Giving Hope to Animal-people in Need: Mountain Angels Sanctuary and Rescue, part 1 of 2

Michelle McCowan (vegan) is the owner and director of Mountain Angels Sanctuary and Rescue, a no-kill haven in Paradise Valley, a town in southern Montana, United States. “We were licensed rehabbers. I came to know the animal-people through my family and their work and I grew up with it. I began working through high school with timber wolves and gray wolves.”

Ms. McCowan has 40 years of rescue experience and worked extensively with people from the cat and dog kingdoms. “I began basically taking in the spent ones, the ones that were done working, ones that were abandoned, abused. I worked at Best Friends Animal Society working with pit bulls from Michael Vick's rescue and the fighting dogs.”

Due to many of the locals in her area believing that the lives of stray or feral feline-persons are not worth saving, Ms. McCowan must often intervene to protect them from harm. “The shelters don't take them. I take in all the ones that they actually won't take. They won't allow TNR (Trap, Neuter, and Return) because they're basically used as target practice the same way they use ground squirrels around here.”

Michelle McCowan (vegan) shares how important education is and its role in teaching individuals to treat animal-people with love and kindness. “I'd like to see them interact more and spread the awareness of just what animals are like. Start with kids. The elementary school that I worked with here, we were doing that program up until COVID hit. But each summer, I still have a group of children come out from the Moss Science Program and they get to interact with the dogs and the cats and spend time with the horses.”

Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan): “Gratefully present the Shining World Compassion Award to Mountain Angels Sanctuary and Rescue with respect and praises for your selfless efforts to safeguard our animal friends, plus US$10,000 as a humble token of support for their medical care.”