Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary Ireland. Photo Gallery

About Us

Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary opened in 2008 and is now home to almost 200 residents.

Eden provides a lifelong sanctuary where non-human animals who are rescued from animal-use industries are given a home in a place of safety, where they will never again be viewed as the property of humans and where they will be free from subjugation, exploitation and killing, instead allowed to live out their lives according to their own interests in so far as is possible.

The main objects for which the company, which operates on a not-for-profit basis, is established, are:

  • in recognition of their personhood, to rescue and provide a Vegan sanctuary, on a not-for-profit basis, for non-human animals who are being used by humans (the “Vegan Sanctuary”), in particular farmed animals belonging to those species that are used and slaughtered as food;
  • to use the information and insights that these rescued residents in the Vegan Sanctuary provide about their sentience and needs, in such a manner that our public presence reflects the need to completely and rapidly abolish all animal use by humans everywhere through vegan, animal rights advocacy; and
  • to advocate for animal rights and the promotion of veganism, and dismantling of the property status of animals.

Non Profit Status

Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary CLG is an animal rights organisation established as a not-for-profit company. As its activities of offering a home to non-human animals who have been rescued from human use, along with the promotion of their right not to be bred, owned, used or killed, do not fit within the definition of a charitable organisation in the Republic of Ireland, Eden is not a registered charity.

History

Eden was founded serendipitously when two orphaned lambs arrived in April 2008. Shortly afterwards, we rescued twelve chickens from the petting industry, one of whom was a hen called Matilda. That small group of sheep and chickens quickly became our teachers. They taught us primarily that they are individuals whose lives have meaning and purpose for them, independent of the fact that they have been bred for human use. They showed us their individual personalities and preferences. We realised that, like us, they have physical and emotional feelings, that they have rich social and emotional lives, complex cognitive abilities, and an interest in not being harmed and in staying alive. All of them want to live free from oppression, and to use their liberty and autonomy to determine their own unique lives. As a result we ourselves went vegan.

Veganism & Vegan Education

We formed an extraordinary bond with Matilda and through her we learned about the exploitation of the female reproductive system in the egg industry. On the night she died I promised her that Eden would dedicate itself, not only to providing a sanctuary for animals rescued from human use, but that it would become an advocacy centre dedicated to informing people about the individual animals we harm and our moral obligation to be vegan. That promise has been the bedrock of Eden’s advocacy which has grown to play a significant role in the animal rights movement that challenges the legal status of other animals as the property of humans. In 2015 Eden ran Go Vegan World, a public advertising campaign that aims to inform people about animal sentience and our duty to be vegan. The residents of Eden feature in its ads. Go Vegan World is now an independent non-profit company but it continues to be inspired and informed by the residents of Eden and is firmly rooted in the promise we made to Matilda.

We define veganism as:

“Veganism” means living in recognition of the fact that other animals are unique and individual sentient beings, with physical and psychological feelings, who are consciously aware of themselves and their world, and who have interests including an interest in their own lives, and who have, therefore, the fundamental rights not to be used, owned or killed by humans. Vegans, therefore, avoid participating in the exploitation of non-human animals for food, clothing, research, entertainment, labour or any other use, in so far as is possible and practicable.

Many vegans also engage in animal rights advocacy and actively work to develop alternatives to animal use, and promote public awareness of animal sentience and animal rights,

Animal Rescue and Animal Rights

Eden exists because, in our view, animal use and killing is unjust. Our objective is to give a home to victims of animal use so that their rights are no longer violated by being bred, used and killed by humans.

Eden provides animal residents with a home not because they are suffering or because of how they are treated but because they are enduring the injustice of being used as objects to serve humans, as though they were unfeeling things, deeming them to be our property.

It is our fundamental conviction that it is morally wrong for humans to force into existence other, non-human, animals for the purpose of subjugating, exploiting and killing them for unnecessary purposes, such as for food, clothing, cosmetic and household products, entertainment and all other purposes. Everything we do at Eden is guided by that conviction.

Farmed animals, whose breeding is governed by the animal agriculture industry, suffer a grave insult to their natural health status.  The ‘farmed’ animals that we know today merely resemble their free ancestors and the greater the distance that our domestication of them puts between them and the natural heritage to which they are entitled, the greater the rights violations we inflict on them.

It is our experience that rescue alone cannot obliterate the consequences of their histories of human use, particularly the effects of selective breeding. Our aim is to ameliorate those effects to the best of our ability (for example using implants to prevent hens laying eggs), and to facilitate them to have the best possible quality of life during their foreshortened lifespans. It is important to remember that sanctuary is not the answer to the problem of animal use: only veganism, along with the complete abolition of human use of other animals, and a radical revision of how we think and feel about them as our sentient equals, can ever be a solution to the problem they face at our human hands.

Our Logo

The work we do at Eden is part of a global movement that seeks to completely eradicate all use, exploitation and killing of non-human animals by humans, to dismantle the property status of animals under the law and to secure the right of all animals to live free from human control, subjugation, use and slaughter.

Far from being an act of charity, the existence of a vegan sanctuary that accords other animals their rights, is a political act. We regard it as the right of every individual to be free from ownership by another. We regard the life of every sentient individual to matter equally, regardless of species. In our view when humans live as vegans they respect the right of everyone not to be owned, used, exploited, harmed or killed, regardless of species. In recognition of the intersectional nature of veganism, we also regard these as human rights and recognise the interconnectedness of human and animal exploitation. Our Logo, Eden: Liberty, Equality, Veganism, represents this philosophy of animal rights. Our work is to expand this way of living beyond the residents of Eden to every living being, not only through the abolition of human use of other animals, but through a radical revision in the ways we think and feel about other lives and our view of ourselves as one of many species of life on this planet.

The Name ‘Eden’

A sanctuary can be defined as a safe place, or refuge.  The word also has religious connotations pertaining to sacredness.  Indeed, although its founder is a person of no religious beliefs, the name Eden was chosen because of its Biblical reference to a garden or paradise characterised by non-violence, equality and harmony.

The ethos of Eden is to simply be a sanctuary for its residents.  Inevitably, many of those residents are ill, in pain, or deeply traumatised. Therefore, Eden is primarily a private home to its residents, with the same standards of safety, peace, respect for boundaries, and freedom from unwanted intrusion that humans expect in their homes.

If you need to contact Eden about an animal who needs a home please use or contact page, or email us at info@edenfarmedanimalsanctuary.com or telephone 0872325832.

We also invite you get to know them through this website, and our youtube channel.

Some of the residents at Eden have taken on the role of ambassador of their species, educating us and inspiring us to radically revise how we think and feel about them and about our place as humans on this earth. You can read their stories on the blog section of the site. The only difference between these courageous survivors of human use, and the billions of animals we harm every year, is that the residents at Eden had someone to tell their story. In every other way they are the same as those whose lives were used and killed for the milk, eggs, flesh, clothing, cosmetics and entertainment that we use without a thought for the consequences of our demands.

You can change your part in the history of animal rights by going vegan today.

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