Rowdy Girl

(insects continue chittering) (turkey chirping) (insects continue chittering) (turkey's wings flapping) (insects continue chittering) (turkey chirping) (door creaks) (Sealy chirping) (light footsteps shuffling) - [Renee] Sealy.

- [Tommy] She knows we're gonna wrap her.

- [Renee] She don't need your help.

(footsteps thudding down steps) - She's coming.

(Sealy's wings flapping) (light footsteps) (insects chirping quietly) (Renee laughing) (Tommy cooing to Sealy) - [Renee] Sealy bird.

(Sealy chirping) What is it, Sealy bird?

(Sealy chirping) What is it, Sealy bird?

(Sealy chirping) It is almost well, but this one right there.

(Sealy chirping) There we go.

(Sealy chirping) What, Sealy?

Sealy, you're doing so good.

I think that's good.

You're done!

Hey, I won the contest.

(Tommy chuckles) (Sealy chirping) What?

Hey, sweetie.

There you go.

There you go.

That's it.

(Sealy chirping) (wind chimes rattling softly) (cows mooing) (rooster crowing) (pig breathing softly) (rooster crowing) (goat chewing softly) (rooster crowing) (horse chewing quietly) (chickens chirping quietly) - [Voice Recording] If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial.

If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked.

If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.

If you want to be reborn, let yourself die.

If you want to be given everything.

- If you want to be given everything.

- [Voice Recording] Give everything up.

- [Renee] Give everything up.

It's a beautiful day, Sealy.

Hey, get away from here, right now, Willie.

There you go.

(Sealy chirping) (gate rattling) (wind chimes rattling softly) (lock rattling) Hey, JD.

Hi.

Hang on.

(cow munching) (cow continues munching) So glad we're here for you.

(wind chimes rattling distantly) - [Valerie] It was pretty easy for him to up and leave and it's unfair for her to be in her crate, you know, at least eight to ten hours a day.

- [Renee] So she was in her crate that long.

- She was in her crate when the kids were at school, yeah, from the time I would leave home, 'cause then I work a lot of overtime.

- Oh dear.

- Well, she's got a lot- - She like sweet peppers, she likes carrots, she loves cucumbers.

Good girl, mama.

Good girl, mama.

Good girl.

- There she goes.

- [Valerie] Good girl.

Look at you, mama.

Look at you, good girl.

- [Renee] Sweet darling.

- This is your space, your own personal space, yeah.

- [Renee] You promise you'll come see her?

- [Valerie] Yes, I promise, absolutely.

- She really, really will need to see you.

- Oh, yeah.

- Especially the first few months.

Ivy Leigh!

Come meet Lulu!

- [Tommy] Ivy, here you go.

(Ivy grunting) - What?

Oh my goodness.

(Lulu sniffs) (Ivy grunts) Oh, oh, oh.

I've never seen her do that before.

- [Ethan] That was kinda cute.

(Ivy grunts) (Lulu chewing) - [Tommy] This place floods, all of Texas is under water.

- We used to be cattle ranchers.

Obviously, we used to kill animals for a living.

- Mm-hmm.

- When you send 'em to sale, you know they're gonna die.

- Uh-huh.

- And we did that every, twice a year, we sent babies.

Babies, you know, six months old to sale.

But I loved animals.

So why do you think we can eat bacon and eggs and cheese and a pork chop?

I used to, okay?

- Uh-huh.

- And then we can go out and pet Lulu and say, "Well, Lulu's different."

- It's obviously easy to go shopping and grab it and purchase it.

When we first got her, I didn't eat bacon inside the house.

And I was vegetarian for a little while, just 'cause I felt so bad, I felt so guilty.

- My hope is that we can educate people to the point to where they really start thinking about their choices because every time you put a fork in something and eat it, you are actually hiring a hitman to kill animals.

They suffer, they die violent deaths.

You're buying that.

Anyway, come see the piggies.

(Penny grunting happily) Penny!

(Penny grunting happily) Come here, my precious darling.

This is my girl.

- [Valerie] Look at how big you are, my goodness.

You've been rooting haven't you.

- Penny Lane.

(Penny sniffing) Humanity has stripped these animals from their very existence.

They just wanna be out here living their best life, you know, and I'm constantly thinking to myself, How can I make their life better?

