Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary

07/22/2026

Goats! Today we're presenting Ichigo and Leela, two of our resident goat friends. Ichigo was one of our first rescues - he was being used as a breeder and broke his front left leg. His breeder determined he was no longer "valuable" so they retired Ichigo into our care. Let me tell you - we've found him to be of indeterminate value here at Rescue Tails. He's an absolute sweetheart who deserves nothing more than to enjoy his retirement years in safety and comfort.

Leela was a former pet in a home with far too many other goats. She was brought to us with a companion goat of hers, Fry (RIP to Fry) as part of an owner surrender. She's part Angora goat, so she grows soft, fluffy wool over her normal hair. In ther winter months, she's a big fluffy wool puffball - during the summer, she's got a very short coat of soft, shining hair. She's a sanctuary favorite.

07/14/2026

Next up in our animal profiles are Jasper and Prova, our two permanent resident pigs. Prova is one of our first rescues from a backyard hoarding case along with Lincoln County animal control agents. She was one of a total of 130 animals seized from a small property.

Jasper is a bit of a different case - Jasper was a Virginia boy, a pet kept in a tiny yard by people who couldn't be bothered to feed or care for him. He repeatedly left that yard and did what pigs do - he went searching for food, and in his case, gardens. After doing this several times and having animal control called several times, a shoot on sight order was issued for Jasper. Not because he was dangerous or had ever hurt anyone, but because he was in search of food and law enforcement was tired of dealing with the nuisance calls he generated. So we were called to take Jasper "or else", and immediately arranged for him to be brought to our care. A volunteer made the trip with Jasper from Virginia and he's been safe and escape-free with us ever since.

07/07/2026

Continuing to share our fun animal profiles - today we present just Branwell. Bran remains one of our biggest rescues. He came to us partially starved, fighting for his life against a disease, not having been released from a barn for almost his entire young life.

Bran came to us with a diagnosis of two weeks to live. We were advised to "dig a hole". Instead, with our vet team, we hit Bran with everything we could. When nothing worked, we went ahead and hit him with the kitchen sink, too. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

We never did dig that hole.

He's been with us for two years. He is our biggest victory, and is now one of our largest, sweetest residents. Bran is now healthy, happy, and will live out his long life as a permanent part of Rescue Tails Animal Sanctuary.

07/02/2026

Today we're sharing some more of our profile slides, as promised! Midnight and Donkey were some of our more recent residents at the time we made these, but their personalities showed through very quickly and gave us more than enough to give them fun profiles!

These two remain noisy, affectionate monsters who we wouldn't change for the world. Except maybe the 4:00 am vocal warmups.

06/30/2026

Happy end of June! We can hardly believe how fast this month has gone by - the summer is always one of the busiest times of the year for us here at the sanctuary, so we don't have a lot of time to post updates.

But we do have time for fun animal profiles that we've already made for previous events! When we participated in the Carolina Furfare event last October (and are their charitable partner again this year, also in October, and very excited to see everyone again!) we made a series of animal profile slides. We never shared them outside of the event - so we're going to do that now! Keep an eye on the page here for a couple of slides a week, profiling the nitty gritty personal details of some of our resident animal friends!

Stay safe, stay hydrated, and stay cool in this heat everyone.

06/21/2026

Behavior like this is all too common with animal rescue, and when working with animals in general. It is unacceptable to treat anyone this way, and certainly not the people who put themselves and their emotions and their hearts on the line every single day to try to save the lives of animals that have no chance otherwise.

Being upset and hurt and afraid in any situation involving animals is okay, emotions can run high and we understand that. But abuse of any kind is not the way to handle it. Remember that not every rescue or sanctuary can take in every animal - sometimes we have to tell you no, and sometimes we don't have all of the answers, and sometimes all we can do is help you through the situation and be there to talk with you.

Remember to be kind! We're all overwhelmed, upset, and even angry sometimes. But that does not justify the mistreatment of anyone trying to help, whether that be staff, volunteers, or strangers. Remember that we all love and care about every single animal that comes into a rescue organization! Common ground goes a long way.

**🚫 Zero Tolerance for Abuse Toward Staff and Volunteers 🚫**

Animal rescue is emotionally, physically, and financially challenging work. Every day, our staff and volunteers deal with injured, orphaned, neglected, and abandoned animals while doing their best to help as many animals as possible with the limited resources available.

The people answering the phones, responding to messages, cleaning enclosures, feeding animals, transporting patients, and caring for wildlife are human beings. Most of them are volunteers who donate their time because they care deeply about animals.

