Happy Cow and Friends Hangout was founded in central Texas in March of 2022. The dream for a sanctuary, however, had been a lifelong goal of our founder, Elizabeth. Growing up, Elizabeth's household included pets of all kinds: dogs, cats, mice, fish, birds, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, and a rat. In 6th grade, Elizabeth’s English teacher invited the class to a protest about factory farming conditions. The images of chickens, cows, and pigs on the posters and brochures stuck with her. She became a vegetarian that year. During her teenage years, Elizabeth volunteered with companion animal rescue groups in south Florida. As an adult, she fostered dogs and cats through animal rescue groups in Pennsylvania. Anyone who knew her echoed that she should have a rescue or a sanctuary. Elizabeth worked in a municipal animal shelter and then in veterinary medicine; rescuing, volunteering and helping pets in need. When Elizabeth met Ryan, our co-founder, in 2021, the dream of a sanctuary grew. Ryan’s childhood involved caring for his grandfather’s pig farm, so he had experience with large animals.

The name for Happy Cow and Friends Hangout came to Elizabeth spontaneously. She recalled that she and her sister referred to the milk their mother bought as "happy cow milk" because the carton showed cows peacefully grazing in fields*. She added "and friends" as they intended to rescue sheep, chickens, pigs, goats, ducks, geese, and turkeys in addition to cows.

With her family's help, they began filing the paperwork to make the organization official while simultaneously looking for properties from Texas to Georgia and Kentucky to Missouri. Ryan compiled a list of their top prospective properties, and, over a holiday weekend, they embarked on the journey to find the sanctuary's home. That weekend, they fell in love with a 22-acre property northeast of Birmingham, Alabama. The property had a pole barn and a horse barn, sectioned-off pastures, and two ponds. Everyone involved in the process felt it was meant to be! Six months following their trip to Alabama, Elizabeth, her parents, and Ryan packed up their home, their nine personal cats, four personal dogs, and one chicken (the sanctuary's inaugural resident, Alfreda) and they relocated to Remlap, Alabama.

As Elizabeth and Ryan learned more about farmed animal sanctuaries and the plight of each species of farm animal, they visited established farm sanctuaries. On a road trip to Colorado, they stopped for a tour at Luvin' Arms Animal Sanctuary, where Ryan was enchanted by a people-hating cow named Domino and Elizabeth got to snuggle a big pig. During a trip to Iowa for Iowa Farm Sanctuary's memorial 5k in honor of their Rainbow Bridge cow, Carl, Ryan got on one knee and proposed to Elizabeth - in front of Angel, the sanctuary's adorable, handicapped cow. The next year, family members and close friends journeyed from their homes to Texas where they joined Elizabeth and Ryan for their wedding at Austin Farm Sanctuary. Following their ceremony, guests were able to interact with the resident goats, cows, pigs, and chickens. Farmed animal sanctuaries are magical places where compassion flourishes and happiness is abundant. We are so excited to have you on this journey with us!

*The images used on dairy products, like cheese and milk, purposely show cows who appear happy. Unfortunately, the reality for dairy cows is immense suffering. Like other mammals, cows only produce milk when they are pregnant or lactating. To achieve this, dairy cows are continuously impregnated via artificial insemination. When their calves are born, they are removed from their mothers so that the mother's milk can be collected for human consumption. Male calves are slaughtered for veal shortly after birth, while female calves continue the cycle of impregnation and birth until they become "unproductive". A cow's natural lifespan is 20 years. For female dairy cows, they are sent to slaughter when they stop producing milk, which is around 3-5 years old. Please consider removing dairy products from your diet to spare the suffering of cows.