(indistinct chatter) (chirps chirping quietly) (Penny sniffing) (birds chirping quietly) (footsteps shuffling) - Over here.

(hay thuds in trough) There you go.

Little Girl.

Agape.

Y'all eat up.

(boots squelching in mud) (excavator humming) (log thuds) (excavator continues humming) (car whirring) (loud machinery whirring) (packets thudding) Right in the four corners, Caldwell, Gonzales, Fayette, and Bastrop County.

See you later, man.

- Okay boss.

(car rattling) (car engine stops) - [Cashier] How can I help you?

- Let me have six spicy potato soft tacos.

Cut the cheese and the chipotle.

- [Cashier] No cheese and no chipotle?

- Yeah, it'll be just lettuce and potato.

- [Cashier] Definitely.

(car whirring) (car continues whirring) - Big Bird!

Buddy!

How you?

Happy birthday to you - Thank you.

- Yay!

- [Renee] So Sim, right now you're live on my Instagram.

Sim is celebrating her birthday here at Rowdy Girl Sanctuary with a private tour with her whole family.

Hi, guys.

- Hi.

- Who here is vegan?

- I'm mainly plant-based.

- Mainly plant-based.

- Yeah.

- So y'all are vegetarian?

- Pescatarian.

- Over 90%.

- [Sim] So what inspired you guys to start it?

- [Renee] Do you have time for a story?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- All right, so let's get a chair.

What happened was, me and Tommy have been married twice.

I'm pretty honest about my life.

I'm in recovery and I've been sober now over seven years.

And so when we divorced first time, it had to do with that.

And the first time we married, he didn't have a cattle ranch.

- And in the middle of us being divorced and remarried, I bought a ranch.

In 2010, we got married, she moved into the ranch and- - I didn't really wanna move.

- She did not like me selling the cows.

- And I would just complain all the time and I'd cry and I would say, "Can't you hear those mamas crying?"

And he would tell me I had to suck it up, basically, and I couldn't.

- She'd call me a murderer.

I remember distinctly looking in her Volkswagen, I think it was, on the floorboard, and there were several Chick-fil-A bags in there and I'd go, "Oh, you eat Chick-fil-A and you're calling me a murderer.

Where do you think that filet mignon comes from that you love so much?"

- I was for the first time seeing how my actions were contributing to violence and cruelty.

- Cruelty.

- And violence is so normalized in our culture through food.

And I started having real issues with the fact that I was loving some animals and eating others, and that's what kind of had led me to go vegan.

It took me four years of just about losing my mind, literally, just every time the babies would go to sell, it would get worse and worse.

He kept trying to hide it from me.

And I knew it was happening and so it would make me even more mad.

I was feeling so conflicted I didn't know if I could live with this man anymore.

I couldn't.

- I had no intentions on becoming a vegan.

- [Renee] Nope, neither did I.

- Veganism was shoved down my throat, but I went on the health, environmental and then the last thing was compassion.

I never liked taking my cows to the sale barn.

That was the hardest part of being a rancher, was taking these cows you cared for and when you drop 'em off, they're like, you're the only one there they know and they're looking at you.

- Going vegan, y'all, I'm not saying it's easy.

It was the hardest thing I ever did, but now that I am, I'm wondering what the hell took me so long.

- Come here, we're gonna look at the goats real quick.

We're in the middle of feeding them, we might as well.

- They're so cute!

- Pepper was our first goat four and a half years ago.

Tom Tom came as a result of Hurricane Harvey.

Buddy.

Four or five years, we'll probably have 20 or 30 goats.

- Hi!

Do you smell it?

- Don't let go.

- She's already licking her lips, see?

(Sim chuckling) - [Sim] Okay.

(pig munching) (pig grunts happily) - I don't like factory farms and I never realized I really didn't like 'em that much when I was involved in it, but the more I learned about it, the more I was incentivized to become vegan.

Some people even call me an animal rights activist.

And see, my great-grandfather was a big rancher, had a slaughterhouse in Houston.

I know both sides of the story.

I believe that in 1850 in the United States, you probably had to eat meat to survive, but we don't have to do that anymore.

(vehicle engine humming) (cows mooing) (vehicle engine purring) (indistinct chatter) (vehicle engine purring) (indistinct chatter) Trixie and Dixie.

They actually came with the property.

(vehicle engine purring) (indistinct chatter) (cows mooing) - [Mother] How do y'all support yourselves?

