Most of you reading this probably know that Annie, Foxie, Jody, Missy, and Negra were used as breeders during their years in biomedical research. Each of them gave birth to multiple babies in the laboratories, all of whom were removed from their respective mothers at or shortly after birth and brought up in “nurseries” in the labs.
That’s the reason we celebrate Jody’s birthday on Mother’s Day, as we did last weekend. Jody had the most pregnancies and the greatest number of children who she did not have the opportunity to raise and love and dote on, as we suspect she would have.
Though not chimpanzees, we do, however, now have two moms with their children at the sanctuary! Moms Betsy and Honey originally lived at a dairy, where they too were probably bred multiple times. The last children that they had were able to grow up with their respective mothers at Farm Sanctuary. And grow they did!
Nutmeg, like Burrito, is the one male of his group. You don’t often see adult dairy steers because the males are basically unwanted byproducts of the dairy industry. When you do see them, they are big, and Nutmeg is no exception.
He’s about twice the size of his mom, Betsy, but he still looks to her for comfort and nurturing.
Meredith, though she’s a cow not a steer, also towers over her mom, Honey. They both seem to share an independent streak.
It’s really nice to be able to have this little family here at the sanctuary and to know these moms were able to raise their kids from birth. You can learn more about the cattle by clicking on their individual pages from the main cattle page and you can now become a Bovine Buddy too!
Thank you Diana… wonderful post! 3 cheers for all the mom’s… Love the photos 🙂
Knowing that Jody is so motherly with her family at the sanctuary, I have often thought about her stolen chance to be a natural mom to a family of her own. Clearly laboratories do not consider the suffering a chimpanzee goes through when you take away their babies but, knowing that animals are intelligent and sentient, how could they not be scarred by the experience? It was not their choice to give up their babies. We can only surmise Jody would have be a stellar mother. Or maybe I should say, Jody IS a stellar mom with her family of six and we all love her for it! Proving some traits are wonderfully unique and even the cruelty imposed by the laboratories couldn’t break Jody’s loving spirit. : )
Thanks for filling us in on your beautiful behemoth bovines. You look so small next to Nutmeg! He is smashingly gorgeous. Thank goodness for Farm Sanctuary. I would love to visit their sanctuary in upstate NY someday. It is inspiring how you both worked together to keep these four as a family unit. As they say “Better Together”.
Loved the pictures and stories about your new critters and it is so sad about how the chimp mothers had their babies taken from them immediately after birth. How they must have grieved. Farm Sanctuary is indeed a wonderful animal charity, I am familiar with their work. I think it is so great that you brought 4 of the animals to your sanctuary because that means they can accept four more rescued animals to replace them. You do such wonderful work for all creatures, bless you all
This blog was very nice. I had a beagle who was bred for years in a cage and the same thing was true – no chance to raise her babies. I have another one right now who just had pups when they found her on the road. They both were/are so very sweet. I feel for them not be able to care for their babies.. Reading these blogs brought that back to me and I also feel for the chimps. Thank you
for sharing this. I enjoy reading the blogs when I can.
I am in total agreement with the previous comments posted herein. My sense of wonder and joy at watching the video footage of a western lowland Gorilla (a critically endangered species) being born at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo last Sunday — and the care accorded to the newborn by his mother, Rollie — is countered by my knowledge that Jody and the other chimpanzee mothers at the CSNW were cruelly deprived of nurturing their children.
How I wish that we human animals could be much wiser stewards of this planet, and that we could curb our behavior so as to share this biosphere with other species so that they, too, could live, and live life in abundance.
Agree with all……..and a question……..Have the chimps ever seen human children at the sanctuary? If so, what was their reaction?
They have seen human children and have mixed reactions from not much of a reaction to being interested. Foxie seems to be drawn to kids and wants to play chase with them 🙂
Thanks for the response, Diana! You know, that was pretty much what I’d expected to hear–Foxie! I’m guessing “not interested” included Jaime and Neggie.