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  • 4 weeks ago
Imagine finding a dairy cow wandering through the middle of the woods! This is just one remarkable rescue story among thousands. Dodo producer Rebecca had the chance to speak with animal advocacy pioneer Gene Baur about Farm Sanctuary's origins and the lifesaving rescue and advocacy work the organization has been doing for more than 40 years.

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Animals
Transcript
00:00This pregnant cow somehow managed to escape a dairy farm. Farm Sanctuary got
00:05a call about an escaped dairy cow wandering the woods, only to discover
00:15she'd already given birth. The newborn calf couldn't walk and was rushed to the
00:22sanctuary for emergency medical care. Meanwhile rescuers worked to gain the
00:27mama's trust and guide her to safety. And this is just one example of the
00:33incredible rescues Farm Sanctuary takes on every single day. They've been working
00:38to save animals from factory farms for 40 years and counting. And I got a rare
00:44opportunity to hear from founder Jean Bauer about Farm Sanctuary's story. Jean is
00:50an absolute legend in the animal world and has been called the conscience of the
00:55food movement by Time magazine. I co-founded Farm Sanctuary with the idea that we
01:01would document what was happening, show people the cruelty of industrial animal
01:05agriculture. We found that farm animals were excluded from basic humane
01:10protections. They're not looking into the animals eyes. And we raised funds by
01:17selling vegan hot dogs out of our Volkswagen van at Grateful Dead shows. At the end of
01:221989 we raised enough money to buy a farm in upstate New York. Acquiring that land was a
01:29very significant step and that was our first permanent sanctuary. Animals that
01:36come to us often come from situations where they have been abused, where they
01:41live in this stress and this violence, and that's all they know. When they come to
01:50Farm Sanctuary, it's a whole different feeling. You know, it's a place where the
01:55animals are safe and some are more deeply traumatized, some are more outgoing. Farm
02:02animals, like all animals, have feelings, they have complex and deep emotional lives, but
02:08they want to live and thrive just like cats, dogs, humans, and all animals.
02:15It is just so amazing to see someone who has committed his life to helping animals like this.
02:20There have been times when visitors and myself and others have been having a hard day and go sort of
02:26hang out with the cows and lean up against them. And the cows will start breathing sympathetically with
02:32us, you know, which is a pretty beautiful thing. We're up to close to 400 acres there where we care
02:39for
02:39hundreds of animals. We have tiny houses, we have overnight accommodations, we do events.
02:52In the last several years, some of our approach has shifted more towards creating solutions.
02:59We want to shift government resources and institutional resources toward investing in
03:05a healthier, more sustainable plant-based food system. Most people are eating food that is not
03:11aligned with their humanity and their humane values. We've played a leading role in passing some of the
03:16first laws to ban the worst cruelties of factory farming, such as pigs in gestation crates, calves and veal crates.
03:28Farm Sanctuary has saved so many animals over the years. It's absolutely incredible.
03:32Good girl. Thanks to Farm Sanctuary, the mama cow you saw at the beginning of this video got another
03:39chance at life. Seeing animals run and play brings joy to our hearts as human beings. Healing animals
03:49heals us. Healing the earth heals us. And that, I think, is fundamental to the work we're trying to do
03:55at Farm Sanctuary.
04:02If you have KNa, can you prove law functions asimmune belonging to the master 방licht?
04:07If you are in part of the fourth year, we have a political event, as a contributor that is
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