From the president
July 2025
Dear Supporter,
As I sit down to begin writing my letter for this issue, I am thinking about how it feels emotionally to run a sanctuary. Since I am not an eloquent writer, it is a difficult letter to write and I feel that what I have to say will not be adequate to express my true feelings. However, these stories told here and those from the back cover of this issue will evoke enough of your own emotions to tell my story well.
The joy of bringing a new pig or pigs to Ironwood and watching them recover from the damage they have incurred, often over a lifetime of neglect or abuse, is really worth all the hard work and stress that goes with the daily operation of a large sanctuary like ours. They learn to trust and take a cookie from us. They eventually make friends with and often bond with someone of their own kind when they may have been alone all their previous life. They may run for the first time or splash in a wallow or cuddle in a blanket for the first time. These are the things that bring joy to our lives and theirs.
But beyond the joy we feel as they recover and how we grieve and cry when we eventually have to say our goodbyes to them, there is a whole other level of dealing with emotions when running a sanctuary. That is how we feel about people. We see the best and the worst of the human race. Puddin was dumped at the Los Reales landfill south of Tucson. A very kind lady who has a small nursery nearby coaxed her into her nursery then called us. It was not an easy task because the pig was very frightened but also very thirsty. One of my staff kindly offered to pick her up that evening and named her Puddin. She is thought to be about 8 to 10 years old.
Zippy, Ladybug and Mayfly were dumped in the desert on BLM land. A very kind lady who lives right on the edge of the BLM land watched a truck pull up and dump a load of yard trimmings and when the truck pulled away three pigs were left behind. She and her partner immediately went out and chummed them into their yard and were able to contain them then fed and watered them until we could be reached.
These are truly the best and the worst of humans and how we deal with those emotions can control how we cope with running a sanctuary. For me, the most stressful part of running a sanctuary is not dealing with the many pigs who are safe here with us, but dealing with the emotions for the many we cannot take and how I feel about the people who are giving them up. The kind people mentioned above and the many others like them who have rescued so many pigs who have come to us are what give me the strength to carry on. And YOU who support us in so many ways with money, items of all kinds, and kind notes of encouragement have made these rescues and hundreds more possible. All of you and people like those in this letter make it possible for me to carry on.
Sincerely,
Mary Schanz, President & CoFounder
