Bonus: Turkey Time!

Mishy Harman (narration): Hello hello dear listeners! I’m here at Havat HaHofesh, the Freedom Farm, in Moshav Olesh, which is somewhere between Netanya and Tulkarm. And I’m here to chat with Dani.

Dani Pudim: Welcome, hi!

Mishy Harman: [In Hebrew] Nice to meet you, Mishy.

Dani Pudim: Hi, Dani.

Mishy Harman: So first of all, can you introduce yourself?

Dani Pudim: Are we starting now?

Mishy Harman: Yeah, we can start.

Dani Pudim: OK, well, my name is Dani, I manage the educational activities on the farm. I’m here for three years. And [laughs] yeah, it’s my favourite place in the whole world. This is my home now. Home away from home, or n ot away from home.

Mishy Harman: So Dani, can you explain what is the Freedom Farm?

Dani Pudim: So Freedom Farm Sanctuary is an educational center and rescue for animals from the food industry. We rehabilitate them and we give them compassion and respect and love and harmony to all the animals and to all the humans that are coming here. The main core of the farm is educational. And we want to reach as many people, no matter what age, no matter what culture, no matter what special needs, we accept everyone, we don’t deal in what they’re eating, what they’re wearing. We will never ask a person that comes here if he’s a vegetarian or vegan or whatever.

Mishy Harman: How many animals are there here?

Dani Pudim: Around three hundred and fifty.

Mishy Harman: Wow.

Dani Pudim: Yeah.

Mishy Harman: And a lot of the animals have some sort of disability?

Dani Pudim: A lot of the animals has some kind of disability. Some of them has physical disability, some of them has a mental disability, some of them has an emotional disability, we treat all of it together holistically.

Mishy Harman: So what animals live on the farm?

Dani Pudim: Every animal that is in the meat industry, milk industry, egg industry, experiments… he’s here, OK? So we have turkeys and we have chickens and we have roosters and we have two little lambs that are just jumping around right now. And we have rabbits and we have cows and pigs and donkeys. And I think I said them all. Yeah. Hello babies. This is Mazal. She’s the mother of Maya and Jenny. Jenny? Jenny’s over there – the two black sheep.

Mishy Harman: Does every animal on the farm have a name?

Dani Pudim: Yeah. Every animal on the farm including two hundred and fifty chickens.

Mishy Harman: Do you know their names?

Dani Pudim: Well me, no. I used to when I was working with the chickens but now when I do only education then it’s trouble for me. I know some of the names. We have Morin and Chava and Amiri. And this is Ruby calling out. And this is Michal. Iris! Amir is a handicapped sheep over there. You can see him on the wheelchair – the green wheelchair. Hey, this is Gali – Gali is with the…

Mishy Harman: A human being, just…

Dani Pudim: A human being, yeah. And a cow over there is the cow Gali. And this is Gali the human. And she was named after her.

Mishy Harman: Are any of them named for you?

Dani Pudim: Yeah, I have a sheep named after me.

Mishy Harman: Wow.

Dani Pudim: And I have a sheep named after my daughter. So we have everyone here. If I will start introducing everyone, we won’t finish.

Mishy Harman: And we’re going to meet Shirley?

Dani Pudim: We’re going to meet, well, we have here five different turkeys. Everyone has a different story. And we’re going to see all of them. We’re going to do a little tour. So we’re going to say good morning to Shirley. I think he’s inside eating, but we’re going to…

Mishy Harman: Oh Shirley is a boy?

Dani Pudim: Shirley is a male. Yeah. Yeah. Just a minute. Hello my love, hello, sweetie. So this is Shirley. Shirley came to us very, very, very thin and scared. His story is amazing, sweetie. First of all…

Mishy Harman: Hi Shirley.

Dani Pudim: He’s blind. He can’t see…

Mishy Harman: Shirley is blind?

Dani Pudim: Shirley is blind. This is something… Yes my… [laughs].

Mishy Harman: How do you know Shirley is blind?

Dani Pudim: Well, he can’t see. And he came here because he’s blind. And this was his miracle. And he’s living here with chickens from the meat industry. So Shirley, when the chickens came here, they were so afraid and they start to call with fear. They just clack you say?

Mishy Harman: Emm hmm.

Dani Pudim: Yeah, so clacking and clacking and clacking. Now Shirley knows what it means to be afraid. Because he lived in this fear, and he knows this clacking, and he understood what’s going on. And he went over to the chickens and he spread his wings on top of them. And he let them went inside.

Mishy Harman: Like Bialik’s poem!

