Click here to see a list of participating restaurants and make a reservation soon!

Not a member? Membership is a great value and not only enables you to take advantage of this program, but also gives you free tours, reduced admission to our events and special privileges at our on-site guesthouse, The Homestead. Learn more about becoming a member and supporting the important work that we do.

Despite their many wonderful qualities, roosters are generally considered undesirable. They are literally a waste product in the egg industry, which gasses, crushes, grinds up, or suffocates them shortly after birth. Hy-Line International in Iowa, the nation’s largest egg-laying hatchery, grinds up 150,000 baby chicks every single day.  But even small farmers keep their rooster populations low by killing any boys they don’t want.

Imagine our delight, then, when animal lover Kathy Ruttenberg told us that she wanted two roosters. Beautiful boys Hans Solo and Frances will leave for her idyllic home today, where they will live out their lives in peace and comfort, crowing to their hearts’ content. Emmet, Jailbird, Hank, Rocky, Sandy, Oreo, Poseidon, and Henry are just a few of the scores of gentle, sensitive, affectionate roosters we’ve known. Roosters, in fact, were the inspiration behind our t-shirt, A Chicken is a Bird You Can Hug.If you’d like to consider including adding an intelligent and loving rooster to your animal family, reach out to jenn@casanctuary.org.

At Camp Kindness, children do far more than observe the animals.They actually help with animal care; prepare delicious vegan meals to share with family; treat potbelly pigs to “spa day;” and learn about the behavior, language, emotions, and intelligence of 11 species of farm critters.

Certified humane educators teach how animals are treated in the meat, dairy, and egg industries in a way that is both sensitive and enlightening for young audiences. The program inspires young people to think critically about farm animal issues through art projects, reflective writing, and engaging learning opportunities. Overall, the camp is designed to promote kindness and compassion for all creatures – while having lots of fun.

And kids aren’t the only ones having fun! Parents can stay onsite at The Homestead, our guesthouse, and enjoy homemade vegan breakfasts, get VIP passes to spend quality time with the animals, take vegan cooking classes, and enjoy the Hudson Valley’s art and cultural scene, wineries, culinary hot spots, farmers markets, and hikes while the kids are in camp. Weekly Camp Kindness sessions run from July 8th through August 2nd. Click here for registration forms and more information.

For the last couple years, Bruce has been a Brooklyn house duck, and has grown very attached to people. When his caretaker found out that she was losing her home, she reached out to CAS. Lucky us!

Bruce, you see, craves human companionship. For this reason, she has joined The Underfoot Family, the beloved and ever-changing cast of characters who live in the main barn but are free during the day to go where they please. Generally, despite the freedom given to them, they choose to be underfoot. Bruce is no exception, and in fact, gets a little nippy when she’s not being held or offered a lap to nestle into!

Come visit us for a weekend Sanctuary tour and meet Bruce!

I am thrilled to invite you to another great season at Catskill Animal Sanctuary!

Starting this Saturday, April 6, join us for weekend tours where you will meet our sweet pig Nadine who loves belly rubs, our playful steer Amos, our rooster Emmett who likes to be cuddled, and all of their friends.

Spend the night on Sanctuary grounds at The Homestead, our beautifully renovated 1813 guesthouse where you will wake up to a home-cooked vegan breakfast and the sounds of roosters crowing.

Then discover the joy of vegan cooking through Compassionate Cuisine classes with Chef Linda or one of our many guest chefs.

Click here for more information about visiting the Sanctuary.

I hope to see you soon!

I want to tell you Andrea’s story.

When she was only a day old, she and 101 other chicks sat chirping helplessly in a cardboard box at a post office in Washington, DC. They were destined for Alabama, but had gotten lost in the mail. The hatchery where they came from told the post office that they would send a “new batch” to Alabama, and that the post office could do what they pleased with the lost chicks. These sensitive and intelligent animals were being regarded as nothing more than a commodity.Thankfully, a network of caring individuals sprang to action when they heard about the chicks, and when we got the call, we took in Andrea and nineteen others. They were so small when they arrived that they fit in the palm of my hand.

As you can imagine, sending a tiny chick like Andrea in the mail is inhumane and dangerous, so we immediately provided all the medical care they needed, and set them up under toasty heat lamps where they could recover from their trauma. Their little chirps echoed throughout the room. Andrea and her friends stared wide-eyed at me with such innocence! I was glad that these innocent chicks had made it through, and had ended up in a place where they will forever be surrounded by love.

