It was a hot August morning in 2024 when a beef cow, only a few months old, famously escaped her trailer, beginning her two-month-long career as an escape artist wandering the Barkley Village neighborhood.
The cow, eventually named Mabel, was in a livestock trailer with another cow, being taken to an auction, when the two got out. The other cow was safely captured by its owner within hours, but Mabel disappeared, and ownership was ultimately surrendered to the Whatcom Humane Society.
It took many weeks to track her down, but finally, on a rainy October night, she was found and successfully contained in a trailer full of hay and sweet grain. She was brought to the Whatcom Humane Society’s farm facility, where she stayed for almost a year before being transferred to the Heaven on Earth Animal Retirement Sanctuary in August 2025.
“She’s very sassy,” said Whatcom Humane Society Education and Outreach Coordinator Alaina Rhodes. “She had the best side-eye in the world.”
The Whatcom Humane Society is known for its domestic facility where they take in dogs, cats, rabbits and other small animals to be adopted, but they also have a 10-acre farm in Nooksack for barnyard animals like Mabel.
Currently, the farm has two horses, two sheep, six goats and two pigs. The pigs were the most recent additions to the farm, and are not ready to be adopted yet. The goats are being temporarily cared for because the recent floods destroyed their owner’s property.
The Whatcom Humane Society’s farm and other facilities fared well during the floods, Rhodes said. The farm manager set up sandbags and managed the water so that the farm wasn’t affected.
Meanwhile, the domestic facility took in about a dozen cats and one rabbit from the Humane Society of Skagit Valley, which was preparing for a potential evacuation. Fortunately, they never had to evacuate, but Rhodes said the transfer process resulted in the Humane Society of Skagit Valley having extra space in their cat kennels, allowing them to house additional cats from Skagit County during the floods.
People interested in adopting from the Whatcom Humane Society’s farm usually live in rural areas of Whatcom County with land to spare or have hobby farms. Animals cannot be adopted just to be slaughtered for food. They’re meant to be companion animals.
Elf Sanctuary is an animal sanctuary in Ferndale that provides lifetime care to animals from the animal agriculture industry. Currently, they have chickens, turkeys, goats and cows.
One of their cows, Gesa, was brought to the sanctuary when the dairy farm she belonged to was shutting down and sending the cows to slaughter. Elf Sanctuary manager Rabbit Banford said an activist found out Gesa was pregnant and brought her to the sanctuary, where she gave birth to Tuva.
Due to Gesa’s age, Banford said she could have given birth to three or four calves before, but Tuva is the first she’s been able to keep and raise.
“At the expense of these sentient animals’ lives, (the animal agriculture industry is) just trying to crank out as much profit as possible,” Banford said.
Many of Elf Sanctuary’s animals were rescued from abusive environments or were found abandoned and injured. One rooster, Arlo, was likely a cockfighter, as he was found with a gash in his neck and missing toes.
Animals as Natural Therapy is a Bellingham business that hopes to improve clients’ mental health by interacting with barnyard animals. They usually notice the benefits of stress relief and building self-confidence and social skills, barn manager Kelsy Hartmann said.
“Far too often, we find ourselves cooped up inside our homes and on technology in this world. There’s nothing like a cuddly dog or cat curled up on the couch with you, but being outside next to a 1,000-pound horse is a whole different experience,” she said.
Those interested in learning more about adopting barnyard animals can visit the Whatcom Humane Society’s farm website.
Noelle Reger (she/her) is a second-year journalism student and city life reporter for The Front this quarter. When she's not reading or writing, she can usually be found gambling at the claw machines in Sharetea. You can reach her at noellereger.thefront@gmail.com.
