ESMERELDA the ewe has felt untold pain in her two years of life, but that hasn’t stopped her being the best mum she can be to her three-week-old lamb, Maisie.
The heavily pregnant sheep was discarded from a farm two months ago because of severe and untreated injuries to her legs, with the weight of her unborn baby exacerbating the difficulties she faced walking.
Thankfully for Esmerelda (also known as Essie), charity Til The Cows Come Home came to the rescue and placed her with Moorooduc foster carer Sarah Rollinson, who three weeks ago helped the gentle sheep give birth.
Essie is among millions of unwanted farmed animals that suffer a sad fate in the agricultural industry every year.
The animals that are fortunate enough to end up with Til The Cows Come Home are often malnourished, weak and occasionally injured, like Essie. Operations manager Rachele Clarke says these animals are the forgotten ones.
“They often endure terrible lives before they come to us, but we feed them up, get them healthy and try to find caring homes for them,” she said.
Rollinson, who has adopted and fostered dozens of discarded farm animals, says looking after unwanted animals is a rewarding experience.
“The animals give so much back,” she said.
Til The Cows Come Home is an animal adoption charity to rescue suffering farmed animals, rehabilitate them in short term care and re-home them into safe forever loving homes.
Apart from Essie and Maisie, Clarke says the charity has three calves rescued from slaughter, two ewes, two ex-dairy cows, a cow and calf and hens for adoption.
To adopt an animal email info@tilthecowscomehome.org
Details at: go to tilthecowscomehome.org/why-we-have-so-many-calves-coming-into-our-care/
First published in the Mornington News – 6 September 2022
