SANCTUARY SCENE AA PUBLICATIONPUBLICATION OFOF CATSKILLCATSKILL ANIMALANIMAL SANCTUARYSANCTUARY Spring 2010 We Think We Can! We Know We Can! Making our dreams a reality. p. 3 PortraitsPortraits Special needs bunny and a very lucky horse. p. 6-7 CASCAS LaunchesLaunches CompassionateCompassionate CuisineCuisine Learn more and get involved. p. 8-9 Recipes p. 14 Matching Grant Update ······················································ 3 Update on our chance of a lifetime opportunity...and how you can help make it a reality. Chickens Fly Meth Lab Coop ·············································· 4 41 birds escape starvation at a Kansas City meth lab. Save the Date! ······································································ 5 A preview of this season’s exciting events. Camp Kindness registration starts now! There’s Still ―Hop‖ For the Future ······································ 6 Special bunny seeks special home. Thirty Pounds of Poop ························································ 7 Expert care and a twist of fate save a horse in distress. CAS Launches Compassionate Cuisine ························· 8-9 Meet ―The Good Chef Kev,‖ learn about our innovative cooking and gardening pro- grams, and find out how to get involved! Whatever it Takes ······························································· 10 Why CAS works. CAS Community ·································································· 11 Cheers for Volunteers! A big thank you to some dedicated humans! Welcome to the Team! Karen Wilson joins CAS staff. Comings & Goings ························································ 12-13 Lots of smaller animals are happily living with new families, but more still wait to find a home. Also, a special tribute to our dear friend PeeWee. Spring Recipes ··································································· 14 Check out these recipes from our new chef! Wish List ············································································· 15 From everyday needs (like toilet paper!) to special requests (anyone have an 18‖ stainless steel sink?), we have a whole list of ways you can help the animals and our bottom line. 2 We Think We Can! We KNOW WE CAN! CAS Launches Second Phase of $1.5 Million Matching Campaign Kathy Stevens, CAS Founder and Director When the final checks were counted in our wonderful winter Million Match and inviting you to join us! If you’re a) matching campaign, our friends had been extremely gener- a new member of the CAS community, b) someone ous. On-line donations and checks came from all around the who didn’t give in November or December, or c) Hudson Valley, from the five boroughs of New York City, and someone who did give but is as excited as we are from 34 states around the country. After a couple of last- to see CAS meet the match, we welcome your gift! minute large donations, the final tally was just over $500,000. We were elated…and so very grateful. Meetings with the Ulster County Health Department, the Sau- gerties building inspector, architects, engineers, and builders (Some quick background for our new members: in November, will continue as we design commercial kitchens, teaching an anonymous donor came forward with a once-in-a-lifetime space, and dormitories. After expanding our pasture space opportunity. He’d match as much money as we could raise (up last summer, we’ve also outgrown two of our first animal to 1.5 million dollars) to fund our future: expanded emer- shelters: those will be taken down, and the lumber reused as gency rescue, and two new programs being piloted this we enlarge them. It’s going to be yet another busy summer! summer. The first, called Compassionate Cuisine, headed by ―The Good Chef Kev,‖ will be comprised of on-site meals, We wonder if all this growth sounds…er…a little crazy to weekend workshops, cooking parties in your home and so those who haven’t visited in a while. It isn’t. Our buildings are much more! Check out a description on pages 10-11. Our sec- green, our plans fiscally sound, and our mission is the same ond program, Camp Kindness, will offer animal time, farm as it’s been from that first day when we welcomed Dino, the projects, gardening, cooking and plenty of play for children tiny Brooklyn pony who survived an arson: save the neediest ages 6 to 12, all with the goal of helping children get to know first, heal broken bodies and spirits, encourage people to our farm animal friends and understand how they can help connect the dots between the concept of suffering and what them through the power of personal choice.) they put on their plates, and give them the skills and the en- couragement to change their diets. Love….that’s what all this With the first third of the match raised, we approached our stuff is, and sometimes, when I walk through the barn, ―love‖ donor and asked if he’d allow us to extend the campaign nearly knocks me over. We’ve done a good job, you guys. through the end of 2010. ―Certainly,‖ he said graciously. Together, we’ve created a little piece of heaven. We welcome So as we head into the most exciting