How we collect and rehome the farmed animals in our care
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive

FROM Luella Botteon, 'Til The Cows Come Home
October 2020

All the animals in our care are never rehomed back into the farming industry, but instead, we help all the animals find their perfect, furever, loving homes. We are with the animals every step of the way and we never abandon them.

Spring is here, and it is our busiest time of the year with babies being born on farms, most of whom are not viable to our farmers. We have already had calls for calves to collect tomorrow, later this week and more will come day after day, week after week. You may have noticed an increasing number of adoption posts on our social media page, which is a result of this busy period. We, in turn, have noticed some frequent questions being asked by our supporters, those questions being “are we putting the animals back into farms after we care for them?” and “what happens with the animals after we bring them into our care?” This blog will answer these questions.

The first step into answering those questions is explaining how and why the animals come into our care. We, at ‘Til The Cows Come Home, work with farmers and everyday people to rehome their animals that are unviable, unwanted, unneeded, or that they can’t afford. Whatever the reason we can pick up the animals. This is the why answered. Now we will discuss the how.

Next, our amazing volunteer drivers pick up the farmed animals to go to one of our 14 foster care homes around Australia. The foster care homes are run by our volunteers out of their own homes. We help the volunteers turn an area of their property into a holding station, which is specifically designed to care for the animals while they wait for us to find them their perfect adoption match. The animals being cared for in our foster homes is an important step before being adopted. For example, the calves in our care will only be allowed to be adopted when they are healthy enough and once they have reached 2 weeks of age. This allows our trained foster carers to go through the really risky and tough period of a calf’s life who has been removed from his mother far too young to thrive without our trained carers support. This means that 100% of the calves that come into our fostering program have received colostrum, bottle feeding, vet checks and if required ongoing vet checks. Our foster carers will also train the calves to be comfortable on halters. The foster care program not only prepares the animals for adoption but ensures that each animal in our care is healthy and strong enough to be adopted.

The next step is finding the animals their perfect adoption match, which we do through our world-first adoption program that is dedicated to rescuing and rehoming farmed animals. While the animals are in our foster homes, being prepared for adoption, our social media team creates adoption posts to share with you all. For the people who express interest in adopting the animals, we have an in-depth application process in which our highly trained online adoption consultants are in charge of. One of the reasons for our in-depth adoption process is that adopting an animal is a big commitment. For example, cows live up to 25 years of age, they need acreage to live on, and need other animal companions to have a healthy and social life. Therefore, we like to make sure anyone adopting an animal from us is not only like-minded but is also ready to commit to an animal long-term. Our adoption team takes applications 7 days a week and are trained to find the absolute best and most aligned adopters for the precious animals we take responsibility for finding them new homes.

Once a perfect adoption match is found, we organise for the lucky animal to be picked up. If you are wanting to know what to expect when you pick up an animal from us, please read the following blog for all the key information: What to expect when you collect your calves

Our adopters receive lifetime support for the adopted animal, they have the foster carers contact info and can message or call any time for tips, tricks, education and help.

We hope that this blog has shown you that all the animals in our care are not rehomed back into the farming industry, but instead, we help all the animals find their perfect, furever, loving homes. We are with the animals every step of the way and we never abandon them. Our mission is to save unwanted farmed animals by working directly with farmers and families to rehome them into furever homes, and this is possible because of YOU! We want to say a big thank you for helping farmers have better practices that align with the consumers of today. We know the animals in Australian farms deserve nothing less than a chance to find their furever homes.

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