rooster I’m sponsoring for my dad (they have the same name) and her eye was injured…) and then took about three months to decide on who else.
Finally, I decided on Dusty. I’m not really sure what went into that decision, other than I’d been focused on getting a nice picture of her for a few weeks, so she was on my mind.
Dusty
And now that I’m sponsoring her, I notice her even more, which leads to taking more pictures of her.
As I looked at the pictures I’d gotten last weekend, I noticed that in one of them her nictitating membrane (aka “third eyelid”) was closed. This happens fairly often when taking pictures of the birds at the sanctuary, and it’s one of the reasons that I tend to take pictures on “burst mode” (also that they tend to dart around, and move their head very quickly). I usually just pass those pics by.
Dusty with her nictitating membrane closed
But then I saw that I had a third picture with the nictitating membrane only half closed! And that was pretty cool. The nictitating membrane is a very cool adaptation. I think it would come in handy on the bike as well, but humans aren’t so lucky!
Dusty with half-closed nictitating membrane
Though we don’t know Dusty’s story prior to her rescue, we do know that being dumped in a field is a very common fate for the hatching project chicks. Helpless on their own, they will approach anyone, hoping to be cared for. They won’t last even one night alone.
On our way back to our cars, Jonathan stopped to play with Josie again. It is so awesome to see them playing together! He’ll be out of town this weekend, but maybe we’ll be able to imitate him enough to satisfy Josie.
Jonathan and Josie
I took loads of pics, hoping some of them would come out. Hard to know what you’ll get when you have an active little lamb leaping all over the place! I was really excited I ended up with quite a few really nice ones, and a couple where Josie is completely in the air. Levitating!
Josie, levitating
one of these is not like the others...
I read a lot, mostly fiction, and over the past five years or so I’ve noticed the occasional vegan character creeping in. Of course they’re always portrayed negatively, or at least ignorantly. The people writing the books are clueless about veganism, about animal rights, about what it would be like to BE a person acting on these ethics…and so they have the most superficial portrayal, filled with every stupid stereotype you can imagine.
I have gotten to the point where I won’t read a book that I know has a vegan character, because I know how poorly portrayed that character will be. (What’s wrong with doing research, eh, authors?)
But when I heard about Marla Rose’s recently published book, I definitely wanted to read it. A vegan character written BY a vegan is a whole other ballgame! I had a momentary hesitation upon learning that it was a YA book – I’ve read some and loved some, but YA isn’t what I gravitate toward. But I got it and read it anyway, and I’m glad I did.
I wrote a review over at Animal Rights & AntiOppression: “Review: The Adventures of Vivian Sharpe, Vegan Superhero“.
Clover
Clover was bottle-raised at the sanctuary from the time he was just a couple days old. He was abandoned by his mother, and the (local small family) farmer was just going to leave him to die. Instead, he was brought to the sanctuary.
Since he was raised by people at the sanctuary, he is less wary of humans than many of the sheep are. But a smart sheep is still one who sticks to the herd most of the time, so if something alarms the herd and they start moving off, he’ll go with them. However, when the herd is comfortable, he will often come over to investigate us. Possibly hoping for treats!
Harley
Harley is almost all grown up now, at 3.5 years old.
His rescue story no longer shows up on the links, which is a shame. Wish I’d thought to stick it in a document offline! But the basics of his story showcase how lucky he was – on his way to auction as a tiny baby, he fell off the transport truck, was rescued by people who have an education center of some kind, but who didn’t have the room for a full grown pig, and so his fate might have been a slaughterhouse in the end if it weren’t for random visitors to the education center who contacted Poplar Spring and facilitated the rescue and helped with the transport.
Uri, a Golden Pheasant. I've been trying for ages to get a decent picture of this guy!
The details of Uri’s story isn’t known. Mostly I wanted to post a picture of him because it has taken me the better part of a year to get a picture worth posting! Shy and fast…
Now, for something super-cute – a video of Jonathan and Josie playing! Josie does a few jump-and-kicks for your viewing pleasure.
All proceeds will be donated to the sanctuary.
Coupons: http://www.lulu.com/current_specials?cid=eng_advent_specials_112210
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