Do you ever dream about the world without cruelty? No wars, poverty or famine? We do. But nothing else will matter if we fail to protect animals and I’ll tell you why. Thousands of animals extinct every year while they are merely important for our ecosystem, and animal agriculture business plays a big role here.
Edvardas and Viktorija are those who take care of our planet. They met a while ago and pursuited a big dream: live away from the city in a farmstead. Today, they finally fulfilled it, living the farm sanctuary life and growing almost 20 animals.
A true love story
Viktorija worked with animals, mainly street dogs and cats, for years. She help with dogs at animal shelters and eventually realised that her heart is not big enough to fit in all those in need. She decided to open a first farm animal sanctuary in Lithuania. At that time she met Edvardas and now this place is open for more than 1,5 year with an intention to provide home for farm animals rescued from cruelty. They joke that’s their romantic love story.
How animals get into the sanctuary
Some animals came to their hands from people who didn’t want to kill them. Some have been brought to farm by animals savers. Like chickens who suppose to be slaughtered, live a healthy, cage-free life and they can finally enjoy the natural sunlight. This sanctuary does the difficult and dedicated work to provide animals the highest standards of humane care and free of any form of further exploitation.
In sanctuaries all form of abuse turn into an animal care, where they are finally safe. Cows, goats, sheeps, chickens that have been exploited by the agribusiness industry find refuge in the rolling hills and grass of ‘Trys paršeliai’ (Three Piglets). This sanctuary recognize each animal as an individual whose quality of life matters. The owners of the farm says: ‘we value animals as someone, not something, these incredible beings teach us how to live life to the fullest.’
How you can get involved
Next summer, this farm sanctuary will be open for the public. You will be able to arrange a visit to the farm for educational issues with a donation fee. By the way, this farm is already open for volunteers. They have helped greatly with many housekeeping works, such as renovation of an old farm buildings and even building the new ones. According to Viktorija, ‘the joy of interacting with animals as friends instead of using them for human consumption is life-changing’. A trip to a Farm Sanctuary like this should be on everyone’s to-do list. But you can also bring a little bit of sanctuary back home by sponsoring it. If you want to support the good work of the ‘Trys paršeliai’ you can donate here.
What ‘Trys parseliai’ owners seek for
Edvardas and Viktorija say that World Peace starts at the kitchen and you can help for the animals simply by not eating them. You don’t have to immediately convert into a vegan today, but the lesser consumption of meat in your diet would literally help to save the world. The sanctuary spreads the truth about the unspeakable cruelty animals suffer in farms together with other organisations: Tušti narvai and Dzīvnieku brīvība.
To be, or not to be?
Animals are facing this question every day. And only you decide whether die for them or not. We are facing the biggest existing crises in the whole human history and now is the right time to address an action against it. If we realised that the biggest environmental impact are influenced by animal agriculture industries, we could change our actions before it’s too late.
Animals are in need of farm sanctuaries
If we would live in an ideal world, farm sanctuaries wouldn’t exist. But apparently we don’t. As long as humans continue to mishandle and exploit the animals of our planet, sanctuaries will be needed. It is essential that we educate those around us about the importance of the animals with whom we co-exist.
Many sanctuaries exist to provide farm animals a safe paradise where they can live for the rest of their lives in peace and safety. Nowadays farm animals have become dependent on humans for survival. Domesticated animals, such as donkeys, horses and other farm animals, end up in abusive and dangerous situations. While these domestic animals often require special attention due to ongoing medical or behavioral conditions. One of the farm goat was struggling with really bad medical condition, because he was not taking care of seriously at his previous home. He needed urgent operation before he could live in the sanctuary.
Farm sanctuaries have been providing lifelong, loving care for farmed animals for 30 years. While animals used for food production are rarely provided individual care on factory farms, animal shelters have become pioneers in the care and treatment of farmed animals.
Inconvenient truth
All farm animals – mothers and babies, develop a deep connection that may last a lifetime, but they are brutally taken away. Babies are ripped away from their mothers after a few hours of birth, when they are fragile and need them most. These kids know nothing but heartbreak and fear from a young age, and their lives become a desperate endeavor to simply make it out alive.
Just like cattle, humans and other mammals, must be either pregnant or nursing to produce milk. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth – since male cattles/goats cannot produce milk, they are considered useless by the milk industry and sent to the slaughtered houses. From the time male goats Kapučinas, Dobilas, Žaibas and Joris were born they were branded as a useless byproduct: a disposable burden on the dairy’s operations.
Today those goats live a happy life in ‘Trys paršeliai’ farm sanctuary, being well taken care of every day. Those farmed animals are helping them to shed light about the truth behind the dairy and meat industry. Whether milk comes from a goat, cow, or another mammal, the costs of procuring it are high for mothers and babies, whom their mothers’ milk is truly for.
For example, turkeys and chickens have been selectively bred to grow abnormally fast and large, resulting in many health problems due to excessive weight and overproduction. Pigs, bred to be five times larger than their natural weight, suffer from hoof abscesses and leg joint problems.
Why we should care about animals
- Beef consumption fuels rainforests deconstruction: more than 38,600 square miles has been cleared for animal agriculture
- We are currently growing enough food to feed 10 billion people, enough to end hunger, but 82% of starving children live in the countries where food is fed to animals, and animals are eaten by western countries
- 20-33% of all freshwater in the world is used for animal agriculture
- 40-50 million sharks are killed in fishing nets
- 40% (63 billion pounds) of fish caught globally every year are discarded
- We could see fishless ocean by 2048
- Farmers kill wild animals to protect livestock
- Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions more than from all transportation
Lastly, a fun philosophical idea to tickle your brain: ‘Maybe actually plants are farming us, giving us oxygen until we eventually decompose and they can consume us’. Just how ironical that would be.
Make a donation for rescued farm animals in ‘Trys paršeliai’ sanctuary.
Documentaries where you can find more useful information:
Cowspiracy Official Trailer from First Spark Media on Vimeo.
Forks over Knives Trailer from Sean Harris on Vimeo.
All words by Eisve Treciakauskaite and all images by Justinas Lekavicius, unless otherwise noted.
© LongWeLive
