"Animals are individuals.
Just like you value your life, they do too."
- Kris Taylor, founder, Shy 38
Just like you value your life, they do too."
- Kris Taylor, founder, Shy 38
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In 2013, Kris Taylor and her family moved to Tonganoxie, Kansas. Next door was a pasture occupied by a herd of cattle every spring and summer. Kris was a lifelong animal advocate, but she had never really met a cow up close. She and her kids got to know the cows and discover their unique personalities.
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“Every fall, the farmer would come and take away all the calves and we’d watch the mothers grieve and roam the fields for days calling for them in obvious distress.”
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“They were raised to be sold and eaten. They were looked at as money."
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"I started watching them, noticing that each one had a unique personality."
"They all liked different things. They had friends.”
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Compelled to become vegan and do more for the animals, Kris started an animal sanctuary in 2015 on some property just outside Lawrence, Kansas. She named it Shy 38, after one of the cows she and her kids named who had the number 38 on its tag.
Her goal is to offer youth a compassionate, humane education program - as opposed to what children learn in programs centered around agriculture and livestock raising. She wants visitors to see that animals experience pain, love, fear, joy and grief, much like we do. |
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On the sanctuary, all the animals have names and Kris memorizes them and recognizes their unique personalities. She refers to them in pronouns we would use for humans (he, she and someone instead of it and something).
The most people-friendly of each species is selected as an ambassador and is the one most likely introduced to visitors. Among the cows, that individual is Helen. |
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"She loves people, and people have come back a second time or have contacted me after they’ve been here and said that they decided they don’t want to eat beef or dairy anymore after a visit with Helen.”
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“We are strictly a sanctuary. If someone comes in, they are here until they pass away naturally or we won’t let anyone suffer, so if it’s time to let them go, they may be humanely euthanized.”
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“Farmers are killing them in a couple of years as opposed to their natural lifespan, and it’s not ethical to kill anyone that doesn’t want to die, and I don’t think they do.”
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“They have a will to live, just like us.”
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“A lot of people come here and really find connection with the animals.
They feel it is peaceful.
The connection.
The whole idea of no one’s being harmed.”
They feel it is peaceful.
The connection.
The whole idea of no one’s being harmed.”
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“All our roosters have names and personalities. They’re probably my favorite.”
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“The feed stores continue to sell chicks from the hatcheries. The hatcheries don’t sex them correctly, so about half of the hens that the feed stores are selling are roosters, and you can’t have roosters in the city. People either dump them, some put them for free on Craig’s List, or they call me or they end up in the humane society."
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"There’ll never be enough homes for them all.”
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Kris is contacted when animals are about to be abandoned by their owners or need to be removed from inhumane situations. She takes in every animal she can, but she was at capacity this summer.
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“A lot of (our pigs) came to us as little piglets after falling out of a truck on the highway.”
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“They do cow things. They live their lives. They have friends."
"They do what they do when you’re not killing them."
"They’re here to live.”
“They’re just like giant dogs.”
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“Our local farm vets out here tell me to humanely euthanize all the time because they’re not going to be profitable.
If somebody has a problem and they need care, they go to the vet. It’s like a whole hospital ward in my mud room.” |
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Shy 38 is a nonprofit, but donations rarely cover all the costs of operating the farm and caring for the animals. She and her husband cover the rest.
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“It’s hard. You’re constantly out of money. You can’t afford whatever it is you need, and they always need something. They always break something. It’s stressful."
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"But then, I come out here and do the chores, and it’s just me and them.”
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“Most of them wouldn’t be alive, and they needed a place like this and somebody needs to tell their stories.”
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“When people get out here, the animals convince them. We tell them their stories, and then they meet them.
That’s, a lot of times, all that’s needed.” |
