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One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to help people in ways we often can’t do as individuals. When a community fails in it’s moral responsibility to help one another, then society is broken, our ties to one another cut. From the first Joshua Rockwood’s story is one of community.

More than 30 piglets were born in the past week or so at Joshua Rockwood’s West Wind Acres Farm in Glenville, N.Y. That is happy news.

Life on the farm goes on, despite the persecution of the good man and  honest farmer who runs it.  Joshua Rockwood is straining to deal with legal bills, the distraction of waiting to see if he goes to jail, an agonizingly complex and expensive legal system, and is fighting every one of the 13 counts of animal cruelty charges lodged against him.

Joshua Rockwood is a person of principle, he will not admit to any wrongdoing that he has not committed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of farmers, animal lovers, friends and customers have rushed to his aid. Almost to a one, they say the same thing: it could have been us.

Joshua’s life is very much on hold:  three horses remain on the rescue farm that impounded them along with the police last March. Joshua is uncertain how or when or if ever he will be able to get them back or afford the mounting boarding and veterinary fees he would have to pay for their return, no matter if he is guilty or innocent. It seems that animal rights justice is different from people justice. Unlike accused murderers, Joshua has no right to confront the informers who upended his life, he must pay to get his animals back, even if it is found they were never treated cruelly or neglected.

It is a terrifying thing to be the target of a vast legal and police apparatus, it is a nightmare if you are innocent. Once Joshua’s face appeared on television, online and in all of the local newspapers, he lost some of his customers, and of course, has had to put on hold many of his ideas for improving the farm and it’s infrastructure, for distributing his meat, or selling more CDA shares in his farm. West Wind Acres was created to produce healthy meat from free-range and pasture fed animals that is sold to local people.

Joshua is part of a movement that helps people  trust the food they eat and know where it comes from. We hear more and more about the dangers of processed foods,  the waste and inhumanity of the grocery chain food system. Joshua doesn’t sell processed foods shipped thousands of miles.  In a rational time, he might get an award for helping save the earth and promote good health for people and animals.

The political and institutional community surrounding Joshua Rockwood has failed him terribly, but a new kind of community, joined by common experience and connected with new technologies has risen to help him. The need for community, it seems, is more powerful than the need to hate and persecute.

Joshua Rockwood is an open man, a transparent farmer. He tells no lies, keeps no secrets. Check it out for yourself.

It seems we are not living in a rational world, certainly not when it comes to the lives of farmers or the welfare of animals.

Unlike the nine billion animals in industrial factory farms living in sometimes horrific conditions, Joshua’s animals live on a 90 acre farm. They all range freely on pastures and hillside grass, they live in shelter, they receive  regular medical attention, they drink out of fresh streams, they are not fed chemicals or artificial foods. They are slaughtered in the most humane possible way.

And they live on a farm where the farmer cares for them, knows each one of them. Like the New York Carriage Horses, these are the lucky animals of the world.

Sometimes I imagine what might have happened to Joshua last winter (it was one of the world cold waves in the history of the Northeast)  if there was a truly humane animal rights movement and a rational understanding of farms and animals. The persecution of Joshua Rockwood is a study in the growing arrogance and cruelty of the people who claim to speak for the rights of animals,  and of government overreach. In the American experiment, government was meant to protect freedom and property. In the nightmare that has engulfed Joshua Rockwood and has farm,  government seeks to take both from him, on the flimsiest imaginable grounds.

Joshua has been accused of having frozen water tanks unheated barns and shelters, even though no animal died last winter or was found to be starving, de-hydrated or injured. His horses were taken from him because their hooves were overgrown. He was given no warning, had no chance to explain or defend himself, was given no time to correct any of the allegedly inadequate conditions on his farm. The farmers are right. It could have been you. It could have been me.

I doubt there is a horse or animal lover of any experience who would argue that the horses are better off now, languishing on their rescue farm, than they were in their own safe and  healthy environment. Like dogs, horses attach powerfully to the people they live with. It is traumatic for them to be separated so abruptly, it is a kind of abuse of it’s own.

But does it have to be this way? Are we not a people of communities, responsible for one another, connected to each other? All kinds of people who have rushed to help Joshua it it was known he needed help – farmers, animal lovers, farm organizations.

