Animal UnFarm

05/05/2023

Hello from Vinny and Thomas! 😍

Today is a big day here at the sanctuary. It is GiveBig WA and we have a $5,000 match!

GiveBig is a community wide giving event that helps raise critical funds for our life saving work and helps the animals we rescue. As a nonprofit organization we rely solely on the generosity from our community to help animals in need.

This year we embarked on our biggest rescue ever to help 71 pigs confiscated from cruelty. This has been a massive undertaking for us as a smaller organization run by just two people.

But we don’t shy away from BIG things here at Heartwood Haven. Our mission is to help the most vulnerable animals and we give everything we can to make sure we’re fulfilling that promise.

Today is also a BIG day in the case, Kate is currently driving to CA with 14 of the 71 pigs who will call their forever home at a sanctuary in northern CA. She also has two pigs with her that are headed to OSU to be spayed.

So far we have spayed and neutered over 30 pigs in just one month! We still have 37 to go.

Today your donations will be used to help with the transport to CA which will cost $500 in fuel and help with the spays and neuters for the remaining 37 pigs. Spays cost between $600-$1000 each.

Please GiveBIG for the animals today. You can donate right here on Facebook, Venmo to Heartwood-Haven, or by clicking the link in the comments.

Thank you all for your generosity and support! 💛💛

04/05/2023

I'm sorry to share some very sad news today. One of Cece's babies, who we decided to name Cecil, passed away yesterday. His death is shocking and unexpected.

Cece gave birth around April 1 and her babies have been thriving, gaining weight, playing, and seemingly doing well. Yesterday morning Hope noticed that one of the babies didn't come out for breakfast, so she checked in the stall and found him. Cecil was very lethargic and he let Hope pick him up without protesting much, which is unusual.

We started to diagnose what was wrong with him, starting with a temperature check. His temperature was low, so he came inside and got covered with a heating pad. His temperature started to increase and was within normal range after an hour. He got syringe fed to bring up his glucose once his temperature was normal. But it didn't help and he continued to become more lethargic and started to have diarrhea. We decided that it was time for him to see a vet.

Our local vet office did everything they could for him, but he continued to decline and eventually started vomiting. By the time the vet office was closing and Hope picked him up, Cecil began to have seizures. His seizures got more frequent and severe, and eventually, he died in Hope's arms.

This is completely shocking because up to this point Cecil running around and playing with his siblings and in less than a day he left us. We have a number of theories of what could have caused this: birth defects, infection, a virus, or consuming something toxic. We are hoping that a necropsy will be able to tell us. But in the meantime, Cece and the rest of the babies are doing well, which is a huge relief.

This rescue continues to throw all the curve balls it has at us. And it seems like every week there are new issues that arise. In our heart of hearts, we know that there wasn't anything more or better that we could have possibly done. These pigs came from a past of severe malnutrition and very likely inbreeding. And we are doing everything we possibly can to reverse the damage.

Cecil had the best 5 weeks that a piglet could have possibly had. He got to live free with his mom and siblings. He always had a full tummy and a warm bed. He felt the sun on his skin and fresh air in his lungs. He got to run and play and sleep in a warm pig pile.

These are all things that most pigs in this world are deprived of. We love you Cecil and we will never forget you.

03/05/2023

22/04/2023

01/04/2023

Say hello to Gretchen, Greta for short! 😍

Today we want to tell you a little more about the people who made the girls’ passage to the sanctuary possible.

First we want to give a big thank you to Robine, her kids, and Jeff from for helping us load all 37 pigs onto trailers for their journey back to Heartwood Haven.

Robine alerted us to this case and she’s also welcomed a few pigs to her sanctuary. Her team helped make the loading process seamless and safe for all the pigs.

We also want to send a big thank you to Amoreena and Blair for helping with the transport. It was a long icy, snowy journey for us all.

There was an avalanche on Santiam pass the day we drove down to Bend so we avoided it by skirting over to the Dalles and then headed South to Bend. The next day though we had to travel over the pass because it was the only way to get the girls to OSU.

It was a harrowing journey only made more stressful by 37 little lives rescued from cruelty depending on you for safe travel.

We took things slow and thankfully the journey was uneventful.

Blair and Amoreena transported 18 girls in their trailer and we had 19 in ours. They all stood for most of the journey but we always made sure to check on them at every bathroom break.

Gretchen always looked us in the eye from the back of the trailer and we all fell in love with her. She’s the sweetest little angel.

Teamwork makes the dream work! 💛💛

23/03/2023

These survivors need our help!

30/08/2022

Help.