Support the De Giorgio's in their Sparta-transfer

Dear reader,

The De Giorgio’s-animal tribe is an interspecies family in which Francesco – my husband – and myself, dedicate every day to a change; creating awareness in the coexistence with other animals, inside an adventurous life, shared with a family of three dogs, eight horses, five pigs, six goats and a cat.

In January 2020, we started looking for an olive groove, to finally settle with our family – most of who are getting towards their third age – after nearly a decade of what feels like a nomadic life and our current home being a steep mountain.

Even if that very year turned out to be full of challenges – critical ones like the pandemic, but also intense in the experience of the five sisters-pigs, adopted into our family from a juridical situation – the desire to find a new place grew stronger, and by summer we found our olive groove in the Imperia mountains.

The land immediately felt like home – and we have been dedicating whatever time we can spare to making it our future home, keeping committed to being a dynamic presence for many of you, even online, preserving adventures for all animals we share our life with, and keeping our steady course to contribute to a necessary evolution, for an understanding of Animality and the need to evolve in coexisting, both in daily life as in knowledge.

We are on track with the developments, but are asking support to finalize the first phase of this big change, in which the family of pigs, horses and goats will be the first to move to the land called “Sparta” – which requires for the moment a final amount of 3.200 Euro.

Covering the initial investment of making the land accessible and starting the fencing has been possible with a small loan, and we have been able to make huge progress: starting to prepare the 3 hectares of completely rewilded land, with an abandoned overgrown barn hidden in the thorn bushes, and the transformation has been fantastic.

But we are asking for your support to get everything ready and bring the horses, goats, and pigs to this new land before the winter sets in, as with all the other unforeseen challenges, the winter of 2020 brought us an even more extreme dimension - with 1.3 meter of snow (over 4 feet), way too much for the goat - and although the horses and pigs enjoyed their snow adventures, as did we, the circumstances were excruciating and we have been working ever since to be able to get the olive groove ready enough for them to transfer.

The roads on the new land have been brought back to good conditions, terraces have been cleaned, and we are addressing the abandoned barn construction. Future steps of additional fencing, reconstructing the traditional stone walls around the terraces, a visitors and cultural center, and a (vegan) mini-camping are developments that will find their way in dedicated projects throughout the coming years.

For now we are focusing on the next three months in which we will need a final 3.200 Euro to complete the finishing touch for the barn to become one of the possible shelters, completing the area with running water, and most important to give the go-ahead for the transport for the horses, pigs and goats, before the autumn weather sets in, and to ensure they will be in our new home before winter.

The critical situation of the passed year has created an even more passionate commitment to create a new space where a cultural development in coexisting will be tangible, the possibility to come and visit and organize experiences will be easier, and although you’ve probably enjoyed the enchanting images of in particular the horses and pigs full in snow experiences, we are asking your support to be able to finalize the transfer and share with the world our adventures between the olive trees instead, maybe even seeing you there in a nearby future, to support the coexistence and awareness – of an antispeciesist inclusion.

Thank you !

José De Giorgio