Blind Spot Animal Sanctuary: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We are incredibly grateful to the Petfinder Foundation, as this grant allowed us to purchase three industrial fans that are already in the barns helping our rescued farm animals survive extreme heat! Thank you on behalf of BSAS, our volunteers, and our animals!

How many pets did this grant help?

150

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

In the past 10 years, Blind Spot Animal Sanctuary (BSAS) has been focusing on proper, warm, secure, and insulated housing for all our rescued farm animals to keep them comfortable and warm during cold winter months.

Unfortunately, we are now dealing with extreme weather in summer and it’s expected only to get worse. Due to climate change, record-setting summers become the norm and the consequences for farm animals are severe. The hotter it gets, the more dangerous it is for farm animals as, unlike pets, farm animals spend most of their time outside.

In the last three weeks, our temperatures have been in the 100+ degrees with no rain in the forecast. This past weekend, the heat index reached 107 degrees and all of us, including farm animals, felt the stress of the heat.

Overheating is a huge problem for farm animals, especially senior sheep, alpacas, and pigs. Pigs, for example, cannot sweat and so they rely heavily on assistance during the hottest hours of the day. Thanks to the recent grant, BSAS was able to purchase three new industrial fans that are already in use in all our barns!

During yesterday’s heat wave, the fan was in full use when we welcomed a family that came to meet our adoptable goats! The animals and the adopters, along with us, were so much more comfortable having cool air blow through the barn. The adopters loved the family of five goats and are now making preparations at home to adopt all five!