Each and every one of the animals at Sugarshine FARM Animal Sanctuary are miraculous. This is for many different reasons, but one of the most prevalent is that they have survived.
In the meat industry, Turkey’s like Harry Butternut and Petiah Potato-Bumbum are killed at five months of age while their female counterparts like Tofurky-Lou are either sent to slaughter at three months or artificially inseminated and left to lay egg after egg in over-crowded sheds for as long as their bodies will allow. Each of the Turkeys here at Sugarshine are more than two years old. Better yet, we are led to believe that Harry is more than 10 years old! Despite his age, Harry Butternut keeps us on our toes, whenever someone comes near ‘his’ paddock he fluffs up all his heavy feathers and follows us until he can get a good shot with his beak or kick us with his big feet. He will continue his effort to kill us for another 10 years or more! Turkeys naturally live to more than 20 years of age.
The chickens at Sugarshine – Pecky Stewart, Oden, Mamma and the Pipsqueaks, Salty, Broccoli, Inira and Gaea (to name a few) get to live out their eight years or more in relative peace and quiet (when you live with over 15 roosters it can be hard to get a moment of quiet. In the meat or egg industry our beloved pals wouldn’t make it past two years if they were a hen laying eggs, six weeks if they were broilers, or 1 day if they were male in the egg industry.
If you’d like to learn more about these beautiful birds find A Poultry Place on Facebook and ask away!
Don’t let appearances deceive you. All the animals sent to the abattoir are babies, no matter how big they look.