{"id":764348,"date":"2021-07-26T08:21:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T12:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764348"},"modified":"2021-07-26T08:26:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T12:26:24","slug":"stolen-innocence-how-vegan-activists-are-saving-spains-farm-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=764348","title":{"rendered":"STOLEN INNOCENCE: How vegan animal rights activists are saving Spain\u2019s farm animals"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

The judge wrote to us stating \u2018They\u2019re not going to give you the cow\u2019. They already had a date to kill her. So I went one night, under cover of darkness, and stole Margarita.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

ERICA BUIST:<\/strong> Spain may be famous for its love of meat \u2013 but sanctuaries across the country are coming to the rescue of its doomed cows, bulls, pigs, sheep and geese… Fundaci\u00f3n Santuario Gaia and El Hogar are two of about 20 animal sanctuaries in Spain where vegan activists dedicate themselves to rescuing animals, creating a place where they can live without being put to work or slaughtered.<\/p>\n

The employees and volunteers spend a huge amount of time in each other\u2019s company. Some might call it intense: they live and work together, cook and eat together, and there are leisure activities such as movie nights and debates. The sanctuaries are connected via WhatsApp, where they share veterinary information and coordinate animal rescues…<\/p>\n

Veganism and such care for animals may seem surprising in Spain. Matador directly translates as \u201ckiller\u201d. Surely animal-rescuing vegans are an oddity in the land of bullfighting and pata negra?… While the carnivorous tradition is there, especially in the south, \u201cit isn\u2019t that popular among young people,\u201d Palacios says. But veganism is increasing in popularity in many countries \u2013 even the ham capital of the world.<\/p>\n

Between 2017 and 2019, Spanish study the Green Revolution found a trend towards plant-based eating. In 2017, 0.2% of Spaniards identified as vegan; by 2019, it was 0.5%. Vegetarians account for 1.5% of Spain\u2019s population. Animal welfare was the second most common reason cited for going vegetarian or vegan (23.8%) after health (67%)…<\/p>\n

We\u2019re used to seeing dogs and cats saved from abuse or neglect, but at Gaia and El Hogar \u2013 around two hours\u2019 drive apart on either side of Barcelona \u2013 most of the animals are pigs, cows, goats and chickens. Gaia co-founder Coque Fern\u00e1ndez Abella, 43, an animal rights activist and vet, says: \u201cWe wanted it to be for so-called farm animals because they are the most forgotten. No one takes care of them because they\u2019re seen as products.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up,\u201d he adds, \u201cit was typical to kill pigs to eat at home. Since I was small I had to help with it \u2013 it was horrible, because of the screams, but you had to do it. I remember when we rescued our first pig, the memories of the killings came back to me. After everything bad I\u2019ve done in the past, it\u2019s right that I should help animals now”…<\/p>\n

The sanctuaries are havens for animals that, rather than being killed for meat or shackled for dairy production, live happily and freely. They are fed and exercised, given medicine if they\u2019re sick, rehabilitated if they\u2019re injured and \u2013 the main privilege denied to most farm animals \u2013 allowed to live long lives…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to imagine vegan animal sanctuaries as soft, emotional places, but there is a steely side. Animals aren\u2019t just rescued from the sides of roads: sometimes they\u2019re swiped from state execution. In 2017, the El Hogar sanctuary made headlines after rescuing a bullfighting cow called Margarita.<\/p>\n

Margarita had an irresponsible owner. \u201cWhen he got drunk with his friends, they would chase her on horseback,\u201d says El Hogar founder Elena Tova. \u201cShe is still afraid of men.\u201d The authorities discovered he hadn\u2019t legally registered Margarita; under Spanish law, unregistered cows must be killed as without a vaccine record, there is a risk their meat could make people ill, or even cause a pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey couldn\u2019t be reasoned with,\u201d says Tova, who explained again and again that she wanted to take Margarita to a vegan sanctuary to live out her natural life; they could guarantee she would never be used for meat. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to change the law or make exceptions. So we created a page on change.org calling for Margarita not to be killed. It got 190,000 signatures in less than a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

She convinced the owner to let them take Margarita. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t enough: the vets still wanted to kill her. They made excuse after excuse and drowned us in red tape, until a judge who felt for us wrote to me to say, \u2018They\u2019re not going to give you the cow\u2019 \u2013 they already had a date to kill her. So I went one night, under cover of darkness, and stole Margarita”…<\/p>\n

Even though keeping their operations running is a constant financial struggle, both sanctuaries are nursing bigger dreams. Fern\u00e1ndez Abella wants to expand Gaia so they can save many more than the 500 animals they\u2019re currently caring for, and hopes their stories will turn more people towards veganism. Tova, at El Hogar, promises to open a small animal hospital onsite \u201cif it kills her\u201d, so terminally ill animals can die in their own home. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

RELATED VIDEOS:<\/strong><\/p>\n