Celebrating Compassion
Victor
Seeing so many tables crowded with vegan food is noteworthy in its own right, but it’s the tables we put out for the turkeys that I love the most. Volunteers show up early, and while some of us do animal chores as normal, others spend hours chopping apples and grapes and tofu and other goodies for the turkey’s table.
The turkeys and all the birds know that it is their day. Long before we have even started loading up their tables with their food, they will be strutting and puffing their chests in the area the tables will be placed.Some of the chickens and guineas and peacocks will not wait, of course. They’ll be nibbling at their feast as soon as we start loading up the tables.
The excitement at this event, the energy and peace and happiness, is a force of its own. Much of the excitement comes from the birds themselves, of course, but not all of it. Get a few hundred vegans together along with hundreds of dishes, of which they can eat everything? It’s hard to imagine a happier crowd of vegans!
Not everyone who comes is vegan, which means the non-vegans are faced with hundreds of delicious vegan dishes, making it impossible for them to ever believe that vegans are deprived. Deserts get a solid two banquet tables of their own, and crowded tables they are.This is the only event that is more about the vegan community than about outreach, yet the outreach potential is enormous. Terry tells Opal’s story every year – of her rescue while she literally ran from the slaughterhouse with the slaughterhouse workers chasing behind her – and that of all the turkeys. A reporter from the Washington Post came last year and so this year we have a very nice article about this event in a newspaper with a very wide distribution. Vegan MoFo got some love too, which I thought was a very nice touch, and quite a few delicious sounding vegan recipes were also included at the end of the article. It actually does a great job of showing that there are compassionate alternatives to the “traditional” thanksgiving dinner.
I’m sure the article will get a few people thinking. Maybe they’ll come visit the sanctuary, or even come to our celebration, and meet these individuals who have such personality and zest for life. The turkeys, and all the residents of the sanctuary, are well able to do their own outreach.
The stories they tell visitors are about hope, about life, about the future. About their future and their life, which exist only because of sanctuaries and people willing to rescue them. They tell these stories when they look in a visitor’s eye, and also when they don’t. When they just are themselves doing their own thing, they show as simply as that what it means to have hope and joy and a future against all odds.
Poplar Spring is just one of many sanctuaries around the country and around the world. Most of the sanctuaries in the U.S. have some type of event at this time of year, though some of the sanctuaries in northern locations (like Woodstock in Woodstock, NY) have already had their event because it would be too cold in November to have an outdoor event up there. It’s well worth going, if you’re lucky enough to have a sanctuary near by.
Ryan, of The Veg Blog, compiled a great list of resources, from recipes to sanctuaries to events, in his Vegan Thanksgiving post this year. There are too many resources and options these days for a comprehensive list to be possible, but Ryan has put together a great sampling.
Anyone else celebrating at a sanctuary, or have a sanctuary celebration story to share?
Stephanie Ernst
Marji
Kelly G.
Deb
Mary Martin
I’m so excited for Thanksgiving with the Turkeys! This will be our third year, and every year is more fun. I can’t wait to see how big Izzy and Morty are–they were so tiny last year.
They’re definitely still smaller than the full grown adults, but they’ll look huge to you compared to last year! They’re still the same sweethearts though – they’ll come over to the fence and do their little grunts to ask for food and attention. You can tell they were spoiled from day one! Here’s a video from a few months ago! http://vimeo.com/14154420
From hundreds of miles away, I can feel, from my head to my toes, the utter joy of the turkeys, chickens, guineas and peacocks who anticipate and celebrate this annual event.
I hope the Post article attracts dozens of would-be vegans to Poplar Spring, where they will surely discover how wonderful it feels to give to turkeys instead of take from them on this day of thanks. I can’t wait for them to experience the feelings of freedom and peace that accompany the expansion of one’s circle of compassion.
Thank you for sharing these poignant photos and your riveting description of the event in years past, Deb. Please let us know how this year’s potluck feast turns out, ok?
It will be interesting to find out if there are people this year who came because of the article! It will be hard to know for certain unless they specifically mention it to someone, though people might call/email Terry and Dave, so they might end up with an idea of the impact it had.
I’ll report back with how it all goes! Lots of good food, that much I can predict. :)
Hey Deb, just to let you know, the phone has not stopped ringing since the article was printed in the Post yesterday. Lots of the people calling are NOT vegan or even veg, and they are curious about checking out a vegan potluck. They are all saying they want to attend, so I think it’s going to be our biggest Thanksgiving event ever!
That’s awesome! I’m even more excited about the event now! (I’ll pretend this does not mean more tables and chairs!) The weather should be great for it too, which will be especially good for luring the vegan-curious.
Alex and I are going to try to drive down this year! It’s the first year we’ve had a car, so even though we’re now 90 miles farther away, we want try to make it. Its been almost 2 years since we were last able to visit and I can hardly wait.
