Rescue Stories

The work of animal rescue and placement takes Farm Sanctuary to all sorts of places.

This spring two sheep, survivors of the meat industry, joined the sanctuary family at our shelter in Acton, CA.

It was the Thursday before Memorial Day, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, when we got the call: 60 “broiler” chickens had fallen off a transport truck headed for a Brooklyn live market.

All Ferdinand wanted was a few pears, but after climbing over a four-foot fence and "destroying" five pear trees on the Santa Cruz farm where he lived, the owner of the farm threatened to shoot and eat him!

This is the story of Gabby, Xena, and Hercules, three little piglets who escaped the fate of one hundred million pigs slaughtered annually.

Emma lay by the side of the road for hours, then days. Consumed by the pain in her back right leg, she may have thought help wasn’t going to come.

When horse-rescuer Kelly first caught sight of Valentino, he was struggling down a stockyard aisle on his knees as workers goaded him with whips and bats. He was only about a day old, one of many newborn calves brought to New Holland Auction in Pennsylvania that day.

Many people think of pygmy goats as a pet breed, but like their larger cousins, they are often slaughtered for meat.

Sonoma County Animal Services recently had occasion for a visit to wine country, but it wasn’t for a tasting tour.

It isn’t even a month into the Year of the Sheep, and we’ve already met three amazing reasons to celebrate.