Is it just these tours?

- [Tommy] Right now we're funded mostly by contributions.

- Right.

- But we also have a foundation.

Renee has branched off.

She's not only having a sanctuary now, but she's rescuing ranches and farms.

And it's really, I told her she was stupid to do it and I thought it was a crazy ideal, but every time I do that, it seems to work out.

(chicken feed rustling) (chickens clucking) (chicken feed rustling) (chickens clucking) (rooster crowing distantly) (birds chirping softly) (chickens chirping) (birds chirping softly) (chickens chirping) - Hey, Renee.

- Yeah.

- Come here for a second.

Did you entice her to come out on the porch this morning?

- Hey Lucy, you coming out to see us?

- Well, I think you started something.

- [Renee] I called her out earlier.

- I heard ya and now she's like, "Ooh, this is part of my territory."

- Lucy, you can come on out, baby.

- What you think, Willie?

(Tommy chuckles) - Go ahead.

- Now, are you gonna eat that?

- [Renee] Uh huh.

(Lucy chirping) - What?

- Takin' you to the vet next.

- What is it, Lucy Goose?

(Lucy crows) (Renee crowing at Lucy) (Renee cooing at Lucy) (shovel digging in dirt) (bin scraping over dirt) (dirt rustling in bin) (branches rustling) Volunteer day is the most amazing time for me personally.

As former cattle ranchers in Texas, it's not normal to do this.

We also have a program, it's called the Rancher Advocacy Program.

And the Rancher Advocacy Program is converting, willingly, farmers and ranchers that wanna go from animal farming to plant-based farming.

- [Volunteer] Yay.

- Is that rad or what?

(volunteers cheering) We have four farms in our program.

One just joined us from North Carolina, a chicken farmer.

- [Volunteer] All right!

- We've got a chicken farmer/cattle rancher in Wickes, Arkansas, the Barretts, that, the foundation that works with us that believes in us wholeheartedly, has already put $500,000 in this farm and we're getting ready to sink another $500,000 in this farm to transition them from a chicken farm to a mushroom farm.

- Yay!

- Woo hoo!

- That's what's happening y'all.

(Renee chants "aum") Peace to the planet, to the humans, and may all of you here find the connection to always be the voice for the voiceless.

Satnam.

- [Volunteer] Oh, yeah.

(volunteers applauding) (birds chirping) (chickens chirping softly) (rooster crowing) - Well, we've been in survival mode for, like, three years.

- A little over three years.

- So it's good now to kind of be moving forward.

- Yeah!

(laughs) (chain rattling) (door rustling open) We have to remove a bunch of the stuff that is not needed for the production of mushrooms.

You know, you have the massive exhaust fans on the other side.

We do not need that.

In mushroom farming, the key of setting it up is that you can eat off the floor anywhere in the the farm, right?

So our number one priority is to move this ground, cement it, and not have this critical control point.

- [Rodney] That's what the chickens used to drink out of.

They used to eat out of this, feed pans, when they were bitties.

And you kept 'em for about 52 to 50-sometimes-8.

- 58 Days in here.

- In here.

- They had full, artificial light for how many days?

- At first we kept them on solid 24 hours a day for like three to five days, depending on what you were doing, how you were trying to get 'em to grow off at the end.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- But then past that point, you put 'em on a scale to where you graduated 'em down to where there wasn't hardly any light in here at all.

- So we torture them and then we put 'em on a plate.

Well, this will go from a torture chamber to a life chamber once we start growing mushrooms.

So that's the goal what we're trying to achieve in longevity.

- That's perfect.

It's gonna be phenomenal when all four of 'em are functional full.

It's gonna be an awesome feat.

(insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (trees rustling) (insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (insects chirping) (distant birds singing) (vehicle rumbling loudly) (vehicle continues rumbling) (vehicle engine stops) - I hate to inform you, but they took me for a ride and we're gonna have to push 'em back up in here.

- Okay, all right.

- Rowdy Girl is one of the patients.

So, she's got a problem and we gotta get her fixed.

- Yes.

- All right?

- We will do our best.

(insects chirping loudly) (insects continue chirping) - [Renee] You can see her teat?

- [Vet] Mm-hmm.

- It's okay, Rowdy Girl, you need to get on in there, girl.

No, you gotta go that way.