Now I just have to figure out what to bring…
I hope you can make it! I almost always end up bringing cookies, because they’re easy and I don’t have to worry about their temperature and they’re easy to transport. Luckily not everyone is as lazy as I am, or there would be 300 desserts!
We should try to meet up while you’re there, and Shannon (earlier commenter) too. It might be sort of crowded, but I imagine they’ll have the volunteers stationed at the different animal areas again this year, and if so I’ll be in the chicken area (probably with a nametag).
I always know where to look for you because you’re always at the chickens! You and I and Shannon (and Alex) definitely need to meet up and say hi, at the very least.
P.S. I love cookies :)
It’s true, I always choose chicken duty! Cool, everyone will know where to look for me, and that makes it easy on me, at least! :D
So now I need only decide which kind of cookies…
We’ll look for you near the chickens! I’m so excited!
Awesome! Will be great to see you all!
You take such great photos, Deb. Love them!
Thanks Elaine! :)
Hey, if you (Deb, Shannon, Jennie, Alex, Terry) have time — between chowing down on the delicious dishes and munching on Deb’s delectable cookies and feeding the residents and greeting one another — to talk to some of the non-vegan first-timers, I would love to know their responses. What do they think of the yummy food? What are they thinking and feeling as they watch the birds enjoy life as it’s meant to be — free as a … well, bird? Thanks, news correspondents! :-)))
We can try! It’s going to be hard to know who is a first-timer unless they bring it up, of course. But then again, that might be something they’d do, if they came because of the article.
And if it sets properly (i.e., if I didn’t mess it up!) I’ll be bringing fudge! Though I think I might make cookies too, just in case… (can never have too many cookies!)
Oh, I know how uncertain is the outcome of fudge. Sometimes I make perfect PB fudge; other times, forgetaboutit. :-)
Thanks for being all-ears, Deb. Surely the Post readers will be raving to anyone and everyone about the amazing day they’re having with the animals they *USED* to exploit–until finding Poplar Spring. :-)
The birds with their own tables makes me smile. That’s a great tradition. Thanks for a beautiful story and photos to match, Deb. Hope you enjoy the feast.
Thanks sundog!
That looks like so much fun. We have to wait for our use permit approval before we can have visitors again, which means no thanksgiving event this year – we are so disappointed but so overjoyed to see other sanctuaries and communities come together FOR the turkeys.
Marji, I think you need to get on a plane RIGHT NOW and come too. Either that or host a Thanksgiving FOR the Turkeys event sometime in the middle of the summer to make up for it. I’ll come!
LOL, I like that idea! I will get to spend Thanksgiving with the turkeys and a nice vegan meal, but I REALLY love the big event, inviting the public out to enjoy good food and, more importantly, feed the turkeys and chickens!
We might have to do a mid-summer Turkey celebration! Anything to honor them at the sanctuary (anything for food, they say).
I was thinking about that Marji, and how frustrating it must be (in so many ways!) to be waiting on a use permit approval. Hope the approval comes through soon! And I agree with Jennie! Hop on a plane! :)
Rescued turkeys make perfect sense–what a marvelous event and what wonderful pictures! May I recommend you include rescued ratties in next year’s festivities, since rats also played a significant role in the Pilgrim’s experience in the new world: they were brought along on the Mayflower to the new world without their consent–but turn-about is “fare” play: by midwinter of their first year in residence, the pilgrims discovered that their Shanghaied rodent companions had eaten a good deal of their supplies in the interim, including their seed corn, thus making the assistant of native peoples all the more necessary! At least SOME species were well-equipped for life in the New World….
Thanks for the comment, doveyrat.
Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary is a sanctuary for rescued farmed animals, as well as a safe place where wildlife (such as geese and ducks and squirrels and turtles) can be released by wildlife rehabilitators. The rescued residents include goats, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, chickens, turkeys, guineas, peacocks and bunnies, and they live at the sanctuary free of harm and exploitation for the rest of their lives. Animals aren’t brought in to stage this event. It is an event to honor the current residents.
Happy ThanksLiving Day to All! <3
I was at the Poplar Spring event on Saturday. It was my first time at a sanctuary. Loved it! In past years, I have thought Thanksgiving was the worst holiday – Black Thursday! It is sooo good and healing to turn the tables and celebrate the animals right there with them.
Also, Poplar Spring is such a beautiful place. I wish I could have stayed longer than 2.5 hours.
I’m so glad you had a good time! It really is nice to be able to celebrate in such a positive way.
Are you in the DC area? You can always come out for tours – just email or call Terry (you can find contact info at http://www.animalsanctuary.org) – and there’s even more leeway for people who sponsor animals to come and hang out with their sponsored residents.
Also, and this is what I (of course!) most highly recommend, you can volunteer to help with the animal chores. It’s always in the morning, but it can be any day of the week, as often as you can or want to. It’s really flexible, other than the morning part. And during chores is when I find I get the most interaction with the animals.
I obviously feel the same way you do about wanting to have more time at the sanctuary, because I volunteer every weekend! :)