Can You Bear to Watch?

By bravebird, on October 1st, 2008

Every day on the Delmarva peninsula, more than a million birds scream, scratch and flap as they are shackled to the machinery of death. The center of it all is Salisbury, Maryland — home of the late Frank Perdue, who was the first to apply the industrial model now known as “factory farming” to chickens raised for meat.

Business Route 50 runs right through Salisbury, passing Perdue’s first slaughter factory on the way. The factory’s deadly disassembly line runs all day every day. If you stand at the intersection of Cypress Street and W. Salisbury Boulevard long enough, you’ll see the trucks loaded with young birds arriving to offload their live but soon-to-be-dead cargo.

On Saturday, 4 October, in honor of World Farmed Animals Day, animal advocates will stand there long enough to see. FARM and the Eastern Shore Sanctuary, along with other organizations, will stand vigil in front of the slaughterhouse from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M.

Join us if you can. Carpools and ride-shares are available from Baltimore and DC. Visit http://www.wfad.org/Alerts/vigil8.htm for details. To find a World Farmed Animals Day event near you, visit the WFAD Action Center.

Standing witness to suffering is hard work that can have lingering repercussions. Animal advocates often withstand nightmares, insomnia, depression, and what feels like unbearable anger as a result of their work. The Eastern Shore Sanctuary now has a limited number of copies of sanctuary founder pattrice jones’ handbook for activists, Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, which offers practical tips on dealing with stress, grief, and despair. The book can be purchased to support the sanctuary. Write to us at sanctuary (at) bravebirds.org to find out how to get your own signed copy with the personal inscription of your choice.

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5 comments to Can You Bear to Watch?

• ketchup

  January 3, 2009 at 9:58 pm

  I’m listening. Keep going. –jfjs on dmvn.com
• Clare

  October 17, 2011 at 9:48 am

  Hi,
  My name is Clare, and I’m a high school student in Rockville. For our government class, an assignment was to research an issue in the community and write to the local legislature about it. I chose factory farming, and though this website was written many years ago, I’m inspired by your work. I’ve been a vegetarian since 4th grade, and will continue for the rest of my life.
  I hope everything is going well at VINE Sanctuary.
  Clare
• bravebird

  October 17, 2011 at 6:40 pm

  Hey Clare! Thanks for the kind words! Our site is actually a mixture of the old and new, but you are right, most of the articles are indeed a bit old — we’ve been putting most of our energy for the last couple of years into growing the sanctuary itself, but are almost at a point at which we can build up the newer content on the site.

  I wish you were closer — I would invite you to visit! I will just say, keep fighting the good fight, and if you are ever in Vermont — or need help where you are with a particular animal rights issue — keep us in mind.

  For the animals,

  Miriam VINE

• Clare

  October 19, 2011 at 11:44 pm

  Miriam–
  The letter is due tomorrow for class, but I will be sending it by email or regular mail (or maybe both) to Governor Martin O’Malley as well as State Rep. Roger Manno and Delegates Bonnie Cullison, Benjamin Kramer, and Sam Arora. Let me know if you are interested in a copy of the letter.

  My family will probably be in Vermont sometime in the next year for a family visit, so I may be in touch. I really am inspired by the work you all do at VINE.

  Thanks, Clare

• bravebird

  October 29, 2011 at 9:01 am

  I’d love to see a copy! Please send it to sanctuary@bravebirds.org — and yes, do let us know if you are in VT at any time!