Marinka

67% of TARGET

😢

67% of TARGET 😢

A few months after we had acquired the new farm site back in 2018, we were presented with an opportunity to rescue some animals awaiting slaughter at Colchester Livestock market.

So we travelled there to see what we could do. What a truly depressing experience it was with countless sheep and cows all waiting to be herded into a ring and sold to the highest bidder. All the slaughter house lorries were there ready to take their winnings back home to be killed.

You could literally feel the tension and the broken spirit of the poor animals awaiting their gruesome fate. We spotted 2 Semental cows who were both approaching 13 years old and both looked totally broken.

Using the funds we had been specifically donated for this purpose, we bid on both of them and got them. It was incredibally stressful and the feelings of guilt for those we left behind haunts me to this day.

Marinka had been used to breed babies for meat all her miserable life, but was brought back to Gracedale where 5 years later she is thouroughly enjoying her retirement. As an "oldie" she lives separate from the main herd and in the summer - in the garden with a few friends :)