Arizona farm gives refuge from pain, for man and beast alike
A little more than a month ago, a young female calf with a few days’ growth was brought to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.
The calf had been found wandering off from its family’s pasture; a member of the team that found the calf realized it was too much to handle so they took the calf and made it comfortable. A worker brought the calf back to his office where he worked for Game and Fish.
When the calf was ready to be sold, he had no idea he was about to become a hero. There is a huge reward on the table for anyone willing to donate to the North Dakota calf ranch.
In a world where people are conditioned to think of “babes” as human and not livestock, the life of a calf is a rarity. Most calves are bred, slaughtered and shipped to the food market. The North Dakota calf ranch is different.
Every day, several calves are born into the world, and every day a few get adopted into a nearby home. If the calf ranch was open 24 hours a day, it would be the busiest place on an island.
Nathan, a calf born at the ranch, had only two days before the staff decided to sell him to a home without any knowledge of him except for the fact that he was a cow.
One morning, Nathan and a calf named Luke were brought into the office. The calf was standing straight up with a couple of broken legs. This was unusual for someone born under a cow’s body.
“The calf was just lying there laying down at the time and then when I stepped up behind it, I felt a pressure in my back,” Nathan recalled. “I turned around and a few people had gathered around. It was like a little tornado had taken hold of me. It just seemed like I was being pushed around the room and everyone was looking at me, asking what was wrong.”
Nathan’s calf, Luke, was named after his first human family member, Luke