(insects continue chirping) Come on.

Close in this way, close in this way.

Close in this way.

(insects continue chirping) (insects continue chirping) Come on Rowdy, let's go.

- Yah!

- Close it, close it, close it, close it!

(gate rattling) - [Tommy] Watch that panel.

- No, Tommy!

- Hey!

Yah!

(fence thuds loudly on ground) (Rowdy Girl moos) - I mean, what do you think of that teat, looking at it?

I mean, do we risk putting her to sleep right now to look at that or do you have enough of a... - Yeah, I would like to at least get some antibiotics in her.

- Yeah.

- Is my thought.

- Yeah.

- All right.

(insects continue chirping) (insects continue chirping) - So what may have happened, I mean, she could have had a thorn or something and then it developed into an abscess that ruptured and made this bigger hole, but the good news is now that it's open and draining and we clean it and do antibiotics, it should be just fine.

(insects continue chirping) - [Renee] And that's the reversal?

- This is, yeah, you have to give it slowly because it's picking their heart rate back up really quickly.

(insects continue chirping) (Rowdy Girl breathing heavily) Yep.

(Rowdy Girl breathing heavily) - [Man] Time to pay us back.

- [Vet] Yeah.

(chuckles) (Rowdy Girl breathing heavily) (Rowdy Girl snorting) (insects chirping) (distant birds chirping) - Rowdy Girl, you're done!

It's all over.

That's her oldest daughter, Houdini, coming to check on her mama.

(insects continue chirping) (distant birds chirping) (Rowdy Girl exhales loudly) (insects continue chirping) (distant birds chirping) There we go.

And now then the membership template for failed donations.

- [Jeri] Spotty's down this morning.

- Huh?

- Spotty is down this morning.

- You say down like she can't get up.

- [Jeri] She can't get up.

And she's one of the not young ones, but not old ones.

- Can you get her on the phone just right quick while I'm doing this?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- I'd rather just tell her.

(Renee sighs in frustration) - Hello?

- Cindy, hey, it's Renee.

- [Cindy] Richard saw her this morning, she's down.

- [Renee] Was she down yesterday?

Was she limping?

- [Cindy] No, no, we think it's probably the same thing as the others.

- So since she's down and not dead, I think it's a good idea to get a vet out there today, just call an emergency.

- We don't have one!

- Okay, do you- - That's the problem.

- Okay, well let me- - Don't have any that come out on weekends.

- Okay, well hang on a minute.

Jeri.

- Ma'am.

- Why don't you do this?

Let's all calm down, okay.

I know it's a small herd, but let's do what we can today and Jeri's going to see what she can do to find a vet to come out there, okay?

If you don't have the money to pay for it, I will figure it out because we need to get a vet out there.

(Cindy sobbing) - [Cindy] I can't deal with this Renee.

(Cindy sobbing) - I know, Cindy.

(Cindy sobbing) - [Cindy] We didn't take care of her.

- God, I know how you feel, I know how you feel.

I know how it feels to be on the other side of this industry and trying to figure out what to do with the cows you have left.

It's not easy.

(Cindy sobbing) - [Cindy] Okay.

(sobs) - I knew this was gonna happen.

She's finally realizing she's losing her family one by one.

She's realizing that they're not chattel.

A real rancher in transition.

It's her chance to really, really just let me hear the grief because I hear it.

I know, I went through it.

(insects chirping) (cows munching grass) (insects continue chirping) (cows munching grass) Cindy and Richard Traylor are one of our ranchers in transition.

This morning, they found one of their cows, a 15-year-old named Spotty, down.

Traylors... (keys clacking) Live in a rural... The Traylors live in a rural area, so the travel will be expensive.

In addition, there could be medications, treatments, and lab work.

Please donate today to help.

Boom.

(indistinct chatter) (phone ringing) - Hey.

- Hey, Renee.

- I don't think today was the day to put her down, do you?

- [Cindy] I don't know, I mean, I'm torn.

It's like pulling the plug on somebody.

- You know, when you start having feelings for animals, you know, the kind of animals you used to eat, it causes a whole different level of grief.

It's a level of grief that I can't even explain, it just... - [Cindy] It's heart-wrenching.

(insects chirping) (horses eating grass) (vehicle whirring) (pick-up truck rattling) - It's so good to see you.

- I know, good to see you.

