Happy and Sad News

Siya, her baby (now named Gopi), and Lalita (an orphaned calf) arrived at their forever home, ISCOWP cow sanctuary, on May 10. A snake bite killed Lalita’s mother when she was a couple of weeks old. Her owner wanted to sell her as quickly as possible because she would need to be bottle-fed, which is labor-intensive. At the same time, the owner had a mother cow and her baby he wanted to sell. The mother cow (Siya) is now nursing both calves. Her owner took her firstborn calf and sold her. Therefore, Siya is afraid of humans and guards the babies. We wish for Siya and the babies to never have fear, and thus, we are working on gaining their trust. You can adopt Siya, Lalita, or Gopi and help us give them a fearless life. Thanks, everyone, for your help in rescuing them! The video below shows their arrival at ISCOWP.

Fortunately, Siya is nursing Lalita and her own baby, Gopi, which is much healthier for Lalita than bottle feeding. But since Siya is afraid of humans, we haven’t been able to get close to them to bond. In the video above, Siya isn’t afraid of new cows and moves to the fence line to greet the herd as they move to the back pasture. As we move a little closer to videograph her, she moves away with the babies following. Yet, she doesn’t run far away, just enough for her to feel safe. Little by little, she will feel safe with us.

Sad Cow News

We brought the little calf with a cleft palate home on May 26. He appeared weak and thin. We were able to get him to drink water and a milk formula. However, we noticed he wasn’t swallowing most of what he was drinking. Balaji (age 15) and Bhima (age 8) gave him a lot of attention and pets, and Surabhi and Vaishnavi (two calves rescued last year) gave him a lot of licks. The next morning, he still seemed weak, so we decided to visit the veterinarian’s hospital for an emergency visit. The diagnosis was far worse than we expected.

His cleft plate was far worse than we thought, reaching from his teeth to his nostrils, making it impossible for him to get nutrients. He was blind in one eye because his eye sockets did not fully develop. The other eye was questionable. His two legs on his right side were weak, suffering some deformity, making it questionable whether they could support his weight as he grew older. He had no urinary control as there was some problem with his urinary tract. The vets could not perform any operation because he had aspiration pneumonia, meaning his lungs were full of liquid. He was also malnourished.

The vets said the cleft palate was one of the worst they had seen and practically unfixable even if he were in better health. That day, he visibly got weaker. We chanted the Hare Krishna mantra and Nrsimha prayers and garlanded him with Lord Nrsimhadev garlands from Mayapur, India. He passed away that day, and we buried him at the ISCOWP sanctuary wrapped in a Harinama charter. His owner had found him in a weakened condition with vultures attacking him. He and his wife tried to help him, gave him the name Lucky, and called us. But it appears that none of us could save him. However, he experienced love, heard sacred mantras, and passed peacefully.

Sad Commercial Dairy News

Since March of this year, numerous articles in the news media have reported the discovery of Avian Flu in dairy cows. The flu affected herds in Texas, New Mexico, and Idaho.  Then, in April, a human who lived in Texas and was in contact with dairy cows contracted the virus.

Federal health officials and veterinary experts have emphasized that the risk to human health is low due to milk pasteurization, which inactivates bacteria and viruses, and strong safeguards are in place to prevent milk from sick cows from entering commerce. Yet a human got the virus from being with dairy cows.

On June 5, Reuters reported, “A U.S. outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows expanded to a tenth state as Iowa reported its first infection in a herd on Wednesday. The United States has confirmed cases in more than 80 herds nationwide since late March and three dairy workers have tested positive.”

On June 6, Reuters reported, “Dairy cows infected with avian flu in five U.S. states have died or been slaughtered by farmers because they did not recover, state officials and academics told Reuters.”