Animal Place Rescues Christmas Calf

Vacaville, California, December 26, 2007 -- Christmas tidings come in all shapes and sizes. This year at Animal Place, a sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals in Vacaville, Christmas Day brought a frightened, underfed baby calf with a pair of the biggest brown eyes imaginable.

Sanctuary staff and volunteers gave up their holiday feasts to respond to an urgent call from Berkeley Animal Control, which found itself with a two-week-old male Jersey calf -- and neither the facilities nor the knowledge to care for him.

“Nicholas, as we’ve named him, was impounded as an animal-cruelty case, discovered on someone’s property in the city of Berkeley,” explains Kim Sturla, founder of Animal Place. “He was apparently bought at auction and was likely destined for backyard slaughter, which is actually fairly common.”

One factor making such slaughter common is that male calves are of little use to dairy farmers.

As the country’s leading dairy state, California is home to 1.5 million milk cows, each of whom must be impregnated to give milk. Although nature intends this milk to feed baby cows, calves are generally taken from their mothers within a day of being born. Female calves are raised and used as milk producers, while male calves are viewed as basically worthless animals who don’t fatten up like cows raised for beef. As a result, male dairy calves are sold at auction. (In many states, baby male calves are locked into tiny crates and eventually slaughtered for veal.)

Nicholas’ fate is much brighter. “We picked him up within two hours of getting the call,” says Sturla. “We quickly got together the milk bottles, nipples, calf-replacer milk, blankets, antibiotics and other things we’d need to care for him.”

“He’s a lucky one,” she adds. “He’ll be an ambassador for the millions of other male calves born every year who never live beyond a few months. Nicholas is a wonderful Christmas gift.”


Animal Place is a nonprofit sanctuary for abused and discarded farmed animals located in Vacaville, California. Since 1989, Animal Place has been taking in animals who have been abused or neglected and have no place else to go. Animals rescued from auctions and stockyards and animals used in research also make up the many animals who share 60 acres of forest, meadow, pasture, hills and a small lake, peacefully living out the remainder of their lives. In addition to providing the day-to-day care of animals, Animal Place is an advocacy organization offering farm tours, volunteer training and outreach activities. More information on the sanctuary can be found online at http://www.animalplace.org.