Sanctuary Tales Part Two: Social Life
Photo: Edgar’s Mission
Last week, we introduced you to the Sanctuary Tales, a four-part series diving deep into life on a farmed animal sanctuary. We sent out a questionnaire with the goal of turning the responses into a blog detailing each organisation’s insight into the challenges but also countless joys of caring for rescued animals. In total, 13 sanctuaries from all over the world responded, a group which collectively care for over 2,700 permanent residents and span 1,178 acres of land.
In this blog we will uncover the unique social dynamics and cross-species bonds that form between different individuals living together in a sanctuary, and learn some distinctive ways in which residents’ personalities shine through.
Q: What animals in your sanctuary are best friends forever?
The rescued goat named Herb on Edgar’s Mission in Australia, ‘prefers the company of ponies over his own kind. Residing at Edgar’s Mission since 2017, life has not always been kind to this resilient chap. Once an ‘owned’ goat, Herb became homeless until he took up residence at the local pony club grounds. He quickly found comfort amongst the horses until they were moved off, leaving the hapless Herb adrift in the world yet again. But he quickly found another horse friend nearby. Things were going just dandy, until Herb’s dabblings onto the makeshift golf course and garden saw him yet again in the sights of heartache, as well as the sights of gun-wielding local police. Retreating to a walking track, Herb was targeted by a bow and arrow-toting marksman until a kind heart came to his rescue. So, having dodged homelessness, bullets and arrows, it was to be a dart of compassion that ultimately reined dear Herb in. Arriving at the safe haven of Edgar’s Mission almost three years ago, he has made it very clear that he prefers to keep counsel with ponies and not goats - initially jumping the fence from his goat enclosure to be with them. Herb now spends his days alongside his pony friends, and will forevermore.’
Photo: Edgar’s Mission.
In Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary in the UK, ‘Wendy the sheep used to live with the cows. Her best friend was Mark the cow who was a huge Bullock standing 6ft tall and weighing about 1.5 tonnes. When the other sheep or a dog came into the cow paddock Wendy would run between Mark's legs for protection. When all the cows were laying down she would be in the middle of them all chewing the cud. Her behaviour turned almost cow-like and she refused to be in with the sheep. She was born on a slaughter lorry and bottle fed alongside a pig who sadly could not stay with Wendy as she became too rough for Wendy. When Mark Died she mourned his death for months and refused to eat. She eventually formed a bond with another one of our cows Douglas who sadly died of cancer a few years later. Wendy was never the same again and would not bond with our new rescue cows. She eventually accepted she was a sheep and now resides with our 35 rescued flock of sheep. She still eats like a cow and took many months to form bonds but has been accepted and she likes to keep to herself most of the time.’
The cats and pigs at Rooterville in Florida, USA, are BFF’s and ‘finding a cat with pigs is typical. In the winter, the cats will sleep on the pigs to stay warm. They love each other. The pigs go into a trance almost when they get near a cat, hoping they'll get a cat massage. Cat toenails on pig skin is heavenly to the pigs.’
Photo: Rooterville Animal Sanctuary
Q: Who are roommates?
‘Walter the turkey, Koda the baby duck, and Kenai the baby chicken [are happy roommates in Luvin Arms in Colorado, USA]. Walter the turkey used to live with another bird named Starlett before she passed away years ago. He has lived alone all this time because he is our only male turkey, and he tries to mount the other females which is dangerous. We did have play dates for him with the females, but they had to be closely monitored. So Walter has lived alone for quite some time. Koda and Kenai were recently rescued together. They were abandoned in a box to die. When they arrived at Luvin Arms, they were incredibly bonded. Kenai, the chicken, was more of the leader. Everywhere he went, Koda followed. They were inseparable. We thought that this little pair of babies may be a good match for Walter. Once Koda and Kenai were out of quarantine, we integrated them with Walter, and they are the sweetest roommates ever! They all hang out inside together, and Walter protects them from anyone who tries to peer into their home!’
