Farm Sanctuary

"Moo had a little crush on me, and I could all but return his affections.

The brown-haired boy had saucer-size eyes, a sturdy build and a sweet disposition. But what really tugged at my heart was his story of survival. The super-friendly bull, who had trailed me through the pasture like a lovelorn teen, had been found tied to a car when he was a calf. He was saved by one animal shelter, then recently moved to another, Farm Sanctuary near Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Moo is not alone -- at the country's largest farm-animal-rescue facility. The sanctuary takes in hundreds of farm animals, which, if they could talk, would tell similar stories. There's Morgan, a snow-white rooster discovered in a Brooklyn pet store dyed like an Easter egg; Mayfly, an experiment in a school hatching project; and Winnie, a 500-pound pig who escaped a backyard barbecue (featuring her) in Connecticut. She now is the alpha pig of the pen.

"The biggest thing we want to impress upon people is that animals have their own lives and personalities," said Liz Pichaud, 23, the tour guide who led our six-person group around the property. "They are living as they were intended to live."