Oscar spent his first four years of life being shuffled around. He was first used in a 4-H program aimed at teaching students to raise animals for agriculture, then purchased by a graduating class and given to a local veterinary college for other teaching purposes. When Oscar grew too large to handle, the college staff faced two options: sell him for slaughter or find a way to help him.

Thankfully, they reached out to Farm Sanctuary—and saved Oscar’s life.

From the start, we could see that Oscar would settle in fast at our California sanctuary. Like all new residents, he was supposed to spend a couple of weeks in quarantine before joining the herd—but he had other plans. On his first day, he broke out of his isolation area and made himself at home with his new bovine buddies! 

Luckily, Oscar’s escapade didn’t put him or others at risk. He had arrived with a clean bill of health from the veterinary college, so quarantine was only meant to ease his transition from solitude to herd life. Oscar made it clear that he didn’t need the adjustment period, showing his caretakers just how friendly and outgoing he is. After years of isolation in 4-H and at the vet school, Oscar was more than ready to make friends the moment he arrived at Farm Sanctuary.

Now, Oscar spends his days grazing alongside his best friends, June and Leo; enjoying plenty of grooming from Dixon; and lounging underneath the shader built for him by our dedicated Environment Team. In fact, the entire herd enjoys it!

When animals like Oscar steer are no longer useful to veterinary or agricultural programs, they are often left with nowhere to go. Students who raised and bonded with them face the heart-wrenching prospect of sending a beloved animal to slaughter—an impossible position for anyone who has come to know these beings as individuals. Each year, Farm Sanctuary hears from students looking for a humane alternative.

To help as many of these animals and students as we can, we put our Farm Animal Adoption Network (FAAN) into action. We place many of the animals in permanent homes within our trusted network. Others, like Oscar, become permanent Farm Sanctuary residents. We are honored to offer sanctuary to animals loved and saved by students, providing them with daily care while also advocating for the billions of other farm animals suffering within our food system.

We also engage directly with students, including those studying agriculture and veterinary medicine, encouraging them to carry compassion into their future work and to explore alternative study methods that don’t place animals—or the people who love them—in impossible situations.

When a student, class, or school chooses a humane path forward, they do more than save the life of an individual animal like Oscar. They take meaningful steps toward a humane world for animals, people, and the planet.

At Farm Sanctuary, cows can be their highly social selves, free to groom, wander, and forage with the herd. Sadly, life is much different for the more than 30 million cows and bulls slaughtered for human consumption in the United States each year.

Most are raised inside factory farms, where calves are separated from their mothers and subjected to painful mutilations such as branding, dehorning, and castration. Within their first year, they endure long, stressful journeys to feedlots, where they are fattened on unnatural diets before facing slaughter.

Farm Sanctuary is dedicated to farm animals like Oscar, telling their stories and shining a light on their worthiness and individuality. Each animal becomes an ambassador for all those still suffering in our food system. Oscar is now among those changing hearts and minds every day at Farm Sanctuary and far beyond.

We are deeply grateful to the veterinary college staff for choosing sanctuary over slaughter. Because of them, Oscar will spend the rest of his life surrounded by friends.