When 25 goats were dropped off at this B.C. couple’s property last month they thought, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ but they couldn’t help but come up with a plan to care for the adorable animals.
Under "very strange circumstances," Brittany Sharp and Sina Shalbaf ended up with 22 baby buck goats and three does after Shalbaf’s father bought them from an auction in Langley to save them from a doomed fate.
The couple, which has a new property on Salt Spring Island, are also parents to a seven-month-old daughter and are struggling to meet the “financial and physical needs of all these goats.” So they’ve set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the money they need to make it a possibility to care for them.
“They are incredibly cute but we are having difficulty funding this project, which karmically got thrown on us, and we’re asking for some help,” Shalbaf said in a video posted to the GoFundMe campaign page.
“The other option is to try and find homes for them, but people aren’t interested in male goats, which is very sad.”
Shalbaf said male goats were auctioned off because they are not useful in the factory farming industry.
“They are considered a bi-product when the mother gives birth," he said. "They take the mother for milk and they keep the does for future birth and milk production.”
The couple is hoping to raise $5,000 to care for the kids and to build a barn to give them a safe space to live out their lives happily.
“The 22 baby goats are still being bottle-fed four times a day and the milk replacer costs $74 a bag,” Sharp wrote on the GoFundMe campaign page.
They also need money for fencing, hay, and materials to construct the barn.
So far, $1,183 has been donated towards their cause. If you’d like to support their cause, go to the GoFundMe campaign 'Give baby male goats a chance.'
Alternatively, if you’re interested in adopting some male goats to take care of, the couple is letting them go for free as pairs, as they don’t want them to be alone.
"We hope you can open your heart," Shalbaf said.
"We're just asking that you help give these male goats a chance."