- What happened, exactly?

- So I was headed to the show ranch in South Texas and I stopped by to check on 'em on my way out of town.

I had a cow down having a calf.

You know, this was maybe at noon, and by five o'clock she still hadn't delivered.

I said, "Y'all gotta get a vet out there."

And the vet got the calf out, she did her job and then she left.

I got out there about 11 o'clock at night and he was nearly dead.

I mean, he was just like laying there lethargic.

I mean, and he wouldn't suck, so I'd hold his head up, pour the colostrum in, and I literally just cradled him in my lap and stayed there with him all night.

And the next morning.

I took him down where the cow was, put him on the ground, mama walked up, looked at him, and turned around walked off.

(trailer doors rattling) There he is!

Hi, buddy, you okay?

Say hello to your new friends.

Say hello to your new friends.

- Hey, baby.

Hey, sweetie.

- Say hello.

(Renee gasps) - Look at you, you little sweet Buster boy!

(Renee gasps) (Sonny chuckling) Goodness gracious.

(insects chirping) (Renee laughs) - I mean, we're in cows all the time.

They usually try to get away from ya.

They don't ever come to you and love on you, you know, so it's kind of different, you know?

It's like, man... And he just... - Hey.

Am I now I'm your level?

- [Sonny] He just got a big heart, you know?

- When I'm just out with the cows, like, I just go out with them and just be with them.

Whenever I went vegan and Tommy wasn't vegan, we were fighting all the time.

I thought we were gonna get a divorce, literally.

I didn't wanna come in the house and just, I mean, I was calling him a murderer, and I mean, I was like, this is when I first went vegan and I was just totally out of my mind.

And I went out and I just really lived with the cows.

I just did what they did.

I sat down when they sat down, I laid down when they laid down, and I just got real quiet with 'em.

All day I was with the cows, then I'd go in and sleep in the house, but during the day I didn't wanna be at home.

- Yeah.

- So I really got real intimate with being a cow.

- Yeah.

- And so- - Funny thing is I do that too.

- You do?

- I go sit out in the pasture with 'em and talk to 'em and pet on 'em and all my cows are tame.

They come up, let me rub on their head.

- Yeah.

- Just kinda like hunting.

People ask me all the time, "How can you be a hunter if you love the animals so much?"

I've never had a problem with it.

I was raised doing it.

I've always, believed in the Bible that God gave us dominion over the animals and we're to take care of 'em, you know?

But that's a resource that we've been given and as long as you're a good steward of it, I mean, I don't have those convictions that you have.

I could never eat him, you know?

- Yeah.

- Eating him would be like eating my dog, you know?

He's just like a child.

Oh, that's a picture.

(Renee laughing) - Oh my goodness.

There ain't nothing better than that.

- Want you to come back when he's hungry.

- [Renee] We have a resident turkey, her name is Sealy.

(Sonny chuckles) (Sealy chirping) - You gonna bite me?

- She probably will.

(Sonny laughing) This is you, this is what you're committing to.

This is what you're putting... I mean I have studied everything there is in the Bible about this.

If you're open, I'll send you some stuff I've learned.

- Sure, yeah.

- You know?

One time, God, according to the Bible, did allow men to eat animals, but it was never intended that we make a big habit of it.

It was never intended that we create a business out of it.

- [Sonny] Yeah.

- Nowhere does it say that we should buy and sell and breed 'em and trade 'em.

And if you think about it!

- I just, I go back to treating them with respect.

- I didn't think I'd ever be a vegan.

I was in rodeo, collection of leather boots, went to trail rides.

Little Rowdy Girl, when I started feeding her, that's when all the black Angus cows in the pasture got vivid in my brain.

It was like I could see the every brow feature.

I could see their eyelashes.

I could tell who they were and they started telling me their names.

I didn't just name them.

There's Red, there's Curly, you know?

And Tommy would say, "Renee, you gotta quit naming them cows."

But that's when I started seeing stuff I'd never seen before, was when I was feeding Little Rowdy Girl.

That's why when you were telling me all the stuff you said about Buster, I was like, "Oh, (...) better be careful."

And there's a door inside our consciousness that we dare not go through because if we do, we will see that all these animals are just like us.

- Yeah, you're following your convictions and you're doing a great job here.

- Well, thank you.

- I'm thankful.

And I'm thankful he gets this place.

