Southern Indiana couple's refuge is haven for farm animals
FREEDOM, Ind. (AP) - Michelle and Mark Pruitt want visitors to Uplands PEAK to come away understanding that the animals people eat are not so different from the pets they keep.
Animals like Erica. She's a Gloucestershire Old Spot sow, and one of the sanctuary's nine full-grown pigs. Her favorite thing is belly rubs.
"They're just like big dogs," said Mark, scratching Erica's side as she passed him in the fenced-in pasture the pigs share with five goats. Erica leaned into the physical contact, immediately flopping over for a full belly-rub experience.
Before Erica became a full-time resident at the sanctuary for farm animals, she had been bred for slaughter and kept in a concrete paddock. Then she was rescued by an animal rights group, which sent Erica and two other pigs to Uplands PEAK to live out their days being cared for in peace.
The other animals of Uplands PEAK have similar stories.
There are the pigs Andy and Annie, who were being raised to be eaten before they escaped a backyard. When the pigs were found, a string used to tie Andy's back legs still trailed from his trotters, Michelle said.
There's Lucy, who as a piglet was small enough to wriggle out of a transport truck onto a highway in Illinois, and eventually found her way to the Pruitts. There's a cow named Vegan, who was given away by a cattle farm after an injury reduced the value of his meat. When he got to the sanctuary, his fractured leg had gone untreated for months, putting strain on his healthy legs as well.
And there are roosters like Fillmore. As a male chicken who lays no eggs, he had little value in the food industry and would have been killed shortly after he hatched. But he was purchased to be a sacrifice in a religious festival, where he would have died had he not been rescued.
All came from the animal agriculture industry, which breeds animals for food, and they represent a tiny percentage that make it out alive through the efforts of rescue organizations.
The Pruitts started their nonprofit sanctuary in 2013 in Salem, about 60 miles southeast of Bloomington. They had been researching the animal agriculture industry and were disturbed by what they found. It prompted them to become vegans, but they wanted to go beyond changing their own lifestyles: They wanted to inspire others to do the same.
So they formed Uplands PEAK (People, Earth, and Animals in Kinship). And they started small with Annie and Andy, who were piglets at the time. But Annie and Andy were quickly joined by Erica, Brandi and Isaac. "Somehow, it all before you knew it became 20 acres," said Mark with a laugh.
But with nine pigs, five goats, three cows and seven chickens, Uplands PEAK needed more space. There wasn't room to expand at the Salem location. Besides, the couple wanted to move closer to Bloomington and Indiana University, the source of many of their volunteers.
In April, after raising $80,000 in donations for the move, they relocated to Freedom, about 25 miles away from Bloomington. They now have 105 acres and a beautiful white farmhouse as a base of operations. The sanctuary is a week away from the grand opening of its new space.
Starting in August, the sanctuary will offer monthly visits for the public, where visitors can come to learn about vegan lifestyles and farmed animal issues, and learn the individual stories of the rescued animals. Michelle and Mark hope people walk away with a greater understanding of - and compassion for - the animals people typically look at as food.
"Most people don't want animals to be abused," she said, but they also don't consider what those animals endure as they are being raised for slaughter: small spaces, often poor living conditions, being separated from their mothers at early ages and living in fear.
And that's to say nothing of the genetic issues. Animals bred for food are meant to grow as big as possible, as fast as possible, and not necessarily for bodily traits that will help them support that additional weight. That's why Fillmore, who weighed five pounds within weeks of hatching, has to sit in a special harness as his pulled tendon heals: He is so heavy that he was crushing his leg. The pigs also have joint issues because of their weight. Brandi, particularly, has back and hip issues that visibly affect the way she walks.
That's a result of human meddling with genetics, Michelle said, and counts as a form of abuse. They hope other people come to that awareness as well.
In the fall, they will host visits from IU students and faculty as part of the university's "Themester," which this year explores society's relationship with animals. And as they get settled at their new Freedom location, Michelle and Mark plan to expand their operations by rescuing new animals. They'd like to get some more advanced veterinary care on site, where they currently administer vaccinations, trim hooves and take care of other basic needs. With more animals, they will need more staff. They currently have two interns housed in the farmhouse, as well as one full-time employee.
No matter how large the sanctuary may grow, the goal will stay the same: To save as many animals as they can from being killed for food, and to get people to change their lifestyles.
"Our feeling is for people just to experience the sentience and the lives of these animals," Mark said. Once they do, they find it hard not to make some sort of change.
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Source: The (Bloomington) Herald-Times
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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com