Hello everyone!

I'm a vegan and live in Haldimand County (near Hamilton), Ontario, and I was wondering if any vegans live nearby, I feel a bit lonely. I'll start attending the Hamilton Vegetarian Association potlucks come September (I can't make it downtown for the current potlucks, but I do know my way to McMaster) but I thought I'd ask anyway. Haldimand seems to be one of the hunting, trapping, fishing and meat consumption capitals of Ontario, it gets quite frustrating sometimes.

Second question: Are there any farm sanctuaries in this area? I'm not aware of any, but I've always wanted to visit one (and contribute / volunteer and so on).

Also, my folks and I live on a relatively large patch of land and once I have enough money, I'm thinking of building a small henhouse so that I can give shelter to at least a few chicks (my parents aren't vegan, so it'll be difficult enough to convince them of it; I want to save more animals, but I don't see them going with having a few cows on their property). Right now I won't be able to pull this off financially, but once I have a job that allows it, I'm game. There are livestock auctions around here that do sell baby chicks, so I'll probably get them there, but what really gets to me are the discarded male chicks in egg batteries. I was wondering if there's any battery or factory farm nearby that I could rescue birds from once the time and my bank account is right.

Sorry for bombarding you with all this -- It's just a goal of mine to save a few more animals other than the ones I'm not eating