Life on Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm

Two residents taking time to stop by one of the day's lectures.

On one hundred acres of rolling farmland in western Pennsylvania, more than one thousand cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and turkeys call Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm their home and have been doing so since its founding by Cayce Mell and Jason Tracy in 1995. On August 4, 2002, these residents, most of whom were displaced, abused, and/or abandoned by the intensive animal factory industry, welcomed the public for the Farm's first open house.

The day began with the grand opening of the Humane Education Center, dedicated to enlightening each visitor to the brutal reality of intensive farming by offering informative literature on the tragedy of laying hens condemned to life in small battery cages and the immense suffering of all farm animals in slaughterhouses. A viewing area for documentaries and other videos also allows the public a glimpse at the cruelty of the intensive farming industry.

Visitors were invited to take self-guided tours that revealed many stories of the harsh lives these farm animals endured before coming to Ooh-Mah-Nee. Two of the most horrific are of the more than 600 Buckeye Egg Farm hens rescued from the Ohio factory by the staff of Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm in September 2000 (see AWI Quarterly, Winter 2001), and of the 25 cows headed to a slaughterhouse until a traffic accident involving their double-decker transport trailer led to their rescue, again by Ooh-Mah-Nee. A happier story is that of the friendly and intelligent Nubian goats, who were given to Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm by a retiring humane dairy farmer, and who will spend their remaining years roaming the pastures. Also on the tour is the new animal hospital, which in addition to veterinary care provides a heated and predator proof infirmary through the winter months-a novel comfort for most of its once-abused victims.

To learn more about Ooh-Mah-Nee Farm please visit www.oohmahneefarm.org. They welcome visitors, and the outstanding staff is available to speak to groups and at special events.

The animals can enjoy green wide-open spaces; visitors learn about the suffering inflicted by intensive farming. Photos by Jen Rinick/AWI