I wish I could tell you that this is an unusual story, but the reality is that I get calls like this every week. Even though the need is enormous, there aren’t many places that take in farm animals.In fact, just weeks after taking in these chicks, I got a call from a rescue organization that was closing. More chickens, just like Andrea, needed somewhere they could call home. We drove to Pennsylvania and brought back forty-two chickens. Again we administered medical care and set up housing for all of them.

Calls like these will never stop coming in, but with your help, I can say yes to more of them. Each animal who arrives at Catskill Animal Sanctuary requires medical attention, housing, food, daily care, and more. Because many of these animals never find adoptive homes, I have to consider each animal we take in a life-long commitment, and that takes a lot of resources.

Please donate now towards our Emergency Rescue Fund and help us cover the expense of these rescues and so many others like them. Your gift will help us say ‘yes’ when the next urgent call comes.

Give now to help Catskill Animal Sanctuary continue our vital work of providing emergency rescue and sanctuary to animals who desperately need both. The animals need you on their side.

On behalf of Andrea and all her feathered friends, thank you.

With gratitude,

 
P.S. Click here to watch the video of these recent rescues! Your support makes this important work possible. Thank you.

Over the years, Jill has taken photos of the animals she loves at CAS. Having a passion, and talent, for photography, Jill’s photos are some of our most cherished CAS shots. Her much-loved photo of Henrietta and Atlas intertwined (see below) is a favorite among the CAS crew.

To showcase her beautiful work, Morton Memorial Library in Rhinecliff, NY, is hosting a photo exhibition of Jill’s CAS photos. The photos will be on display at the library from Saturday, April 6 – Sunday, April 28. To mark the opening of the exhibit, Morton Memorial Library invites the public to an opening reception on Friday, April 5 from 6pm – 8pm. Kathy Stevens, Catskill Animal Sanctuary’s Founder and Director, will be speaking at the event and copies of her books will be available for sale. All proceeds from Jill Meyer’s photo exhibit will benefit the animals at CAS and the Morton Memorial Library.

To learn more about the exhibit and the opening reception, click here. We hope to see you there!

Next time you are at CAS, stop in the Welcome Hut where you can purchase Jill’s beautiful photos on greeting cards!

It seems only a few years ago the word “vegan” was an obscurity. But now, Justin Timberlake is singing “Bring It On Down To Veganville” on Saturday Night Live, CNN’s Jane Velez Mitchell often takes on tough farm animal issues, and even the NY Times features articles on eating vegan. What impact does such attention have? From the looks of it, the compassionate shift towards veg-living is not stopping any time soon!

Since the rise of the factory farm post-WWII, the horrors of modern day animal agriculture have been hidden behind closed doors. Instead, the industry uses deceptive advertising to portray images of happy animals on small farms – far from reality. Thanks to brave souls who have gone undercover, footage of abuse on factory farms has made it to major media outlets like ABC for the world to see. In an attempt to muffle the movement, however, ag-gag bills that would criminalize the filming and sharing of such footage have been passed in several states. Thankfully, some media outlets continue to take the side of animals again! Recently, for instance, ABC ran a story on these ag-gag laws.

In addition to highlighting animal suffering, media are also touting veganism’s health benefits. In early January, the New York Times ran “A Vegan Resolution,” which highlighted the health benefits a vegan New Year’s resolution would bring. And slowly but surely, media are even addressing  the environmental impact of agribusiness, including serious water pollution. With three compelling reasons to go vegan out in the national consciousness, hopefully big change is on the horizon!

Whether it be once a day on “Meatless Mondays” or becoming a hard-core vegan, veggie living is on the rise. For example, Los Angeles public schools have recently implemented Meatless Mondays. This means that every Monday about 650,000 meat free meals will be served for both breakfast and lunch to schoolchildren in LA. That’s huge! To meet the demands of a changing consumer culture, industries like alternative dairy are growing dramatically. In 2011, for instance, sales of almond milk increased by 79 percent! While the percent of vegetarians has seemed to plateau recently at 5%, the number of “flexitarians,” people who eat vegetarian more than half the time, has risen to 16%. This means that 50 million people have realized the benefits of eating less meat!

You, too, can go vegan, and Catskill Animal Sanctuary is here to help! The animals, the earth, and your body will thank you!