September
2002
Ooh-Mah-Nee:
A Place Where Animals Can Just Be
By Marla Rose
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Imagine getting an announcement like this from the
Humane Society: There’s
been a tornado in Ohio that’s struck the Buckeye Egg Farm, destroying
12 of its 150 laying facilities. The hens inside are trapped in battery
cages, being smothered, slowly dying of injuries, dehydration, and
hunger. The destroyed warehouses are collapsed around 100,000 hens,
and with
each passing minute, the likelihood of suffering and death increases.
What would you do if you had a sanctuary for former prisoners of the
industrial food system just three hours from Buckeye, but your space
and resources were a little tight, you’d just had a baby a few
months before, and you had no idea how you could finance this? If you
knew that Buckeye’s method of “humane slaughter” of
these birds included dropping thousands of live hens by the bulldozer-full
into dumpsters to be gassed, what would you do? You might be compelled
to call anyway to offer what little help you had to give.
Fortunately, that Humane Society announcement ended up in the hands
of Cayce Mell and Jason Tracy of Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm. Without hesitation,
they got on the phone, convinced a reluctant director of Buckeye Farm
to let them take as many hens as they could carry home, then jumped
into action. They rented trucks, contacted other animal sanctuaries,
and initiated the four-week-long rescue that saved over 6,000 hens,
the largest and most well-coordinated farmed animal rescue in history.
Each day of the rescue, they had to drive three hours to Croton, Ohio,
collect hens and get them comfortable in the trucks, maintain contact
with the press and with other sanctuaries, coordinate the work, drive
back to Pennsylvania, unload the hens, wash and dry the trucks, return
them and rent them for the next day. For four weeks. They also had to
keep business-as-usual running at their farm, as there are over 1,500
cows, turkeys, ducks, chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits and pigs who depend
on their care.
A Place of Freedom
I first learned of the Buckeye rescue in December of 2000, when I decided
to write a story about the efforts of Cayce (pronounced like Casey)
and Jason for VeganStreet.com. During my research, I grew more and more
impressed with the scope of the rescue, and their unwavering dedication.
My husband John and I visited Ooh-Mah-Nee in July of 2001, discovering
its 94 acres of postcard-perfect rolling hills near Hunker, PA. Cayce
and her mother Maggie founded Ooh-Mah-Nee, a play on the word humane,
in early 1996, when they adopted their first five cows from Farm Sanctuary,
a haven for farmed animals in Watkins Glen, New York. Cayce had volunteered
and interned there, and she considers co-founders Gene and Lori Bauston
to be her heroes and mentors.
Cayce and her mom had originally planned to buy land in order to offer
permanent adoption space for Farm Sanctuary animals, and lighten their
load. They started off by adopting a few from Watkins Glen; however,
as Cayce told me, “Shortly after their arrival, word got out that
we were offering life-long sanctuary to farmed animals and the phone
just started ringing.”
From there it just snowballed. Jason joined Cayce at the farm and helped
create the systems that help the farm run so well. They started assisting
and conducting humane investigations, and receiving more animals, such
as 91 chickens rescued from abysmal living conditions at a live poultry
market. Today these chickens are scratching the earth at Ooh-Mah-Nee,
stretching their wings and giving themselves dust baths.
As we walked around the beautiful pastures and hills, we could hear
roosters crowing and pigs grunting gleefully, as pigs are wont to do.
Ducks waddled and swam in their pond, chatting with each other constantly,
luxuriating in their freedom, their duck-ness.
This place is at its core a place of freedom, a place where animals
can just be. Every being there, human and nonhuman alike, seems imbued
with a vitality and sense of peace that comes from a true freedom of
spirit.
Together, Cayce and Jason have witnessed extraordinary transformations
take place through their work on the farm. Talking about the profound
effect that their compassionate approach has on the animals, Cayce said:
“I’ve witnessed something really extraordinary in the past
years with these animals who have never known kindness or safety or
security. You bring these animals in and they’re not trusting,
but then you [watch as they finally] just release. It’s like there’s
something in the air telling them that they can just relax, for the
first time. I saw this with a goat who was so nervous coming out here,
and the minute she got close enough to see the other animals and check
out what was going on, all of a sudden she just relaxed. These animals
aren’t stressed. There must be something that’s okay here.
They know that they are safe, and I think that’s one of the greatest
rewards. They definitely know that they found sanctuary.”
The Buckeye rescue was by far their biggest challenge to date. Buckeye,
which supplies four percent of the nation’s eggs, is an enormous
factory farm complex. Millions live at the Ohio facility alone, housed
in 150 warehouses with roughly 100,000 hens in each. Cayce was staggered
by what she saw.
“We pulled up to this place not knowing what to expect and we were
just devastated. It was the most intensive animal factory I’d ever
seen. There were just rows and rows and rows and tiers of chickens just
crammed in these cages. Buildings were so dilapidated from the tornado
that the hens were trapped and smashed under the cages, hanging halfway
out. The ones on the lowest [tiers] had it hardest, of course; they
were gassed, crushed or bulldozed, or sold to Campbell’s Soup
for slaughter.”
Cayce spoke movingly of these hens, imprisoned from birth, through
their brief years of egg production, down to when they were slaughtered,
treated
as though they were nothing more than machines. The triumph of their
spirit over the brutality they’d known is an inspiration to all.
“To see them learn to walk was just the most beautiful thing in
the world,” Cayce remembers. “The first time they took their
first steps, their legs were so weak and atrophied, they were like
little
babies learning to walk. An hour later they were jumping up in the
air and flapping their wings, celebrating life and celebrating freedom.
We were all crying. They were celebrating that freedom that they never
knew was out there.”
Cayce and Jason are constantly improving the farm and refining their
vision, with plans for a larger cow barn as soon as they can get the
funding. The current barn is already stretched to capacity with 33
cows,
16 of whom were rescued after a transport flipped on the Pennsylvania
Turnpike. Recently, they installed the nation’s first animal rights
museum in a converted barn. There, one can find pictorial displays
accompanied
by descriptions of the animal foods industry, as well as battery cages,
educational materials, and a small theater in which to view films.
Tours
of the farm usually begin in the museum, which gently raises some awareness
before the visitors, often groups of children, meet the animals.
Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm is truly one of the most idyllic places I’ve ever
had the good fortune of visiting. Cayce, Jason, and their wonderful
crew deserve enormous praise for the work they’ve done and continue
to do. More than anything, though, they need support from us so they
can replenish their resources, offer the highest quality of care possible,
and realize some of their dreams for the farm.
Marla Rose is a writer, activist and co-founder of VeganStreet,
a company that celebrates and advocates the vegan lifestyle through
the use of a colorful webzine and a line of original, organic cotton
clothing. To read their ‘zine, see a catalog or order products,
visit www.VeganStreet.com or
call 866-55-VEGAN. This is an edited version of the original article, “Ooh-Mah-Nee: The Farm Animals’ Utopia,” published
on the VeganStreet Web site. To give donations to Ooh-Mah-Nee, schedule
a tour of the farm, and to learn more, visit www.oohmahneefarm.org
or call (724) 755-2420.