It's a blessing.

Okay, let me go tell him bye.

I think you're happy here, you seem happy.

You seem like you're a happy guy.

Seem like you're a happy guy.

(Sonny speaking indistinctly to Buster) - [Renee] He's such a beautiful boy.

- I don't know, man, he just got something about him, his personality, he just... He's just a lover.

I literally held him in my lap that first night and didn't know if he was gonna live or not.

We bonded.

We bonded, huh, buddy?

- [Renee] Well, I think he's gonna like it here.

- He does, I can already tell.

(Sonny sighs) It's been kinda hard 'cause I've gotten attached.

- [Renee] Just let him know you'll see him later.

- All right, buddy, I'll see you later, okay?

You have fun, okay.

I gotta go cowboy, okay?

All right.

(footsteps rustling) (gate lock rattling) (vehicle humming) (Tommy whooping) (vehicle humming) (vehicle humming) (cow rustling past) (cows mooing) (Tommy whooping) (cows mooing distantly) (cows grunt quietly) (cows rustling in grass) (Tommy whooping) - [Tommy] Come on, Betty!

(insects chirping) (cows mooing) (insects continue chirping) (insects continue chirping) (cows mooing) (cows grunting quietly) (insects continue chirping) (cows mooing) (insects continue chirping) (forklift rumbling) (forklift continues rumbling) - I don't know how we're all gonna fit in there.

(forklift continues rumbling) - The component of receiving our cups today, that's like such a strong milestone.

In couple months time, there'll be eight feet of hallway going all the way down and there'll be 18 growing rooms going all the way to the end of that wall.

The beautiful part about our location is that we can pick that mushroom by noon, ship it to Dallas by four o'clock, it can be on the plane at six o'clock and be at the client's door at 10 o'clock at night where they're getting ready, their trucks at three o'clock in the morning to push it to Chicago and New York, wherever they may be going.

We're utilizing older technologies, the chicken technologies, and we're customizing them to actually automate the whole system, the first exotic automated mushroom farm in America.

And the most beautiful part is the fact that everything on this farm is American.

- The leftover substrate has a compost be able to fertilizer and help the nutrition in the ground.

- We're gonna test it for the cows.

- We are studying right now for possibility of being able to feed this to cattle.

And futuristically, when volume starts coming off, you've got a compost business.

Can you picture 3,000 of those in a room?

- That particular mushroom has four grams of protein per serving.

It's iron, it's magnesium, it's vitamin D, calcium, copper, potassium.

- [Rodney] Oh, this is so exciting.

- [Jennifer] Yeah, it really is.

(insects chirping loudly) (insects chirping loudly) (insects chirping loudly) - [Renee] You think there's thunder out there somewhere?

- [Tommy] Yep, I do.

(insects chirping loudly) Well, it's about 30 miles away.

(insects chirping loudly) (insects chirping loudly) (vehicle engine purring) (engine stops) (key clicks) - [Tommy] Dusty!

(insects chirping loudly) (feed rustling in bag) (distant mooing) Come on, Dusty.

- Dusty Roads, come on!

(insects chirping loudly) - [Tommy] Come on, Dusty.

(insects chirping loudly) (treats clatter on ground) Come right over here, and when they come up you can approach 'em.

You'll just sit down and give 'em time, they will come.

- [Renee] Tommy, I think I know what to do.

- Okay.

- Don't need instructions.

- [Tommy] All right.

(insects chirping loudly) (recording tone dings) - Hey there, Dusty.

Dusty's the baby of Jan.

Jan's to my right.

We'll see if Dusty'll... (insects chirping loudly) So I'm out here and now we see wild pigs.

They're just right here acting like, you know, they ain't one bit scared.

Unbelievable.

I hear your voice in the morning Oh, you call me Radio reminds me of my home far away Riding down the road I get a feeling That I should've been home yesterday Yesterday Dusty Roads, take me home To the place I belong Waelder, Texas Hot summers Take me home, Dusty Roads (wild pigs grunting) (insects chirping loudly) (Lulu sniffing) - [Valerie] Hi, Lulu!

- Guess who's here to see Lulu-bird.

- Look at you!

- Hi, mama.

- You are so big.

(Lulu snorts) Hey.

- How does it feel to see her here and know that she's safe.

- Oh, it feel amazing- - Oh, that's the best part.

