First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to visit our page. The information on this page provides a more in-depth look at what our sanctuary stands for. We understand that some of the information might make some feel uncomfortable. Still, we want to provide some clarity to the vegan and animal rights discussion that gets muddled by nonvegans, vegans, and animal charities that promote animal use. We believe most people agree with going vegan, and we hope that by providing information and resources, people will align their actions with their beliefs. We weren’t always vegan, but after being presented with the principles and arguments for veganism, we stopped our use of animals.
If you have any questions, please email us; we will try our best to answer or provide resources.
What is veganism and why should I care about veganism?
Usually, when people hear the word vegan, they think of a diet, but being vegan is more than just what you eat. We see veganism as a philosophy of justice and peace; the recognition and respect of the basic moral right of nonhuman animals not to be used as property because they are sentient beings who have moral value and a peace movement that opposes violence against all sentient beings. Vegans reject using nonhuman animals for food, clothing, entertainment, or any other purpose, to the extent practicable because these actions violate their fundamental right of not being property. Speciesism on the other hand is injustice for nonhuman animals and humans’ discriminatory behavior towards them because they are a different species. GFS believes that if you accept it's wrong to cause harm and death to nonhuman animals without a good reason, then you already believe in going vegan.
How does believing it’s wrong to cause harm and death to nonhumans without a good reason mean I already believe in going vegan?
GFS believes all animal use is wrong, regardless of the amount of harm and death involved, for the reason that all sentient beings have the basic moral right not to be used as property.
Most, if not all, people would agree that causing harm and death to nonhuman animals without a good reason is wrong. For example, the majority of people would agree that when they hear stories of humans killing dogs, drowning cats, hitting horses, etc., they believe what those humans did was wrong. We believe the reason people strongly oppose these acts is due to the individuals causing harm and death to sentient beings (cats, dogs, etc.) for no good reason; they are doing it for their own pleasure, convenience, and entertainment.
Now, if you object to killing, hitting, and kicking cats, dogs, horses, etc., ask yourself what is the best reason you have for imposing harm and death onto nonhuman animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and other uses.
Since there are vegan alternatives to consuming, wearing, and using animals, and humans don't need to consume, wear, or use animals to live or survive, the best reasons humans give for causing harm and death to animals for food, clothing, entertainment, etc., is for their own pleasure, convenience, and entertainment, which would also classify these reasons as not being a good reason, just like the reasons given for killing, hitting, and kicking cats, dogs, horses, etc.
If you agree with the statement that causing harm and death to animals for no good reason is wrong, then you believe in going vegan since all uses of nonhuman animals are unnecessary. And if you believe it's wrong to cause unnecessary harm or death to nonhuman animals, then you believe animals have moral value and aren't just things for you to do with them as you please. And if you believe nonhuman animals are not things and have moral value, then they can no longer be viewed as things, which means all our uses of nonhumans as things or property, like consuming, wearing, breeding, selling, etc., must be abolished, and being vegan is not an option; it is an obligation because to not go vegan is to agree that nonhuman animals are property which in turn violates their basic right as sentient beings to not be used as property.
Please align your actions with your beliefs, which is by going vegan and refusing to consume, wear, and use animals and recognizing their right not to be property.
What is abolitionist veganism and why should I care about being an abolitionist vegan?
Graybloom Farm Sanctuary is an abolitionist vegan sanctuary and uses the term abolitionist vegan as defined and explained by Gary Francione and Anna Charlton in their position of the six principles to the abolitionist approach to animal rights.
Principle One: Abolitionists maintain that all sentient beings, human or nonhuman, have one right—the basic right not to be treated as the property of others.
Principle Two: Abolitionists maintain that our recognition of this one basic right means that we must abolish, and not merely regulate, institutionalized animal exploitation, and that abolitionists should not support welfare reform campaigns or single-issue campaigns.
Principle Three: Abolitionists maintain that veganism is a moral baseline and that creative, nonviolent vegan education must be the cornerstone of rational animal rights advocacy.
Principle Four: The Abolitionist Approach links the moral status of nonhumans with sentience alone and not with any other cognitive characteristic; all sentient beings are equal for the purpose of not being used exclusively as a resource.
Principle Five: Abolitionists reject all forms of human discrimination, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, and classism—just as they reject speciesism. *Disclaimer: Regarding principle five and transphobia, GFS does not endorse Gary Francione's views on trans individuals. GFS believes trans rights are human rights and that transwomen are women and transmen are men.
