Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 minutes ago
A rescued cow who had not been around a herd for years jumped for joy when he was finally able to interact with a group of cows once more. Theo, an approximately four-year-old Steer, had experienced a difficult start to life, having originally been sold at a feed store in South Florida. As a male Holstein, Theo was likely born on a dairy farm and, as a steer, was sold because he could not produce milk, staff at Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary, where he now calls home, said. When Theo was sold, he was extremely malnourished, underfed, and the female who he was living with passed away. He was purchased by a family who were able to get him physically health, but, Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary said, the bulls on the farm targeted him, and the owners knew Theo needed to be moved once more. Fortunately, a horse rescuer heard Theo's story and potentially saved him from slaughter, keeping him for about two years in the company of horses. But during this time, Theo had had no bovine companionship, and when he began roaming around a neighborhood, it became clear that he needed another new home and to be castrated. It was at point that Critter Creek Farm Sanctuary, a rescue facility for farm animals across two locations in Florida, stepped in. The rescue oversaw Theo's castration, and it was then time for him to be introduced back into a herd of cows for the first time in years. When that moment happened at the organization's Alachua facility in the hills, Theo let out a jump for joy, before excitedly moving around with his new herd.
Transcript
00:00He has zoomies. He's rolling around. He's, you know, kicking his legs. He's happy. A lot of
00:05people view them as products or commodities. Farmed animals are just as capable of experiencing
00:11the emotions that we see reflected in our dogs, cats. Theo's original start to life was at a
00:17feed store. He was kept with another female calf at the time, but due to negligence of those caring
00:25for them at the store, the female actually passed away from starvation. A man did purchase Theo and
00:31did get him back into physical health. However, from some of the photos that I have seen, the man
00:38kind of took the opportunity to use Theo as a prop for photos, kind of a novelty of being able
00:44to ride
00:45a cow. When conflict started happening between Theo and the other bulls at the property, it was
00:51becoming unsafe for Theo. And rather than investing in ways to prevent those conflicts from happening,
01:00the farmer was either just going to slaughter Theo or just give him away to whoever would take him.
01:04That's when his most recent caretaker took him in. And the entire two years that Theo was at her
01:10property, his main friends were miniature horses and donkeys. Horses and people are never going to
01:16replace the same bond that he would be able to share with others of the same species as him.
01:22She reached out to us and she loved Theo so much, but she knew that a part of responsibly caring
01:31for
01:31him would be getting him to a place where he would have the companionship of other bovines and cows.
01:44Once it came time to actually introducing Theo, we opened up his quarantine pen. It probably took like
01:5120 minutes for him to actually make it like less than 50 feet from the quarantine pen to the herd
01:57because he was so excited just to like chew on the grass the entire way down there. Once he turned
02:03the
02:03corner and saw that it was like a wide open lane for him to go into the larger space.
02:13Awesome, good. Straight to the hay. That's when he does his cute kind of little bunny hop
02:18and then like took off and was kicking and bucking everywhere.
02:33What do you think, baby? You good?
02:37You're welcome, sweet boy. You're welcome.
02:42It's your new home, baby.
02:48Once it came time to actually introducing Theo, we opened up his quarantine pen.
03:03Our cheeks hurt from smiling, watching him just like doing his laps. It was kind of like sending
03:08your kid off to like preschool for the first day where they like are out and playing and then they
03:13come back to check in on you to make sure everything's still okay. And we're like, yeah,
03:17dude, like this is yours. Like, go. Like, go have fun.
03:23His only job now is to just exist and be happy and that's what makes us happy.
03:28Are you happy?

Recommended