Over 50 people filed into the Magill Commons Club Dining Room to attend Monmouth Area Vegetarian Society’s (MAVS) first annual Thanksgiving Potluck Celebration and hear their second guest speaker of the year, Mike Stura, on Sunday Nov. 17 at 1 pm.
An animal rescuer and longtime volunteer at Farm Animal Sanctuaries, Stura began his statement by proclaiming, “I wasn’t always a vegan. I was an omnivore like most people,” which made many in attendance laugh. Stura, an everyday truck driver, explained he first became a vegetarian when one of his coworkers named Tony said he couldn’t wait to get home because his wife was preparing a delicious meal.
This made Stura think, “How many animals have died to feed Tony in his life?” He then furthered his animal activism when he took a tour of the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in Willow, NY. When his wife agreed to become vegan as well, their lives became centered on saving animals.
“There will be 27 million land animals killed every day; 19,000 every minute. We know we can’t save them all, but if one has a better life, we are helping,” Stura explained.
Stura involves himself with three Farm Animal Sanctuaries full heartedly: the Farm Sanctuary in NY, For The Animals, For The Animals Sanctuary in NJ, and Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in NY.
As he was talking, the audience could not help but to try and read his many tattoos. Stura explained one message behind his somewhat unusual number tattoo.
“This was Mike Jr.’s number when we found him,” Stura said pointing to the numbers ‘4387’ on his right arm. Mike Jr. is a part-Holstein, part-Angus cow. The cow made his first appearance in Stura’s life on April 10, 2012, when he escaped from a slaughterhouse in Patterson, NJ.
“They were bashing him with police cars and eventually caught him by bashing him into a fire hydrant, then tazing him,” Stura said of Mike Jr.’s ugly past.
Once the slaughterhouse got Mike Jr. back, the owner went on the record saying if someone wanted to save him and take him in, the owner would allow the cow to leave peacefully. When Stura heard this, he drove to that slaughterhouse to pick up the deviant cow. To Stura’s dismay, the owner said the cow had already been moved to another sanctuary. Fully doubting that statement, Stura pressed the matter and said he would go to the reporters. At that second, the owner became very compliant and went down the road to a livestock farm to fetch Mike Jr.
Upon arrival, Stura saw Mike Jr. curled on the ground with a dead goat three feet from his body and animal parts surrounding him. After much effort to get the cow onto his truck, Stura began his way back to the Woodstock Sanctuary where Mike Jr. continues to live his days happily.
Stura explained that male cows, such as Mike Jr., are often raised for byproducts while female cows are used for milk. In order to keep female cows producing milk, they must continuously be impregnated. This is the standard practice all over the country.
“Maybelle was found at a Heritage Farm,” Stura said. “She was used to teach people how to live life like they did in the 1780’s. They impregnated her four times and took her babies away four times.”
This is not only detrimental to the mother cow’s health, but can also be fatal to her calves. Without the proper nutrients provided by a mother’s milk, calves are not able to grow the right muscles or joints to be strong and healthy.
Stura recently saw the damage this practice entails through a baby calf he rescued earlier this year. “People will rent five baby calves during apple picking season to display. Then they go back to auction when the season is over,” Stura said. Jimmy was three months old when Stura found him at an apple picking farm. He later found out that the farmer had him since he was one day old. This meant that Jimmy never received the nutrients from his mother. As a result of this error, Jimmy received an infection in his umbilical cord region, which spread through his right leg. As of current, Jimmy is at Cornell University undergoing treatments for his infection.
With multiple cow stories already mentioned, Stura decided to speak of a more time relevant breed: turkeys. Stura addressed the topic of genetically modified foods and said turkeys were no exception. Through his research, he has come to the realization that Broad Breasted White turkeys are the type of turkey commonly cooked for Thanksgiving dinner. On average, they weigh 40 pounds which is why they are the most sought out. Stura also noted that the broad breasted white turkeys are entirely manmade and physically cannot mate with each other because their organs do not align. He further stated that about 46 million turkeys will be killed for Thanksgiving this year.
The Woodstock Farm Sanctuary has around five Broad Breasted White turkeys and two Heritage Bronze turkeys. “Timmy the lover and Tommy the brawler,” Stura said of the two Heritage Bronze turkeys. “They love to try and impress all the girls. Not only female turkeys, but sheep, people, any girl.”
Stura’s face began to light up when he was speaking of the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary and how many lives he personally helped save. “Every animal is their own being with a distinct personality. The same as we are and same as your dogs or cats are,” he added.
After finishing his speech, MAVS founder, Mary Harris, opened the floor to questions. One of the first questions asked was how the animals behave in the slaughter houses and in their poor conditions.
“They all know what is going to happen to them. They can sense it,” Stura replied. “At the sanctuary, you can see their personalities change.”
“I didn’t think it would be that touching,” a communication major, Becca Zidik, said of the event. “If I could be a vegan, I would because like Stura said, we are breeding all of these animals to be eaten. For Christmas, I donated to the farm sanctuary.”
Stura concluded the event by urging people to volunteer whether it be through time, spreading the word or financial means. His final words were, “Anyone can volunteer. I’m a truck driver, I volunteer.”
PHOTO COURESY of Mike Hrinewski
