Where Pigs Fly Farm sanctuary is known for its hands-on work rescuing, rehabilitating and caring for animals who would have been cruelly discarded otherwise or left to fend for themselves when the odds were against them.
Founded in August 2014 by former Sydney financial services marketer Debbie Pearce and her partner Jamie Bedford, the 100-acre farm in the Lower Hunter Valley is currently home to more than 100 animal residents who have been rescued from abuse, neglect, abandonment and inevitable slaughter. At the heart of the Sanctuary’s mission is the hands-on work of rescuing, rehabilitating and caring for these animals who have had nowhere else to go– until now.
The not-for-profit charity has partnered with award-winning photographer Gary Sheppard for a beautifully emotive and light-hearted exhibition series featuring some of the organisation’s most iconic rescued animal members. The ‘I Am Someone’ series aims to challenge the general public to see animals as someone, not just something.
“We are trying to give faces to farmed animals; every single animal at the Sanctuary has a name and a unique personality,” says Debbie Pearce, co-founder of Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary.
“Most of society rarely think about the farmed animals they are consuming. We do not consider who these animals were, how they lived their lives or how they died. We are indifferent to their suffering and death.”
The portrait series is like taking a look inside the farm lives of the charming animal characters of Charlotte’s Web; amongst them are Bubbles, a piglet found on a rural highway only a few hours old. There’s the mischievous Gertie the goat found at an abandoned farm. Wilbur, a pig rescued on a day of slaughter from a school’s Paddock-to-Plate program. Valentine, a calf rescued from a dairy farm at just three-days-old and Molly who lost her ears during her time as bait (to train pig-hunting dogs).
Bubbles is someone, not something.
Gertie is someone, not something.
Wilbur is someone, not something.
Valentine is someone, not something.
Molly is someone, not something.
The I Am Someone portraits are available to purchase online with all profits going to support Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary’s work. To learn more about the organisation, visit www.wherepigsfly.org.
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All images supplied.