- I don't ever have any kind of concern.

Come here, mom, come here.

Her weight is great!

- She eats good.

- Uh-huh.

(Tommy chuckles) She's got such a big presence.

(Lulu snorting) - She loves her little space and protects it.

- Yeah.

- Has it changed your diet at all?

Does it make you think any different about anything like what you eat?

- We have changed our diet, yes.

I used to love bacon, I ain't gonna lie.

- Of course!

- Now I don't eat it.

She'll tell you.

No, I don't, no.

It's not my thing anymore.

Yeah, we do eat a lot more vegetables now than we had before.

- Good.

- A lot more.

- Even though you might want to change, the idea of it is tough because of the tradition and the family part.

It's really tough to go to a family outing when everybody's eating a roast, a pork roast or a turkey and, you know, you feel like the odd man out.

- You know, the problem is, is life gets in the way.

Priorities.

You just fall in line.

Move with the waves, move with the winds.

And you don't realize it until somebody starts talking about it.

Then you realize, "Oh, there is a point."

- The choices we make really do matter and the reason we fall in line, to your point, is because we're programmed by systems.

We don't hear the screams, we don't see the throats being slashed and the blood pouring out, but we eat the results of it.

- I defended freedom for 21 years as a retired Marine, so I've seen a couple of things I wish I could forget in my military career, so I understand.

And it's just the way the system is, you know?

Most people don't get to see the things that I got to see.

- It's the same thing in animal agriculture.

- I have to admit that.

I can't remember the last time we ate pork.

I can't remember the last time I did eat pork, actually, come to think of it.

- [Renee] When people like you go vegan, you can make such a difference.

- Josephine.

(Josephine cooing) (Tommy cooing at Josephine) Josephine.

(Josephine cooing) (Sealy chirping) (Josephine cooing) (Josephine cawing) (Sealy cooing) (Josephine cawing) (Sealy cooing) (Josephine cooing) Josephine, how you doing?

How you doing?

You gonna get the fleas off of me?

(Josephine cooing) (insects chirping) (footsteps shuffling) (insects chirping) (footsteps shuffling) (insects chirping) (footsteps shuffling) Lemuria!

Woo woo!

Lemuria!

Lemuria!

Now you hear me!

(Renee laughs) Lemuria!

Come here, baby!

(hooves rustling in grass) Baby, how you doing?

(horse snorts) (Renee imitates Lemuria snorting) Hey, how goes it?

How goes it, hmm?

How goes it?

Let's get them flies off ya.

Get them flies off ya, baby.

Such a big, beautiful girl.

Hey, Lemuria, how are you?

(Lemuria snorting) (insects chirping) (insects continue chirping) (insects continue chirping) You sweet girl.

Yes, you are.

Gorgeous, aren't you, sweet girl?

You're gorgeous.

(insects chirping) (birds singing) (ducks chirping) (rooster crowing in distance) (goat munching on grass) (rooster chirping) - We looked into building more chicken houses.

It was barely able to breathe with four.

It's go big or go home in animal agriculture.

The cool cells were down here so it brought in air from that end of the chicken house.

And these fans.

- Oh my God.

- Yeah.

- So where was the natural light?

- No natural light, they keep it very dim.

No.

Enough for us to come in here and see to pick up the dead ones, and then we would dim 'em.

It doesn't make sense now.

I see it clearly now, but when you're working within the industry, you're like, "How else are you gonna raise all these chickens?"

I thought this was amazing, this innovation that you can grow a six pound chicken that quick.

When I figured out you could live without it, like, you don't even have to eat meat, like, it's not necessary at all.

And that's when my mind started going, "Why?

Why is all this happening?"

(indistinct chatter) - [Rodney] This will be the eighteenth room.

- 25,000 chickens per barn.

- Per barn.

And they started off in the half house.

We would brood them on one half and then when they got about, depending on the weather and depending on how cold it was, sometimes we would turn 'em out at five days old, but sometimes we would have to hold 'em till 10 days and then turn 'em out into the whole house.

- Never had their mom to tell 'em what to do, nothing.

Just a bunch of little baby chicks everywhere.

- Dumped out of crates.

I know.

Ain't it crazy?

- But to come full circle to be here right now, yeah.

- Look at it.

- I'm telling ya.

- Well, you've done a lot in a short period of time, it looks like, to me.

