Project Report
| Jun 8, 2020
Sanctuary Life in the Midst of Multiple Crises
By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary
![Jasper eating hay]()
Jasper eating hay
Before I say anything else, let me say that VINE Sanctuary stands in solidarity with protestors around the country and around the world who are standing up against racism and insisting that life means more than property. As an organization devoted to social and environmental justice as well as animal liberation, we have always included anti-racist efforts in our work and will continue to do so.
Since the last report, our efforts to care and advocate for animals have been complicated by Covid-19. Nonetheless, we have persisted. Despite having to close the sanctuary to visitors, we did devise protocols to allow animals in life-threatening situations to be brought to the sanctuary for no-contact drop-offs.
Rescued animals who have come to the sanctuary since the last update include 30 "broiler breeder" hens who had been scheduled to be culled and a a group of semi-feral birds seized by authorities from a local farm. The most touching rescue was when we were contacted by a man who had overheard his neighbor planning to kill an unwanted rooster. He talked his neighbor into refraining from killing the bird until he could look for a home, found us, kept the bird in his home overnight, and then brought the bird to us even though doing so required him to drive to a strange place just as our state was shutting down due to the pandemic. Arriving soon will be some roosters rescued from cockfighting and a mother and calf who were going to be sent to slaughter by a dairy.
The pandemic has put our on-site programming on hold, but we have stepped up our efforts to offer opportunities to visit the sanctuary virtually. We've also taken our humane education programs online, which teachers in search of "virtual field trips" for their students have really appreciated.
We know that you too may be struggling due to Covid-19 and/or the upsurge in police violence across the USA. We want to remind you that life at the sanctuary continues as always and to see the sanctuary as a place of refuge for you too. Follow us on social media, where we are doing frequent live streams, to tune into the world beyond the human for a few minutes each day. It can be soothing to see our nonhuman residents living their lives as usual, and it can be heartening to see animals of so many different species living together in harmony.
Of course, life as usual means that our everyday costs continue even as donations drop. Therefore we are especially grateful to you and other donors who have helped to cover the substantial cost of feeding hundreds of animals every day. Thank you again for that!
Sincerely,
pattrice
![Livestream schedule]()
Livestream schedule
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Feb 7, 2020
Barnyard Buddies
By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary
!["Cuddle buddies" Jasper the cow and Val the pig]()
"Cuddle buddies" Jasper the cow and Val the pig
Greetings and thank you again for seeding change by helping to feed animals at VINE Sanctuary!
I hope that you saw the overall 2019 Review for the sanctuary when we shared that on social media. If not, we’ve attached a PDF. We closed out the year with more than 700 animals in residence, having organized or participated in more education and advocacy events than ever before.
None of this would be possible without friends like you. We thought you might like to know about the local folks whose efforts help us to make the most of every dollar you give.
Last Friday, our hay supplier stopped by with a bill and some good news: He got a bargain on bulk baling supplies and decided to pass all of the savings along to us by cutting our price per bale by 10%! Since hay is our largest single outlay, after payroll for our hard-working animal care team, that will be a substantial savings.
The local feed store also helps out by giving us a bulk discount and by donating any “broken bags” (sacks of feed torn in shipping) to the sanctuary.
As part of its “zero waste” efforts, a local grocery store donates big crates of wilted and dented produce twice each week. In addition to saving money, this adds joyful and nutritious variety to the diets of sanctuary residents, who gather around each delivery day, eager to see what surprises might emerge from the crates. (It’s pretty fun to see a cow eating a pineapple!)
One of our volunteers also drives for a “Meals on Wheels” program that delivers fresh produce to low-income seniors and people with disabilities twice monthly. After each run, their own rules say that they must dispose of any produce likely to go bad before the next run. With their permission, that volunteer brings that produce to the sanctuary, so that it will not be wasted.
So, you can see, you really are part of a whole community of generosity in your support for the animals at VINE Sanctuary!
As part of our 20th anniversary celebrations this year, we aim to scale up several of our most effective projects. I’ll tell you more about those projects in another update, but I do want to share one piece of great news: We’ve already managed to add an additional school to our “Barnyard Buddies” program that allows classes to visit to virtually “adopt” sanctuary residents, receiving monthly humane education lessons. In this way, children who may never visit a sanctuary still can learn about and develop empathy for farmed animals.
Thank YOU for being a "barnyard buddy" by supporting the sanctuary!
Sincerely,
pattrice
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Nov 8, 2019
Feed the Change Update
By pattrice jones | Coordinator, VINE Sanctuary
![Saorise]()
Saorise
Greetings and thank you again for seeding change by helping to feed animals at VINE Sanctuary.
The flocks and herds at the sanctuary have gained many new members since our last update:
Nearly 100 “spent” hens who had been discarded by a factory-like egg facility joined the flocks in the part of the sanctuary we call “the valley.”
Thirty of the large white roosters and hens bred by the poultry industry moved into the special coop and yard reserved for vulnerable birds like them. Our Anna was part of the rescue team that saved them and hundreds of others.
The wild young cow we call Saorise came to the sanctuary after repeatedly escaping from the farm where she had witnessed the killing of her mother and brother. Another young cow, Izaak Mooton, came to the sanctuary after the person who had rescued him from a dairy was unable to care for him.
As always, hens and especially roosters arrived at the sanctuary singly, in pairs, and in small groups after being rescued or surrendered by people unable to care for them.
We’ve also been busy with the education and advocacy work that is rooted in our on-site care for our nonhuman community members. We’ve had three more monthly meetings of our Pasture Pals humane education for local youth. The special Halloween edition of Pasture Pals was especially well-attended.
Within Vermont, I gave one “Lunch and Learn” talk on the plight of farmed animals to volunteers, staff, and supporters of a rural humane society; presented a lecture on solving social problems by repairing our relationships (including our relationships with “nature” and animals) as part of a “Tend the Root” workshop series on personal transformation for ecological transition; and facilitated a discussion on “Repairing Our Relationships with the More-than-Human World” as part of the “Out in the Open Summit” for rural LGBTQ+ people. Some participants in that summit also made a “field trip” to VINE.
We also presented another workshop in our veganic gardening series — this one on seed saving—at our local public library. Further afield, I gave a lecture on “Queering Animal Liberation” at Rhode Island College. While that talk was not taped, you can watch this video of a similar lecture last year.
Everything we do is rooted in the everyday care and feeding of the more than 600 animals at the sanctuary. We couldn’t do that without you. Thank you again for your support! If you’ve not yet done so, please do consider signing up to make a monthly contribution or using the sharing tools provided by Global Giving to encourage your own social circle to donate.
![Izaak Mooton]()
Izaak Mooton
![Hens from egg facility on their 1st day outside]()
Hens from egg facility on their 1st day outside
![Kaporos survivors on their 1st day outside]()
Kaporos survivors on their 1st day outside
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