Kenny the Facebook Goat Rescues Goat Orphan Across the Country

 A sweet sorta-rescue played out on Facebook this week: Kenny, a Florida goat spared from the butcher himself, reached out to save a Colorado goat in need. It all started as a joke, says Karen Matyjasik, who raises goats in Central Florida. But next Thursday a baby goat with nowhere to go will fly cross-country to start a new life, all thanks to Kenny's Facebook fans.

Karen says Kenny, a boer goat, was her son's FFA project last fall, but was so charismatic her friend Mary Ann got all attached. Mary Ann started a facebook page called Kenny the Social Climbing Goat, reasoning that celebrities don't get slaughtered. When FFA ended, they tutored him in wagon-pulling so he'd have another job. He collected admirers, like Dillie the Deer. He would shamelessly ask for fans: "There is a STUFFED BEAR out there with 1012 friends . What am I Chopped Liver?"

Then another friend and goat herder wrote about trying to find homes for her aging father's goats, in particular a baby with no mother. "This one showed up with no momma started sucking a little off this one, a little off this one," but no mother goat claimed her, Karen says.

Mary Ann and Karen, in the voice of Kenny, started pining for the goat they called Orphan Annie. She got Kenny to pose for a picture in front of the computer by sprinkling it with his favorite treat, Lucky Charms. "As a joke we said she could come and live on our farm," Karen says.  "It then took on a life of its own"

Kenny's fans--now over 400--tried to figure something out.  Denver's NBC TV station KKCO reported the story. "Everybody was trying to get Annie to Florida," she says. They found that Southwest wouldn't take her, but Continental would; chipped in for the ticket; and russled up a ride to the airport.


Annie is set to arrive in Florida next Thursday. Karen will see if one of her mother goats will adopt her as a daughter. Karen is not trying to exaggerate the heroism of the cause. "It's really not a super rescue," she says. While most of her goats go to FFA students and some get to become pets or milk producers, some do go to slaughter. "I can't deny it," she says. "in order for me to keep Kenny and other goats, some of them have to be sold and some of them have to be sold for that."

Meanwhile, though, she treats them well, dotes on them, really. And if Kenny finds another animal in need, he'll jump to the rescue again.



Where to Go to See Wildlife
Visit Your Local Farm Sanctuary
Read our Profile of Dillie the Deer

Dillie the Deer Maligned as Dangerous

One Day Left to Get Celebrity Goods and Experiences for Farm Sanctuary

You've got one day to swoop in and buy lunch with a celebrity, or at least Dennis Kucinich, to support cows, pigs, chickens and other farm animals. his time it's at and for Farm Sanctuary, which fights for animals stuck in agribusiness. Right now you can get a Kim Bassinger-signed shirt for $125 and there are still some good deals for the chance to meet Joan Jett or the B-52s before a concert.

Animal lovers have already bid up the price on a prop crest from the Twilight series to $3,250.  Lunch or dinner with vegan Congressman Dennis Kucinich is already getting pricey at $750. That's the same current price as a tour of Ed Begley's famous eco house--including lunch.

Ellen Degeneres is running the auction with her wife Porti de Rossi. T Earlier this year she cleared out her closet and sold her personal junk on eBay, which earned $70,000 for the Humane Society of the United States, according to auction company Kompolt. 

Ellen isn't selling her personal stuff--just two VIP tickets to Ellen. But it is a personal cause. Ellen is vegan and explains on her website why: "I personally chose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things, with feelings. And I just couldn’t disconnect myself from it any longer."

If you can't afford the glamorous items, check out Farm Sanctuary's store 

Visit the Farm Sanctuary and other shelters for farm animals in the US and Europe

34 Farm Sanctuaries To Vist in the US

Even though the recession has strained animal welfare groups of all kinds, I find a growing number of farm sanctuaries. With 9 billion animals killed on farms in the U.S. each year, the people who run these sanctuaries aren't kidding themselves. They know they're saving only a a token number of horses, pigs, goats, sheep, ducks, donkeys or chickens. But they think it's worth it--both for the animals they save and for the hope these animal might teach visitors that even cows or pigs have personalities and deserve some dignity.

Many of the 34 farm sanctuaries I found take in whatever animals turn up at their door. The Ironwood Pig Sanctuary in Arizona specializes in pigs, as you might expect. Chocowinity Chicken Sanctuary will actually take in turkeys and other poultry. Connecticut's massive Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary is home to a huge array of ducks and geese. Dreamcatcher PMU Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation specializes in mares that have spent half their lives hooked up to urine collection machines to make premarin.



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Bobolink Offers Real Cheese and An Occassional Calf Birth

BOBOLINK DAIRY, Vernon, NJ

We went out this weekend to the Bobolink Dairy. Wonderful cheese, friendly people, amazing place.
You know how there are tons of places that claim to be farm stores, but really just slap their label on the same schlocky jams and flavored peppermint sticks that have been mass produced somewhere else? Boy, that's not the case here. It's a muddy old farm where they know the cows by name. Minutes before we got there, a calf was born.

Jolly got into a scuffle with the farm dog and had to wait in the car. But had more fun when we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail nearby.

Where to See Neat Animals in the Northeast