Brightside Farm Sanctuary Newsletter June 2009

sniffing noses with all the animals who are always eager to meet the newest arrival. He loves to play and explore and follows us around the sanctuary. Many people are unaware that every dairy cow has a calf every year in order to produce maximum amounts of milk for human con-sumption. A mother cow has her calf taken away from her within 24 hours of birth year in year out. You can hear cows bellow for their calves from miles away. It is traumatic for both the cows and calves. About 70% of calves end up as veal within a week of being born. Their lives are short and miserable they die weak and terrified and many travel long distances to the slaughter house some arriving too weak to stand.

Pictured above; calves awaiting slaughter. Photo courtesy Diana Simpson www.animalsaustralia.org for more Information.

Saving Solomon

Solomon is our new ambassador for dairy calves. I bought him from a butcher at the sale yards 3 months ago, he was about 5 days old. He and the other calves were about to be loaded onto a truck and taken away to be killed and processed for veal.

Pictured above; Solomon

He stood in a crowded pen, unaware of his fate, in fact he was trying to buck and play but there was barely room to move. Sadly I could only save one calf, Solomon had ma-neuvered himself into the gateway where he stood looking at me and trying to suck on my fingers.

Arriving at Brightside he raced around with his tail in the air bucking and playing and

BRIGHTSIDE FARM SANCTUARY

Brightside Farm Sanctuary Newsletter www.brightside.org.au

RESCUE . EDUCATION . ADVOCACY .

Quote

Lisa; “Do we have any food that wasn’t

brutally slaughtered?”

Homer; “Well, I think the veal died of

loneliness.”

Matt Groening, The Simpsons.

Inside this issue

Rescuing Xanthe and Schnitzel

Meet Alice Meet the new Brightside Board

Featured Resident Robyn's rescue

Myrtle, Scruffy and Polly racing and rodeos

Brightside Piggery Investigation

Favorite Recipes

Great Reading

Volume 1 ISSUE 2 June 2009

In Memory of Gracie Recently we received the worst sort of news, our beloved rescued greyhound Gracie was diagnosed with bone cancer and two days later she had to be put to sleep. Gracie was the most wonderful, sensitive and gentle dog I have ever met. As you can see in the photo by the way she is sharing the chair with Minnie ! She was the first greyhound I rescued 8 years ago and is the reason I love grey-hounds so much. We miss her terribly.

Gracie and Minnie

Rescuing Xanthe and Freckles

Meet Alice and Freckles

Alice is a Shetland pony we found at Lachlan. She was in a small dirt pen with no food and she was surrounded by and covered in blow flies.

She had one of the saddest expressions I have ever seen. Her eyes were full of sad-ness and she looked as though she had given up on life.

She was emaciated due to malnutrition. I took her to our wonderful horse vet Mark Buckerfield, he gave her a body score of one out of ten.

We discussed the fact that it is almost impossible to starve a Shetland they thrive on virtually nothing at all !

Alice has spent the last 4-5 months on pasture and a gradually increasing diet of Lu-cerne and grains, combined with lots of love and a new pony coat that keeps her warm at night. (Only her face and legs from the knee down can be seen from under the rug !!) She has improved dramatically and is well on the way to recovery.

She now canters to the barn for her meals with her rescued race horse friend Myrtle.

Alice is gentle and sweet and no longer has a sad expression. She is thoroughly enjoy-ing her new life and new companions at the sanctuary.

Page 2

Xanthe –rescued Feb 09

Featured resident - Robyn Robyn lived happily with 2 cows until recently when her owner decided to send them all to the abattoir. The truck arrived and sensing danger Robyn smashed out

of the yards and ran up the road, her 2 friends walked onto the truck. Brightside volunteer Jay Turner heard Robyn's story and asked me if I would take her in at Brightside. We arrived to collect Robyn with the horse float which I am sure people were skeptical about…. Why would a wild and flighty cow go into a small closed in horse box by herself if not into a truck with her long term cow companions? I believe Robyn knew she was safe, she walked straight up the race and calmly into the horse float and stood like a well behaved, well trav-elled show pony. She now lives happily in our rescued cow herd.

Robyn's life expectancy has jumped from 4 years to over 20 years thanks to Jay.

