Our wonderful volunteers (you know who you are), were our sanity during the day. Like we’ve said many times before, you make Sugarshine. All those who give us their days-off and work themselves to the bone to support the animals are what make doing this Sanctuary thing possible. Steve and team from Flour of Life Bakery in Helensvale, were the real hero’s of the day. Steve made over 400 vegan sausages from scratch just for us. They were delicious, and we were beyond lucky for the help of the Bakery, because if we hadn’t had them swoop in at the last minute we would have been without enough sausages for the sold-out day that we had! So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
We were pleasantly surprised by the response to the vegan sausages. Lismore is a progressive place as it is, but Bunnings Warehouse doesn’t exactly attract that crowd we would normally have at our Farm Animal Sanctuary Volunteer days. Most people were surprised about the new form of cylindrical protein. Surprise did not lead to disgust in many cases, and we can confidently say the day was a success!
It’s safe to say Bunnings can look forward to some more Vegan Sausages in the future.
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If you love roosters as much as we do check out the social media profiles of some of our favourite famous rooster personalities! P Blizzard the rooster And Ricky the Chicky And of course we follow all the other animal sanctuaries in Australia and around the world, who also have many roosters in their care. Brightside Edgar’s mission, FAR and many more.
]]>If they had not been rescued, pigs such as Baby, Missy Piggins, Willy Joel, Bliss, Cecil, Charlie, Petunia, Percy, Piggy, Freeda, Hamish, Sugars, Sandy, Patchy, Pinto Bean, Zoy, Hermione, Zahn, Rainy Pants, Leopardio, Puppy, Mini and Miss Maloo would not have made it past six months of age. Each one of the 23 Pigs here at Sugarshine have their own personalities. They all love humans and have very different lives to their brothers and sisters in factory farms. Our Charlie was given the opportunity very rarely afforded to pigs read her story here. Female pigs are not given the space to move let alone speak to their children when they are born. Our ‘golden oldies’ Piggy and Freeda are almost teenagers and they have not yet lived out their entire natural life-span. Because they are living in a sanctuary such as Sugarshine, each one of these pigs will live out their natural life-span of 12 years.
Despite his tough life so far, Bunny calf has had it easy compared to what his brothers and sisters go through just weeks after being born. Bunny is a Bobby calf. He is considered waste by the dairy industry. If he was not rescued by Sugarshine he would have been sent to slaughter before he was five weeks old. His sisters on the other hand, are kept in crates away from their mothers until they are old enough to produce babies of their own. Dairy cows only live out 3 of their potential 20 years. Just because you are not eating beef does not mean you’re not harming cows. Because of his harsh beginning Bunny is likely to be sickly for the rest of his 20 long years.
Don’t let appearances deceive you. All the animals sent to the abattoir are babies, no matter how big they look.
]]>And Baby couldn’t have been happier.
For loads more adorable pictures of Baby’s big day out click here.
The volunteers at Sugarshine Sanctuary have lost count of how many times they’ve said these words. They say it every time Millie the goat jumps on top of the car and slides down the windscreen. Or wriggles his way inside the car. Or leaps onto the roof and tap dances for attention.
Millie (a.k.a. Miiilllllliiieeeee) was only 5 days old when he arrived at Sugarshine Sanctuary, an animal haven in New South Wales, Australia. He (yes, he) had been born into the goat dairy industry, but since Millie was a male, he was considered a “waste product” and put up for sale. When a woman saw Millie being sold at a local market, she rescued him and delivered him to Sugarshine.
Read the full story here at the Dodo
The calf was in bad shape when Kelly Nelder found him. He was weak and listless, and severely underweight. When Nelder approached the calf in his dirt pen, he barely lifted his head.
The calf had been born on a dairy farm in New South Wales, Australia. Male calves are viewed as “waste products” of the dairy industry. After their mothers give birth, the male babies are sent to slaughter so their mothers’ milk can be used for human consumption. When a woman living in Sydney heard about the calf, she offered to adopt him. The woman’s intentions were good, but she didn’t know how to feed a calf, and the baby lost weight when he should have been gaining it.
Read the full story on Baby pig and Bunny calf here at the Dodo.
‘Oh, that’s Rueben,’ Kelly says, ‘he wants a pat. He’s a big sook.’
Giving Reuben a pat seems like a good idea, so I oblige. Then off he wanders to a tree, stands on his hind legs, and stretches up lazily to nibble leaves from an overhanging branch.
Actually, I’m having a Dr Doolittle moment: upon entering the farm gate I was mobbed by animals. Then when walking down the hill to the shaded table for our interview, an elfin-faced dog named ‘Pencil’, a black Labrador, two sheep, a greyhound, a baby goat, plus roosters and hens, joined us as if part of the consultation.
Sugarshine cares for unwanted farm animals. Some, like male bobby goats and bobby calves of no use to the diary industry, are slaughtered following birth but are occasionally rescued. Pigs face a perilous future: pet “mini-pigs” become big and inconvenient, a sow without the required 12 nipples is “unproductive”, racing piglets short life as cute and funny entertainment expires.
Read the full story and watch the video at The Common Ground, 13 March 2016
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