by Leanne
Supplying rescued animals with nutritious food and ensuring they receive necessary veterinary care are two of the most obvious ways that we keep them healthy and happy. But another equally important task we carry out to ensure their wellbeing is cleaning their barns.
Every day at both our sanctuaries, staff and volunteers work tirelessly in the animals’ habitats to replace wet and dirty straw with that which is clean and dry. At our California Shelter, the sort of cleaning required at each barn or hutch differs according to what animals live there. For example, the duck and goose hutches are notorious for being messy, since the birds love to splash and play in their drinking water all night long.
In comparison, the pig barn tends to be quite clean, contrary to the myth that pigs are dirty. During the summer months, the pigs do roll around in the mud to cool themselves off, since they cannot sweat, but their barn certainly isn’t a "pig sty" every morning. In the winter, we give our pigs super thick beds of straw to keep them warm, but they are very picky and usually don’t agree with how we arrange things; every day, after they eat, they set to work carrying bundles of straw in their mouths and maneuvering them with their front legs until everything is to their liking.
The cattle, on the other hand, are not that picky, mostly because they hardly ever bunk in their barn. They prefer to sleep in their pasture even when the California weather is blustery or rainy. I imagine they would be amused to see how reluctant the goats are to leave their warm beds on any morning that is not sunny, calm and in the 70s.
Elsewhere on the shelter, the chickens present a unique challenge: several hens enjoy sleeping high in the rafters of the barn, making it necessary to not only replace the straw, but clean everything else that was underneath them too!
Although it is hard work, cleaning the barns is quite satisfying. It’s rewarding to see how happy the chickens and turkeys are to return to their barns and find all of the seeds included in the straw, or how comfortable the pigs are while napping in their new beds. As Ben Mielke, one of our longtime staff members, says, "Although the job is dirty on the outside, I feel clean on the inside."
As someone who has spent a lot of time cleaning rescued dogs' pens, I LOVE Ben's quote. Thanks, Ben!
Posted by: Hope | January 28, 2010 at 09:45 AM