Farm animal sanctuaries provide lifelong care for rescued farmed animals and serve as advocacy platforms connecting urban consumers with the individuals behind their food.
Farm animal sanctuaries perform both direct welfare functions — providing refuge for rescued animals — and indirect functions through advocacy, education, and the emotional connections formed between visitors and individual farm animals. When a person meets a pig who remembers their name, a chicken who chooses companions, or a cow who greets familiar people, the abstraction of farm animals dissolves. This individual connection has been one of the most effective welfare advocacy tools available, changing behavior in visitors at rates that exceed most other interventions.