Principle Six: Abolitionists recognize the principle of nonviolence as a core principle of the animal rights movement.
For a more in depth look at abolitionist veganism and the six principles of the abolitionist approach to animal rights, please check out the following:
What about being a vegetarian?
Graybloom Farm Sanctuary does not promote anything less than abolitionist veganism. Vegetarians, like other nonvegans, use the body or existence of nonhuman animals as a resource to extract products to consume, wear, entertain, etc. They participate in the commodification of nonhumans and view them as objects to use for their own purpose. While vegans reject all forms of animal use, vegetarians are just selective in their animal use.
What about reducing the consumption of animal products?
Like vegetarians, reducing one's use of nonhuman animals is still participating in their commodification and violating their right not to be property.
Since our time being vegan we’ve seen others, including individuals or organizations that claim to be vegan, encourage or support fewer animal products for a day, a month, etc, and celebrate individuals who have reduced their participation in animal use. However, if we take veganism and animal rights seriously, we should see that celebrating and advocating for individuals to reduce their speciesism for a day, a month, etc., is similar to celebrating and advocating for individuals to reduce their participation in discrimination against other humans for their race, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, etc., for only a day, month, etc.
When rights violations are present in the human context, we would never advocate for individuals to reduce their violence or discrimination towards others over abolishing their violence or discrimination towards others, so to do it in the nonhuman animal context is speciesist.
We believe vegans should be advocating veganism as a moral baseline, to advocate for less than veganism is to betray nonhuman animals. If individuals who are not vegan unfortunately decide they would rather reduce their use of nonhuman animals than go vegan, then that is their choice, but vegans shouldn’t be the ones promoting the rights violations of nonhuman animals as a morally good thing.
What about purchasing locally sourced or family-owned products made from animals instead of animal products from large-scale farms?
Local or family-owned doesn’t mean morally acceptable. Purchasing nonhuman animal products from local or family-owned sources still uses nonhumans as resources and violates their rights. If you believe nonhumans have moral value, purchasing a product that uses sentient beings as a resource is wrong.
What about “free-range,” “cage-free,” “humane,” or “cruelty-free” nonhuman animal products?
These are terms used to make us (human animals) feel better about using nonhuman animals as a resource. All nonhuman animal use violates their right not to be used as property, no matter the degree to which the harm is supposedly reduced. Putting aside the rights violation of using another sentient being as property, even if there were some way we could guarantee less or no harm to animals being used, they would still end up being killed, as there are no green pastures for retired nonhuman animals once their oppressors are done using their bodies. Furthermore, no matter how "humane," "compassionate," or "cruelty-free" the use is, we still cannot justify using and killing sentient beings for unnecessary reasons like pleasure, fashion, entertainment, etc.
Veganism isn't about "compassion" or "humane" treatment towards animals; it's about justice. Justice means being fair, and for nonhuman animals, it requires that we stop using them altogether and respect their rights, regardless of how "humane" or "compassionate" the use is. Taking a sentient being's life away or using them as a resource is not justice; it is violence, no matter how much we try to sugarcoat our violent actions toward them.
What about vaccines/medicines that are tested on nonhuman animals or have nonhuman animal products in them?
We believe testing on nonhuman animals to create vaccines is morally wrong or, to put it another way, we believe violating the right of a sentient being by using their body against their will for testing to find cures or even life-saving cures is morally wrong. This is why we believe taking vaccines or any other drug that has been tested on nonhumans is morally wrong. However, there is a caveat.
As Prof. Gary Francione states, “I want to make a distinction between actions that are morally justifiable and those that are morally excusable. The former are acts that are morally good acts, or are at least not morally objectionable. The latter are acts that are morally objectionable but where circumstances mitigate the culpability of engaging in the act. We can see the distinction easily if we look at two doctrines in criminal law; self-defense and duress.”
We believe vaccines fall into the morally excusable category. For example, take the deserted island scenario that we are sometimes asked about, what if a vegan were trapped on a deserted island with nothing to eat but a rabbit, would it be wrong to kill and eat the rabbit? Yes, we believe it would be morally wrong to kill the rabbit for our survival, but due to the circumstances of it being a survival scenario, we understand why it was done and it would be morally excusable and not justifiable. However, take the same stranded island scenario and instead of a rabbit replace them with another human. Yes, it would be morally wrong to kill the human for our survival, but due to the circumstances of it being a survival scenario, it would be morally excusable, not justified, to kill and eat the human.
