Alcheringa Sanctuary

31/07/2025

King Marley on his throne, while Holly looks on.

30/07/2025

Milo was late for 'work' again this morning! Look how high he can jump!😆

29/07/2025

You may remember that Westie had a swelling on his right ear at the start of June. The vet took a look at it, burst it and expressed a lot of gunk out of it. He suspected Westie had been bitten by an insect, and had cut his ear while scratching the itchy bite with his foot, resulting in an infection. We were told to keep the cut open and repeatedly express the infection out, but that clearly caused Westie a lot of pain and he hated it. Like us, sheep do all they can to avoid pain. The vet assured me that it if we left it, his immune system would get rid of the infection eventually, it would just take longer. He assured us there was no chance of it going septic. So, in deference to Westie's wishes not to be painfully squeezed, we've left it, other than periodically gently washing it with warm salty water, and providing a multivitamin as a general boost to his system. The swelling has slowly reduced in size and is now almost back to normal, and he is moving the ear easily again. As far as is safe, we work with the animals in our care rather than forcing our will on them. This is because we are vegan, which means we respect non-human animals and recognise and cater to their wishes, preferences, fears and personal histories. Veganism is about more than just what we eat, it directs all our dealings with non-human animals and the wider environment which is home to all of us. By keeping the needs of all animals at the forefront of our minds when we make decisions, we do all we can to tread on this fragile planet lightly. That's better for all of us.

28/07/2025

When you get distracted by the grassy verge, and are late to join your mates in the big field. Woohoo!

26/07/2025

Sanctuary Manager Charlie came to help us fetch the donkeys tonight. They weren't at the gate, so he had to call them. Good Charlie!

25/07/2025

"Surely the greater harm is caused by permitting the dairy industry to peddle its goods through advertising the myth that dairy is essential for human health, and harmless to both animals and the environment, to members of the public? "

22/07/2025

Tilly always has an eye on the feed store, from whence treats sometimes come.

21/07/2025

"If you care about values such as fairness, peace, and empathy, and if you think it’s wrong to objectify and hurt others, then you already agree with vegan values."

Hi everyone, I am pleased to share that a booklet that I wrote, Veganism as Holistic Nonviolence, is now available to read and print. In thi...

21/07/2025

Did you know that wild animals comprise only 4% of the global mammal biomass [1]? We humans, with our insistence on eating animals, have utterly destroyed the habitat of most wild animals, and replaced those habitats with animal agriculture. This has not only wiped out hundreds of thousands of animal species (and counting) [2], but it has also generated unprecedented levels of pollution to land, water and air [3]. There is no doubt that animal agriculture is destroying the planet. I am always astounded that humans claim to care for their children and grandchildren, but refuse to do even the most basic thing to preserve the planet those children are forced to inhabit. Following a vegan lifestyle radically reduces a person's impact on land use, water pollution and climate heating emissions [4]. It is the simplest and most powerful way to show you care about the future of this planet and your descendants.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
[2] https://www.livescience.com/animals/how-many-animal-species-have-humans-driven-to-extinction
[3] https://iapwa.org/the-environmental-cost-of-animal-agriculture/
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/20/vegan-diet-cuts-environmental-damage-climate-heating-emissions-study

18/07/2025

Egg farm chickens: A life?
1. Bred. Chickens have been selectively bred so that rather than laying 10-12 eggs per year in the wild, they lay an egg every day: 30 times as many.
2. Hatched. If the chick is male, it is killed on its first day of life - by gassing, suffocating, crushing, or grinding alive.
3. If female, the chick is raised in an artificial and intensive environment without her mother or any form of comfort or affection until she can lay eggs.
4. Regardless of whether the farm is caged or 'free range', the tip of the hen's beak will be cut of without anaesthesia or pain relief. This is to prevent the hens from injuring the surrounding hens, which occurs because they are so crowded.
5. Regardless of whether the farm is caged or 'free range', each chicken will have roughly the space of a standard iPad in order to live her entire life. If she is on a 'free range' farm, she has only about a 10% chance of ever making it outside, due to overcrowding. If not free range, she has no chance of ever seeing daylight in her entire life.
6. A little over a year later, the hen is so worn out from excessive egg laying and inhumane living conditions, she is deemed unproductive and sent to slaughter.
7. At 12 to 18 months of age (rather than her natural lifespan of 7-12 years), she will be killed by either gassing, or she will be hung upside down by her legs and dragged, conscious, through a water bath, then her throat will be cut.

This entire process has been devised for only one reason: non-vegans eat eggs.

Brigitte (pictured) is one of the rare few hens on the planet to be rescued from this hellish scenario. Here at Alcheringa Sanctuary, she enjoys every day of her life, but in all likelihood, her life span will still be radically reduced due to the trauma she experienced in her first 18 months.

In part, vegans do not eat eggs because egg production is cruel, but the more fundamental reason is that chickens' eggs are not our property in the first place. Just like honey and milk, eggs are the product of another species, and it is not our right to steal them.

If humans stopped eating eggs, ALL THIS CRUELTY WOULD END.

18/07/2025

17/07/2025

Gentle, handsome Smudge. He is the most sensitive, gentle soul you will ever meet. Smudge has only been alive for the past 8 years because he and his mum escaped a farm when he was only a baby. The alternate possibility - of him as a baby being forced into a slaughterhouse, surrounded by all that terror and misery - is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. I am so thankful that as a vegan, I am not contributing to that sort of suffering.