Unfortunately, we occasionally encounter abusive behavior from members of the public. This includes harassment, insults, name-calling, personal attacks, threats, aggressive messages, and other disrespectful conduct.

We want to be very clear: **we have a zero-tolerance policy for abusive behavior toward our staff and volunteers.**

While we understand that people may be upset, frustrated, or emotional about a situation involving an animal, that does not justify mistreating the people who are trying to help. No animal rescue worker or volunteer should be expected to tolerate abuse as part of their role.

Anyone who engages in abusive or harassing behavior may have their communications terminated, be blocked from our social media platforms, and may be refused future assistance where legally and ethically appropriate.

Rescues across the country are struggling to recruit and retain volunteers. The constant stress of animal care is difficult enough without adding verbal abuse from the public. Protecting the well-being of our team is essential if we are going to continue helping animals.

We are always happy to answer questions and have respectful conversations, even when people disagree with our policies or decisions. However, we will not tolerate harassment, bullying, or personal attacks.

Thank you to the many supporters who treat our team with kindness and respect. Your encouragement helps keep our volunteers motivated and allows us to continue our mission of helping animals in need. ❤️🐾

**Be kind. Be respectful. Remember there is a person on the other side of the screen doing their best to help animals.**

06/09/2026

In animal rescue, it is an unfortunate part of the job that you often have to say goodbye to the animals you work so hard to save. Abused animals often have ongoing medical conditions, shortened lifespans, increased susceptibility to disease, and an overall weakened immune system and tolerance to injury. You can do everything in your power to rehabilitate and care for them for years at a time, but eventually, when an animal becomes a permanent resident with us here at Rescue Tails, we know we will have to say goodbye sooner rather than later.

Yesterday morning was one of those days - we said our goodbyes to resident goat Fry. Fry has been with us for two years after being surrendered with another resident. He's always had something going on, but we've kept him comfortable and happy for his time with us with ongoing veterinary care. Unfortunately, you can only do so much and Fry succumbed to a combination of upper respiratory issues, pneumonia, and Bloat that simply wouldn't take to veterinary care. We kept him safe and comfortable, and he passed in his sleep.

Fry was a sweet boy, and we'll miss him. But as always, we rest secure in the knowledge that we kept him safe, comfortable, and as healthy as possible during his time with us after his rescue. He was a pain in the butt - but he was our pain in the butt!

04/01/2026

We love nothing more than when students and their families take such an interest in animals and the environment. This was a great visit, the students were excited and engaged, and they have extremely bright futures ahead of them!

03/30/2026

The work of an animal sanctuary, or any animal rescue organization, does not end. And that can lead to some radio silence as we work to rescue, medicate, feed, and care for dozens and dozens of animals each week. Some in our direct care, and others offsite assisting other organizations or simply helping members of the community who need an extra hand, or a bag of food or some other assistance.

In between all of those needs, we have been mending fences (literally) as some of the pasture fencing is getting up there in age and the posts are beginning to decay. When a large playful cow leans on a rotting fence post, chaos ensues!

As we work on fixing fences, we are actively raising money to buy the supplies and actual fencing and materials needed to keep the repairs going and get ahead of some of the work as much as we can. Spring has sprung, and this time of the year is incredibly busy in the animal world. Easter, in particular, is a busy time for rescues.

Please do not buy bunnies or chicks for your children for Easter without doing extensive research! More often than not they are bought to be cute, but then they grow up and end up with us. We reach capacity very quickly when two dozen people try to surrender animals three weeks after Easter - help us save some lives by not giving live animals as gifts!

A few photos of some resident rescues - donating helps these adorable faces stay safe and healthy!

01/19/2026

What a year so far! We've been radio silent because of the sheer number of animals that the community has been attempting to surrender. We feel it is worth taking a moment to say here that we as a sanctuary do not take in cats or dogs simply because we are not set up for them and there are so many other options to place those species.

We specialize in the rescue and rehabilitation of the less seen animals that suffer abuse and neglect - equine, livestock, exotic animals, fish, birds, and reptiles. This allows us to fill a niche and save animals that humane societies and other rescues are simply unable or not equipped to handle for a variety of reasons.

Becoming angry that we cannot accept the surrender of your cats or dogs, particularly when we offer you several different rescues who would be able to help you out, will not change the fact that we are not set up to take those species and they would not be safe around the much larger, more dangerous animals we do work with. Abusing the staff at a nonprofit just because they do not do what you want is not acceptable, and will not get you what you want. Take a breath, calm down, and be better.

A couple of throwback photos to lighten the mood!