A CALL to help 50 goat kids find forever homes has had an overwhelming response, with a Bendigo couple fielding thousands of messages.
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Matthew Glascott had received about 3500 messages at last count in response to his Facebook post about the unwanted dairy goat kids.
The Sedgwick man rescues animals. His farm has become a sanctuary for a range of animals, some of which have gone on to new homes.
Mr Glascott has previously been involved in rehoming cows saved from the dairy industry.
He and his partner were not in a position to take on all of the goat kids the farm had recently recovered, hence the call for help.
"We are only physically capable of getting so many established," a post on the Matty's Farm Facebook page said.
The post said the kids were in "far from ideal" condition when they reached their rescuers, with interested families warned the kids would likely be dehydrated and have missed out on their mother's nutrient-packed colostrum.
"The farm will keep the kids who are healthy and take to the artificial teat quickly to grow out for slaughter, but they don't have the will or intention to persist with kids who take longer to get used to the teat," the post said.
It said the dairy industry only needed a small number of the male kids that were born to continue the breeding cycle.
Mr Glascott said 2000 goats were drowned during kidding season, but many people wanted them as pets.
The Matty's Farm post had been shared 900 times when Mr Glascott spoke to the Bendigo Advertiser.
Facebook indicated the message had reached almost 100,000 people.
"We've managed to find all these ones homes and all the Bendigo stores have been bought out of milk powder," Mr Glascott said.
"There are a lot of happy goats at the moment going to new homes."
He expected there would be more dairy goat kids in need of rescue during the kidding season.
Mr Glascott said he and his partner had to turn away a lot of people, but they had also saved a lot of contacts in the hope of finding the next lot new homes.
He thanked all those who had helped share the message.
"It's because of the Bendigo community it's been so good," Mr Glascott said.
He said people interested in supporting the farm's work could donate through CEPA Farm Supplies in Bendigo.
Emma D'Agostino
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
