“You can’t pick your family, but you can choose your tribe,” answers Becki Streif, co-founder of Tribe Animal Sanctuary in Louisville, KY, when I ask how she and her husband, Greg, named their refuge.
The name is spot-on for the suburban sanctuary, which specializes in providing permanent homes to special needs animals few others would consider rehoming. There’s Billy (a pig), Abbott (a ram), and their most infamous resident, Chase, a blind goat with his own seeing-eye sheep, Gideon. You’ll meet them all in a bit. As Becki points out, Tribe is truly “an Island of Misfit Toys.”
The sanctuary is located on ten acres less than 30 minutes from downtown Louisville, in a sprawling new development of modern stately homes. I have visited dozens of animal sanctuaries and my first impression upon pulling up to the property was one of wonder—as in, wondering if I had the correct address. From the curb, looking at the 2XL house with circular driveway, I thought, “This is not your average farm sanctuary.” The only indication that I had landed in the right place was a small sign on an easel and the half-dozen or so cars parked behind the front gate.
It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon in July during the Heatwave of 2023. While much of the country was bathed in either 110+ degree temperatures or unhealthy air from Eastern Canadian wildfires, the weather gods gave their blessing as Tribe hosted an open house on this, the day after Louisville’s annual Bluegrass VegFest.
The Streifs are atypical in nearly every way from your “average” sanctuary founders, if there is such a thing. At an age when most folks are looking at retirement, the middle-aged couple with two grown children and four grandkiddies retired from their respective professions (Greg owned an IT company; Becki was in sales) and almost accidentally started rescuing animals.
It all began in 2013 when the couple saw Forks Over Knives and became vegetarians overnight. They had long been “dog and cat” people who had not yet made the connection between the pet in their lap and the pig on their plate. Before long, they were vegan and Greg ceased hunting deer. In 2014, they purchased the property and re-homed a couple of horses, believing they were starting an equine rescue. Farmed animals were not yet on their minds. But you know how it goes…
In 2018, a young vegan activist pleaded with a farmer not to slaughter one of his sheep, whom she had befriended. She succeeded, only to realize that small Bowling Green apartments are not ideal homes for ovis aries. Enter the Streifs, who, Becki reminisces, “knew nothing about sheep.” Abbott became Tribe’s first former farm animal resident and initiated the tradition of naming the sanctuary’s animals after the person who made the rescue possible—Abbott being the young activist’s surname and therefore more appropriate for a ram.
Tribe’s most well-known resident arrived the following year. A family went to a goat farm to adopt a kid only to discover one in a crate under the front porch. Inquiring, they were told the goat was born with birth defects and the farmer was just waiting for him to die. “We’ll take that one,” said the dad.
Chase was born with no eyes (only slits), no sinuses, a single nostril, hydrocephalus (water on the brain), and just one-third of his maxilla—his upper jaw—causing a severe overbite which would have made it impossible for him to eat once weaned from the bottle. The family that saved him quickly realized they were in over their heads and Chase ended up at Tribe.
The University of Tennessee’s vet school agreed to take on the very special needs patient, who wasn’t given much of a chance to survive. As he was only six months old, his young soft cartilage allowed surgeons to create a modified jaw out of one of his ribs. Multiple operations, $9,600 (after “generous discounts”), and four years later, Chase is thriving and even has a best friend, Gideon, a ram of about the same age. The two knew each other as “kids” when both were being bottle-fed by Becki in the house. Today, when out in the field, Gideon is Chase’s seeing-eye sheep and protector, never far from his buddy, and he prefers Chase’s company over that of his own species.
Pigs are the most numerous Tribe residents and include Billy, who lived in an apartment and was fed just 1/4 cup of food every other day for the first year of his life so that he would “stay small.” This caused severe and irreversible underdevelopment to his organs. Though his mistreatment will shorten his life, Billy is doted upon by staff, who top off his chow with Karo syrup, much to the delight of the pilfering turkeys, never too far away.
There’s also The Vine Grove Nine, a family of celebrity pigs (mom, dad, seven piglets) found wandering inside the “city” limits of Vine Grove, KY (population 4,520), in August 2022—the biggest story the town had seen in recent memory. The pigs escaped when their person, the town drunk, was spending a few weeks as a guest of the county. He was freed—the pigs proving to be better escapes artists than their guardian—in order to round up his “dangerous, feral” pigs, though was told he couldn’t keep them. After a pardon from the mayor (“I don’t want them to be slaughtered or anything like that”; insert eye roll) and a fundraiser, off to Tribe they went. Father pig Montrell was very paternal and protective, much to the surprise of even his veterinarian, and for most of the year, the American Guinea hogs were a quick study on “pig family structure.” Today, Montrell and his wife, Beth, like all good parents, are giving their children “space” and have taken on the role of the sanctuary’s main greeters.
Given its proximity to Louisville, Tribe attracts a healthy farmy of dedicated volunteers who show up each Thursday and Sunday to help with the chores. I asked Greg if there is ever any friction with his wealthy suburban neighbors. “They love us,” he volunteers. He explains that a big concern of the area is builders and contractors who buy up old farms and cut them up into suburbs. “We’re protecting the land from further development.”
Tribe obtained 501[c]3 status in 2019. Today, the sanctuary cares for 115 animals of 11 species: cats, chickens, cows, dogs, goats, horses, pigs, rabbits, sheep, turkeys, and a duck. It is 100 percent donor-supported, with shortcomings financed by the Streifs retirement savings and a handful of fundraising events each year, including an annual ThanksLiving on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. If you are interested in a farm tour, volunteering, donating, or attending an event, visit Tribe Animal Sanctuary.
Joseph Connelly founded VegNews in 1996 as The SAVES Paper. He is no longer with the magazine.
Road to Veganism: “Nursemaids”
Unbeknownst to this long-time activist, you can learn something new.
Becki gently chastises herself for “not going vegan sooner.” After giving up animal flesh, she and Greg made the dairy connection due to the horse industry, this being Kentucky, after all. In a bizarre twist, the differences between dairy cow and thoroughbred horse breeding brought it all full circle for the Streifs.
While dairy cows are artificially inseminated, thoroughbred horses cannot be, to protect and ensure that the bloodlines are what they claim to be. There’s actually a profession of folks who must witness the mating of horses and certify the deed, not much different than a notary. Kinda like Equine Pornhub. It gets worse.
Dairy cows have their calves taken from them so humans can steal the baby’s milk. Broodmares have their foals taken from them so that their milk can dry up. A lactating horse can’t get pregnant again, and the thoroughbred industry is all about “finding” the next Seabiscuit or Secretariat.
Male dairy cows are either killed or become veal. What about the thoroughbred foals who are denied their mother’s milk? They are nursed by nursemaids, mares who are kept endlessly pregnant for the sole purpose of providing milk to future racehorses. These nursemaids, though, must bear offspring of their own in order to produce milk. What happens to their colts and fillies? They become pet food for your dogs and cats—yet another hidden travesty of horse racing.
