Mama Bite : Fun : Visiting Animal Sanctuaries
Visiting Animal Sanctuaries

Wishing for a Utopian playground?

04.23.2009

Submitted by alara on Wed, 04/22/2009 - 11:00pm.
The Bite:
Beasts the sandbox: Visit an animal sanctuary with your kiddos and help care for critters rescued from abuse and neglect. The animals will enjoy the company, farm staff'll appreciate the support, and your brood'll have a total(itarian) blast.
The Benefits: 
  • Treating animals (Or)well. Sanctuaries provide a safe home for animals abandoned as science lab subjects or rescued from mistreatment on factory farms.
  • Raising eco-revolutionaries. By observing and interacting with animals, kids'll develop compassion for 'em.
  • Protesting pollution. Massive livestock factory farms known as CAFOs contaminate soil, air, and waterways, and sicken many animals in the process. Sanctuaries provide safe, clean conditions for rescued CAFO animals.
  • More fun than allegorical fiction. Best petting zoo ever. Kids'll visit up close with animals - and maybe try their hand at a chore or two (cows like kids with apples).
Wanna Try: 
  • Farm Sanctuary - visit with hundreds of farm animals rescued by this advocacy-education group started in 1986 at its 300-acre facility in Orland, CA, or 175-acre farm in Watkins Glen, NY; also camping, tours, and picnics ($3/adult; $1/kid).
  • Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary - a 105-acre home for rescued factory farm animals (see adorable lamb photo) in Deer Trail, CO, founded by longtime animal rights activists; offers outreach, education, and animal care services.
  • Kindred Spirits Sanctuary - sanctuary and education facility in Ocala, FL, with horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens.
  • Animal Place Sanctuary and Education Center - visit animals at this 590-acre facility located in Vacaville, CA, run by animal rights advocates ($10/person).
  • Sanctuaries.org - Animal Place's state-by-state listing of farmed animal shelters.

Timeout

Kymberlie Waldrop's Crawford, GA, home is slowly becoming an animal sanctuary. Her dad brought home a newborn goat rejected by its mother, adding to chickens and a horse they already have. Here, 9-year-old Kym feeds Sarabell her bottle.

Bang For The Bite

If little Biters visit an animal sanctuary and learn more about humane farming now, they'll be more likely to support those practices as bigger Biters down the line.

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