Imagine if the secret informer who called the police and nearly ruined Joshua Rockwood’s life had knocked on the door instead and asked him if he needed any help.

Imagine if there was an animal rights organization that might have helped him  rather than accuse him and take his animals away during that awful bitter winter that saw the temperatures plunged to nearly -30 degrees day after day. Joshua was not an impoverished owner who couldn’t afford to care for his horses, they were loved, healthy and very well cared for.

Imagine if a horse rescue group offered to help him care for his horses instead of seize them, offered to find a farrier who would come in such weather and help trim the hooves (the did not  pose any kind of health risk or danger to the horses, according to several farriers who saw the photographs of them posted online).

Imagine if the police chose to ask Joshua if he needed help in that awful cold and offered or arranged assistance rather than raid his farm, threaten him with jail, push  him towards financial ruin and endanger the lives of all of the animals on his farm. Imagine if the town government actually had a program to support farmers rather than simply prosecute them on the say-so of extremist ideologues  and the growing number of secret informers spying on private citizens. These informers are not held accountable in any way for the charges they make and the great trouble they can cause.

Imagine if the rights and welfare of farmers and other human beings were held to be as precious as the rights and welfare of animals. Imagine if the media and the animal rights organizations talked to farmers and sought to understand their lives and went to help some of those nine billion animals in industrial factory farms.  Criminals make us think about evil, says the moral philosopher Hannah Arendt, but hypocrites are the lowest form of life.

Two different veterinarians came to West Wind Acres in the days before Joshua was arrested and said his animals were all healthy and hydrated and well cared for.

Imagine if we lived in a rational world where that would have been enough, and the police could have driven away and tended to preventing and prosecuting actual crimes.

In a rational and humane society, this story would never have happened.

Joshua’s farm would not be struggling today, an honest and idealistic young man would not have to fight to deep his very good reputation from being destroyed, his face offered as a mug shot on every TV station and newspaper for miles around. He would not have had to spend tends of thousands of dollars in legal fees. His wife would not have to forbid her children from playing outside for fear some informer would call the police and claim they were being neglected. Imagine if Joshua were free to work his farm and raise his family and pursue his life, rather than have to fight for its survival.

There is no point, truly, in raging against reality and bitterly decrying fate. Joshua is fighting back in a civil and principled way. Many people are supporting him. They understand that the charges against him are unjust, that it could have been them, that this a perversion of the very idea of animal rights, not an affirmation.

For me, this is no longer an argument, it is a new kind of movement. Animals and the people who own them and live and work with them deserve better, if animals are to remain in our everyday lives at all. We need to get on with the work of restoring sanity and compassion to the animal world, we need a better and wiser understanding of animals than this.

I believe if we imagine the way it might be and should be, that it will one day come to pass. Animal lovers are awakening, they will fight long and hard to keep animals in our world.  In the meantime, it is happy news to see the new piglets on Joshua’s farm. He has more than 30, all but one survived and is healthy. However long they are to live in this world, they are the fortunate pigs.

“Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of the earth, so precious in our eyes, that we may protect the world and not prey on it.”  – A Prayer For Our Earth, Pope Francis.

In a just and merciful world, Joshua Rockwood would not need help.  He is young, hard-working, intelligent and much loved and respected in his community.  He has a dream, and is passionate about it, he wants to raise healthy animals, sell healthy food to the people in his community.  He has studied and worked hard to build his business as a farmer selling meat.  He recently survived a savage winter, so did every one of his cattle, pigs, sheep, dogs, chickens and ponies. He is fighting for his very existence. His animals range freely, are fed on pasture.

Like almost any farmer anywhere, he was overwhelmed by the savagery of this winter in February and March. At times, his water bowls and streams froze. At times, his animals shivered in the cold. They all came through it, animals and farmer. But the cold was just the beginning of his troubles, not the end, as it was for most of us.

Joshua and I have entered into friendship and a fruitful dialogue about asking for help. It was inspired, in part, by his pigs. I want to share some of this dialogue with  you, because I hope we can soon – those who are able –  all provide Joshua some of the help he needs and deserves. Joshua has become important to me, not only because he has become a friend, but because he is an important symbol of our cruelty and insensitivity to one another.

