hello everyone! this is an opportunity for a special person to step forward to help preserve one of the most endangered breeds of North American livestock - the Santa Cruz sheep survived on Santa Cruz island off the coast of California for the past 100 plus years based upon their survival instincts - these are not your normal docile sheep! - they have survival instincts that I have only seen in the soay breed of primitive sheep during my years of transport of the most rare and exotic breeds of livestock in North America - you can read about them by entering "santa cruz sheep" with the quote marks into the Google search field - you can also read about the SVF foundation at the same time
during my MAR/APR trip I made a stop at SVF in Rhode Island to pick up a herd of 22 of these sheep - this is roughly 5% of the ENTIRE known population of 'pure' Santa Cruz sheep! - while I was sitting at the loading dock waiting to load the buyer in South Dakota canceled the purchase - I got on the phone and was able to locate a home for half of the herd within a few minutes so I made the decision to purchase the entire herd myself rather than leave them stranded in RI - I transported the 20 ewes and two rams to eastern Iowa where they are now being boarded on a privately owned zoo - the zoo has purchased 10 ewes and one ram - the remaining 10 ewes and one ram are looking for a home where they will be protected from interbreeding with domestic sheep I am the owner of these sheep at this time - I have $150 each invested in purchase price and transportation from RI to Iowa - a buyer will pay me and will help me cover the boarding fees and the transportation from Iowa to a new home - I will not be looking to make a big profit on these sheep - I will be in the Iowa area during June so I can transport the herd then preference will be given to someone who can buy the entire 11 animals - worst case I am told that there are a couple Santa Cruz ram lambs available from another herd - this would allow splitting up the 10 ewes into three herds (if necessary) - the buyer will have to convince me and the people at SVF that they intend to breed the Santa Cruz without mixing them with other breeds of sheep and that they intend to work with SVF and the Santa Cruz rescue group so that the rare genetics are not lost! please cross post this message to any group that you think might have an interested potential buyer please reply to me directly at my private email address below -- questions? Ron - private email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
