well i was born into a family with a long and large history of dairying , butchering, slaughtering and farming large numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs. I lived, and still live on 300 acars on a ilsand located 20 mins inland from the nsw mid north coast. when my pop was still around he use to farm beef cattle, he even did his own slaughtering, 30 years ago he ran and owned the largest slaughterhouse on the mid north coast. and he suppled majoirty of the meat. he even owned all the local butcher shops and he used to have a large dairy. so bascially he had every thing. when i was 11 i remeber i use to go out and watch the sheep been slaughter, same as the chickens, and a cow or 2. i never thought about it in a bad way b4. i was always told it was normal n animals dont mind, i had a pet cow my pop gave me when i was 3, my pop was such a beautiful person ( besides his veiws on meat and animals ) but he gave all his grand children a pet and i was the only 1 to recive a cow. anyway. he gave me his fave calf and i named her moo-moo. she is a pure angus. and he said everytime she has a calf i would have to sell it. that soon changed
when the first calf redstar was born he was a lil bull calf, half angus and half hereford. he was red all over and had a white face with a red star on his forhead - hence the name
. once he reached 6 months of age it was time to sell him, but i couldnt part with him - i was 4 at the time, so my pop said i could keep him but the next calf has to go, and yet again i fell in love with the next calf , a lil bull calf , angus cross murrey grey, named bully. no-way was i going to let him go , i loved him so much . and my pop said i had to sell him but he is still here today, this story happened 3 more times and i still have all the calfs. redstar is now 12, bully is now 10, charcole ( 3rd calf ) is now 8, lola ( 4th calf ) is 5 and wedg ( 5th calf ) is now 3. and moo is 15. and farmers still think she looks like she is 3-4 , she looks amazing for her age
woops got bit off the story
. so when i was 11 i saw that some 1 posted in DOLLY that there was a website for animal lovers called unleshed, so i cheacked it out and this is were i relised that animals do feel pain, fear, love, compassion, joy, sadness and every other emotion JUST LIKE US! so i decied to try bee veg, and i felt alot better, even my lil sis tryed and she is still veg
. so this is were i talked to my pop about farming, and he said to me " shannon, dont tell any1 but u are my fav grandchild, i love you more then anything in the world, if this is how u truely feel about animals, i will help you and give u support all along the way, from today i will stop farming animals" i dont remember what said to him but i will never forget what he said to me. So with that been said, i was so excited, i had been rescuing rabbits, guinea pigs and rats and rehoming them since i was 8 with my parents help of course
. and i always loved pigs, sheep and cows more then anything in the world so i asked pop if he would help set up a santuary for farm animals and to my amazment he said yes.
ever since i was 11 i have been veg, working on vegan and rescueing livestock from slaughter and abuse around my local area, sadley my world came to a end this year when my pop passed away, but his kind change of mind for his grand daughter wil always be remebered. ever since " oink-moo rescue" has been established we have rescued over 265 animals and rehomed some, but we have currenlty around 110 animals in care atm. with the most recent to been 2 , 12 and 11 year old cows who were skin and bone when i got them and now they have put on weight and are running freely with the other cows and enjoying life to the fullest.
sorry my post is so long
i guess my reason for change was i loved animals more then anything in the world, and even the hardest people can change there ways. thanks.
and now our children (2 and 4) are vegan at home and I have never felt better!