Freckles-rescued Feb09

I was recently contacted by a member of the public about a starving horse. The woman who called was very concerned that unless something was done the mare would die. She was a skeleton living in a dirt paddock with no food or shelter. I suggested she needed to report the horse to the RSPCA then follow up which she did but sadly nothing was done for the horse and a month later she was still deteriorating. I then approached the owner and she agreed to give me her cow and the horse. We loaded them side by side in the float and left happy to be giving them a new life. Schnitzel the cow now named Freckles joined our rescue cow herd and Xanthe went on a weight gain program with Alice (below) She has been with us for about 4 months and looks vastly better already. Xanthe is an Arabian mare, very sweet natured great to float and hoof trim etc. and she is looking for a loving home for life.

Alice-rescued Feb.09

Robyn-rescued Feb 09

We have been busy the last few months creating the Com-passion Trail, building fences, shelters, flight aviaries, and pathways now that it has finally rained and softened the ground.

So many animals needed our help in these last few months so it has meant lots of travelling and vet consulta-tions. We have taken in horses, ponies, cows, dogs, pigs, rabbits, rats, birds and other animals, some in shocking condition and we have re homed so many animals to lov-ing new homes.

I have also been visiting schools with Lynnie and Elsie, pictured right with secondary students from a Launceston secondary school who walked her around the school grounds and raided the school veggie patch with a teacher for carrots ! We have also had schools visit the sanctuary. Many new schools have con-tacted us including Ogilvie High School, Newtown High School, Calvin Christian school and TAFE for ani-mal welfare / Animal Rights presentations.

Dogs Breakfast has given us further funding over 3 years, we are very grateful and excited. Thank you so much to Jan Cameron for her constant support.

Brightside has been in the media about a dozen times in the last few months with stories ranging from Fac-tory farming investigations to re homing articles and an article about our new film.

Brightside's new documentary We are lucky enough to have been contacted by film maker Garry Rhodes after he saw the Stateline pig story. We now have an amazing Documen-tary and are thrilled to discover that both The Sydney Underground Film Festival and the Byron Bay Film Festi-val will be showing the film. We will be showing the film in Tasma-nia also. People who have seen it say it had a profound effect on them. I am very grateful to Gary who has done a wonderful job and been brave enough to sit through many hours of Tasmanian Factory Farm footage. Thank you also to my amazing, wonderful and very brave friend Diana Simpson for always being willing to fly to Tasmania to help with investiga-tions and for inspiring me to be the best voice for farm animals that I can. Diana you are my hero xxx

Page 3 Update

Page 4 Brightside Piggery Investigation In March this year I investigated one of Tasmania's largest piggeries. A piggery that is one of the largest suppliers to Woolworths in Tasmania . In fact the day after I was I the piggery the owner appeared on page 3 of the Woolworths Fresh Food People catalogue as a Woolworths fresh food farmer. This piggery also had Australian Quality Pork signage on a door. What I found in the piggery was cruelty on an unimaginable scale. The level of suffering was so horrific and the terrible thing is apart from those pigs that were destroyed when I called the police– (that is the animals that were dying and unable to even move) all the other pigs are still there and still at the mercy of the owners of this terrible factory farm. The sows were contained in individual crates, each crate was 6 foot long and under 2 foot wide. (This life of incarceration is perfectly legal in Aus-tralia.) Inside each crates was a sow weighing 200-250kg. Many of the sows were unable to move, in fact some had the word ‘stuck’ written on a little black board above them. Most had shoulder wounds some of which were infested with maggots, all of which were infested with flies. Some sows had abscesses so severe that their legs were 3 times the nor-mal size, these poor pigs were emaciated beyond belief, unable to move, so weak that only their eyes indicated they were alive. One sow had a large wound on her neck that was seething with maggots, she lay in a pool of filth unable to move or get to food or water. In this piggery each sow is manually fed each day. How does a person choose to walk past an animal suffering and dying in a concrete and steel crate every day for weeks and weeks on end ? How do they choose to do nothing, to provide no relief, no water, no food and not destroy the suffer-ing animals in front of them. Such people should be banned from ever having animals again. The automated water system was blocked, many sows were so thirsty that they desperately drank from buckets of water I poured into their mouths. They licked desperately from the small empty drain in front of them. Inside the sheds open drains and puddles were seething with maggots some pens appeared not to have been cleaned for months. The smell, filth and extreme heat and cold these poor animals have to endure is hor-rifying. After leaving the piggery I called the RSPCA CEO at 6am explaining and asking for help but he said they did not work weekends. I then turned to the Tasmania Police for help, they responded straight away and I then accompanied them to the piggery as an assistant, they were fantastic. The piggery owners were then charged with 3 counts of aggravated cru-elty as well as a list of other charges.