season in our your gift—dollars, volunteer help, sponsorship, in-kind dona- history, we’re gearing up for Round Two of the $1.5 tions—and thank you for your part in sustaining this special place for the benefit of our animal friends. I’dI’d LoveLove toto HelpHelp MeetMeet thethe Match!Match! _____ $1,000 _____ $500 _____ $250 _____ $100 _____ $50 _____ $25 _____ $10 _____ Other Please put my donation to work for: Name: _______________________________________________ ____ Rescuing Animals from Address: _____________________________________________ cruelty and neglect, and giving them a safe and happy home. _____________________________________________________ ____ Launching Compassionate e-mail: _______________________________________________ Cuisine to help people happily transition to a healthier and deli- Phone: _______________________________________________ cious plant-based diet, which is kinder to our animal friends. Clip and mail with check to: Catskill Animal Sanctuary 316 Old Stage Rd ____ Opening Camp Kindness, Saugerties, NY 12477 so kids can bunk at the sanctu- ary and fall in love with these critters. or donate ONLINE NOW: www.CASanctuary.org ____ Where it is most 3 needed Chickens Fly Meth Lab Coop! Birds Trapped in Drug Den Find Safe Haven at CAS As they say, timing is everything. And oh yeah...don’t ―they‖ also say, If you build it, they will come? No sooner had Caleb completed construc- tion of the new 900 sq. ft. Chicken Chalet (aka the Rooster Ritz), than we got a call asking if we could Allen gets to know Jackson. take forty-one starving chickens seized from a crystal meth lab in Kansas City. The birds moved right in! When authorities raided the Kansas City drug den, they discovered dozens of skinny, frostbitten chick- ens in an abandoned house, with no heat, electric- ity or water. A nearby dog and cat shelter took temporary custody of the birds, and began a na- tionwide search for a permanent home. CAS was delighted to offer assistance, since, in response to urgent rescue needs, we recently expanded our operations to include three new pastures and four new barns, including the chicken barn. The birds first had to find their way from the Mid- west to New York, and after hearing of their plight, volunteers Vanessa VanNoy and her husband J.R. stepped up. These CAS heroes flew to Indiana to meet the birds after they’d completed the first leg of their journey eastward, rented a van at their expense, then when it’s time to be gathered up and sheltered for the night. drove 900 miles for 15 hours straight, stopping only for food, gas, and to check on the birds! After arriving safely at CAS, the exhausted but smiling couple (Vanessa was actually Birds Abandoned in Bronx shivering) helped unload one chicken at a time. Many would ask: why on earth spend such time and money on The Kansas City Chicks’ new next-door neighbors are The chickens? In fact, an Albany Times Union blogger asked that Bronx Birds, eight chickens found running loose in a Bronx exact question in her Farm Life blog...and boy did she start a neighborhood right before a severe snowstorm. A local man discussion! Check out the conversation, and our Kathy Ste- had about seventy chickens in his apartment, but set them vens’ response, at http://blog.timesunion.com/farmlife/3114/ loose when he moved out. Thankfully, a rescue group based chicken-rescue-i-dont-get-it. in Maryland captured the birds and brought them safely to their new home at CAS. While they, too, were underweight But Vanessa and JR were clear from the get-go about their and suffered from frostbite, they are bouncing back now that reasons for the trip. As Vanessa explained, ―Individual lives they have warm shelter and a diet of sunflower seeds, matter. Forty chickens count just as much as forty dogs or cracked corn and chicken feed. (The remaining Bronx birds forty horses, and we hope that these lucky ones will be am- are being placed piecemeal as space becomes available at bassadors for their species.‖ rescues and private homes.) While the birds suffered from frostbite and lost parts of toes and combs, they are friendly and spirited. Recently, all blood Feathered Friends work came back negative from Hurley Veterinary Hospital. Seek Loving Homes Officially freed from quarantine, the stunning bunch of birds—including breeds such as Rhode Island Reds, Barred All forty-nine chickens are available for adoption to loving, Rocks, Dominiques, and Silkies—have joined the ―Underfoot forever homes within a two hour radius of CAS. Due to the Family‖ and are free-ranging to their hearts’ content! large number of roosters, only those homes that can take at Every morning, the doors of the Chicken Chalet are opened, least one rooster for every two hens can be considered. FYI: and the birds are free to do what chickens love to do: ex- While some roosters are indeed aggressive, just as many are plore, sunbathe, scratch the dirt for seeds and other morsels, loving, gentle birds who happily coexist with other roosters hop fences and socialize with the ducks, hitch rides on the with whom they’ve been raised.