Baby Boom at Alaqua
Alaqua Animal Refuge recently took in more than 170 goats from a Callaway, Florida resident because of Hurricane Michael. Callaway is a suburb of Panama City that was hard hit by this devastating storm.
The previous owner of the goats had put a few on a construction site several years ago, which increased into the almost 200 roaming when we rescued them. When we learned of these goats and their situation, we knew we had to do something.
Upon arriving at Alaqua, the males and females were separated into different pastures. We also noticed that many of the goats were visibly pregnant, and babies were quickly being born, sometimes 6-10 in one day. The gestation for goats is 150 days so we literally could be having babies until March.
Our biggest challenge has been quickly converting pieces of our property into something it wasn’t planned to be, as we haven’t had this number of goats ever on our property.
Caring for the goats has also been a little overwhelming because all of them are still needing vaccinations, deworming, medical care, neutering (males), and added medical administration to get records on all of them into our system. For some of the newborns needing extra attention and nutrition, we are even bottle-feeding them and taking them home for “night watch.”
Overall, the goats and their kids are doing well and are currently roaming freely in our pastures, as staff is helping them get healthy and ready for adoption.
Once the goats are medically cleared healthy, they’ll be available for adoption.
It truly takes a village, and we are appreciative of your continued support. Please consider donating to Alaqua to help support our efforts for the extra medical care and supplies to get these precious goats into healthy pastures and loving homes.