Celebrate Easter With Compassion
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Woodstock Farm Sanctuary
March 2016

Easter heralds the arrival of spring and longer days, but sadly, it is a frightening and often fatal holiday for many animals. Baby bunnies, ducklings and chicks, sometimes dyed bright colors, are given as gifts to people who don’t know how to care for them.

When poor Picasso was brought to us, he was a bright blue chick and very itchy. Luckily, in our loving care, he eventually lost his artificially colored blue fuzz and blossomed into the handsome, gallant bird he is now...

Easter heralds the arrival of spring and longer days, but sadly, it is a frightening and often fatal holiday for many animals. Baby bunnies, ducklings and chicks, sometimes dyed bright colors, are given as gifts to people who don’t know how to care for them.

Too many of those animals are abandoned to die from exposure, starvation or predation, but some of the lucky ones were rescued and came to live at our sanctuary.

When poor Picasso was brought to us, he was a bright blue chick and very itchy. Luckily, in our loving care, he eventually lost his artificially colored blue fuzz and blossomed into the handsome, gallant bird he is now. Sweet Appoline, a precious bunny, was an Easter gift who was unwanted as an adult, but at Woodstock Sanctuary, she’ll always be wanted. Quincy, a helpless duckling abandoned in a city park, came to the sanctuary and stole everyone’s heart.

In addition to bunnies, ducks and chicks, a lamb is among the most common symbols of Easter. The lamb represents innocence, gentleness, renewal and rebirth. Here at Woodstock, we’ve just welcomed sweet little George and Dorothy Jo into our herd and we can confirm that they are indeed the embodiment of innocence! It’s hard to imagine that anyone could ever be capable of harming these two dear new friends, but George and Dorothy Jo, had we not rescued their mother, would have been slaughtered at just six to eight months old along with millions of other lambs killed for Easter dinner.

Thankfully George, Dorothy Jo and their sweet mom, Freyja, will be spared that fate and will get to celebrate Easter in a safe and nurturing environment. That lambs like George and Dorothy Jo are killed to celebrate rebirth is an unexamined irony of custom. This Easter, let’s remember that peace begins on our plates.

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