These pigs are famous. The squadron of animal police who raided his farm said they thought two of the pigs had frostbitten ears.  He was charged with 13 counts neglect and cruelty. I saw some gray matter on the tips of two ears. No one in the raiding party – police, humane society officers, two horse rescue farm trailers – seemed to know that pigs and sheep and cows on a farm in the winter can easily have frostbitten ears when the temperature reaches -27 degrees, whether they are indoors or not, no matter what kind of shelter they are in.

This kind of frostite is quite common, rarely serious, dangerous or fatal. There is a wealthy, organized and vocal movement in America demanding that all animals be returned to their natural lives in the wild. If an animal on the farm interacts with nature, even in the most common and glancing way, someone usually calls the police. If a Wall Street banker makes a mistake and causes millions of people to lost their homes, he or she gets a bonus at the end of the year.

If a farmer makes a mistake – it is not possible to be a on a farmer and not make mistakes or be victimized by the weather – he faces danger, humiliation and ruin. They could have easily helped Joshua Rockwood, his mistakes were very small. Instead, they tried to put him in jail. I think of Joshua’s ordeal, and I always ask myself the same question: what kind of people are we becoming? What kind of abuse of human beings can we justify in the name of saving animals from abuse? What kind of community turns it back on neighbors in trouble and punishes them for it instead?

So we have a chance to do better. We have a chance do do what the town of Glenville had the chance to do and did not do. We can help Joshua.

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If you have ever seen what pigs who live in the wild look like in winter, you will see very clearly that Joshua’s are among the most fortunate. By every account, they are fat and happy.

I was at his farm soon after his arrest in March. The pigs looked great. You can see for yourselves.

I’ve had sheep get some gray matter on their ears in mid winter inside of sealed barns – it is sometimes colder inside of barns than outside.The two pigs were healthy, fat and active, vets rarely even treat small patches of gray in winter, it is easily treatable with ointment. On my sheep, it has either gone away or remained as a small patch.

I’ve gotten frost-bite several times tending to my animals in the night. When it gets cold, those fingers and toes throb and change color. My doctor says he sees it all the time, on almost everyone who works on a farm or owns one. It happens quickly and frequently.

When you live on a farm, as a human or an animal, you live in the elements, are often of doors. Life does happen, and when the temperatures plunge to – 27 degrees, life happens quite frequently. Animals do not live in a perfect world, and neither do we. In the human realm, people get sick, dehydrated, fall on ice, crash cars, get headaches. It is called life in the winter, life on a farm. Most of America – 90 per cent – lives far from farms. Things like frostbite sound horrific, things to punish, not to understand.

In our rush to give animals lives without suffering or pain, we are setting impossible standards for farmers, animal lovers, circuses, pony ride operators, carriage drivers, pet owners, to meet. People are refused dogs because they work, are old and poor, cannot afford tall fencing, won’t promise to keep their cats indoors. People who give pony rides to children are accused of torture and abuse, farmers routinely hide their livestock out of the side of the road, where secret informers patrol.  Horses who nap and cows with snow on their back are considered victims of gross abuse. One of these informers informed on Joshua, but the police won’t say who.

Farmers are quite often not accorded the rights of accused murderers and child molesters. Ask any farmer about these stories, they all know of them.

Joshua was arrested in part because his water bowls were frozen, even though they were not frozen two hours before the police came. He was arrested even though two different veterinarians came to the farm before the police did and said his animals were healthy and hydrated. If the animals had not been given water, they would not have been hydrated. Three of his horses had hooves that needed trimming. The horses were seized by the police, the rescue farm where they were taken is asking tens of thousands of dollars to return them.

Even though the police claimed his animals were neglected and subject to cruel treatment, they have never bothered to return to see if they are being cared for. They never seized his pigs or cows or took them away.  It seems they were not all that worried about their care.

I have encouraged a reluctant Joshua to post a gofundme page to get additional resources, he needs additional help tending to his business amidst all of the crisis and controversy surrounding him and family. The legal process has already gone on for more than six months, it has not even really begun.

