Rescue is the topic this week, as we invite PawsCo to our weekly Open Farm and Market event this Sunday, Sept 28th, 1-3pm. So I will share more rescue stories from our farm. This is Tripod. Tripod was born on the dairy farm where I apprenticed and she was predestined to be a meat goat. This means her mother was wanted for milk production, but little Tripod was a throwaway byproduct of her mothers milking career. A few months before she was to be tossed in the back of a pickup and driven a couple of hours away to a slaughterhouse where unfamiliar people would shuffle her to where her body would be cut up and packaged into frozen, vacuum sealed packages, she got her rear leg caught in the shoddy electric fencing of her pen. She was found having her leg twisted in the fence and stuck there for two to three days. Brent and I freed her and took her home to our little borrowed barn and gave her painkillers, antibiotics, and soaked and massaged the leg to try to encourage blood flow and healing. Because she had never been socialized, she was terrified of us. Brent carried her all the way home since she was weak and unable to walk. At her owners request, she was returned to the pen with the other meat kids when she was able to limp-walk, but Brent continued to give her extra caring, letting her out of her pasture for grain and love. She became a talkative and expressive little goat, looking forward to our visits, although the leg continued to deteriorate. Her owners were unwilling to pay a vet bill to have her looked at since she was worth so little to them. When winter came, it was time for her to go back from the pasture to the farm to be finished, fed grain to fatten before their trip to slaughter. I went to visit her one cold day shortly after her return and found her crying and alone, hungry. The other goat kids, the ones who would become next years milkers and had not been part of her herd, had bullied her into hiding in a corner. Thin and ailing, I brought her back home with me and began treating her injury again, but this time as our own goat, a permanent resident of Broken Shovels. I should have taken that stand sooner, but being paid very little, I was unsure of vet bills and another mouth to feed through the winter. We took her to the vet and he snipped the dangling, necrotic part of her leg, and scheduled surgery. The vet was kind enough to keep costs as low as possible and we raised the money to have her amputation. We were hoping it would only be partial, so we could someday easily fit her for a prosthetic, but sadly, the bone had become gangrenous all the way to the hip. Three years later, Tripod gets around with the best of them. Though she prefers a cozy spot near the hay feeder, she gets excited to come in to eat her grain in the evening. She responds to her name with an ears up, enthusiastic baa-aaa and loves a good shoulder scratch. Through her misfortune and loss of limb, Tripod gained her life and lots of people who love her and dote on her. I wish I could say that watching that experience had taken me back to my pre-farming vegetarianism, or even had turned on a light to take me to veganism, as Tripod was a cast-off of the small, family, humane dairy industry, the ones we tell ourselves we should patronize. But it didnt. That came later. Fear of my bosses kept me from standing up for her for too long. There are lots of opportunities in our lives to stand up for those most vulnerable, and I am glad I did. Changing diet is another way that we can stand up for animals at every meal. Please consider our Tripod. She loves life, she loves her herd, and she loves her people. I am thankful every day for her sweet, smiley face, her curly, shaggy fur, her optimism and enthusiasm for affection. I cant imagine her any other way than here with us. A goat is a pig is a dog is a cow is a cat. When you meet the animals on our farm, there is no denying that the livestock animals are every bit as thinking, feeling, loving and deserving as the animals we call pets. This Sunday, please join us for a wonderful event to connect homeless dogs to loving owners. Changing one life may seem small, but it means the world to the one whos being saved. And give Tripod an extra back scratch, too.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:24:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015