our animals

We received a Facebook message from a one of our guests who attended our gala last year. She also happened to be a neighbour. She explained that when she went to her chicken coop in the morning, low and behold there were two baby turkeys. She had no idea how they got there. She knew she wasn’t able to take care of these babies and that’s when she thought of us. 

These two babies were in luck because we wanted to add other birds to our aviary. Our neighbour told us that they had their toes and beaks amputated and we immediately understood that these turkeys were from a factory farm.

Their journey to be secretly put into a backyard chicken coop in the middle of the night has many possibilities. One of which is that a kind person fell in love with these two and wanted them to live. Or perhaps they fell out of a box of babies destined for the factory. But why the secrecy of a nighttime undercover mission?

What we do know is these babies have been breed to grow super size breasts at the least cost in the least amount of time. They have been breed to be slaughtered at 2 – 4 months. They will now live out there natural lives at are farm, so we some huge challenges with their care. We have a proven track record of helping animals like these, and we hope you join us on this journey.

Off to the vet for a full check up.  As usual, there seem to be more questions than answers for animals that are raised to be slaughtered at a young age.  Their gender is not known and there is not any information available on how to keep a commercial turkey happy and healthy for a natural life span.
We took some time before naming them, because they both deserved some majestic names to reflect their true nature and beauty. It is difficult to tell these two apart, except that one has a much brighter red neck.  We think he’s a boy and have named him Sterling. What comes to mind with this name is Sterling Silver which is an elegant metal, and maybe Stirling Moss, the motor race legend. If Sterling is actually a girl, she will be named Ruby.  So stay tuned if this story takes another twist, which can easily happen.
Welcome to the farm Sterling/Ruby