Sanctuary Spotlight: Farm Sanctuary

My time at Watkins Glen Farm Sanctuary was too busy with volunteering and the farm is so massive, I was not able to interview the owner while there. Luckily, I was able to email a few questions to be answered by National Shelter Director Susie Coston. Below you will find her interview!

1. How long has Watkins Glen Sanctuary been running?

The WG facility started in 1989 but there were two rented properties before that with only a handful of animals on them.

2. Why did you decide to start it?

Gene Baur, one of the co-founders, started the sanctuary because of the undercover investigations they were doing at the time and wanting a place for the animals to go who they rescued from those investigations. The first animal was Hilda who was found on a dead pile at an auction for livestock.

3. Do you remember your first animal(s)?

We all have different first animals here. Gene had Hilda and others when they started for the first ten years. I came in 2000 so the animals that I knew were different than those first rescued. You can of course write to Gene about Hilda.

4. How about a favorite animal?

My favorite animal ever was likely Arbuckle the steer- a blind steer who we rescued from a cruelty case in 2000- the animals were all starving.

5. Do you have a favorite memory?

There are so many. Rescuing animals and seeing them come to life at our sanctuaries create so many memories. There are 15 years’ worth for me so hard to choose one.

6. Are you vegan? Why or why not? If so, do you keep the sanctuary vegan?

The caregivers are all vegan and I am of course vegan as well. Many of the staff hired for barn cleaning and maintenance jobs often become vegan quickly after they begin working with the animals. We like to meet everyone where they are so we do not demand to have only vegan people in some positions. The sanctuary is of course vegan- no leather- no animal products at all on the site. The majority of the staff is vegan but again if we only hire vegans we aren’t making new ones.

7. Do you actively seek rescues? If so, how?

You do not have to seek them- they will come. We are currently working on one with 600 animals- we have done rescues involving thousands of animals- usually a few large ones each year along with lots of rescues of individuals.

8. Briefly describe a standard day on the farm.

Again hard to do but for the caregiving team there is an am meds person, who is on the farm from 6am until 3:30 and a PM person who comes in at noon and stays and closes the farm at night. These staff give all medical treatments to each animal that is on something- pain meds, antibiotics, etc. for a full eight hours. They do foot wraps, special feed treatments, all medical treatments. Currently there are over 100 animals on daily treatments. There is also a feeder-who feeds the main farm-does all feeds of the animals- currently in WG there are 450 animals so that person feeds those on the main shelter. There is also a person that only does our Sheds areas which are isolation areas, which keeps them off the main farm, but they do all meds and feeds in those areas. There are people daily cleaning the barns- a totally different staff than the caregivers, and maintenance people who are repairing fences, building, electrical, plumbing, etc. Everyone keeps very busy.

9. Do you have any future plans? (expansion, adding more species, more farms...)

We are starting a new project in NJ-- a smaller sanctuary/education center.

10. How is the local support?

We have some local support and have worked to get good relationships with our local community. We have support from around the world. Our main support is not local