Hello Friends,

It’s hard to believe we are heading into May already. The month of April has been a whirlwind but with your help we’ve made a positive impact on the lives of 45 new rescues in addition to the residents here at Heartwood Haven. Below you will read more about them, their stories, and how they found their way to us.

Ruby was rescued after her leg was crushed when she was a piglet leaving her unable to walk. Prior to coming to Heartwood Haven Ruby never visited a vet to examine her leg. We got Ruby to Oregon State University right away for a CT scan. The scan revealed that physical therapy was the best treatment for Ruby’s leg. If you follow us on social media then you have seen Ruby’s dramatic transformation in the short time that she has been with us. She arrived in early April barely able to walk and now she runs for short distances.

We continue to work each day with Ruby and each day she improves a little more. Ruby currently lives with Penny and they get along great! After Penny’s BFF, Fiona, passed we knew how important to Penny’s mental health a friend would be. Thank you Ruby for helping Penny. Ruby has a real fighting spirit and Fiona would have loved that about her. Welcome, Ruby! You are loved by so many already.

Maple and Delilah are two BIG PIGS who found their forever home at Heartwood Haven. We rescued Maple 3 years ago from a breeding/butchering operation. Maple had two pregnancies and both pregnancies resulted in a prolapsed uterus. When we got her in for her spay, the veterinary team discovered that she had mummified piglets inside and her uterine walls were turning necrotic. This was a truly life-saving surgery for her. Maple and Delilah were transferred to us from another sanctuary and this will be their final and forever home. They will join the sounder (group of pigs) once they are healthy and able to do so.

This mama and her eight baby chicks (see all those tiny legs under her) arrived a week ago. Animal Control seized them along with 20 others as part of a cockfighting bust. Thankfully all 29 cockfighting survivors are now safe and most of them have been placed in their forever homes. We still have mama, her babies, an older rooster, and 6 hens who will all be going to their forever homes in the next few weeks. This brings the total to 79 victims of cockfighting that we have been tasked with saving in 2021 alone.

The person who had these birds was ordered last year not to have them while he awaits trail from a previous cockfighting case we took in last year. People find it surprising to hear that cockfighting happens today and remains very prevalent all across the US and especially here on the West Coast.

We started Heartwood Haven with a single former cockfighting rooster who we named Porter. He continues to inspire us to take on these difficult cases each and every year. There are only a small handful of organizations that take on large scale cockfighting busts because of the extreme difficulty placing the survivors. We have been very fortunate the past few years to always find wonderful adopters and donations to save them. We will keep fighting for these victims every day as long as we possibly can. They deserve to live their chicken lives doing chicken things without fear and trauma.

Last but certainly not least, we took in 13 bantam hens from another sanctuary. The sanctuary’s neighbor was allowing their chickens to run wild without proper coops or housing and they were being picked off every night by coyotes, dead bodies littered the property. The sanctuary was able to go in and rescue 18 hens before the neighbor told them they couldn’t come back anymore. 13 of those hens were transferred here to Heartwood Haven and are now available for adoption. If you are interested in welcoming some Bantam hens into your flock please fill out our adoption application below. The priority for adoption will be given to adopters who are able to adopt a rooster with a flock of hens.