Newest miniature pony, rescued from an abusive owner.
He's afraid of anyone that enters his cage.
It took me about two hours to get to Serenity Springs Sanctuary. I drove from my house in Denton to Forestburg, Texas, where I spent thirty more minutes on a three mile stretch of Merrit Road, unable to get a cell signal to contact anyone. Along the side of the road, I was approached by a couple of locals, who when asked said they had no idea of a sanctuary nearby. I finally found it on my fifth pass, the gate and sign covered in rust, hidden by plants.
I came into this project only knowing that this was a small animal reserve. For my readings I was going to analyze firsthand the dualisms of how people treat animals, particularly using the readings of Plumbwood and Francion, and also anthropocentrism discussed by Callicott. Kowking little of what I was going to encounter for this project, I wanted to keep a broad range of topics I could analyze.
The sanctuary is run primarily Terry Degaw. She takes care of all the feeding, cleaning, and finances of the entire facility. She does this by working online every night doing freelance writing, writing about things she has no particular interest in. She said that she regrets not being allowed into college in the 50s because of being a woman. She relies heavily on the work of volunteers and the irregular donations she receives. Unfortunately, she says that not many people have a passion for pigs and never receives large, regular donations from companies. [It’s here where I hate being a student, paying his own rent.]
180 degree view from the middle of the area. Full Image Here.
I first received a tour from Terry. On her 25 acres, the sanctuary houses around 150 animals at any given time. Most of the animals were pigs, but also included were horses, donkeys, chickens, as well as cats and a few dogs. She showed me two blind horses she had rescued. One was used as a breeding mare, and when she got an eye infection, her eyes were allowed to basically rot out, because she didn’t need her eyes to make horses. It was here that Terry mentioned how people don’t care about animals for their lives, only for the profit they can make. Throughout the day Terry would continue to mention the dualisms people use to justify their ownership as well as the cruelty and neglect they force on their “property.”
While there I racked the feeding pathway, mowed a section of the entrance pathway, and helped construct part of a fence for group of new pigs that were being brought to the sanctuary in a few weeks. Unfortunately I had to leave to go to my job that afternoon, but I wanted to stay there all day. I only got to interact with a few of the animals, and some of the rescue stories are real tearjerkers. I plan on going back this summer and getting to interact with the animals more.
Serious business cutting fence ties.
During this trip however, what surprised me most was how much I learned that Terry has sacrificed to help these creatures. It’s obvious that Terry is a highly intelligent woman, but through her life has faced hardship and injustice. As a woman she was treated unfairly, and because of that decision has taken up the needs of others and helps them no matter what the cost. Her life has been directly effected by the dualisms set up by the society she lives in. Her funding is impacted that people don't care about pigs as much as other animals, because dogs and cats are more human-like and lovable. She struggles to make ends meet, but food is always bought, and the vet is always brought in. She says that they are her responsibility, and no animal deserves to die.
While I was there, she was trying to figure out her new iPhone, a gift gotten for and paid for by one of her regular volunteers. She had to try for awhile, but eventually showed me a picture of a horned toad she saw laying eggs on her property the previous week, the first she had seen in 20 year. She mentioned how they used to be everywhere, but that the pollution cause by the nearby oil well and natural gas farms literally next door had driven them off. She mentioned that the same had been for the fireflies. She posted this on her facebook wall:
"Nostalgia reigns. I saw a fire fly last night. It's been years. Where there is one there should be more. Remember them flickering in the dark by the thousands..eliminated by humans and their pesticides. I tried following it to look for more and forgot to step over the terrace wall. Yikes...I was alright and laid there still watching until it disappeared into the woods. The good ole days"
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