Thousands of eager young students have grown to understand the complex thoughts and feelings of bulls, thanks to Animal Rahat’s colorful educational video, “A Bull’s Life,” and now adults are learning to extend their empathy, too, through this terrific animated production.
When a farmer invited to tour Animal Rahat’s sanctuary in Sangli wasn’t able to travel, staff took the tour to him! They visited his home, spoke about the importance of mukt gotha (sheds in which bullocks are no longer restrained by the nose), and suggested ways to improve the lives of the buffalo and bullocks he was keeping tied up and miserable.
Can you imagine being tied down so tightly that you can’t even move your head freely from side to side when flies land on you or there’s something you want to see? The rope threaded through this bullock’s sensitive nose would burn every time he sneezed, sawing back and forth along his sensitive flesh if he moved even an inch!
What’s a ‘Free Shed’?
Staff explained how building a “free shed”—a large roofed area with a raised floor that offers shade and shelter from the rain—would help the animals on his farm eat and socialize without the stress of confinement.
The farmer was interested in learning more, but staff knew they needed to show him what it’s like for animals when they can go in and out as they please, so they played the video—and that’s when it clicked!
Newly motivated, the farmer constructed a massive 70-foot shed of his own. He removed the animals’ painful nose ropes and is now encouraging his neighbors to build free sheds to help the animals on their farms, too.