To take life-saving medicines/vaccines that are tested on nonhuman animals or have nonhuman animal ingredients in them, when there is not a vegan alternative it is morally wrong, but due to the situation of necessity, it would make taking it morally excusable.
Veganism is about nonviolence and we choose to not commit violence against nonhuman animals by not violating their right not to be the property of others. So, we don’t eat, wear, or use nonhuman animals to the extent practicable. With that and the understanding that there are situations we encounter daily that go against our moral principles, due to us living in a society that is entrenched in using animals, it is unrealistic to believe vegans can avoid all animal use. There are certain things we have no control over, like the roads made from animals that we drive on, the equipment made from animals that we use at our full-time jobs, eating vegan food that was grown in manure, taking medicines or vaccines made from or tested on nonhumans for our survival when there are no vegan alternatives, etc.
The same can even be said for buying vegan items. Yes, our money is going towards purchasing vegan items, which increases the demand for vegan products, but who’s to say the workers, delivery drivers, producers of the items, etc., are vegan? So even though we are buying vegan items we are also helping to fund animal use with our dollars.
We can’t always avoid animal use in a nonvegan society, but that doesn’t allow us to then get a pass to be nonvegan and abandon our principles and advocate for less than veganism.
In situations where there is a vegan option, that option should be the choice we take, but in situations of necessity where we have no other choice but the nonvegan option and there are no vegan alternatives, then it would be morally wrong to take the nonvegan option, but morally excusable. When it comes to humans' use of nonhuman animals, the majority of the uses of nonhumans are not morally justified or morally excusable. Since there are vegan alternatives to consuming, wearing, and using animals, and humans don't need to consume, wear, or use animals to live or survive, the best reasons humans give for using animals for food, clothing, entertainment, etc., is for their own pleasure, convenience, and entertainment, which would classify these reasons as unnecessary.
Unfortunately, the world we currently reside in is a nonvegan world that views nonhuman animals as property or things to be used. We believe until the majority of people go vegan, there will be no paradigm shift to change this and the use of nonhuman animals for experiments, food, clothing, companionship, etc., will continue. So, we believe it is on us (humans) to care for the nonhuman animals that we, humans, have domesticated and brought into the world, while also advocating for the rights of nonhuman animals to be recognized and respected and for people to go vegan and reject all animal use, e.g. consuming, wearing, domesticating, etc., so we can eventually have a vegan world where lifesaving vegan vaccines/medicines are available and the norm.
I’m not vegan, but I love and care for animals. What can I do to help animals and Graybloom Farm Sanctuary?
If you genuinely care about and want to help save the lives of nonhuman animals, then the most critical thing you can do for nonhumans is to stop participating in their commodification and go vegan. Once you go vegan, trying to convince others to go vegan, donating to and volunteering at sanctuaries, and adopting are all ways to help animals and GFS.
What are Graybloom Farm Sanctuary’s views on pets/domestication?
Legally, the animals that are in our care are considered our property, but we refer to them as residents or refugees as the term pet is meant to describe animals that are used for human companionship or entertainment. The term pet is in opposition of our beliefs as it's meaning still views nonhuman animals as things or objects and the terms refugee and resident identifies them as individuals or persons.
Graybloom Farm Sanctuary is an abolitionist vegan sanctuary that believes all sentient beings (human and nonhuman animals) have the basic moral right not to be the property of others, in turn, all animal use must be abolished, which includes domestication and the continuation of bringing domesticated animals into existence. We advocate for adopting, rescuing, spaying, neutering, and providing domesticated nonhuman animals that currently exist with homes where they can live out their lives to the fullest extent possible. Going vegan is the most crucial, and the very minimum one should do for animals, in addition, we believe caring for domesticated animals is something humans, if able, should do since humans are the reason domesticated animals exist and for their existence being reduced to property that is also dependent on humans.
Words from Graybloom Farm Sanctuary:
If you believe it's wrong to cause unnecessary harm or death to nonhuman animals, then you believe animals have moral value and aren't just things for you to do with them as you please.
If you believe nonhuman animals are not things and have moral value, then they can no longer be viewed as things, which means all our uses of nonhumans as things or property, like consuming, wearing, etc., must be abolished, and being vegan is not an option; it is an obligation.
All nonhuman animal use involves violence towards a sentient being who has an interest in continuing to live and not being harmed.
If you genuinely care about and want to help save the lives of nonhuman animals, then the single most important thing you can do for nonhuman animals is stop participating in their commodification and go vegan.
Please go vegan and reject all forms of discrimination and violence against human and nonhuman animals.