CiCi the alpaca has a neurologic disorder, so she moves a little differently than others like her. When Sarah Salluzzo and Jonina Turzi, co-founders of Lancaster Farm Sanctuary, saw that CiCi wasn’t putting weight on her leg, they dropped what they were doing to care for her.
That’s a typical day at the sanctuary, a place where troubled farm animals get a new lease on life. The sanctuary has about 100 animals in their care. Right now, they’re at capacity, but they have plans to grow and maximize their 20 acres of land.
Rather than simply wanting to work with animals, the sanctuary served a way for the pair to give farm animals the help they desperately needed while guiding “interested humans inrethinking their relationship to farmed animals,” says Sarah.
Sarah is a former mental health therapist turned farm animal rescuer. She met Jonina while working with the Humane Society of the United States before starting the sanctuary. Together, they found a cause they were both undyingly passionate about.
Pennsylvania was one of the last states to instate animal abuse felony charges. It took the state until 2017 to make aggravated cruelty toward pets a felony, so people with a history of abuse couldn’t go on to adopt a new animal. Sarah and Jonina helped pass this law, but the work wasn’t done.
Once the animal cruelty overhaul law went into place, the duo realized something. “Well, this doesn’t apply to animals farmed for food,” says Jonina. That means someone can do anything they want with a turkey, chicken, goat, what have you—just to wake up the next day and do it again.
That’s where Lancaster Farm Sanctuary really fills a gap. They recognize that creating a law isn’t a panacea to any problem, so instead of focusing their efforts on a crawling legislative process, they set up the sanctuary. Their grassroots organization provides a space for farm animals to live out their days when no one else wants them. It’s not a place where farmed animals get adopted out, but rather a home in and of itself. CiCi the alpaca isn’t at risk of losing her pen, nor are any of the other animals with whom she shares the sanctuary.
Rescues at Lancaster Farm Sanctuary are capturing the attention of more than just the workers and visitors who make their way to Milton Grove Road.
One calf at the sanctuary named Jude stole the hearts of tens of thousands of people. A video of Jude, who came into the sanctuary’s care extremely sick with a cleft lip, went viral online. After months in the hospital, Jude came home to the sanctuary and met all kinds of new friends, including a chicken named Barbara. A chicken and a calf snuggling up on the hay was enough to get people all over the world talking about the sanctuary.
Then there’s a piglet named Jean Marie, a truck jumper that caught a tough landing at Keller Brothers Ford in Lititz. Despite her limp, Jean Marie managed to find someone who cared enough to pick her up and contact a farm animal vet. That vet just so happened to be the vet of Lancaster Farm Sanctuary, and the pig found its way to Sarah and Jonina. After some serious rehab all the way up in an animal hospital in Ithaca, N.Y., Little Jean Marie—who won’t always be so little—will always have a home.
One of the most common calls the sanctuary gets has to do with roosters. “People want backyard layer hens,” Jonina says. “Normally the boys are killed within 24 hours of being born, but if one of them slips and you get a rooster, very often people just want to get rid of him right away.”
The sanctuary can’t take all the lost roosters, and it hurts. But they try their darndest.
For many people who lead with empathy in their work, there’s a bigger goal beyond the work they’re already doing. That’s the case with Jonina, who says, “My dream would be that places that grow food might have a small area where they have a few rescued individuals, and it’s kind of more like what you would think of as a pet.”
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Above all else, Lancaster Farm Sanctuary serves as a doorway to compassion. Sarah and Jonina believe that treating these animals with respect will make a world of difference and that keeping farm animals off the plate will help guide people and the planet toward a more prosperous place.
“They have emotions and friendships. They miss their friends and family when they pass away. They are, in many ways, just like us,” says Sarah, doting on the farm animals who’ve taught her so much. “And my life is so much better for making that connection.”
Lancaster Farm Sanctuary looks forward to developing more programs such as hosting speakers and educational events for people of all ages.
Lancaster Farm Sanctuary
1871 Milton Grove Rd, Mount Joy, PA 17552 | Lancasterfarmsanctuary.org
