If you follow my blog, you know I donate proceeds to places helping senior animals. While art sales are a bit down in this economy, I was happy to donate a little to our friends up at New Moon Farm in Arlington, WA. Hopefully we can do more soon. This is also the place where Guinnias was placed before we brought him home to Apifera. Ellen does a wonderful job caring for many goats and sheep she rescues. She is down to earth and a wonderful photographer too. She has the Apifera stamp of approval, which we stuck to her forhead after we picked Guinnias up. Really, she has helped so many, and does it all out of her own pocket and donations.
Molly [on the left] is a 12 year old, black-belly Barbados sheep. She came to the rescue about 2 years ago, when her whole herd got picked off, one by one, by coyotes. Finally, when only Molly was left, her owner contacted New Moon Farm. Since she is such a sweetheart, Ellen made her one of the permanent residents at New Moon.
Nestle is a 10 year old Oberhasli doe. After spending her whole life in a dairy herd, she was no longer producing enough volume, and was no longer "useful" to the breeder. After a kind soul saved her from going to auction last fall, Nestle came to New Moon, all the way from Oregon. Bravo to that kind soul! Nestle is looking for a new home, with her friend Ellie.
3 comments:
Oh why, why, why do they have to be sooooo far away. I would so love to adopt Nestle and Ellie, but Washington is a very long way from Iowa.
(my word verification is "hugbac" so I am giving a hug back to Nestle and Ellie!)
I'm confused about why some animals are rescue and others are "the chosen ones". ? I'm not judging or anything like that - just truly curious why an oberhasli would be a rescue at an auction vs. having her go to slaughter to feed someone?
I think it's interesting and raising goats, many of the males are sold for eating. I had to come to terms with that before we entered into the dairy goat business... sorta if you can't stand the heat, get outta the kitchen... and I think everyone does what they have to do to be comfortable.
I have met other dairy goat people that wouldn't hesitate to eat their milker once she was no longer producing... and I guess I don't think it's wrong. I'm not sure I could do it .. but in a way it is honoring them because they are providing nutrition to the family. Just interesting.
You don't actually have to post either of my comments - just had a couple thoughts I wanted to get out there. Cheers!
Yes, Claire, you an New Moon would be great neighbors!
Shanster - New Moon mentioned in this post, is a rescue farm for goats and sheep. She is not breeding animals, she finds them or rescues them from difficult situations. We adopted an old pygmy from her.
On our farm, we raise Katahdin sheep, a meat breed. They maintain our fields and supply us with the food. I choose not to butcher females. We choose to raise the small about of meat we eat, or buy from farm friends,as we are 50% veggie people. When you have a breeding program, you have to make choices. We sell some of the male lambs for breeding stock, but we have three rams on site - that's enough. We do not name the young rams, but we refer to them as Chosen Ones, out of respect. They give us food and we respect that. But they are not pets.
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Thank you for reading! The farm and my art/writing keep me hopping, so might not respond immediately. Thank you for understanding. ~Katherine & Apifera ~