CEDARBURG — Cows mooing. Roosters crowing. Pigs snorting. All the normal sounds you'd expect to hear on a farm. That's the case for one Cedarburg farm, except it's not a typical farm at all.
It has a special mission.
“Autumn Farm Sanctuary is our little haven that we created to rescue farm animals, to give them a forever home, and to advocate for the ones that we can’t rescue," Alyssa Herbst, the co-owner of the farm, said.
The animals that come to Autumn Farm Sanctuary are brought from hoarding situations, were disabled, and in some cases, strays.
“A lot of the times they’ll come from situations where they may have been rescued from being slaughtered, from use for animal agriculture.”
Alyssa and her husband Brandon are vegans. They both want to focus on keeping these animals alive rather than being used for food.
“For us, we want to show people that these animals are like gigantic dogs and gigantic cats that will also give you love, and also bully you when you’re not giving them food, right," Alyssa said while getting nudged by her one-year-old bull, Baby Ruth.
The farm is also a non-profit, which means it survives on the help from volunteers like Isaiah Purpora.
“It’s just a nice place, and it’s nice to get outdoors and just to make some new friends, even if they are animals," he said.
Isaiah comes with his mom, Drea, about once a week for the past four months. For Isaiah, this is a great way to get out of the house and do something different.
"So it's nice to be outdoors and just socializing with things other than humans, if you’re someone who doesn't like to socialize with people," he said.
This is 22 seconds of rescued farm animals being adorable pic.twitter.com/vdY6PKbdWS
— James Groh (@JamesGroh_) August 10, 2021
His mom couldn't be happier to be there too.
“You know (the animals) still need a safe space. They still need love," Drea Purpora said.
So far, the farm has been able to save around 100 animals, including goats, chickens, pigs, a cow, a horse, pigeons, and ducks.
While the immediate goal of the farm is to give the animals a high quality of life, Alyssa hopes that it will help inspire others to change their habits.
“My hope is that there wouldn’t ever be farm animals again in the future. That slowly people just start working towards a plant based diet. It’s better for the environment anyways.”
To learn more or to help out on the farm, go to autumnfarmsanctuary.org.
