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Following in the footsteps of vegetarian farmer Jay Wilde, a farmer in the South of Ireland has decided to send his herd of 70 cows to live at Hillside Animal Sanctuary rather than being sold to slaughter.
The farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained his decision:
“How could I send them to slaughter when there is this option for them? After all these years, they deserve more from me and they are very bonded as a herd. I can retire with peace of mind now, knowing they will live out their days together.”
The herd will be sent to live at Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk. Hillside has running since 1995 and is now home to over 3000 animals, and is one of the largest campaigning organisations for the animals’ cause in the UK.
Donate to the GoFundMe page to help support the move
The farmer is not only planning to send his dairy cattle to Hillside, but also the sheep and horse from the farm as well.
Charlie’s Equine Rescue are on hand to help make sure that the animals can travel safely to Norfolk from Ireland, but in order to do this, they need to raise funds for transport and veterinary checks.
You can help support this by checking out the GoFundMe page.
History repeats itself
The Irish farmer is not the first to donate his herd, many of whom were pregnant, to Hillside in order to save them from slaughter, as earlier this year, Jay Wilde – a vegetarian farmer in the East Midlands – also sent his herd of cows to live at Hillside animal sanctuary and decided to focus on growing crops instead. Speaking about his decision at the time, Jay said:
“I’m relieved to have made the decision to no longer farm animals, something which I always found quite upsetting. Cows have good memories and a range of emotions. They form relationships. I’ve even seen them cry.”
Since then, one of the 59 cows donated to has given birth to beautiful twin calves.
To see more of the stellar work that the Hillside Animal Sanctuary is doing, take a look their website here.