I took the footage and photographs to the media and did a story with ABCs Stateline program and also with news stations and radio. Hard to believe is that Woolworths are still using this piggery as one of its major suppliers, even though Police charges of aggravated cruelty were laid and the story has been widely covered by the media. Animals Australia met with Woolworths and showed them our footage. You can’t help but wonder, at what point would Woolworths say enough is enough. At what point do we say no we will not tolerate this. Woolworths are financially supporting a serious abuser of animals. Pigs are wonderful animals they are sensitive and intelligent and when able to live in a natural environment very clean animals. The outcome of the court case was that Garry Oliver and Longrenong Pas-toral were found guilty. He was fined $2500 personally and the company– he and his wife were fined $10,000. Garry Oliver has announced he will be closing down his piggery by the coming January.

The Greatness of a Nation and its moral progress

can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Mahatma Gandhi

Page 5

In February we rescued three horses that were to be loaded on the truck to go to a dog meat man that day. A man had owned the horses for between 1 and 3 months and claimed to have “saved” them. He had adopted Scruffy from the RSPCA and had acquired Myrtle and Polly from a dog meat man. He seemed to be missing the point as he was about to send them for pet meat. He said he was not pre-pared to spend the money on hand feeding them. They had already begun to lose weight. Myrtle came from the pet meat man only a month earlier, she had just finished racing. He proudly claimed to have “saved her” even though she was now thin and had severe wire injuries to both back legs. Myrtle, is a 4 year old Thoroughbred mare and she is

one of the gentlest horses I have ever met. She loves hanging around the barn and is quiet to ride. Myrtle is just one of the 18,000 or so race horses born in Australia every year for racing- to support peoples gambling habits. Like most of these horses Myrtle was to end her un natural and exploited life at a pet meat processors. This particular processor I am told supplies amongst other places the local zoo with lion and

tiger meat. How can we allow this sort of animal abuse in a country that should have respect for all animals? Windy or Scruffy (above right) also a thoroughbred was seized from James Turners property about 2 years ago before we rescued his remaining 35 horses featured in the last newsletter. She was starving and was put into foster care for 12 months and really treasured by her carer. The RSPCA then re homed her. Within 2 months of being re homed she was be-ing sent to the dog meat man also. She is living in our rescue herd but is looking for a new loving home.

above Scruffy; looking for a loving home Polly (pictured below) also came from the dog meat man he said she was an ex rodeo bronc horse. She is sweet natured and has been educated in the past but is terrified of men and being ridden and emotionally scarred due to what she has been through. While Polly was at the pet meat processors saw her two companions being destroyed, both had been heavily in foal. A few years ago Diana Simpson and I docu-mented Tasmanian rodeos filming and photographing terrible animal abuse in-cluding broken backs and legs, dislocated hips, terri-fied panic stricken horses crashing into steel fences at high speed and thrash-ing to free their tangled legs while blinded by the spotlights and panicked by Queens ‘We will rock you’ blasting out of the speakers behind the chutes. On one occasion we filmed a horse break his leg . Officials destroyed him on the arena. As they did so the clowns ran in front trying to remove each others clothing. That horse died on that arena to the sound of 2000 people roaring, cheering clapping and laugh-ing. I could not have been more sickened or ashamed to be human. I know exactly what Polly has been through as a rodeo bronc horse. I have seen young boys in the pens using electric prods, others have witnessed bulls being tormented by men electrocuting them on the face and testicles to wind them up before events. Friends have docu-mented the deaths of numerous animals at these events that appeal to an ignorant minority of our society. —Rodeos must be banned.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King

Rescuing Scruffy, Myrtle and Polly ...the results of racing and rodeos...

