Sowa is a Tibetan word that means “to heal, mend, and nourish” and that is exactly what we provide for our residents on both a physical and emotional level. Each of our animals arrived at the sanctuary needing to healed in some way, whether that be from neglect, abuse, a critical illness, losing their family, being abandoned, or dealing with complex congenital issues. Using both conventional veterinary medicine and alternative modalities including physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, reiki, and herbalism we create individualized treatment plans to help our residents regain their health and happiness. We have seen incredible transformations here at Sowa and are so honored to be able to provide a safe haven to so many brave, resilient, inspiring survivors.
In 2015, Olivia was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease involving the colon. During an incredibly dark and difficult time, one of the things that brightened her day was looking at Goats of Anarchy’s Instagram page. Seeing how happy the goats made her, Jim suggested they rescue a couple of goats of their own.
After spending a year researching how to best care for goats, we rescued Merlin and Kurloz as 12-week old dairy culls from a local farm in 2017. While we’ve always been firm believers in rescue and adoption work, we never intended to start a goat sanctuary when we rescued Merlin and Kurloz. We lived on 0.2 acres in a residential neighborhood and just planned to add two small goats to our family. Well, a year later we decided to add “just two more,” and rescued Leo and Dante from the same dairy farm. A year after that we adopted Newton and Sirani from Goats of Anarchy. At this point it became clear that our true passion in life was caring for rescued goats so we sold our home and moved to 8 acres in Harvard, MA where we could expand our efforts to save more lives. We haven’t looked back!
The best way to help our residents is by becoming a monthly supporter. You can sign up for Patreon where you can get exclusive content and hear breaking news first or can become a monthly supporter through PayPal or DonorBox. It might not seem like much but donating as little as $1/month really adds to up make a difference when enough people come together to help the animals.
Most of our residents have come from the states throughout the northeast, but a few have come from as far away as Ohio and Texas.