Holy Cow! What A Place!
Catskill Animal Sanctuary Opens For Season
Tucker, the mammoth steer known for his affectionate kisses, is set to receive the thousands of guests expected this year at the 148-acre haven on Old Stage Road in Saugerties.
In fact, some 200 rescued beings at Catskill Animal Sanctuary are primed for a new season of one-on-one interaction with the public that will include new programs, expanded tours and the return of Camp Kindness.
Kathy Stevens, the founder and executive director, said the season kicked off on March 31 with close to 200 visitors anxious to bask in the sun with the portly, pot-bellied pigs, tantalizing turkeys and happy horses that inhabit the peaceful, well-kept grounds.
In addition to offering weekend day passes for the first time, the sanctuary is rolling out a new mentoring program for those considering a vegan lifestyle and hosting more child-centric tours.
“We’ve got a lot going on this year,” Stevens said. “For starters, after a year on hiatus, Camp Kindness is returning and is being expanded. It’s going to be four weeks as opposed to two weeks, with three different sessions offered.”
Camp Kindness, a program for youths ages 8 to 14, offers an engaging experience that fosters compassion and respect for animals and the environment. It covers issues related to the plight of farmed animals, animal protection, humane choices and vegan nutrition.
“The cool thing about Camp Kindness is that it’s way more than just a fun experience. Kids will work to create an initiative in their own communities, and we will support them in truly becoming leaders on behalf of animals,” Stevens said.
Along those same lines, the CAS culinary team is working on its first in a series of vegan cookbooks, with the working title “These Are Our Friends; This is Our Food.”
The book will feature 130 recipes developed by its inhouse vegan chefs and stories
about some of the sanctuary’s residents. Stevens, the author of two previous books, is contributing those entries.
For anyone who knows the Virginia native and former English teacher, animals and education are her passions.
Since founding the rescue and teaching operation in January 2001, she and her team have rescued close to 5,000 animals. It started with a 3-foot-tall Shetland pony named Dino. He survived an arson in 2000 that killed 23 horses at Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach Stables. While Dino sustained burns on his body, a great deal of internal scar tissue and eye damage, he lived seven happy years at CAS.
“Our mission is to provide a haven for desperate animals—one that allows them first to recover, and then to thrive both physically and psychologically,” Stevens said.
“Some of them become larger-than-life ambassadors for the second part of our mission, which is to encourage good people of conscience … to adopt a vegan lifestyle—a lifestyle of non-harming and one that has the best chance of stopping this collision course that we’re on with global warming.”
Stevens said CAS workers approach their “urgent mission” in a non-confrontational way.
“Our tagline is ‘Love Spoken Here.’ I hope people feel that. This is a no-judgment zone. We encourage people to come on down, kiss a pig and learn something in the process about their unintended role in the suffering of our fellow beings, but most importantly, about how to be part of the solution.”
That’s where animals like the 3,000-pound Tucker come into play.
The Holstein steer had been living at a petting zoo and was rescued in 2007 while being loaded onto a truck headed for auction.
“He’s as gentle and loving as an old Golden Retriever,” Stevens said. “Children lie on his back and sit under his 300-pound head and hug him. He craves human companionship and oozes love. In fact, a lot of people cry when they meet him. I think it’s the combination of his mass and his gentle, sensitive nature. I also think people feel his love.”
All the animals, in fact, have heart-tugging stories and individual personalities that make the sanctuary what Stevens calls a “disarming” experience.
The saga of Ashley, an ancient, blind Appaloosa and her son, Pliers, illustrates the point.
In danger of being shot by their owner, the severely neglected horses were rescued from a field in late 2016.
“Pliers was not only her son. He had become her protector, so he would charge at us, threatening to kick,” Stevens said.
“We had a very dangerous situation on our hands with this big boy, but after months of work to undo the various emotional challenges that mother and son had, each one is thriving. When we took them, we thought, ‘We’ll give them a few months of knowing what love feels like.’ After all, Ashley was 36. Pliers was 34. That’s likely all the time they had left.”
Instead, the horses are thriving 18 months later and have become emblematic of the agency’s calling.
“It’s a loving and joyful place, where people are often completely disarmed when they are kissed by a cow or have a turkey climb in their lap. Those experiences change people,” she said.
CAS, which relies on donations, has evolved into a substantial operation with 350 animals, nine large barns and many smaller ones, multiple educational programs and an annual budget of more than $2 million.
Now with close to 150 acres, including property off state Route 32 in Saugerties, CAS has been nationally recognized for its accountability by Charity Navigator. In fact, it is the No. 1 ranked sanctuary in the nation for fiscal accountability.
The farm also is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries for having the highest standards of animal care.
In addition to hosting thousands of visitors each year, the agency offers overnight stays at its renovated preCivil War bed and breakfast known as The Homestead. Guests at the 1813 farmhouse are treated to a complimentary vegan breakfast and are free to roam the grounds throughout their visit.
Stevens said she is one day looking forward to hosting a Chamber Mixer and is anxious to raise awareness about the sanctuary and its mission.
“We believe that when you look an animal in the eye and see someone—not something—looking back at you, it is one of the most profound shifts people can make in their understanding of the world and their place in it,” she said.