When a “processing plant” opened the doors of their shipment to find someone had given birth on the truck in the freezing cold, this is the face they saw amongst all the mothers destined for the butcher that day. Many fatally bad things could have happened, but instead they sent us a message asking if we could help. That single act of compassion started a chain reaction that turned this tiny man into the newest Sanctuary Babe at Odd Man Inn.
The newborn, who we named Ramba, was picked up in very urgent fashion and transported straight to the University of Tennessee where they treated him as a very delicate ICU patient. Without his mother, his immediate care was critical.
Ramba suddenly declined as he suffered from the effects of something called “Failure of Passive Transfer.” It’s what happens when neonates are taken from their mothers before ingesting colostrum. That first bit of nourishment is an essential part of survival, and without the mother, our medical tricks are usually not enough. He was gone, and it was heartbreaking.
There is only ONE way we can stop this madness. One. We have the power in our own homes. In our own kitchens. In our own shopping carts and wallets and credit cards. We have the power to affect real change with one simple choice we make day in and day out. Remove the demand from the market. Without a demand for animal products, we don’t see terrible things like this baby being born on a truck in the dead of a winter storm. We don’t have to rail against the inhumanity of knowing he was pulled from his mother so that she could be killed and eaten. We don’t have to make gut-wrenching decisions on disposing of his tiny 2.5 pound body.
The industry of animal agriculture—across every species—exists only because we demand it. We actually hold all the power to stop animal exploitation and abuse right in our own hands. Can we respectfully ask that you make changes in your own life in honor of Baby Ramba’s very short life as a Sanctuary Babe?
Our tiny Ramba was named in honor of the last circus elephant in Chile, who survived more than 60 years before spending her final two months as a protected sanctuary elephant at Global Sanctuary for Elephants in Brazil. Her story of beating the odds to finally make it to freedom was captured in the documentary called “The Ramba Effect”. While Ramba’s time in sanctuary was very short-lived, she passed under the care of humans who treated her as the sentient creature she was, and that is oftentimes the best we can possibly do with cases where they come to us so fragile and broken.
“For some people, the Ramba Effect is a symbol of hope. For others, it’s a symbol of never give up. It’s about living for a beautiful future.” – The Ramba Effect