FRIEND Farmed Animal Rescue

10/09/201710/09/2017 plumesworldanimalrescue, animals, Animalsantuary, FRIENDanimalrescue, Friendsnotfood, veganLeave a comment

I first visited FRIEND Animal Rescue last year on one of their open days (which I blogged about here). They have a lovely site near Maidstone in Kent which just happens to be about half way between my house and my relatives on the South Coast, so Mama Plumes and I met up with my Cousins and their 10 week old baby son.

Here’s an excerpt from FRIENDS website about what they do (as I couldn’t say it better myself)

WHAT WE DO

Today, FRIEND is a working animal sanctuary with around 100 farm animals and companion animals. Animals find their way here in all sorts of ways. Some are rescued from places of abuse, some arrive following the death of their guardian. Some despicable people abandon their animals by throwing them over the fence. No matter how they get here, they are all welcome to live the rest of their lives as naturally as possible with little human interaction.

We offer a no kill, free roaming (as far as possible and safe) home to cows, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. Our 30+ pigs live in their own paddock with wallows. Some of our cats are feral and some are house dwellers. All our dogs love their walks in our meadow.

It was lovely to see these animals roaming free and getting so close to them. Some of the pigs were very friendly and came up for a stroke and a nuzzle. I particularly love cows, so I was glad to be able to go in the field with them as this wasn’t possible last year.

Some of the animals are shyer, like the sheep and the llama so we just let them do their thing and admired them from afar. Some, like the goats, enjoyed very much getting in everybody’s business especially if you had some food on you!

We also enjoyed some fab vegan food, Mum and I had bean stew and potato and I had a piece of gorgeous carrot cake with a mug of tea.

Spending time with animals really re-iterates to me why I’m vegan and inspires me to continue participating in vegan activism events.

FRIEND have open days and volunteer days throughout the year so check out their Facebook page to keep up with events. If you aren’t able to visit you can donate to FRIEND via their website.

Here’s a few photos of our day.

Plumes x

Hopefield Animal Sanctuary

15/08/201720/08/2017 plumesworldanimalrights, animals, Animalsanctuary, Crueltyfee, Hopefield, Sanctuary1 Comment

On Sunday I had an impromptu visit to Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Brentwood for their Summer Barbecue. I can’t believe I’ve never been before as this is my nearest sanctuary, but I’ll definitely be a regular visitor now.

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Hopefield is a non-profit organisation which rescue abandoned animals.

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They have a lot of farm animals as well as exotic animals who have been bought as pets and their owners did not have the specialist knowledge to look after them properly.

I love chickens and the one with the ‘fro just made my heart melt.

There are so many horses! There were a number in the field to came up to see us, as well as those with health issues in the stables.

The pigs were having a great time basking in the sun.

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How gorgeous is this guy?

I was really interested in the tanuki, and were surprised some people had been keeping these beautiful animals as pets.

There are also an increasing number of reptiles being looked after at the sanctuary.

Spending time with these animals reinforces my vegan beliefs and why I want to end their use and exploitation.

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This is sanctuary’s longest resident and who the sanctuary is named after.

I would recommend you visit Hopefield if you are in the area or you can support them by donating online or sponsoring one of the animals.

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Plumes x

GBGB Protest 29th Jan 2017

30/01/2017 plumesworldanimalrights, animals, Brewery, Caged, Cagednw, Dogs, Gbgb, Greyhound, Greyhoundracing, Greyhounds, Youbettheydie4 Comments

Yesterday I attended the protest against the Greyhound Board of Great Britain Awards at The Brewery in Chiswell Street organised by Caged NW (Campaign Against Greyhound Exploitation and Death), London with my Sister-in-law, which was my first protest of 2017.

If you are unaware of the animal abuse issues involved in greyhound racing I’ll let you Google that for yourself.

We stood in the pouring rain making our opinion heard and I’m sure those arriving in black tie definitely heard what we had to say!

We didn’t stay as long as we had planned but we stayed until we were soaked through to the skin and were freezing. My Sister-in-law is still on antibiotics for a chest infection so we thought it best to leave.

We received support from lots of bus, taxi and car drivers going past and the police presence were quite friendly too.

Here’s some photos of the few hundred people who attended and gave their voices for the greyhounds.

F.R.I.E.N.D Animal Rescue

13/08/201613/08/2016 plumesworldanimalrescue, animalrights, animals, vegan, veganissues, veganliving2 Comments

Today I visited F.R.I.E.N.D Animal Rescue with my Mum and cousin Katy as part of their open day.

FRIEND is a 10 acre animal sanctuary in rural Kent. They receive animals that have been rescued from abuse, when owners have died and sometimes animals are even dumped on their doorstep. The animal sanctuary is a no kill, free roaming home to cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys as well as more than 30 pigs.

FRIEND rely on donations to pay for food, bedding, essential equipment and veterinary bills, they also rely on volunteers to keep the site running. You can donate money via the website and they also have an amazon wishlist which you can access here. You can also find out about volunteering opportunities on the site.

FRIEND promote the vegan lifestyle and we enjoyed some amazing vegan lemon drizzle cake while we were visiting!

If you have the opportunity to visit an animal sanctuary I would really recommend it. These animals have been rescued from a horrible life and can now live out their days free and in comfort. All the money goes towards caring for these animals unlike zoos which exploit animals for profit.