When Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York, received a request from Teal Church of Good Karma Rescue in Montpelier asking for a contact to help her find a home for a male dairy calf, GMAD became involved.

Here is the rest of the story, as told by long-time GMADer Sara Mann:

One day in mid-August, I drove to Montpelier to check on a calf, as well as the mother of the calf, who we were told wasn’t in good shape. Gertie had given birth to the calf in May and her udders were pretty much dragging on the ground. While we were there, we noticed another cow mothering the calf. Elsie had had a calf in the spring that died, so she had become very attached to Gertie’s calf, Rupert. Both cows were headed for the slaughterhouse for various reasons.

Two weekends later we showed up at Matt and Teal’s house to give these old girls and their charge a new home. It didn’t take too long to load Gertie and Elsie. After a lot of chasing we rounded up Rupert, put a halter on him, and put him in the back of the truck because there was no room for him in the trailer.

It didn’t take us long to let the new cows and our Jerseys out together in the meadow. They have all bonded and don’t go anywhere without each other. They have even accepted a rescued Appaloosa mare into their fold. All of the adults look after Rupert. He is growing stronger and bigger every day.

Gertie has had lots of TLC from us, and we just bought her an udder support
to help her get her udder off the ground and make it easier to treat her poor old teats. The cows will be cared for, loved, fed regularly, and allowed to be just cows enjoying the sunny days up on our little mountain.

This whole process was made so much easier by all of the good folks who donated to GMAD, and Teal and her husband, Matt. GMAD paid for Gertie’s initial checkup, they paid for Elsie to join Gertie and Rupie in their new home, and with extra donations, GMAD paid for the most recent checkup and half of the cost of the trailer which was needed to rescue them and for future rescues.

We welcome anyone who wants to come visit our farm.

We have 1 horse, 4 big pigs, 8 jerseys, 4 cats, and 8 dogs.

Sara & Lisa
Finally Home Animal Sanctuary

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