Meet Edgar's Farm Friends

Edgar's Mission is a not for profit sanctuary for neglected, abused and discarded farm animals. Their outreach centre aims to expand the public's circle of compassion by meeting the animal ambassadors and by learning about the plight of farm animals the public will be empowered to make more informed and compassionate choices.

Philip addressing 500 at Edgar's Mission Compassion Art Festival
and presenting another cheque for $10,000.

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Edgar’s Mission proudly welcomes three stars of the movie Charlotte’s Web as permanent residents! Meet Daisy Pig, Lily Pig and Alice. These stars continue to be in the spotlight as they greet our guests and act as ambassadors for all farm animals everywhere.

See Edgar's Misson from Charlotte's Web featurette "Where are they now" on YouTube!

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Edgar  
The one who started it all!  The arrival of James Cromwell, 'Farmer Hoggett' from the hit movie "Babe", in Australia in May 2003 represented a golden opportunity to highlight the plight of pigs in factory farms. James, a passionate animal activist, readily agreed.  It was decided it would be a good idea to get a photograph of James and a pig.  Great idea, but where do we get a pig from?  An approach to a local children's farm revealed that if we parted with $150 they would be happy to let James have his photo taken with a pig.  "Pigs!" was uttered and we then had the brilliant idea of "procuring a pig".  And procure we did, a landrace large white cross who we named Edgar Alan Pig!   The plan was to find a sanctuary for young Edgar to live out his days, but one night with him and we were hooked.   A suitable home was found and life changed forever.   Edgar's humble ability to champion the cause of pigs has seen him become the first of what is a legacy of activist pigs who now call Edgar's Mission home.
Life with Edgar bought us face to snout with one of the most maligned animals of our time.  His friendly enthusiasm for life has bought much happiness to ours and his intelligence confirmed George Orwell's' decision to make pigs rulers of the farmyard. Beyond all this Edgar has proven unequivocally that there is much more to pigs than being a ham sandwich! -- Edgar turns four years old!

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Tippi

People often ask “Why don’t you drink milk?” quickly adding “It’s not as if the cow is killed to get it”. While we have often struggled for a polite answer from now on our answer will be ‘Tippi”. Tippi was only a few days old when we first saw this forlorn and lost looking little Murray Grey/Friesian cross calf in a pen at a calf sale one beautiful sunny day in October 2006. She was one of many calves offered for sale that day. But unlike like them Tippi is still alive, in fact by the time Tippi made it to new home her pen mates would have been well on their way to the slaughterhouse if not dead.

To keep a cow producing milk she must be continually impregnated. The resulting offspring is surplus stock and is either sold as a veal/bobby (meaning hand reared) calf or if female she may be allowed to mature to follow the destiny of her mother. The milk that nature intended for the tiny 40-70kg bovine baby is taken from the mother cow, she will greatly miss her calf and has been known to frantically bellow for her baby that she will never see again for days. We are constantly told that milk is natural and indeed it is, for a baby calf that is. Cow’s milk is designed for a creature that has four healthy stomachs not one like ours. It contains about three times as much protein as humans with almost 50% more fat and is supremely designed for young calves to double their birth weight in just over a month.

What hit in the gut like a rush hour train was the sight of two sweet and innocent little black and white Friesian calves that were seen skipping and gamboling down the path way that was to take them to the slaughterhouse. These hapless two were, without their knowledge enjoying their last taste of sunshine, happiness and life. They are now dead. We have saved but one calf out of one million that are sold and slaughtered throughout the country each year in order for Australians to have their daily glass of mammary secretions of another species, otherwise know as milk.

Tippi will long serve as a reminder to us here at Edgar’s Mission of why we don’t drink cow’s milk. Her little white tip on her tail that gave her her name can now swing in the breeze with pure abandon as she now knows the kindness of human touch and the love of our species that has been denied her kind. May she long inspire others to question their need for milk and veal. Hail Tippi!

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