Dani Pudim: Yeah, exactly. And that’s how they slept. Every a few hours, they would change places and other chickens came beneath the wings. And that’s how they sleep and everyone is sleeping all around him. And they take turns, it’s shifts beneath Shirley’s wings.

Mishy Harman: So Shirley is like the blanket for all of the chickens here.

Dani Pudim: He just… he’s a teacher. OK? He’s an educator for people that doesn’t know that chickens and turkeys can show love and empathy towards other and compassion towards other. Because he gave compassion he gave from his strength to the other chickens. And this is this was a also a lesson for us. That to know that empathy and compassion is not ours alone, not only humans can give that. And that’s why I think Shirley is the best educator here.

Mishy Harman: So let’s just say goodbye to Shirley here.

Dani Pudim: I think we need to get him inside again. Shirluki [in Hebrew] come here. Yeah, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. I know I know. You need to go in. He’s mad at me now. He’s mad at me. Yeah, you’re mad at me. I know. OK, go to eat. Go. So this is Iris. Now, Iris is an amazing person because she rescued herself.

Mishy Harman: She’s an amazing turkey. Not a person.

Dani Pudim: Well, we don’t look. Yes, she’s a turkey. But she’s a person. She has a personality.

Mishy Harman: Ah ha.

Dani Pudim: So Iris. Iris saved herself. She was on a truck on her way to be forcefed and eventually killed. And she managed to escape. And behind that truck was a lawyer named Anat. And she saw her jumping out of the truck on the highway. She stopped the car. And she started running after her. And they managed to catch her and they brought her here. And she is, as you can see, she’s a free spirited turkey. She has a mind of her own. She likes to be with the other chickens. And with Orna, her friend (which is another turkey), but she won’t… She won’t let me pet her. She doesn’t like it and we respect it here.

Mishy Harman: Are Iris and Shirley friends?

Dani Pudim: No, they don’t get along. Some of them don’t get along with others. Orna doesn’t get along with Meital and Orly over there. So they can’t be together because they will fight all the time. Orna is actually my best friend. Usually we just sit together, hugging each other and she loves it and she loves me and I love her.

Mishy Harman: Aren’t you afraid that Shirley and Iris will be offended when you say that Orna is your best friend?

Dani Pudim: No, everybody has a best friend. Don’t you have a best friend?

Mishy Harman: I do.

Dani Pudim: OK, so I have a best friend and Orna has a best friend and Shirley has a best friend. And you can see Gali here is holding Kim and she is her best friend. She also have a husband here.

Mishy Harman: Kim or Gali?

Dani Pudim: No, Gali. Gali the person has a husband here, who is a sheep. Everyone here on the farm has an animal that they’re connected to very, very strongly and it’s OK. We love all of them, OK? I love the chickens here to death. I mean, they’re amazing. They’re so smart. But yeah, I have a special turkey which is my best friend. And here is Meitali and… and Orly. Orly doesn’t like me so much. Meitali is OK with me. And I’m not jealous. [In Hebrew] Here. No, she doesn’t like me.

Mishy Harman: And let me just ask you one last question. And I mean this in all, you know, sincerity. What do you say to the average person who says like, ‘what the hell? Naming chickens. These people are completely out of it.’ You understand what I’m saying.

Dani Pudim: Yeah, of course, of course. I think it’s very, very, so natural for people to say, ‘oh my god, what the… are you doing?’

Mishy Harman: Nice self-censorship there.

Dani Pudim: [Laughs]. So there’s a sentence of an author – an American author – by the name of Bradley Miller. And he said, “to teach a child not to step on a caterpillar is an important lesson for the child, not only for the caterpillar.” When we teach compassion towards the weakest animals on the planet – these are the weakest ones – we are creating a better society. When a child is sitting down with a chicken on his lap, and he’s cuddling her, and she’s putting her head on his shoulder and purring like a kitten, something is changing completely. We’re helping animals, of course. But through helping animals, we are helping ourselves, we are changing our way of thinking, the violent way of thinking. Because when you give compassion to someone else weaker than you, then you can afterwards give compassion to another culture to another person. This is something that will help us. We don’t discriminate people, OK? Just because we love animals. This is very important. We love animals. We love people. We love humans. That’s why in Hebrew, there’s an… a difference between ‘chayot’ ve’ba’alei chayim’ – animals, and… how can we translate it, the ones that has life, and we all have life inside of us. So yes, we are crazy. We love animals. Everybody’s crazy here, as the hatter said, “we are all crazy here.” But we are good crazy.

Mishy Harman: Amazing. Well, Shirley, [in Hebrew] thank you. Ah, Shirley.

Dani Pudim: This is a compliment for me. It’s OK.

Mishy Harman: Dani, toda toda.