Farmed Animal Sanctuary Meets Social Enterprise

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animal liberation, animal rights, animal-assisted therapy, healing, human-animal relationships, mutual reciprocity, sanctuary, social enterprise, therapy

For most folks trying to run a farmed animal sanctuary, they soon learn it is a money sink.  Not everyone is as fortunate, visionary, or aggressive in their fundraising as the founders of Farm Sanctuary.  The founders of Caboodle Ranch and Angel’s Gate Hospice may know that all too well.  It’s expensive to run a rehabilitation center and sanctuary for animals.  Majority of Americans don’t find it to be of value.  Grants aren’t available specifically for sanctuaries.  And earned income from tours and bed and breakfast don’t generate much.  The only sanctuaries that survive and become effective, amazing organizations are those that have either a strong giving program, adopt social enterprise, or have a combination of the two.

But do any farmed animal sanctuaries exist that are social enterprises?

Calling on the love for animals in the black community

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African Americans, animal abuse, animal activism, animal advocacy, animal cruelty, black violence, human-animal bond, human-animal relationships

I just received this through twitter: Memphis woman charged with aggravated animal cruelty.  Memphis is my home town, and the animal cruelty immediately caught my eye.  This is nothing new for Memphis.  In fact, some months ago, I wrote a post on a series of animal cruelty charges, majority in Memphis, all involving black men.  This time it’s a black woman. 

Trans-species Living: An Interview with Gay Bradshaw

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animal consciousness, animal emotions, animal liberation, animality, community, consciousness, human-animal relationships, mutual reciprocity, mutuality, trans-species, trans-species psychology

What is trans-species psychology and how did you get involved in starting this new field?

Trans-species psychology describes a common model of brain, mind, and behavior for all animals, human inclusive. It draws from research in three main fields: neuroscience, ethology, and psychology. Why “trans” and why “psychology”?

The Quest for Zoopolis

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ecological design, human-animal relationships, intentional community, trans-species, urban wildlife, zoopolis

From harmonyfl.com

“Zoopolis” was coined by Jennifer Wolch, former professor of Geography at the University of Southern California and current dean at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.  She described it as a “renaturalized, re-enchanted city” that would “allow for the emergence of an ethic, practice, and politics of caring for animals and nature” by “[inviting] the animals back in.”

One Idealist’s Insecurity and the Story of Tortoise-Shelly

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animal behavior, animal liberation, cats, creative narrative, human-animal bond, human-animal relationships, infancy, spay/neuter

Shelly lifted herself from her fetal posture.  It’s after dawn and her hunger pains began to settle in.  Her wide yellow eyes looked toward her companions who had not yet risen, but one of them was suspiciously moving around in bed.  Though she had been awake for a while, Shelly extended her rump into the air, stretching herself as if her body were being pulled by invisible thread tugged at opposite ends.  She walked onto the bed and lowered her nose onto her shuffling companion’s face.  Just as she suspected, her companion was not fully asleep.  Despite her companion’s eyes remaining closed, her shallow breaths and mouth movements were enough indication for Shelly to wake her up.

Encounters with Animal Minds: Lessons in Interspecies Relationships and Intersubjectivity (Part II)

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animal behavior, Barbara Smuts, consciousness, human-animal relationships, interspecies communication, interspecies relationships, intersubjectivity, mutuality

In part one, I touched on the tremendous insight into animality in Barbara Smuts’ article “Encounters with Animal Minds.”  However, the main themes of her narrative revolved around interspecies relationships and the concept of intersubjectivity.  Using personal narratives to describe her research experience with a baboon tribe in Africa and her intimate experience with dog companion Safi, she creates a theory of interspecies relationships based on direct experience.  Despite her focus on direct experience and phenomenological insight, she doesn’t stray too far from her scientific roots.  She concludes the paper with seven concrete stages she discovered in building interspecies relationships.

A Call for Animal Visions from People of Color

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animal liberation, human-animal relationships, people of color, social justice

Why are all the people in the media with organizations or degrees who work for radically changing human-animal relationships white?  Jane Goodall, Marc Bekoff, G.A. Bradshaw, Karen Davis, Daphne Sheldrick–just to name a few.  Even more obvious are animal rights-identified white people, like Peter Young or Keith Mann, some of whom talk more about their vegan identities and selfless “freedom-fighting” personae than actual relationships with animals.  Where are the visions of people of color who sincerely care about radically reconstructing animal relations in American society? 

Encounters with Animal Minds: Lessons in Animality (Part 1)

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animal bonds, animal consciousness, animal minds, animality, Barbara Smuts, consciousness, human-animal bond, human-animal relationships, interspecies communication, intersubjectivity, self/other

Barbara Smuts and Safi

I just recently read an article by Barbara Smuts, published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.  Unlike many articles I come across with the phrase “animal minds” in the title, this article was far from being a pretentious imposition of human privilege on nonhuman animal experience.  In fact, I would go so far as to say this article was amazing and profound and greatly contributes to an emergent body of knowledge in western thought surrounding the animal condition and reconceptualizing interspecies animal relationships.

The detailed narrative of her experiences working with baboons and chimpanzees and her intimate relationship with her dog companion Safi are wonderful explorations into animality,  intersubjectivity, and animal bonds.  The intimacy developed in her experiences confirmed that she “did indeed belong to this planet.”  In this post, I will focus primarily on her work surrounding animality.

A Christ-Follower and a Mouse

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dumpster-diving, human-animal relationships, intentional community, narrative, sympathy

During my young adult residency at The Mountain Retreat & Learning Center, I boarded with an extraordinary individual who was traveling from one intentional community to another, learning how to live holistically in equality beyond the realm of civilization. She told me that she was inspired to do this from the radical and holistic dissenter that was Jesus of Nazareth.

One night, we were in our house. I sat on my bed reading and my roommate was in the kitchen with another housemate. I heard a yelp and soon after my roommate came running into the bedroom. “The mouse came out,” she said excitedly. “He’s in the kitchen on the floor. You should come and see.” I slowly put down what I was reading and followed her into the kitchen. She and another roommate were lying on the floor feeding stale bread and cheese to a mouse who lived in the house. He was residing in the house before we all moved in and we had since seen him on and off for the last month.