Patricia Mikkelson

Ranchers, Rescuers, and a 207-Mile Walk: When Welfare and Abolition Work Together Today

In Part 1, I looked at how antislavery reformers argued and worked together. Now I want to share what that looks like today.

Ranchers who changed, and now help others

I met Renee King-Sonnen at a Direct Action Everywhere conference, in a small group doing team-building exercises. I was inspired by her right then, and I have been inspired by her work ever since.

Robert Carter’s story has a modern echo in Texas. Renee and her husband Tommy Sonnen were cattle ranchers. Renee raised $30,000 in four months to buy the cows from her husband, and Tommy went vegan too. Their ranch became Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, reported to be the world’s first documented beef cattle ranch to become a vegan animal sanctuary. Today it is home to about 130 animals.

Then ranchers’ wives and family members began reaching out to Renee, asking how they had done it. That led to the Rancher Advocacy Program, which helps animal farmers transform their farms. One result is Starlove Ranch, another former Texas cattle ranch. The owners decided they could not continue the family tradition after getting to know their herd. When a ten-year-old cow named Honey was facing slaughter at another ranch, Renee found her a new home at Starlove. That is Woolman’s one-family-at-a-time approach again. Their own past as ranchers gives them credibility with ranchers. Ending an old practice and helping a neighbor out of it can go together.

Ridglan Farms: rescuers and activists on the same dogs

This year in Wisconsin, welfare groups and abolition-minded activists worked on the same problem. Ridglan Farms bred beagles for research for nearly 60 years. After a massive protest at the facility on April 19, Ridglan surrendered roughly 1,500 beagles, and the Wisconsin Humane Society took in 150 of them. Big Dog Ranch Rescue, a Florida group, said by August it had rescued and relocated 2,115 beagles. Ridglan has committed to permanently ending its dog breeding, sales, research and testing, and the rescue group plans to keep pushing for an end to using dogs in laboratory testing.

One leader at the table said, “We cannot rescue our way out of these problems.” That is a rescue group saying out loud what the abolitionists say. It is the relay race again.

The March to Abolish Animal Testing

The march picked up the baton. Its co-directors had taken part in the Ridglan effort. The March to Abolish Animal Testing covered 207 miles from Albany to Marshall BioResources, from September 12 to 26. Federal officials have repeatedly cited Marshall for violating the Animal Welfare Act. A welfare law became a tool for people who want abolition. Welfare and abolition were pulling the same rope.

An old argument, set down

When I was part of Direct Action Everywhere, the argument between animal welfare and abolition was heated. We exposed farms that claimed to treat animals humanely when they did not. Those claims comfort people who want to keep drinking milk and eating eggs. I was torn about welfare reforms. That is why this September moved me. The kickoff in Albany featured speakers including attorney Wayne Hsiung of The Simple Heart, Wayne Pacelle of Animal Wellness Action, and PETA’s Matthew Braun and Ashley Byrne. Hsiung, the Direct Action Everywhere co-founder, told participants there was no planned rescue and that the march was fundamentally about awareness. The old argument did not vanish. People found a goal big enough to walk toward together.

What I take from this

  • Rescue groups and abolition groups can work on the same dogs on the same day. Neither one needs to win the argument first.
  • Former ranchers have a voice that others cannot match.
  • The slavery-era lesson holds: patient help and bold demands both belong.

Learn more

This article was written at the peaceful Living Springs Log House on 14.75 acres in the Arkansas Ozarks (livingspringsloghouse.com). The land is now for sale, and part of the money raised from the sale will fund the Animal Earth Alliance van and the finishing building project at All Beings Sanctuary.

Written together with Claude. The ideas, the experiences with Direct Action Everywhere, meeting Renee, and the connection between these stories came from Patricia. Claude helped research and expand the facts and write it up.

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