Vine Sanctuary
Happy November! This month our featured Cause of the Month is Vine Sanctuary, an LGBTQ-led farmed animal sanctuary whose aim is to work for social justice and animal liberation. VINE stands for “veganism is the next evolution” as well as “veganism is not enough”, a perfect representation of the team’s values and their incredible efforts in addressing the intersections between speciesism and other forms of oppression.
Today, Vine Sanctuary offers peace and refuge for over 700 animals who come from a variety of life experiences: the meat, dairy, and egg industries, cockfighting, experimentation, petting zoos, and pigeon shoots. This team doesn’t stop at providing shelter for their residents - they also are active in many projects, including conducting research and providing education to their community targeting diet change, reforming agriculture, and effective animal advocacy. The folks at Vine Sanctuary target both local areas and the national level in education, awareness, activism, policy change, modeling, and more, by focusing on unique and practical opportunities that are presented to them and those that they are in the best position to support, such as opportunities based on location, standpoint, and skill sets.
Founded and initially operated in Maryland in 2000, the sanctuary began under a different name as a chicken sanctuary and soon evolved to represent its expanding population (including ducks, turkeys and barn cats), as well as their growing advocacy and educational activities. Over the years, this team was nationally recognized as the first sanctuary to successfully rehabilitate roosters who were used in cockfighting (their techniques are still praised and used across the world)! The sanctuary later relocated to Vermont to achieve their dreams of acquiring more space for their current residents, and more land to welcome new species, namely cows who are exploited in the dairy industry. Later, the sanctuary formally changed their name to Vine to more closely portray their goal of pursuing peace and justice for everyone.
Vine Sanctuary has spent over 20 years exploring the connections between the LGBTQ movement and animal liberation, while building bridges between both movements. The number of resources and other information found on Vine Sanctuary’s website is endless! Visit their website to learn more about specific animals, the team’s projects, and their mission and values.
As always, a portion of all our sales through the end of November will be donated to our Cause of the Month.