Friday, December 4, 2009

Farm-life Fridays: Angelo

Story taken from Farm Sanctuary

Little Orphan Angelo: A Newborn Lamb’s Close Call

Animals bred for food production constantly walk a razor-thin line between life and death that leaves them vulnerable to the most devastating abuses. The precariousness of their existence is perhaps most conspicuous when pain and loss befall a newborn in his very first moments, like the little lamb named Angelo who entered the world one fateful September day. From terror and trauma, however, hope also sometimes springs — as was the case in this story of heroic compassion in the face of cruelty.

Cindy Rexhaj was grocery shopping at an Italian market in Yonkers, New York when a truck filled with sheep started unloading at the live market and slaughterhouse nearby. As she walked over to get a closer look, Ms. Rexhaj noticed that among the adult animals being herded to their doom was a tiny black lamb, underfoot and in danger of being crushed. She also saw that another baby had already been trampled to death.

Acting quickly, Ms. Rexhaj pleaded with the driver to remove the newborn from the melee and reunite him with his mother. The driver surmised that the two lambs must have been siblings born together on the truck during transport but claimed that it would be impossible to find the survivor’s mother among the flock of more than 100 sheep. However, he handed the orphaned lamb over to Ms. Rexhaj, so she took him home, where she and her mother (who grew up on a farm in Europe) temporarily became Angelo’s surrogate parents...


More here including a video and more pictures