Thomas Paine wrote that he loves the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. It is the business of little minds to shrink, he wrote, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct will pursue his principles unto death.
Paine would love the man who is Joshua Rockwood.
He smiles in trouble, he has gathered strength and dignity from distress, and grown brave by reflection. He and his family have been sorely tested this year, and his heart is firm, and conscience determined. Joshua is not a man who asks for help easily or often, but he needs some help now and I am proud to offer some and to encourage others to do the same.
He is fighting for his reputation, his family, his farm, his future. I believe every farmer or animal lover in the world has a personal stake in helping him to triumph in the time that tests his soul. I ask the hard-working farmers of the world and my brothers and sisters in the animal world to see themselves in his story and join the new social awakening for a better understanding of animals and a greater love of animals and people.
Joshua is struggling to move forward with his farm and his life and is seeking help and support for improving West WInd Acres this winter. You can help support his new gofundme project here.
Joshua has decided – after much reluctance – to move forward with his plans for improving West Wind Acres farm. He wishes to build four energy free tire-tanks and build an eco-friendly, inexpensive and innovative Greenhouse Shelter for his pigs, horses and cattle. He is asking for $16,000 to be raised through the crowd-sourcing site gofundme to move ahead with his farm before the next harsh winter.
As always, Joshua is fully transparent, he offers a detailed accounting of what he needs the money for and what he needs to do with it on his gofundme project page. Earlier this year, he raised more than $58,000 in legal fees to help contest the accusations against him. Much of that money is already gone, justice is expensive in America. If he goes to trial, that money will all be gone in a heartbeat. I believe it is essential that Joshua not be discouraged or defeated by his struggle to clear his name and return his attention to farming.
Joshua wants to expand the facilities on his farm and make sure that he is prepared for the coming winter and for what meteorologists say will be increasingly brutal winters in the Northeast United States for the foreseeable future, a result of climate change. This will enable him to have more animals, house them efficiently and comfortably, and to grow his food business, something that has been disrupted and challenge by the assault on his farm and life.
More than 200 farmers and friends and neighbors showed up at Joshua’s preliminary hearing to support him. Almost to a one, they said it could have been them. I know it could have been me. I don’t have a heated barn, and my water tanks and water lines froze during that hard time. I have had sheep whose ears were mildly frostbitten in severe cold inside of a barn. In a rational world, Joshua might have been helped, rather than persecuted.
I will be honest. I suggested this project to Joshua some weeks ago, he seemed to be discouraged. I sensed he was struggling. He resisted, several times and for some time. He said he had already asked for help, he didn’t want to do it again. I am relieved he changed his mind.
Joshua is a victim of the growing national hysteria – at times an Orwellian inquisition – over animal abuse. The term has lost any real meaning as it is being arbitrarily and ignorantly redefined. There is a growing disconnection separating many Americans from the natural world, from farms, and from the real world of animals. At times, the animal rights movement has gone too far, lost touch with perspective, reality, and humanity. Animals are paying for this with their lives, the people who live and work with them are being persecuted. We need a better understanding of them than this.
Joshua loves his animals and treats them well. None of his animals died or were taken ill during this winter, which saw the worst cold wave in modern times. Almost any farmer or animal lover in the Northeast could have been charged with similar crimes. He is a victim of government and police overreach, the secret informer system of the so-called animal rights movement, seeming conflict-of-interest and blatant opportunism.
The American legal system is hard on ordinary people. It is long, chaotic and very expensive. Joshua and his family are struggling to deal with the cloud hanging over his head. He could go to jail, but he is fighting back and he is confident he can come through it with some assistance. I am committed to helping him to get through this ordeal, for as long as it takes and as often as he needs assistance.
I am confident he will emerge victorious and vindicated, he is not animal abuser, he is no criminal. He is a good and conscientious farmer, an idealistic young man living in a world where the government and people who say they support the rights of animals are abusing human beings in their name.
What more can we ask of our young people than they return to the land, run an honest business, grow healthy food in a humane and ecologically sensitive way? Do we really wish to persecute them, put them out of business and sent them to jail?
I can tell you from the heart that I know Joshua well, I have spent a considerable amount of time with him, been to his farm a number of times, seen his animals more than once in many different contexts. I see how serious Joshua is about farming, he is up all night studying books, watching videos, browsing online, he could bore the hair off of a dog talking about rotational grazing and nutrition, he spends every waking minute thinking of how to improve his farm, make it stronger, more efficient. His dream is to produce healthy food from well cared for and pasture fed animals for local people.
We can help him keep that dream. I have written a dozen books about animals and lived with them on a farm for years, I can assure you he does not deserve to be in this position, and every citizen who cares about justice and freedom has a stake in helping him. I would not support anyone who treated animals cruelly.
By now, the government and prosecution should have long realized it’s blunder and walked away from this case, they have already offered to drop almost every one of the counts against him, Joshua has refused, he says he will not admit to doing one thing he has not done. Since the raid in March, the animal police have not once returned to his farm, a strange decision if they believed the animals there were in danger.
In March, his 90-acre farm was raided by the secular and the animal police, three of his horses were, in effect, stolen from him as I see it, he was charged with 13 counts of animal cruelty and neglect, almost all of the charges relating to the bitter cold wave that swept the Northeast in late February and March and sent temperatures plunging to -27 or, in some cases, lower. Joshua was charged with having an unheated barn, the police thought two pigs might have some frostbite on their ears, and having water bowls and streams that had frozen.
Since much of his food and feed was stored a mile away, he was also charged with not having enough food on the premises. Three of his horses were impounded for having mildly overgrown hooves, also common in winter, and the rescue farm that took them is seeking tens of thousands of dollars in boarding and administrative fees for their return. The prosecutor wanted jail or a high bond, Joshua was initially deemed a flight risk, a man with a farm, hundreds of animals, a home, two children, and a wife.
Six months later, Joshua has yet to have a hearing on the criminal charges or a trial. He spends much of his time in meetings, worry and preparation. His life has been upended. His wife refuses to let their children play outside alone, for fear someone will photograph them and try to seize their children. The arrest has interrupted the steady progress West Wind Acres was making and distracted him from his ambitious and careful goals for improving the farm.
I am not a lawyer or a prosecutor, I was not present when the police raided his farm, although I was there soon after. I imagine he may have made mistakes and was not fully prepared for so savage a winter. If that is the criteria for animal cruelty, they better built much bigger prisons. The town of Glenville, N.Y., which is prosecuting him, saw their own toilets frozen, raw sewage spilled over the Town Hall and police departments during that same time. No one was arrested or charged. Two veterinarians visited his farm just before the raid and pronounced his animals fit and hydrated.
This is a gross injustice, and I hope we can help remedy it. We need to save the animals in our world, most would be fortunate to live under Joshua Rockwood’s care. While nine billion animals suffer and die in corporate industrial animal farms, it is Joshua who has been targeted by secret informers and who stands to lose his dreams and his sustenance. I believe we cannot and should not let this happen. You can help him here.
I believe in the social contract, put forth by John Adams and John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. As soon as any man says of the troubles of another, “what does it matter to me?,” then the state can be given up for lost. Joshua Rockwood does matter.