Živijo!

And welcome back to the V Pravljici (Fairytale) blog! Thank you for stopping by, you’re in for a treat: This week we take a closer look at Ferdinand, our bull. All the animals we have living with us were unwanted in some way before they came to us.  And Ferdinand’s tale is no different, in fact his is a very special story. If we weren’t able to intervene he would have been killed, butchered, made into meat and eaten long ago. Read on to discover what happened…

His Story

We originally came across Ferdie at a pre-sales ordering on a Facebook group back in November 2014. Ferdinand is a pure-breed Cika bull, organic and grass-fed, his life so far had been to make beautiful babies for the milk and meat industry. And, at almost three years old, his use was fulfilled, so he was being sold for 300kg of meat. (Ferdinand weighs about 800kg – you do the math for the ‘extra’). We felt like we could do something to help stop him being slaughtered. And we could! We gathered donations online from a host of wonderful people who felt there was an alternative to allowing him to be killed, raising 900 euros. But it wasn’t enough – the price was 1300 euros. At the last minute one incredibly generous supporter donated the last 400 euros and Ferdie was saved! A small team of volunteers came to help us fix up the shed behind our house, which was to be his new home.

Every life is important, and being able to save even one from being unnecessarily taken away is a huge achievement. We are always so grateful to volunteers and donors who help us to rescue animals and to continue to look after them, and we are so thankful that there are people out there who care about non-human lives as well.

His life now

Ferdinand lives by himself in a 3,000 m² (almost 1 acre) pasture that incorporates some of the surrounding forest, giving him plenty of low-branched trees and bushes to nibble at during the summer. He has open access to his shed and is free to wander about within his area as he pleases, living as natural a life as is possible in captivity. We clean his shed 2-3 times a week to stop the muck building up. He drinks about 40 litres of water a day, and eats a 20kg bale of hay, half in the morning and half in the evening. He loves apples or pears as a treat, and his salt lick. Sometimes Zikica the pygmy goat hangs around his place… they have a friendship based upon a mutual love of hay!

Affection and Bad Reputation

Just like other animals, Ferdinand is often in the mood for some cuddles and petting. He particularly likes being firmly brushed down the back of and on the sides of his big broad muscular neck, and under his chin. Are you surprised that even a bull would enjoy a bit of attention every now and again? At first we were too! Bulls have a reputation for being vicious, or dangerous. This can lead to negative feelings towards them (based on misunderstanding) and even their terrible mistreatment in events such as bullfighting or bull-running. True, as a big animal with the potential to do harm, they must be treated with respect and understanding, the same way as you would treat dogs with respect so as not to provoke them into biting you. When you take into account that bulls evolved to protect their herd of cows from predators, you begin to see why it is that they have the ability to do such harm. They are not vicious or angry at heart; they are simply built that way to protect their females. They didn’t ask to be this way, it is just the way they are. And of course they have a soft side too!

Name Story

And why is his name Ferdinand I hear you ask? From the tale of Ferdinand the Friendly Bull, naturally. As the story goes, back in old Spain and the days of bull-fighting, there lived a bull named Ferdinand. Now, he was not like the other bulls there: he wasn’t into running around and butting heads like they were, his favourite pastime in fact was simply sitting under a cork tree and quietly smelling the flowers. When the matadors came looking for the most ferocious bull, in order to entertain the crowds in the bull ring, the other bulls were all running around and showing off, trying to impress the matadors. Ferdinand was keeping out of the way, and went to sit under his tree, but he sat on a bumblebee who was in one of the flowers. He ran about everywhere in agony, charging through the other bulls and the matadors thought he must surely be the most ferocious bull of all, so they took him. When the time came to fight, he ran up to the matador. However, he stopped just in front of him, and pressed his nose into the matador’s chest, sniffing the flower on his suit. It became obvious that he didn’t want to fight and so they bought him back to his pasture where he enjoyed his life, smelling flowers under his favourite cork tree. Our Ferdinand is named after him, because he is of a calm nature and shares this friendly characteristic.

 

Did you know?

Cika bulls are a native Slovenian breed of cattle. The Cika especially excelled in its adaptability for breeding in mountainous regions. Because of its small frame, firm hooves and low weight it is especially suitable for grazing on steep slopes, where heavy breeds could cause too much erosion. Due to a policy pf cross-breeding during the twentieth-century, there are very few pure breeds left. Our Ferdinand is one of them.

So that’s the story of Ferdinand our friendly bull. We hope you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about him, and can see why we do what we do at our sanctuary. Please comment and let us know what you think! We wish you all a wonderful week!

From us here in the Fairytale,

Bye for now!

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