Kiki and the Herd of Hope get a second chance
Kiki in her fully self controlled wheelchair. Photos by Mari Huglin 
Auggie, a cow who had a serious bacterial infection, takes a break as he is still learning to walk. 
Faith, a cow born blind at birth, poses for a picture. 
Drake, a duck with a leg injury, waddling around the grounds.
Acorn, a chicken with a leg deformity, lays on her comfy bed of pillows.
Kiki in her fully self controlled wheelchair. Photos by Mari Huglin
Auggie, a cow who had a serious bacterial infection, takes a break as he is still learning to walk.
Faith, a cow born blind at birth, poses for a picture.
Drake, a duck with a leg injury, waddling around the grounds.
Acorn, a chicken with a leg deformity, lays on her comfy bed of pillows.
Ducks and chickens waddle around as a three-legged dog eagerly hops out of the barn, all while an old police horse is groomed and the Taylor Swift Eras Tour plays on a barn TV.
This is an ordinary scene at Don’t Forget Us, Pet Us, an animal sanctuary in North Dartmouth.
Run by Deb Delvin and Jill Tigano for over 15 years, Don’t Forget Us, Pet Us is giving animals with disabilities their lives back.
The sanctuary is for animals most in need of care with disabilities like amputations, physical deformities and degenerative diseases.
Due to limited space and resources, Delvin and Tigano have gone as far as Texas and Missouri for rescues, but cannot take in all the animals they come across.
Delvin and Tigano recently took in a new pig, cow, dog and chicken, rounding their herd to 40.
The rag tag bunch of animals with disabilities have been named the Herd of Hope, a nod to their strength and inspiration.
Kiki, the sanctuary’s disabled lamb who has her own wheelchair, has garnered international attention through her social media presence and an interview with the Washington Post.
“To be able to have the social media platform to be able to create an emotional connection to an animal . . . is beyond anything I ever could have dreamed [of doing],” said Delvin.
The Herd of Hope welcomes and celebrates animals like Kiki who have disabilities and inspires people through social media.
The little lamb has been a “trailblazer” for pet wheelchairs, inspiring other farms and sanctuaries to get their own. A pet sanctuary in Harvard, Massachusetts looks to get one for a goat and a farm in Australia hopes to get one for a dog.
Delvin said that people do not realize there are disabled animals in the world, and noted there is technology to help them.
“We have braces and supports and pet wheelchairs and custom prosthetics and all these things,” she said.
Not only has Kiki inspired technological change for animals, but she has also inspired people with disabilities.
Delvin gets messages from moms saying they watch Kiki with their children and feel inspired.
“It makes their child feel better about being in a wheelchair,” she said.
After the Washington Post article was published, Delvin started getting more messages, even from a chief financial officer in Austin, Texas who said the story made him cry.
Seeing the level of intelligence Kiki has and the emotional value she has built, Delvin and Tigano believe that everyone and every animal deserves the best chance at life provided through medical care, physical assistance with wheelchairs or prosthetics and basic empathy.
Delvin and Tigano said they are proud they pioneered a way for Kiki and other disabled animals to help people to think differently about disabilities.
The sanctuary hosts families of children with disabilities and sometimes takes the animals out to visit people with disabilities.
“With the counseling and the kids that come, being able for the animals to give back and for kids to feel comfortable and confident . . . [It’s] pretty amazing to see those kids and how they feel when they come here,” Tigano said.
Delvin and Tigano said they hope to build bigger spaces for their animals that are equipped for the winter and to house more rescues.
“Whether they have a disability, whether they don't, every person, every animal, every being has value in this world,” Tigano said, “And they deserve a chance. They deserve respect. They deserve love.”
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