Cow sanctuary in financial peril
A young North Canterbury cow rescuer has learnt a valuable lesson after letting her heart get in the way of her budgeting.
Jasmine Hubber, 20, set up Til the Cows Come Home, a nonprofit cow rescue and sanctuary, in July 2017 and has worked tirelessly to provide for her herd since.
In an idyllic setting near her rural home of Cust, 40 kilometres north of Christchurch, Hubber is always with her cows or earning money to pay for them.
Her dream is to let each cow live out its life there, free from the threat of slaughter.
But all that will change if she cannot raise more money.
Her problems started last year when she was asked if she wanted to buy 50 bobby calves destined for the works.
Having 100 cows already, she knew it was a risk.
But she took a leap of faith and raised the money needed to rescue them.
‘‘It was a huge undertaking – a rescue that was last minute and not planned out,’’ she said.
‘‘The sanctuary was almost fully self-sustainable before this rescue; everything was running steadily.’’
Many of her herd were sponsored already, but with the extra mouths and dry summer the need for supplementary feed increased – and with it her bills.
‘‘The animals were thriving, but the financial side began to fall apart,’’ she said.
She had been holding her head above water thanks to the goodwill of her grazing company, but now she has to pay a $15,000 bill by the end of March or the cows will be seized.
‘‘I cannot let this happen, I never expected this to happen, and I cannot even imagine this happening,’’ Hubber said.
‘‘The promise that’s made to them when they are rescued is to live a free, happy life and I owe it to them to do everything in my power to keep them happy, healthy and safe.’’
Hubber is now appealing for public help to raise the grazing debt and said that while she would never regret fundraising to rescue them, she would not be repeating the mistake.
There would be no more cows coming in to the sanctuary until it was financially viable, she said, but she was desperate to keep the ones she had alive.
‘‘The grazing will settle once our sponsorships rise and our babies begin to wean and the grass grows. We just have to get through this tidal wave first.’’
Jasmine Hubber