Joshua has been balky about seeking money, he is coming around. He loves his farm and wants it to endure and succeed. We have been meeting, talking on the phone, exchanging e-mails. I like him, more each time I meet with him and talk to him. He is honest, thoughtful, idealistic. He does not deserve the ordeal that the unthinking authorities in his town have subjected him to.

“I have put a lot of thought into an additional fund,” he wrote me, “I am not a victim and do not want to accept handouts to help me survive this.” As the farm has grown, he wrote, along with his growing awareness of the cruelty of people, he is continuing to educate himself on raising healthy animals, selling healthy food. He is continuously reading through books, seminars, videos and spending countless hours online doing research as well as talking to other farmers and following their work.

He has, unfortunately, spent many hours reviewing his case, talking with his lawyer, preparing his defense. This has affected his business.

Reading Joshua’s messages, I hope there is a rational Chamber of Commerce in Glenville, N.Y. that might hold a luncheon in his honor and give him an award for having the courage and drive to start a new business, maintain a humane farm selling healthy local foods to the town’s citizens. Difficult work, in more ways than one, but perhaps the future of agriculture.

Joshua said he would like to return to the goals he set for the farm and for his family this year. He is willing to accept help in achieving those goals. Good news I think. He will prepare a crowdsourcing project – on gofundme – and post it early next week. I will write it about it on this blog, you can follow it on his blog as well. (He is giving away some free meat this week).

Joshua’s pigs do not appear to have suffered or been weakened by the winter. He has more than 150 piglets to sell.

Next week,  you can help Joshua financially if you are able. If you wish to communicate with him or offer any other kind of support, you can reach him at [email protected]. Stay tuned.

Joshua’s pigs are controversial. Two of them had gray matter on their ears, and the police decided it was frostbite – the temperature that week was in the -20’s all week. They charged him with having inadequate shelter for the pigs. The shelters I saw on his farm were more than adequate, his pigs all seem healthy and active. These babies are only a day or two old, Joshua knew all of the mothers by name, all of the babies are healthy and active and nursing. They all burrow into the hay with their mother to be warm.

Maria went with me to to see Joshua Rockwood’s West Wind Acres farm, she has an amazing ability to communicate with animals. The pigs came rushing over to talk to her, they had a long conversation.

These are the pigs that the police who raided Joshua Rockwood’s farm decided were being neglected and treated cruelly. They are one of the reasons for his arrest. The photo was  taken a couple of weeks after the police raid on his farm.

One pig has a tear in his ear, two others said there was gray matter on the tips of their ears that suggested frost-bite. The photograph was taken by me on Joshua’s farm several weeks after his arrest on 13 charges of animal cruelty and neglect.

I took these photographs to two different pig farms in my country. I e-mailed them to a third. None of the pig farmers say they saw a single thing to justify a charge of abuse or neglect. “Half of my pigs have gray matter on the tips of their ears,” one said, “animals in barns can get frostbite just as easily as pigs outside when the temperate hits the -20’s, as it did this winter. “These guys look fat and happy and healthy to me.”

One farmer also said the the hysteria over animal abuse had caused many authorities to lose all perspective. “These animals are going to slaughter,” he said, “you give them freedom of movement, shelter and good food. You make sure they don’t suffer and are killed quickly and humanely. You can’t do more than that. What do these people know about farms? You can’t call a vet every time a pig has gray matter on their ear, you would be broke in a couple of days, you’d have to triple your prices to justify that, and nobody would pay it.”

Two farmers said they would bet that the vet who came with the police was a small animal vet, nor a farm vet. They surprised me, that is true.

I am not a pig farmer, but I have seen sheep get ears like this if it gets that cold, it seems strange to me that many people demand that all animals be returned to the wild, but they arrest people when there is the slightest hint of it. These pigs had shelter – Joshua has been accused of inadequate shelter – that was hardier and more protected than any of the shelters I have seen on the local pig farms here.

I’ve lived with farm animals for more than a decade, I saw nothing about these pigs that would alarm or concern me. Neglected animals do not look like this, they are not as active or alert, they shy away from people and are slow to move or react to their environment. None of the farmers I showed these photographs to saw any signs of abuse or neglect, but I wanted to share them with you, you can make up your own mind. Joshua’s trial begins tomorrow, the 21st at 7 p.m. at the Glenville, N.Y., Town Court.