Photo: Luvin Arms
Meanwhile, in Uplands PEAK in Indiana, USA, ‘Alvin, Simon, Nigel, and Frankie are 4 roosters with some of the biggest personalities ever! Frankie and Nigel have lived together in their coop forever, enjoying one another's company immensely. When Simon and Alvin came along (dumped on the PEAK property in a cardboard box), we decided to see if the 4 might benefit from one another's companionship. Alvin and Simon are TINY, each weighing barely more than 2 pounds, but have HUGE perspectives on the world! The four males immediately bonded, creating one of the tightest family units at the sanctuary. Their antics and love for one another would make an amazing sitcom drama!’
Q: Who is acting like adoptive family?
Ruthi the cow and Tamar the calf have become family on Freedom Farm in Israel. ‘Ruthi is a 13-year-old cow who was recently rescued from a dairy farm. She had 11 babies taken from her immediately after giving birth. She arrived at the farm after the dairy farmer decided to give her a good retirement after producing so much milk all these years. About two weeks [after arriving] we got a call about a day-old calf who was found alone, still with the umbilical cord attached. We brought her to the farm and named her Tamar. After checking that Tamar was healthy and didn’t have any contagious disease, we decided to let her get to know the rest of the cows. When Ruthi saw her, her eyes were so wide! She immediately fell in love with the new baby and started licking her and protecting her from the rest. She even let her nurse from her own milk (she still had some left). Ruthi basically adopted Tamar, and now they sleep together, eat together and spend the whole day with each other.’
Photo: Freedom Farm
Farmaste Animal Sanctuary in Minnesota also has a sweet story to recount: The goat Buffy is quite protective, while the sheep named Eva is shorter than the other sheep: ‘Sometimes when they venture out into the field (Eva) can’t see the other sheep if her head is down eating when they leave. One day she was calling out to the herd, and Buffy ran across the barn to their stall wall and stood on the other side of the wall by her until one of us came to help walk her out to her herd. Buffy was worried about her crying out.’
Q: Is there a peacemaker?
‘Benny is the peacemaker of our goat herd [at Uplands PEAK]. He is a gentle leader and with his mere presence can get any individual to relax. His soul is gentle and he bonds quickly with volunteers and visitors. Benny would make an amazing member of the United Nations! He can even get William to relax, who is one of our goats who was driven around as a mascot in ‘party’ situations and not allowed to be a goat before he came to us. Because of this past, he is slower to trust humans and prefers us to keep our distance, however, some of the animal care team have taken the time and gone slowly and have connected with William.’
At Edgar’s Mission: ‘13 years ago, a dog with no name and no future entered our world. Yet as the sun set on that winter’s day, a timid, thin, and frightened red kelpie, had both a name and a future. Whilst we chose her name as Ruby, she chose her future, and that was to be an ever-present reminder of the power of kindness. Over the years as Ruby morphed into a confident, fun-loving, tail-wagging (although this usually ends up consuming her entire body) and non-judgemental pooch, she also unwittingly shone and continues to shine a beacon of hope into the hearts of people around the globe. Both much loved and photographed, Ruby loves nothing more than greeting visitors to the sanctuary and providing comfort to sick, ageing, and orphaned animals as she dons her role as Vet Nurse Ruby. With a steady flow of mail containing treats, jackets, and good wishes, along with Facebook messages of love, we could be forgiven for thinking Ruby is indeed the most loved dog in the universe!’
Photo: Edgar’s Mission
On that heartwarming note, we will conclude this post by noting that, as you can hopefully tell after reading the responses above, all animals have very unique personalities - with good and bad days - that are allowed to shine through when they are removed from systems of exploitation and oppression. Just like humans, these beings want to express themselves and form meaningful social bonds with others, and they luckily get to do so in the sanctuaries that rescue them.
Until the next blog!
A recap of the sanctuaries highlighted in this piece
Tatiana von Rheinbaben is a global citizen with a bachelor’s in molecular biology and a master’s in environmental engineering. After an internship at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and an internship at The Not Company in Chile, Tatiana started working for Surge as a project manager.
Cloe Sousa is a global citizen and vegan activist whose mission is to help create a world kinder for all earthlings, where justice prevails over selfishness. She’s the founder of the Vegan Activism Instagram community and the author of A Guide to Veganism: What the World (& You) Need to Know. Cloe is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Conservation at the University of British Columbia.