Catskill Trip Reflection
by: Phoebe Chan
On June 1st, class 5-301 went to the Catskills Animal Sanctuary. The Catskill Animal Sanctuary (CAS) opened its doors in 2001. The sanctuary sits on 110 peaceful acres, which provide a safe and loving home for the many farm animals CAS rescues from cruel, abusive and neglectful treatment. Since 2001, CAS has rescued over 2,000 such animals. In addition to its wonderful rescue work, CAS offers weekend and special tours, a summer day camp for children, vegan cooking classes, speaking engagements by its founder, Kathy Stevens, and educational programs about farm animals and industrialized animal cruelty. Attractions include tours to meet the animals and hear their rescue stories.
We had heard from Mr. Peabody (to the left). Mr. Peabody had at first been hatched at a place that was teaching kids how to hatch chicks, but once the chicks were hatched, the people had no use for the chicks and sent them off to be turned to food, CAS rescued Mr. Peabody from there along with his brothers, but an interesting fact is that later on when Mr. Peabody had been in the same environment as his brothers, they had started to pick on him, therefore this landed him into a cage isolated and alone.
Additionally, we have been introduced to 2 blind horses, Bud and Mirage. Apparently they suffer from Moon Blindness, it is the most common cause of blindness in horses. Unlike many diseases, it does not have one single cause and, for this reason, has baffled researchers. Once started, it may cause blindness if its progression cannot be halted. Fortunately, while the causes cannot be foreseen or eradicated, its progression can in many cases be slowed or stopped by fast, aggressive and consistent care. Signs include puffy, watering eyes, squinting, and red blood vessels at the sides of the eye and in the lids. Another major sign to look for is a pupil that is constricted when the horse is in the barn or in a darkened stall. A constricted pupil indicates that it is in spasm, and is very painful. Immediate treatment is needed to alleviate the spasm. Other signs may include head shaking, a runny nose, white spots or bleeding in the eye, matter or pus collecting, loss of balance, tripping, running into things or rubbing the eye. In some cases if you look across the surface of the eye you may even see ulcers. They look like little declivities, but usually you will need to stain the eye to see them and the untrained eye can still miss them. Additional signs that owners mentioned in a survey were: stops grazing, decreased appetite, swollen eyes, spookiness, blinking, avoidance of sunshine, and grumpiness. Therefore to relive the horses of its pain, they had removed its eyes.
In conclusion, I had thought that CAS was a great sanctuary. The employees treat the animals nicely giving them enough room to roam around and making them feel as homely as possible even if they do spoil their animals, this is better than the animals being treated poorly. In addition to that, CAS educates others about the animals that there are at CAS and makes it fun! The vegan food there is amazing as well and all the staff is vegan! Since most of the animals in CAS have been rescued because they have been abused, all of the staff are required not to be cruel and eat basically the animals in CAS.
We had heard from Mr. Peabody (to the left). Mr. Peabody had at first been hatched at a place that was teaching kids how to hatch chicks, but once the chicks were hatched, the people had no use for the chicks and sent them off to be turned to food, CAS rescued Mr. Peabody from there along with his brothers, but an interesting fact is that later on when Mr. Peabody had been in the same environment as his brothers, they had started to pick on him, therefore this landed him into a cage isolated and alone.
Additionally, we have been introduced to 2 blind horses, Bud and Mirage. Apparently they suffer from Moon Blindness, it is the most common cause of blindness in horses. Unlike many diseases, it does not have one single cause and, for this reason, has baffled researchers. Once started, it may cause blindness if its progression cannot be halted. Fortunately, while the causes cannot be foreseen or eradicated, its progression can in many cases be slowed or stopped by fast, aggressive and consistent care. Signs include puffy, watering eyes, squinting, and red blood vessels at the sides of the eye and in the lids. Another major sign to look for is a pupil that is constricted when the horse is in the barn or in a darkened stall. A constricted pupil indicates that it is in spasm, and is very painful. Immediate treatment is needed to alleviate the spasm. Other signs may include head shaking, a runny nose, white spots or bleeding in the eye, matter or pus collecting, loss of balance, tripping, running into things or rubbing the eye. In some cases if you look across the surface of the eye you may even see ulcers. They look like little declivities, but usually you will need to stain the eye to see them and the untrained eye can still miss them. Additional signs that owners mentioned in a survey were: stops grazing, decreased appetite, swollen eyes, spookiness, blinking, avoidance of sunshine, and grumpiness. Therefore to relive the horses of its pain, they had removed its eyes.
In conclusion, I had thought that CAS was a great sanctuary. The employees treat the animals nicely giving them enough room to roam around and making them feel as homely as possible even if they do spoil their animals, this is better than the animals being treated poorly. In addition to that, CAS educates others about the animals that there are at CAS and makes it fun! The vegan food there is amazing as well and all the staff is vegan! Since most of the animals in CAS have been rescued because they have been abused, all of the staff are required not to be cruel and eat basically the animals in CAS.