the vegan tree hugger

Today is International Plant Milk Day. Launched by cow “Trine” who was able to drink her mother Christines milk for 3.5 yrs.

## This was the idea of the amazing people at “Hof Butenland”, a former farmer family who turned their farm into a retirement home for animals and a foundation which promotes veganism. Read their self-description here:

The New Cowlture
Humans are discovering a new relationship to cows. Hardly anyone endorses mass transports and factory farming, but who actually beats new paths? The Tierschutzstiftung (= animal protection foundation) doesn’t just theorise. It gives cows who “served” humans by “giving” much more than five thousand litres of milk a year and who by way of “thanks” would normally have been slaughtered, a new lease of life. Instead, the cows can at last lead a different life, protected by humans who aspire to a new, more humane culture.
It’s all about humaneness in the sense of developing awareness, resulting in showing respect for animals, assuming responsibility and standing side by side with them as fellow creatures. It’s also about gaining insights for the future.

Those are the foundation’s central concerns. How can we coexist with today‘s “livestock” in a future world? The foundation has already gathered valuable knowledge. Animals in the new cowlture behave differently to what is described in agri-business textbooks.

How it all began
After farming for many years (first conventionally, then the transition to a Demeter farm), Jan Gerdes knew that the time was ripe for a new kind of respect toward animals. For a new way of thinking. The insight that animals are not machines had already matured. Karin Mueck and Jan Gerdes founded the “Tierschutzstiftung Hof Butenland” (“Animal Protection Foundation Butenland Farm”), investing all their funds. Only a foundation can really guarantee a lasting existence for the farm with its special forward-looking purpose. Here animals are given spaces in which to live freely, peacefully and without fear in the company of humans. The experiences had are valuable for both animals and humans.

The observations and results of the foundation’s work are made available to researchers worldwide. The work of the foundation marks a turning point, the goal being to provide a role model and create a new basis for future generations.  Every donation strengthens the foundation’s work and shapes the future beyond today. It makes a mark. On our culture. On humans and animals.

Find Hof Butenland’s website here with links to twitter and facebook.

If you “like” them on facebook, check out the pictures of those animals, it’s amazing how healthy and happy those cows look, after they’ve realized no one is going to harm them anymore. Look at those faces: the Butenland-cows