Gus is a special pig with very particular needs. He must be kept safe from squabbles with other pigs, from stress, and from becoming overheated, because a precipitous increase in his heart rate could put him into respiratory arrest.

Carlee is someone, not something. She is not a lamb chop. She is not merchandise. And she is certainly not a gift to be thoughtlessly bestowed on an unprepared child.

When one door closes, so they say, another opens. This, however, is rarely the case for abandoned farm animals.

Close bonds between family members, flockmates, and friends abound among the animals at our shelters.

When Los Angeles-area animal control agents found Bear in an abandoned barn, the tiny newborn lamb’s umbilical cord was still attached and had not been cleaned.

The gentle moo of a cow named Tricia was one of the first sounds to reach Sweety upon her arrival at our New York Shelter. Unfamiliar places are frightening to blind animals like Sweety, so this simple greeting from another cow must have been a great comfort to her.

This January, as we face some of the most frigid winter weather in decades, we are thankful that a little calf named Nik is safe and warm at our New York Shelter.

During our Celebration for the Turkeys events and the Adopt a Turkey Project in November, everyone at Farm Sanctuary is talking turkey.

Recently, Farm Sanctuary National Shelter Director Susie Coston attended the New York City premiere of The Ghosts in Our Machine, a documentary that illuminates the lives of animals suffering within the global industries of food, fashion, entertainment, and research.

In the traditional practice of Kapparot, observed in conjunction with Yom Kippur, a participant holds a chicken by the wings or the legs and circles the bird nine times above his head as he recites a prayer.