(upbeat music) - Now as we walk through the beautiful area here at West Place, I'm joined by Patrick Cole, who is Director of... - Development and Communications.

- And communications.

That's a mouthful, so that's why I let him fill in.

And he's gonna talk to us a little bit about some of the animals that you'll see when you come.

And who is this?

- We're gonna meet the queen of the sanctuary.

This is Miss Diane.

And she is a Vietnamese potbelly pig who came to us with her brother Jack.

And four and a half years later, Diane is roaming the sanctuary, finding all the great spots to nap.

And she is definitely enjoying her second chance in making the most of it.

This is our baby boy Collins.

He is about eight weeks old now.

And he was rescued from the dairy industry where he was not destined to have a long life.

And so we're now here taking care of him, helping him to grow up to be big and strong.

And that includes being bottle fed at least twice a day.

And he's loving every second of it.

- Wendy's got this mastered.

(laughs) What a great color on him.

This is, it's unusual.

You know, everybody sees a cow, they see mostly the black and white cows, and he's just gorgeous.

He's this rusty red, he's so handsome.

- Yes, most dairy cows are Holsteins, and they are in fact black and white.

But every once in a while you get a recessive gene and they do come out red.

- [Karen] And look at you, Collins.

You're gonna grow up to be a big boy.

Did you say eight weeks?

- Yeah, roughly eight weeks old.

- So he's just really a baby.

- He is still a baby.

- You're such a baby.

But he's so friendly.

And I'm sure that's a testament to you guys giving him a lot of attention.

- A lot of the work we do with them, especially when they're young, is making sure that they're friendly, they're social, because he's gonna grow up to be a 1500 pound steer, and we need him to be used to the sights and sounds of the sanctuary.

We don't want him getting spooked and stepping backwards on your foot accidentally, because you'll have a broken foot for sure.

- [Karen] At 1500 pounds, yes.

- So we definitely like to socialize them and make sure that they grow up to be gentle giants.

Like our two older boys, Jared and Jensen.

- This is Shaw.

And she's not just a rescue, she's actually a very special rescue.

Seven years ago, in 2016, in Westport, Massachusetts, was one of the biggest cases of animal cruelty in the history of the Northeast.

1400 animals were found in a state of death or dying.

Ultimately, the ASPCA came in and called in all of their resource partners, like us.

We actually took in 67 rescues.

- Wow.

- Out of the 1100 surviving.

And we're the only organization that still has those Westport animals in this area.

- On site.

- So if anybody wants to see the Westport animals, coming to see us is a good way to see how they're doing.

And Shaw's brother right over there is Colby.

- Hi.

- Hi, buddy.

- Are you gonna come say hi?

Come on over.

- They were both lambs the day that we rescued them.

And then Barney back here with the spots, he was a neglect and cruelty case from East Providence.

So he came as a baby.

All of our males get neutered here because we're not in the business of having babies.

We're in the business of rescuing.

He was eight months old and the vet postponed the appointment for a week.

And I thought nothing of it.

He was eight months old.

Comes, gets castrated, and then all of a sudden Shaw starts getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

- [Karen] Oh Shaw, we know what was happening in there.

- And our very first case of a live animal birth here at the Sanctuary, and probably our very last, is Zane right over there.

That beautiful handsome tan sheep.

- And he knows his name.

- And he knows his name.

- [Karen] He's like, thank you for introducing me.

- And his brother Xander.

And Shaw was able to birth Zane on her own, in January, in a field.

And usually if they're having multiple births they happen pretty sequentially, and pretty fast.

And a couple of hours later, I saw a hoof and a nose sticking out of Shaw.

- Number two.

- And she was done.

She was done.

So I always say I birthed him, 'cause I had to go in and grab him.

- Well, that's miraculous.

- I'm not in the business of birthing animals.

So I had to bottle feed him because he couldn't stand for a few days.

So she fed Zane and I fed Xander.

And he's my special little guy.

- You have two beautiful babies.

You're a lucky girl.

Well, this is just an amazing story.

And again, from the Westport cruelty to this.

- [Wendy] It was enough to rescue them, I never realized that she would also have a family.

(upbeat music) - [Karen] To watch more videos like this, visit ripbs.org/animaltalk.