For the past year I have had the extreme pleasure of volunteering my time with ASHA. An animal sanctuary located in Newfane, NY getting ready for it's first rescue of chickens this spring. I started out just helping to arrange tabling events in the summer but now I have been given the awesome responsibility of being their treasurer.
The woman who started this whole thing and has worked tirelessly in the past year to make her dream a reality is Tracy Murphy. A beautiful lady who I am very lucky to call my dear friend. She is a true inspiration to not only myself but others. I feel incredibly blessed that she has included me in helping her with this amazing adventure as well as witnessing her "baby" come to life.
After much thought, it only seemed logical to interview Tracy so that others could learn about her story and what sparked her interest to start an animal sanctuary:
I first became a vegan in 2007, but went back and forth with my diet for those first couple of years. I made the final decision to be completely vegan in 2009 as the only true way to be compassionate toward farmed animals and end their suffering. I decided to go vegan when I became aware of the horrific suffering in animal agriculture and allowed myself to begin to be emotional connected with the animals. I strongly believe you can't go vegan just by knowing about the suffering alone. Many people view animal agriculture as horrific, and it is evidenced when we hear comments like, "I don't want to hear about it." But there is something magical that happens to people when they emotionally connect with farmed animals. It becomes real for them - slaughter. And they don't want to eat the animals anymore. That's what happened to me.
2. When did you form BVS?
I formed the Buffalo Vegan Society in 2007 when I first learned about animal suffering in cruel farming practices and became a vegan. Funny thing is I really didn't know I was a vegan - I had not heard of the word yet! I just considered myself a vegetarian that did not eat any animal products.
The first thing I did was try to find a local support group. There were none in the area that I could find, so I got up the courage to form my own group on meetup.com, and we started as the Buffalo Vegetarian Meetup. After a while, we voted on a name and became the Buffalo Vegetarian Society. We started with dinner nights out and then began vegan potluck dinners at a local church. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and much support for one another. After meeting for a while, we decided it was time to do more to help animals and people by reaching out and educating the surrounding community on all the benefits of a plant-based diet.
In 2010, we began holding lectures featuring well-known medical professionals that included Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society of the United States and nutritionfacts.org and Dr. Neal Barnard, Founder and President of the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine. George Eisman, R.D. and Nutrition Director for the Coalition for Cancer Prevention spoke for BVS several times as well and has been very supportive of our mission to educate our community. Our events have been very well-received and has brought in non-vegs, vegetarians and vegans. Our feedback from people has been very positive and they've told us they have become vegetarian or vegan, transitioned to veganism or greatly reduced animal-based meat consumption as a result of our educational programs. Many of our BVS friends bring in their non-veg family members as well and look to us for a safe and fun way to introduce veganism to them.
3. What made you decide to form ASHA sanctuary?
It was the magic that happens when people meet farmed animals for the first time and see how friendly, emotional and intelligent they are. As much as we worked hard over the years to educate our community on the cruel treatment of animals in farming practices, we were missing a very important component - the animals! I founded ASHA to let the animals tell their story - a very simple one of wanting to be loved - they tell their story with a loving kiss, a warm nudge, or just a still look that captures our hearts and changes our minds.
4. Where do you see ASHA in 5 years?
ASHA will have animals living on our grounds in peace and surrounded by love and will provide a safe place where people can meet the animals, establishing long lasting emotional relationships with them. We believe these human-animal connections will allow people to see the animals as friends and not food, helping them to make the compassionate decision to go vegan.
We envision a large pond in the front of ASHA where ducks rescued from horrible and inhumane foie gras facilities can finally be free from suffering and enjoy swimming and life the way nature intended. We picture a large barn for pigs and an area for them to run, play and get wet! We look forward to having lots of chickens, turkeys, and roosters following volunteers around, basking in the sun or just on patrol watching out for each other. As well as inquistive goats running up to meet our guests with big smiles and kisses.
We envision a large pond in the front of ASHA where ducks rescued from horrible and inhumane foie gras facilities can finally be free from suffering and enjoy swimming and life the way nature intended. We picture a large barn for pigs and an area for them to run, play and get wet! We look forward to having lots of chickens, turkeys, and roosters following volunteers around, basking in the sun or just on patrol watching out for each other. As well as inquistive goats running up to meet our guests with big smiles and kisses.
We see ASHA as a safe place for people to enjoy and explore nature by providing hiking trails on our 27 acre preserved forest. We will provide support and encouragement by offering plant-based cooking classes by expert vegan chefs in our historic 1800's house. We anticipate the barns on ASHA grounds being energy efficient by solar or wind energy and a conduit to help educate people in our surrounding community on sustainable living. We look forward to having a community garden to provide much needed revenue for our sanctuary and to serve as a community model in sustainable gardening.
5. What are your thoughts about the progression of more vegan food options in area businesses throughout WNY?
When I first started out, Gardein was not around and Daiya and Follow Your Heart Cheese had not made it to the East coast yet - at least not to Buffalo! There weren't any places I could even order a vegan pizza with cheese! It is so different now. Pizza Plant, Allentown Pizza and some other venues now offer vegan pizzas, subs and more with melted, vegan mozzarella cheese and even delicious toppings like vegan 'steak' and 'chick'n'! I live out in the country and even my nearest grocery store has plenty of plant-based options which include ice creams, meats and frozen dinners. It wasn't like this when I first became vegan. The demand for compassionate, plant-based food is definitely increasing as our vegan community continues to grow.
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