I’m writing from the horrific scene of an emergency rescue of more than 120 farm animals in New York’s Hudson Valley. What I’m seeing will haunt me until the day I die.

The owner of the property has a restaurant and keeps these animals to kill for meat to serve his customers. If his customers saw what I’m seeing, they’d be thoroughly disgusted.

The conditions are deplorable. It’s like a garbage dump with animals. I have to step past body parts of the dead to get to the living. Please support Farm Sanctuary during this emergency rescue.

There are 10 calves who are emaciated. Two of them have stage 4 pinkeye. Their entire eye is bulging out and covered in a thick layer of pus. The flies cannot get enough of it. They’re crawling all over the oozing eyes and spreading the infection to the other calves. All ten will need to be treated right away to keep this infection from causing permanent blindness.

That's just the calves. We’re getting the goats out of the most disgusting barn on earth. Feces are all over the floors along with garbage and beer bottles. I cannot even imagine drinking a beer in this putrid place, let alone being an animal forced to live in it. And yet there are about 50 goats living here and half of them are babies. Many are bone skinny and bloated at the same time. Some are covered in heavy lice and their skin is raw and bloody from attempting to scratch themselves. They likely have heavy internal parasites. Some are dehydrated and some are dropping their back ends when they walk, ataxic from either parasites or weakness. The goats have been fed corn stalks and other scraps of food. 

But I think the pig barn is the worst. There are at least 11 adult pigs and four piglets. They’re locked in stalls and hungry. You can hear their screams from outside the barn, and once you get inside you see (and smell) why. The stalls are filled with feces and mud. There is no bedding and zero ventilation. The pigs are literally living in their own filth and these pens have never been cleaned.  

Please donate now to support our Emergency Rescue Fund to help transport these and other animals to safety and provide them with the lifelong care they deserve.

With winter coming we have lined up homes for all the animals who are healthy enough to place right now and the sickest will stay with us at Farm Sanctuary and receive round the clock care.

We’re doing our best to count the animals, but the chaos in this place is making it hard. We’re at well over 120 animals but we are missing sheep and cattle who were seen at the farm weeks before.

Our challenge is exacerbated by the fact that this abusive owner never bothered to repair fencing. The animals are going nuts as we let them out of their prisons. Thankfully, because they are so hungry, we’ve been able to use food to coax them into our rescue trailers. The fact that they are willing to follow us shows you how absolutely desperate they are.

This is a huge rescue. It’s mentally and physically exhausting, but our rescue team will stay here until every last terrified pig, emaciated goat, sick calf, and limping sheep is safe and off the property. Please support our work through the lifesaving Emergency Rescue Fund by donating now.

This is the start of what is going to be a very long journey to save these animals and ensure they never face this kind of cruelty again. But I know that with Farm Sanctuary—and friends like you—the misery and fear we see in their eyes today will someday be replaced by peace and joy. 

Your support of our Emergency Rescue Fund will allow Farm Sanctuary to continue rescuing farm animals from horrible conditions, transporting them to safety, and providing them with lifelong care at our shelters or in loving adoptive homes.

It’s moments like this when abused animals need you most.

Sincerely, 

Susie Coston
National Shelter Director 

Photo credit: Farm Sanctuary Staff
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