Barbara Jamison had prepared her goat rescue to continue on without her. One year after her passing, Puget Sound Goat Rescue is doing just that — and more.
Founded in 2001, the Puget Sound Goat Rescue, which consists of two farms in Maple Valley, rescues 200 to 300 goats a year. As Easter and Ramadan are big slaughter seasons, there’s been a recent uptick in rescues.
According to Executive Director Sarah Klapstein, the pandemic has also proven to shift the number of goats needing to be rescued.
“We have unprecedented amount of returns,” said Klapstein. “We take in as many dairy babies as we can. We actually rescued nine pregnant goats in the fall and 19 babies were just born.”
Klapstein, who started volunteering with the Goat Rescue 11 years ago, says that early involvement with social media made the rescue a success. “We got into Instagram early on and it blew up,” she said.
The two farms for the rescue have 8 acres and 2.5 acres, the latter of which currently holds 130 goats, along with a handful of sheep and a Maremmano-Abruzzese sheepdog named Falcor.
While most of the goats on the two farms are available for adoption, some have disabilities and special needs that have secured them a home with the rescue, which is handled by 80 volunteers and a board of directors.
“The more we save, the more we can place,” Klapstein said.
Goats are social, enthusiastic creatures and the Puget Sound Goat Rescue has very specific home-approval requirements for when someone wants to adopt.
There must be sufficient space for the goats, amounting to one-quarter of an acre at the least, along with good secure fencing and a shelter. Goats must always be adopted in pairs and there can be no rhododendrons or azaleas on site.
Puget Sound Goat Rescue is fully donation funded with a monthly donation program and a new goat sponsor program, which Klapstein says has been a big success. For the future, the goal for the rescue is to sell the two properties in Maple Valley and then move to one big farm out in Enumclaw.
“We want to try to get our numbers down and we want to try to get more events,” Klapstein said.
Since the two farms are not open to the public, Puget Sound Goat Rescue does a few events that get the baby goats out into the world.
“We have Baby Goat Dates every spring, and we do a goat date night called ‘Baby Goats and Brews’ at Reuben’s Brews in Ballard,” Klaptstein said. Puget Sound Goat Rescue has partnered with Reuban’s Brews for several years, where patrons get to hang out with some of the baby goats and $1 of every beer, flight or growler is donated to the rescue.
“We would like to be more events like that in the future,” Klapstein said.
The next Baby Goats Date Night at Reuben’s Brews will be Tuesday, May 30 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
For more information, visit pugetsoundgoatrescue.org.
