Dear John,

At our Watkins Glen, NY and Acton, CA shelters, the days are getting shorter, the air is getting cooler, and our teams are busy at work preparing for winter.

We could really use your help. We don’t know what type of winter awaits us. Hopefully, it will be mild—but with nearly 1,000 animals in our care, we must prepare diligently. From checking water lines to ensure they don’t freeze, to reinforcing barn windows and doors, maintaining supplemental indoor heaters, and more, we need to be prepared. With animals’ safety on the line, we can’t afford to take shortcuts.

Completing these vital projects before the bad weather hits will require more than $200,000 in immediate funds.

John, please help us ready our shelters for winter and continue our lifesaving work for farm animals. Support our annual Winter Farm Maintenance Fund by joining Farm Sanctuary with a gift today. When you become a member, you will receive great benefits including a free subscription to our member magazine, opportunities to sign petitions and speak out for farm animals, special alerts with breaking news about legislation regarding farm animals, updates on urgent rescues, and more.

Our animal residents depend on us for food, shelter, warmth, and care—all of which are more difficult in the winter. And, many of our rescued friends have additional challenges. Rita, for example, is a beautiful cow who lost part of her foot before coming to Farm Sanctuary. While she uses a prosthetic to get around, it makes her more prone to slipping in winter ice and slush. Other animals are unsteady on their feet or hooves due to injury or abuse within America’s farming industry—and some have a hard time keeping themselves warm, which makes freezing temperatures a real danger.

That’s why we are hard at work right now making our shelters as safe and comfortable as possible for the long, unpredictable months ahead. We’re winterizing our barns, readying sand and straw bedding, and stocking up on food supplies including hay for our sheep, cows, and goats who will no longer have summer grass to graze.

All this work makes your support for animals like Rita more important than ever. Your gift to our Winter Farm Maintenance Fund will help us secure the funds we need to prepare.

While so much of our world has changed this year, the needs of our shelter residents remain the same—and caring for these animals is always a big task, especially in the winter. The colder it is outside, the more our animals must eat to stay warm. Last winter, we used 491 tons of hay at our Watkins Glen, NY shelter—that’s a staggering $100,000 in hay alone!

The bad news is due to the lack of rain in southern New York this year, we needed to secure some of our hay from new suppliers, which increased our costs. The fluctuations can be a budget challenge, but with your help our animals will remain safe, healthy, and warm.

We do this work not only for the animals currently in our care, but also for those we will rescue in the weeks and months ahead. We never know when the next call about farm animals in crisis will come, so we must be ready.

That’s why I hope I can count on your support for our Winter Farm Maintenance Fund this year. Please make your most generous gift today. Your support will not only help in Watkins Glen, NY but also at our shelter in Acton, CA, where the rainy season requires significant flood prevention measures, along with our work to keep the animals warm.

Thank you, in advance, for sharing the warmth of your heart with our animals this winter and beyond.

Please join now to help Farm Sanctuary raise the $200,000 needed to prepare our shelters and care for our rescued animals this winter.

Please hurry! Winter will be here soon, and we must be ready.

Yours for farm animals,

Megan Watkins
Chief Executive Officer

P.S. In addition to helping us prepare our shelters for the winter, you can help any time of year by contacting Farm Sanctuary immediately at 607-583-2225 ext. 223 if you see a farm animal in crisis.