Page 6

Veggie Burgers (Makes 6 burgers)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, finely chopped

50g mushrooms, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of olive oil

350ml veg stock or water

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

3 tablespoons of tomato puree

150g textured vegetable protein (TVP)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon peanut butter

1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)

4 teaspoons of oat flour

Oil for cooking

In a medium saucepan sauté onions, carrot, mushrooms and garlic in oil, then add the stock, soy sauce, tomato puree, tex-tured veg protein, dried herbs and paprika. Cover and bring to the boil, then lower heat and simmer for 7 minutes. Uncover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally until the TVP is cooked and the tex-ture is meaty.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and

cool enough to handle. Add the mustard, peanut butter and optional liquid smoke and mix well. Add the oat flour and mix again. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1/2 an hour.

Using about 3 tablespoons of

the mixture , roll into balls and shape into burgers. Pre heat a large preferably nonstick frying pan and pour in a thin layer of oil. When oil is hot add veggie burgers and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. They should be browned and firm to touch. Serve with your favour-ite burger toppings.

Great Reading From Dusk ‘til Dawn. Keith Mann

Great Films

Peaceable Kingdom

The Witness

Earthlings

Websites to visit

www.veganwares.com

www.unleashed.org.au

www.AnimalsAustralia.org

www.veganpet.com.au

www.madcowboy.com

www.veggievixen.com

Favorite Recipe from Vegan with A Vengeance- Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Page 7

Panda, Lola, Theo and Robert

Hillary the rabbit shares breakfast

Sasha; rescued May 2009. Sasha has spent many years in a tiny cage about 1 metre square. Due to neglect her toe nails were over 1 inch long and were growing into the pads of her feet. She was having trouble walking. We rescued Sasha and she has now been placed in a loving home.

Do you have room in your life to give an animal a loving home ?

At the moment we are looking for lov-ing homes for res-cued dogs, cats and horses. Please consider contacting us at Brightside if you are looking for a companion for life.

8121 Channel Highway Cradoc

Tasmania 7109

0408658356 [email protected]

Brightside Farm Sanctuary is a privately owned sanctuary and offers a permanent home to over 120 rescued farm animals. We also rescue and re home hundreds of animals each year.

This year we have taken in neglected, abandoned and unwanted dogs, pigs, horses, ponies, rabbits, sheep, calves, rats, chickens, birds and many, many more animals.

Our mission is to raise the level of awareness regarding the plight of millions of fac-tory farmed animals and make the world a kinder place for animals. Please think how you can best inform everyone you come into contact with about the plight of factory farmed animals and how through the simple choices we make we can end their suffering. Contact your supermarket and ask them to stop supporting factory farming. The animals need all of us to be helping them and speaking for them. Please don’t forget them, we are all they have.

We rely on donations to run the sanctuary and help animals.

Please visit our website for more information.

If you are interested in a Brightside presentation for a school, club or meeting please give us a call.

Emma 0408 658 356

BRIGHTSIDE FARM SANCTUARY

Thankyou I would like to thank Dogs Breakfast for their ongoing sponsorship.

Thank you to Steven Lal-our who has almost be-come a permanent resi-dent of Brightside himself in order to kindly build our Compassion Trail shelters and cattery. His sense of humour and wonderful stories have made difficult days so much more enjoyable !!

HUGE thanks to Gary Rhodes for his incredible film making skills. We now have a wonderful short film about Bright-side’s work. X more in the next news letter about the film.

Thank you to Voiceless for the Peoples Choice Award and $10,000 grant to help construct our Compassion Trail.

Thank you to Mayfair veterinary clinic, without their help we would be lost. Whether I arrive with a rescued battery hen, a rat, a sheep, dog, pig or seagull the care and dedication to the animals is wonderful.

Thank you Bloo goo for our great website.

Thank you to Pegasus Tooth and Hoof for al-ways coming to our aid and donating valuable time to help our rescued horses.

Thanks Global Learning Centre for promoting my Farm Animal and Animal Rights presentations.

“Think

occasionally of

the

suffering of

which you spare

yourself the

sight.”

Albert Schweitzer.

Jimmy and Wuppy