The Fallen…
Whether they meet their fate in slaughterhouses, in paddocks where kindness never set foot or on roadsides after yet another truck rollover, their lives matter. They matter to them and they should matter to us.
Sentient beings brought into existence to satisfy human wants, with scant regard for their own. Even meaningful animal protection laws fail to touch them.
Never graced with a name, their personalities are never known, they remain the forgotten victims of a war they never signed up for nor deserved.
And yet…
And yet, they pay the ultimate price.
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In the quiet hours of Thursday, the 28th of August, 2025 the radio delivered the grim words, “Livestock truck over”. The crash had unfolded the night before on the busy Hume Freeway, just shy of Wodonga.
A B-double overturned, casting 620 lives to the ground. Many were trapped inside, others crushed, and still more were caught in between. The night’s darkness mirrored their fate. Those deemed “fit enough” were forced to complete their journey, while others were shot without even being given a chance. All that remained of this bloodshed was one lone, dead sheep who had been overlooked.
One rescuer recalls another rollover. “I held him in my arms and whispered, ‘It will be okay,’ as I looked at his broken hind leg. Still clutching him, a government official walked over and pressed a captive-bolt pistol to his head. Despite pleas for mercy and sanctuary, the shot rang out and he slumped, lifeless, to the ground.”
The haunting concern with these tragedies is for those who flee — injured enough to suffer yet not strong enough to survive. Our own Molly Brown was one. She alone survived the horrific truck rollover of June 2012, when sheep rained down onto cars below a busy overpass.
More recently, Valerie came into our care after wandering for days with a torn Achilles tendon, fleeing a rollover a stone’s throw from the slaughterhouse that awaited her flock. With love and care, Valerie not only survived but thrived.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to our friends at Sheer Existence Sanctuary and Free Spirits Sanctuary, who so quickly attended the Wodonga scene, searching for survivors and ensuring no life in need was overlooked.
And so today we remember the fallen: the countless, nameless victims and those few precious survivors. May society soon open its eyes to their brilliance and recognise their lives. May we remember them not only in sorrow, but in action — choosing compassion over cruelty, until no sheep falls and none are forgotten.
