On Saturday, November 13, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara visited the rescued turkeys at the Acton, California location of Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s founding farm animal sanctuary and advocacy organization.

There’s nothing better than cooking from a tried and true recipe! Get ready—one of these vegan recipes might become a new family tradition.

Dogs are “man’s best friend.” Cats rule our homes—and the Internet. So where do turkeys fit into our lives? Some might argue, “on a plate.” In 2019, the United States slaughtered and processed nearly 230 million turkeys as food. Roughly 20 percent—46 million—were killed just for Thanksgiving, a.k.a. “Turkey Day.” It’s a fate we would never subject to our companion animals. But Thor, Lady Sif, Freyja, Brunnhilde, and Sheila turkeys were companions. Their former owner, a small hobby farmer, refused to let any harm befall them—even though most other farmers would raise them for meat.

It was the weekend of the 92nd Academy Awards when two cows scored the victory of a lifetime. Liberty, a three-year-old Wagyu cow, was about to face slaughter at a California beef plant. Instead, she gave birth to a baby girl: a life-affirming event that wound up saving them both.

In 1986, Farm Sanctuary launched the farm animal rescue and Sanctuary movement. It continues to grow because others—like our Sanctuary friends at Odd Man Inn—are growing with us.

In June, we sent a healthcare team to Tennessee to lead a Sanctuary clinic week with Odd Man Inn Animal Refuge. Odd Man Inn (OMI), a “refuge for animals out of options,” was first incorporated in Washington state, but this year, they acquired 93-acres of land in Jamestown, Tennessee—and with it, guardianship of 160 pigs. Now, they’re in the process of moving their operations to Tennessee and learning who lives on the property and what type of care they need. Below is an excerpt from our interview with Wendy Smith, Co-Founder and Director at Odd Man Inn (OMI).

All Boots wanted was a family. He was a twin, and his mother only had the strength to feed one lamb, so she had rejected him shortly after birth. To make matters worse, they lived on a sheep farm that breeds lambs for meat.

We’re grateful to be collaborating for the sixth year in a row with Treeline Cheese, and to share more inspiring stories of dairy survivors like Pietro.

This is as much Otis’s rescue story as it is the chance to honor the unnamed calf who helped him find Sanctuary. Otis and this calf lived on the same beef farm. And if things had gone according to plan, both calves would have been killed.

Adopt a Farm Animal: Pip