From the beginning, President and Co-founder Gene Baur has worked tirelessly to shift the dynamic of our relationships with farm animals and has encouraged countless individuals to make more compassionate choices.

Please join us in revisiting this classic interview from Farm Sanctuary’s 30th anniversary. Here, Gene reflects on what the past 30 years have meant to him, and how Farm Sanctuary has evolved into the effective proponent of change it is today.

What goals did you have in mind for the organization before Hilda was rescued? How did rescuing Hilda reinforce or change these plans?

Our initial intent with Farm Sanctuary was to investigate and expose the abuses associated with factory farming and to demand reforms. Rescuing Hilda off a pile of dead animals at Lancaster Stockyards in 1986 was an extension of our investigations, and led to new ways to advocate for farm animals.

Hilda’s rescue provided hope and healing in the midst of the vast suffering we’d witnessed at farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. It also allowed us to educate by contrasting the experiences and attitudes that exist when animals are treated as friends, instead of as food, and to model a new kind of mutually beneficial relationship with farm animals.

Briefly describe the early days of caring for Hilda and the animals who followed before moving to Watkins Glen. How did education and advocacy work tie in (and when did you determine the efficacy of a rescue-education-advocacy approach?)

Before acquiring the farm in Watkins Glen, we lived in a row house in Wilmington, DE. This is where we rehabilitated Hilda and other rescued farm animals, and since we had limited space, we quickly instituted our adoption network to place rescued animals in good homes. Caring for sheep, turkeys, goats, and other farm animals also drew the attention of neighbors, especially children. These animals became ambassadors for their species, as people learned of their harrowing stories and came to see them as individuals who deserved to be treated with compassion.

Our educational efforts have been critical since the beginning. We educate people about the cruelty of factory farming, and aim to change how society views and treats farm animals by modeling relationships in which cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and other animals are our friends, not our food. The importance of advocating for changes in our food system, and preventing animals from being abused, was immediately apparent. While it is impossible for any shelter to rescue even a small fraction of the billions of animals exploited in the food industry each year, we can create widespread change by sharing our residents’ stories and promoting improved recognition and treatment for countless beings just like them.

Name some of your favorite Farm Sanctuary residents over the years, and what these relationships have meant to you. What are some lessons that these animals have taught you?

An important lesson the animals have taught me over the years is resilience, an ability to recover, heal, and overcome enormous hardships. They have also taught me the importance of being present, living in the moment, and enjoying life and friendship, and they have shown me how living in positive, mutually beneficial relationships helps everybody thrive. Some of the individuals who have touched me over the years include a pig named Johnny, a chicken named Perdie, and a steer named Opie.

Johnny was a loyal companion and protector of Hope, a disabled pig; he would make sure that the other pigs did not encroach upon her space or take her food.

Perdie was a chicken who was rescued from a Perdue Farms hatchery, and spent the first few weeks of his life in our home (which was a school bus on a tofu farm in Pennsylvania at the time); as a result, we grew very close. When it came time for him to live with the other chickens, Perdie made it clear that he wanted to stay with his human friends, but he eventually warmed up to his new bird family.

Opie was sent to the stockyard on the day he was born, still wet from afterbirth. It was a freezing day and he succumbed to hypothermia and was left to die in the alleyway where he fell. When I found him, he was nearly comatose, and his temperature was so low that it wouldn’t read on the thermometer.

Despite long odds, he made a full recovery and lived a long, happy life at Farm Sanctuary. I loved seeing and visiting this gentle giant, who grew to weigh nearly 3,000 pounds.

What are some milestones within Farm Sanctuary’s history that you are most proud of?

I am proud of the leading role Farm Sanctuary has played in bringing awareness to the plight of animals exploited in agriculture, and the role Farm Sanctuary has played in inspiring a burgeoning vegan food movement. We have come a long way over the past 30 years, and I’m very optimistic about the future. Besides initiating the farm sanctuary movement, we were pioneers in undercover investigations, corporate campaigns, and vegan outreach. Among our successes, we convinced Burger King to sell a veggie burger nationwide, achieved a federal ban on the slaughtering of downed cows, played a key role in exposing and outlawing the inhumane confinement of animals on factory farms in a number of states, and have helped advance a serious discussion about our food system, which has contributed to a reduction in meat consumption.

