Born ~2007 (birthday celebrated July 20)
You can now support the sanctuary by becoming Betsy’s Bovine Buddy! Betsy currently has 5 Buddies!
Betsy, a beautiful Jersey cow with a dark face, has a sweet and protective personality. Like her three companions, she came to our sanctuary on November 2, 2018 from Farm Sanctuary‘s Northern California shelter. She is very bonded to her cattle family and spends hours licking whoever is closer.
Along with Honey, she started her life as one of the more than nine million cows that produce milk for human consumption in the U.S. Betsy and Honey’s fate was quite different than most, however. They were purchased from the dairy farm on which they lived by TV producers working on a reality series called “Utopia” to be used for their milk on the show. Cows, like all mammals, begin producing milk only when they become pregnant so that they can feed their young. So, both Betsy and Honey were pregnant when they appeared on the television show. When the show ended, the veterinarian and the show’s producer didn’t want to send Betsy and her new family back into the dairy industry. Seeking an alternative, they found Farm Sanctuary. Shortly after arriving at Farm Sanctuary, Betsy gave birth to a son named Nutmeg.
Betsy proved to be a very protective mother to Nutmeg and stand-in mother for Honey’s calf Meredith when Honey was unable to nurse Meredith due to a bad case of mastitis. Nutmeg was the first calf that Betsy had been allowed to raise, and though he sadly passed away on March 21, 2024 after an unexpected health crisis, it was wonderful to watch the incredible bond he and Betsy shared, along with their family at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.
We are so glad to have had the opportunity to adopt Betsy when Farm Sanctuary’s Northern California shelter closed. Most of the cattle were moved to their Watkins Glen, NY shelter, but we were lucky enough to be able to adopt Betsy, her son Nutmeg, and their two friends. All of the cattle are beloved by staff, and they help firewise the property by grazing down the grass!
