As much as she'd love to have a pet of her own, Emily Deschanel knows that now is not the time. The actress works up to 16 hours a day on her TV series Bones, and in a few short weeks she'll be taking on another challenge: motherhood.
"I don't want to take an animal in and just have them sit at home while I'm at work," says the actress, who is currently in her third trimester. "I live in an apartment; it's not an ideal situation. There's no way to go outside. There's no yard."
So the animal-loving star, who grew up with dogs, birds and a rabbit, gets her animal fix at the Farm Sanctuary, a safe haven for abused and neglected farm animals in California and New York. Deschanel, a vegan, is the spokesperson for the sanctuary's Walk for Farm Animals, an annual fund-raiser taking place this fall across the U.S. and Canada.
"I don't have any pets currently, but I do have adopted pets – farm animals," says Deschanel, who has visited the sanctuary's pigs, goats, chickens and lambs often. "I just love spending time with those animals. I'm so amazed at how each animal is an individual. They each have their own personalities."
She hopes that one day she can introduce her child to all the characters roaming around the sanctuary. "I would love animals to be a part of his or her life, and to be part of our family," she says.
For now, she's happy to sponsor animals that live there – and gawk at her favorite farm dweller: pigs! "I kind of love pigs. I don't know what it is about them," she says. "They're so sweet and smart and they're fun."
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