Voices of Compassion: Inside Woodstock Farm Sanctuary

You can watch this interview here.

After taking a little hiatus posting on my YouTube channel The Confident Vegan, I am excited to be back! I had the honor of interviewing Anna Balser who is the programs manager at the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary.

I have posted a lot of incredible interviews on my channel. Many of them include the stories of other vegans. It took me two years to transition and I wanted to create a space for vegans to share their journeys. Being vegan in a non-vegan world, can feel lonely and intimidating at times. Hearing the personal stories of other vegans, can be supportive and inspiring. I also share recipes videos and cover a important topics such as nutrition, communication, and boundary setting.

I realized that there is a lot of talk on my channel about the food aspect of veganism, as well as addressing the challenges that vegans face. What was missing is content that specifically talks about the animals and their experiences being caught up in the animal agriculture system.

I was really excited to have Anna on as a guest to share more about this and talk about the different residents living on the farm. One story Anna shared is about a goat named Peach. Someone hit Peach with a car on purpose. She was also very pregnant at the time this happened. A kind human witnessed this and brought Peach in for help. Peach was then transferred to the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary where she was able to get treatment and have her baby, who has been appropriately named James. Mother and son can now live their lives together in peace on the farm. You can read more about their story here as well as in our interview.

Here is a clip from our interview discussing the unique issues animal bred for meat face as they age.

I learned a lot from our conversation and looking forward to creating more content around the experiences of animals. Changing my diet brought me to veganism, the animals is what keeps me committed. Veganism isn't a diet. Diet makes up a big part of the vegan experience, but as whole it is a stance against the cruelty that is inflicted on the animals.

Today we live in a world where we don't need to use animals for food, clothing, cosmetics, and other commodities. Change is hard and takes time, but it is very doable! (It took me 2 years!) Learning about the experiences of animals and supporting farm sanctuaries can add more kindness to the world (which the world really needs right now!)

I still have not visited a farm sanctuary. I hope to visit Woodstock Farm Sanctuary sometime this summer. Have you been to a farm sanctuary before? If so, which one did you visit? What was your experience like?