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For 11 years, Paws Awhile has helped rehome farm and domestic animals.
Anna Dahlberg always wanted to run a sanctuary, but did not know where to start. By chance, another sanctuary asked her to help with some calves, and from there her interest in them grew.
Dahlberg saved three or four in her first year, and now Paws Awhile homes around 50 to 60 animals at any given time. These include cows, dogs, cats, donkeys, miniature horses, kunekune pigs, ducks, and chickens.
What drives Dahlberg is her love of animals and everything that they have given her. She believes that we could learn a great deal from them.
“My philosophy is ‘kindness’ – to be kind to everything that lives. Any cows or bobby calves that are going to the slaughterhouse, we rescue them and find them safe, forever homes.
“All the bobby calves are taken off their mothers within 24 hours of being born, and then from four days onwards they can go to the slaughterhouse. We rescue any calves that are not going to be used as replacement calves for milking,” said Dahlberg.
The only adoption rules that Paws Awhile has are that people must not slaughter, breed, or milk the cows they have rehomed. The reason is that cows only produce milk after giving birth, and Dahlberg does not want them to multiply and exacerbate the problem.
“If I could say one thing to people, it would be to show animals the kindness you would wish were afforded to yourself and your families. Think about what you can change in your life to make this world a kinder place for all species.”
