It is hard to keep track of all the communications.
The calls and emails don’t stop for nightfall or weekends or holidays. Several times a day there will be a request for rooster surrender, especially since most towns don’t permit roosters. Folks also call us because of neighbors complaining about the roosters' sounds. There are goat and sheep surrenders, horse and donkey surrenders, pig surrenders, chicken and duck and goose surrenders, dog and cat surrenders, rabbit and gerbil and guinea pig surrenders… One thing is made clear in the answers we provide to folks - animals are not “donated”. They are living beings that are surrendered when the owner cannot or will not keep them.
We answer all the calls and emails, even when we cannot accept a surrender. I give them what information I can to help them solve their dilemma, or I offer to network the surrender. It takes everyone to make this work. Other rescues and sanctuaries, our supporters who help share the word, and our donors who are help us, allowing us to help as many as we can.
Success stories for networking include three house pigs removed from the surrender family’s mother’s home where our networked posts reached a forever home. In July, Jennifer at Tomten Farm and Sanctuary sent a northern Vermont farmer to us, hoping that we would network for a disabled calf he was willing to surrender - and the calf is now safe in New Jersey getting physical therapy. Right now, there are four rescues and sanctuaries working together to help save three horses and another email just came in on a fourth horse. Another group is helping to save a very large group of at-risk pigs and goats in MA.
Roger, Nikki, Roxy, Clyde, Hotrod and Lovebug are just a few of our success stories to welcome them here to the Sanctuary. We always remain at capacity, but that is a delicate balance. To provide the best care, we cannot be overfull.
We cannot rescue our way out of the problems I describe here. Humane education is the key. We need to encourage better companion adoptions and education, we need to spread the word about the positive impact of plant based living, and we need to be compassionate to ourselves when the animals we are unable to save are not reaching a forever home. There are not enough forever homes, but together we can do more and do better. Thank you for joining us on this journey. It is not an easy one, but I cannot imagine a different life.
(Love little Clyde, sweetheart goat in the photo above)