Happy.
This is how Ismael feels every day at him.
Although he daily has to deal with terrible scenes, that feeling so strong lasts above all.
And is that Ismael López saves lives.
It was during the visit to a milk cow farm when he realized that this was his true vocation.
“I saw the suffering they had the cows. They screamed desperate by calling their calves that they were crying away in cages. Also crying, nailed my knees on the ground, I asked forgiveness and I promised them that I would dedicate my life to save them,” says López.
Years later, when he met Coque Fernandez, he fulfilled that promise and together they founded the Sanctuary Gaia in Campodron, Girona.
In these nine years of life they have helped more than 1,500 animals with chilling stories of abuse and exploitation.
All arrive with a delicate state of health and many survive only a few months.
“The most beautiful thing is to see how their looks change shortly after arriving and contemplating that they go with love is very rewarding,” she says.
In the Sanctuary they find a home to receive accurate care for their recovery, from rehabilitation sessions to walking prosthesis.
But what most appreciate is to feel the love they never had due to human cruelty they suffered.
The stories of each animal are not only stayed in the sanctuary, but excited millions of people thanks to social networks, where the evolution of each animal is lived with sum hope and great emotion.
This happened with Paola, the little pig that threw out of the farm because she could not walk and she just had to die dying.
Now in the sanctuary he recovers thanks to the great care he is receiving: “We have managed to cure the most serious wound, that of his heart, and although still still walking, it is a very happy little pig that gives us all a lesson of overcoming
“.
But people also live with sadness the meager recovery of some animals.
This happened with Robert and Estela.
Robert was a raising of Cabirol, deer, to which a mower cut his legs.
After arriving at the sanctuary they had to amputate them.
Ismael was night and day without sleeping by providing care and giving him bottles but, for the small size of him, the antibiotic he took harmed him and died.
“We have the consolation that it has not died in a gutter, bleeding or eaten by some other animal, the time it has been among us has been a gift for the soul, with its tender and innocent look, we promise that we will continue fighting for
All of you tirelessly. We owe it. We will never forget you little one, you will always live in our hearts. ”
So they dismissed him in his social networks.
When they were still suffering the loss of this fawn, Estela arrived, a corderita with multiple injuries throughout the body that worms were being eaten.
After a few days she also passed away.
“This is the hardest part of the sanctuary, when you give everything for them and even so they go,” Recorda López.
However, there are many animals with serious health problems that manage to survive thanks to the care they are given in the sanctuary.
“A Toro Samuel rescued him with a few days since, for being born male, he was going to be sent to the slaughterhouse. I slept with him the first months because he was very sick, that created a strong bond between both and became for him his
dad”.
There he received a lot of love, he celebrated his birthday, enjoyed the snow and helped welcome new animals that came: “It was totally aware of the work we do in the sanctuary and helped us calmly and removing the fear of the new animals that we rescued.”
The history of the Freser cow went around the world.
She had been so mistreated that she did not allow any member of the sanctuary to approach less than two meters.
When his birth occurred, accompanied by many complications, he had to help her: “The surprising thing was that she was not only left, but she was so grateful that, as she sees in a video that we hung on YouTube, she did not stop kissing me as she slid
Tears of his eyes “.
They are stories that will never be forgotten.
Every day they reach more people thanks to their influence on networks.
They relate the history of each new member of this family, their rescue, their care, their evolution, their happier moments.
Thus, the sanctuary has become the animal shelter with a greater number of followers on the Internet.
The comments that they receive daily excite them until they make them skip the tears, although what is most moved to López is to check how many older people become vegan and thank them for helping them make this decision.
Although the pandemic has also affected the sanctuary, preventing them from continuing with the visits and suffering from the low of many partners, they continue to fight and work in this great work to show the amazing innate qualities that the animals possess.
They live it every day: “The most beautiful thing is when coke and I entered their room to see it, no matter how bad it is, we always want to show us how happy it is and tells us that you love us, because the pigs also say I love you
; that I explain it in my book, “he says in Paola.
All her experiences with animals, the creation of the sanctuary and everything she has learned by living every day with them has summarized it in a work that she has recently published.
Lopez is clear that, despite the difficulties that may arise, it will never abandon a work that produces so much happiness.
“That’s why the book is entitled animals like you, because when you finish reading it, you realize that we are also animals, although that is forgotten by our eagerness of believing us superior to everything.”
