Veganing on Maui, Part 2: Morning Rounds

Photo courtesy of Leilani Farm Sanctuary

Is there a better way to begin a Maui vegan day than by helping with the morning rounds, volunteer tasks that support a variety of farmed and abandoned animals at the Leilani Farm Sanctuary?

Some 300 animals – ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys, sheep, donkeys, pigs, a cow, cats and more -- have won the lottery, living on an eight-acre sanctuary, protected from abuse, exploitation and slaughter.

Dorothy. Photo courtesy of Leilani Farm Sanctuary.

Each volunteer has his or her favorites. Dorothy the Cow and Lehua and Jenny the Donkeys are quite peaceful creatures. Gentle Annie the Goat seems more like a puppy than a goat.

Farmed animals go about their daily routines, slowly roaming from one pasture to another, enjoying shade and sun, nibbling on ground cover and thriving in the quiet rhythms of freedom.

Annie. Photo courtesy of Leilani Farm Sanctuary.

Here veganism is personal.  When you get to know Dorothy the Cow or Charlotte and Berney the Pigs, how could you even think about eating their cousins?  Others apparently reach similar conclusions, because Leilani and other sanctuaries are motivating many to go vegan, or at very least to greatly reduce their consumption of meat.

“In meat-eating cultures around the world, people typically don’t think about why they eat certain animals but not others, or why they eat any animals at all,” observed psychologist Dr. Melanie Joy.

At Leilani, you meet hundreds of reasons to think.

Jenny and Lehua. Photo courtesy of Leilani Farm Sanctuary.