How has the animal agriculture industry changed over the past 30 years?

The factory farming business has continued to grow, taking over small farms and wreaking havoc throughout rural America. However, as opposition to factory farming has spread, and several states have outlawed some of the cruelest farming systems (such as veal crates, gestation crates, and battery cages), farmers and retailers are increasingly marketing animal products with labels suggesting that the animals are being treated well. It is positive to see growing concern about the suffering of animals exploited for food, but labels suggesting that animals are being treated humanely usually sound a lot better than they are, and well-meaning consumers are being misled.

What is a notable challenge that you have faced? How did this experience shape you as an advocate and activist and influence the way you interacted with others moving forward?

The Hegins pigeon shoot in Pennsylvania was a focus of the animal rights movement in the late 1980s. It was an annual community fundraiser centered around shooting pigeons and drinking beer. Animal advocates began showing up to protest with the intention of stopping the killing. We would vocally demonstrate our opposition and disgust with the event, often resulting in open conflict with its participants. Various arrests were made over the years as police tried to maintain order in the midst of what became a volatile environment. The violent circus atmosphere attracted shoot supporters who enjoyed the conflict, which made us realize that our confrontational approach was not having the intended result.

We decided to change our tactics; rather than fighting with shooters, we began documenting the violence of the pigeon shoot and rescuing injured birds. When the shooters and their supporters sought to fight, we refused. Unfortunately, the group began to take on more drastic measures to stir us up. They rushed to catch injured birds in order to prevent us from helping them. And they’d rip off the birds’ wings and bite off their heads, attempting to incite conflicts with us.

As the shooters escalated their confrontational tactics, however, we remained nonviolent and continued documenting their behavior. During the multi-year battle, Farm Sanctuary incorporated as a Pennsylvania law enforcement agency and filed cruelty charges, complementing other legal strategies underway to end the shoot. Our behavior came to be seen as respectable and responsible, and the shooters, still seeking to create violent confrontations, were behaving in abominable ways. Their position became less tenable and more desperate.

In the event’s final year, the shooters’ violence was continuously met with nonviolence, which ultimately prevailed. At the end of the day, after most people had left, a small group of animal advocates convened around a veterinary van where rescued pigeons were being cared for. When a group of frustrated shooters came over for one last try at stirring up a conflict we linked arms and turned our backs to them, placing ourselves between the shooters and the pigeons. Thankfully, the police arrived just as the shooters did and told them to disperse. It was a fitting end to an ugly event. This episode helped me understand the power of nonviolence in creating social change.

In the end, we were able to rescue dozens of pigeons, many of whom came to live at Farm Sanctuary. And if you visit our Watkins Glen shelter today, you can see the descendants of these Hegins birds.

How has the animal rights movement changed over the past 30 years?

The animal rights movement has grown significantly over the past 30 years. There are many more nonprofit organizations dedicated to protecting animals today than in 1986, including many who focus on helping farm animals. At the same time, older, mainstream organizations have started including farm animals in their area of concern, and our movement is increasingly partnering with aligned organizations in the environmental, health, and food sectors. There is more awareness and opposition to factory farming today than ever, and it’s never been a better time to be vegan. We are in the midst of a burgeoning food movement, with farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, and community gardens spreading. Plant-based businesses are flourishing and attracting enormous amounts of capital as the marketplace shifts. In 1986, I needed to mix soy powder with water to make soy milk. Today, I can go into most mainstream grocery stores and find a variety of alternatives to cows’ milk, including almond, soy, and coconut-based milks.

What are some lessons we’ve learned over the past 30 years, and how can we apply these teachings going forward?

We have learned how entrenched animal agriculture is and that taking on this industry requires dedication, patience, and persistence. We need to remain engaged and effective for many years, so it’s important to take care of ourselves, which entails things as basic as getting enough rest, eating well, and staying hydrated. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is how emotional human beings are, and how attached we can become to harmful behaviors. We are not so much ‘rational animals’ as we are ‘rationalizing animals,’ and we have a strong propensity to rationalize when we don’t feel good about our conduct. Over the course of human history, we have come up with many reasons to do very bad things, and that continues today. However, I’ve noticed that everybody has a desire for love and kindness; focusing on these qualities, and supporting and empowering that spark, is an effective way to create positive change.