LAUPAHOEHOE, Hawaii — As Kinsey Heinrichs opened the gate to Magical Creatures of Hamakua Animal Rescue and Sanctuary on this bright Wednesday morning, three calves followed behind her like eager puppies.
Located in Laupahoehoe on rural, sprawling lands overlooking the Pacific, Magical Creatures — already home to horses, pigs, goats and lambs — earlier this week took in 10 bottle-fed calves that were among 55 purchased from Big Island Dairy, which in November announced the closure of its Ookala facility.
Five will remain at the sanctuary, while five more were set to make it to their new homes Wednesday.
Members of the Hawaii Lava Flow Animal Rescue Network — a group involved in animal rescues during the 2018 Kilauea volcano eruption — came together to buy the animals.
Syndi Texeira, who was involved in planning the effort, said another member of the HLFARN, Alessandra Rupar-Weber, has been “instrumental in pulling all of us back together to do this rescue mission.”
She and Rupar-Weber met with dairy management earlier this month and decided to buy 55 of the dairy’s bottle-fed calves.
“They were very open, very helpful,” she said about the dairy. Management “made it very easy to work with them and plan everything, being that we only had less than a week. And the week deadline was not set by them; it was our goal to get the calves out as soon as possible.”
Within the week, Texeira said the group had to organize and find transportation to take the cows out and deliver them, as well as find enough people willing to adopt.
On Monday, they went and rescued the calves. “We have actually had about 25 different homes for them,” Texeira said. “Some did fall through at the last minute, (but) we were able to compensate, and others were willing to take in more calves than they had originally asked for.”
Texeira said the group made sure people had enough acreage and experience or help to take care of the calves, and, with the help of the dairy, was able to provide bottles, milk replacement and feed.
“Our goal was set at 55 because when we visited, those were the calves that were bottle-fed,” she said. “We wanted to remove those first from the dairy, and we figured they would be the easiest to bottle feed and get them to trust humans.”
According to Texeira, the group plans to take more if they’re able, but that depends on funding and other logistics such as having enough trailers and homes for the cows.
When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, dairy Manager Steve Manning said about 1,800 cows remain to be sold.
Anyone interested in fostering or adopting a cow through HLFARN or donating to the effort can email hlfarn808@gmail.com.
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Email Stephanie Salmons at ssalmons@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
