My Take on Animal Farm 2.0 Commentary

I happened upon a commentary I found interesting and somewhat thought provoking. Thus, I share Animal Farm 2.0 with you. In Butjadingen, Deutschland, there exists a farm unlike any nearby, nor for that matter anywhere else to my knowledge. Now, to the meat of story. Animal Farm 2.0 has “animals commonly found on farms; cows, chickens, pigs, geese, dogs... However, the farm exists more to serve the animals than to contribute to the food supply. Hof Butenland, as the place is called, is an animal sanctuary, a kind of retirement home. The farm owners boast that their cows do not have to produce milk and pigs can sleep late. No animal serves humans, and all co-exist as equals. All the animals must do is live peacefully in their final years.”

At the same time, the farm makes a political and ecological statement about how food is produced. "Neighboring farmers see the experiment’s philosophy as a threat to their livelihood. Jan Gerdes and partner Karin Mück, the farm’s legal owners, make no secret that they see their policy of total equalitarianism for all species as a revolutionary move that will help save the planet. They would like to see all farms modeled on theirs."

The place is revolutionary. For what it’s worth, a featured newspaper article paints a glowing picture of life on the farm. “The farm takes the scenario in George Orwell’s Animal Farm a step further. The animals have not revolted and taken over the farm, expelling all humans. Instead, the animals are in charge, with humans doing their bidding. The socialist framework has also been changed and updated. These animals are no longer engaged in the revolutionary struggle. They have advanced to live under utopian socialism where everything is provided to them. Animals are free to roam the 100-acre farm and live in its red brick barns built in 1841. There are no pigs that dominate the other animals as in Orwell’s story. Everyone gets along in perfect harmony.” The “animals in the Butjadingen eco-equal paradise do not have to worry about supporting themselves. Like their eco green social human counterparts, they live off other people’s money. The farm survives due to the generosity of rich human outsiders who donate to the enterprise." The funds allow free veterinary care for all while a large vaned wheel rotated by the wind to generate supplies the electricity.  

It is said “visitors come to marvel at this pastoral scene of peace and love. They might later send care packages with hand-written notes addressed to a favorite cow or pig, all of which are curiously given human names." There is a catch. "Not every animal can live in Hof Butjadingen as space is limited." Nor does this carefully fenced-in sanctuary boast of entirely free migration across borders policy. Its privileged occupants are "old farm pets, rescue dogs, and abandoned or research animals. The latter enjoy a special status. Indeed, in her violent activist days, farm-owner Karin Mück spent some time in solitary confinement after breaking into a laboratory to “liberate” its test animals.

However, as in Animal Farm, "not all are equal. One species is especially exploited. The humans are constantly working to make sure the animals do not have to work. The land is no idyllic paradise where everything naturally takes care of itself. "Two full-time employees are needed to make sure the animals have food, protection, and water. When the animals get old, they arrange to have them duly euthanized.” Additionally, animal coequality at Butjadingen is carefully choreographed.: Some animals need not apply. The inescapable reality is that not all animals get along. Some will eat others if given a chance. Thus, no retiring circus lions and tigers or used up wolves make it to Hof Butenland. The "diet is strictly and by necessity vegan…” Hof Butenland is an example of unreal egalitarian schemes. “Despite being a farm, it highlights all the leftist themes: political, ecological, or metaphysical." And like all socialist experiments, the farm is an artificial development detached from reality. It survives by living off the economic system it seeks to undermine. "The problem with the farm is not the animals. They are the victims of artificial constructs that seek to put them in human contexts." Such delusional schemes eventually fail because everything against nature fails. Left to itself, the system will fall apart and revert to the savage ways of the wild. The animals at Animal Farm 2.0 could eventually suffer a tyranny far worse than those in George Orwell’s original tale.  What’s my take on the story? That’s life, that’s what all the authoritarians say... But my heart just ain't gonna buy it.