- Well, we're going to grow quite a few different varieties and we'll be able to grow anything anybody wants.

- [Tommy] Wow, cool.

- This will be so awesome.

I can't wait.

(Tommy chuckles) I can't hardly wait.

Yeah.

- [Tommy] Long time coming.

- It's been so long coming.

- [Tommy] Phew!

(Rodney and Tommy laugh) - Yeah, it's been a while.

- Every 20 feet?

21?

- [Rodney] Yeah, the rooms are 21-by-30.

(insects chirping) (cows mooing) (insects continue chirping) (cows mooing) (pick-up truck rumbling) - Y'all, just so you know on Instagram, if you don't know Richard Traylor, he's a sixth generation cattle rancher that is in our Rancher Advocacy Program, along with his wife, Cindy, and he's recently going vegan.

- First time I ever met Renee, she got in between me and a cow when I had an electric prod.

She goes, "You are not touching that baby with that electric prod."

And I thought, "Well, I'm gonna have to fight this woman and her husband's bigger than me."

So we got 'em in there without using the electric prod.

- Hey, hey, okay, let's go ahead and let 'em out.

Go ahead and let 'em out.

Go ahead and let 'em out now.

Here he comes.

- There's Monty.

- Monty.

- [Cindy] He's the leader of the pack.

- Watch 'em, watch 'em.

They're looking.

Come on, babies.

- [Cindy] Come on, Sammy.

Come on, Cinnamon.

(trailer rattles loudly) Whoa!

(Richard laughing) Whoa!

- Freedom!

- [Renee] Look, look.

- Look, oh my God!

- Hey, y'all remember 'em?

- Oh, I'm gonna cry!

How cool is that?

(dog barking) - [Renee] Missy has just been reunited with three members of her family.

It's just unbelievable.

- [Cindy] I can't even see.

- They're down in that corner, all the way down this side.

(rain falling) - You know, there's been many trailers that I've seen leaving sale yards.

- Oh God.

- They get so scared, they're crammed in those trailers and they just poop all over everything.

And then when there's nobody in the trailer and you know they're in the sale barn, that's the last memory.

- Yeah.

- [Renee] It's really sad.

- But what we're talking about is the big picture of being cruel to animals.

What you've already been indoctrinated to think is your property, is you can do with what you want to.

- [Renee] Exactly.

- I've made the... You know, it's amazing what you've done, Renee, because at first it was just about the environment, remember?

So I got that part of it.

But the last few months, something's clicked.

- I appreciate you saying that because when I first started RAP, it was mean to be not some vehicle where I'm gonna transition a bunch of farms, give 'em a bunch of money.

It was really meant to be a, like I wanted to help people make the connection when they started seeing things that they didn't see before.

I wanted to be a catalyst for that change because I know what happened to me was so hard.

When I went vegan in the middle of cattle country, being married to Tommy Sonnen, it was such a painful, quiet torment for me.

- This veganism I really think is part of the journey.

- It is, isn't it?

- It is, it is.

- Going vegan.

- They connect, the dots connect.

- [Renee] Going vegan was the first time I realized I grew up racist.

- Me too.

I see how wrong I was.

I hate the person I used to be.

- Not eating animals, you have to go against the way you were raised in your family.

And so when you do that, you can begin to reject the same thing you were taught around politics, around racism.

- You know how unique it is for me and you to have connected and have gone through the same type of journey and learned that that's wrong, as in connecting it to the dehumanization of animals.

- Yeah, I know, it's all the same.

It's the same mindset.

It is the normalization of violence.

Think about the animals.

That's why every time I see a truck, every time I see a trailer, every time I go to the vet, anytime I can be a voice for the voiceless, for the ones that have no voice.

You have a voice, you have a voice.

It is incumbent upon us to not be quiet anymore.

(hooves rustling on ground) (gate rattling) (footsteps shuffling) (footsteps shuffling) Hey, Freckles.

Norman.

Hmm?

Yeah, say hi.

Yeah, I know.

(Renee speaking indistinctly) Yeah.

You okay?

Hey, Sammy boy.

It's okay.

You want kisses?

You want my kisses?

You wanna suck on my fingers?

(gate rattling) (hooves rustling on ground) (birds singing in distance) (hooves rustling on ground) (loud whirring) (chicks chirping excitedly) (refrigeration hissing)