Colorado cow sanctuary robbed of $20k in equipment, sheriff's office says: "My heart just dropped"

A Colorado cow sanctuary needs help, now more than ever.

On Oct. 29, more than $20,000 of equipment was stolen from Pay & Friends Inc. in Thornton.

The Adams County Sheriff's Office says it has no leads on who could have done it, leaving the nonprofit to pick up the pieces.

"Babies! Are you ready?" Gwen Buehler calls to her seven cows, who she calls "the babies."

Every day, Buehler feeds the cows four bales of hay.

"Throw it down, let me cut it, and then we can flake it and toss it in," said Buehler.

Lately, the work has been harder since Buehler arrived to find an outbuilding door that had been locked, open.

"My heart just dropped, my stomach dropped, and I thought somebody's been in there. So I opened it up, and sure enough, a lot of our farm tools were stolen that night," said Buehler.

Thieves took more than $20,000 worth of equipment, including nearly all of the nonprofit's farm tools and their ATV.

"That's a huge tool for us to be able to move that grass around," said Buehler. "We have a lot to do during snow, during summer. Each season has its challenges."

The loss has made it tough to take care of the cows.

"It takes a lot more manpower, woman power," Buehler said.

"Just trying to save up, because it's feed season, they eat more," she continued. "It's about $1,600 to $1,800 a month just to keep them fed."

Palani is the cow who started it all. After becoming vegan in 2017, Buehler rescued him from a dairy farm, where male calves are often killed shortly after birth.

"It was important to me to be able to rescue a bull calf, to save his life," Buehler said. "Not have him end up in the discard pile."

Buehler says female cows meet the same fate in the industry once they stop producing milk.

"The mama cows are always pregnant or nursing or lactating, and each time they have a baby, it's taken from their mom so that they can produce milk for humans," Buehler said.

From there, she rescued six more cows, and the nonprofit Pay & Friends Inc. was born.

"We really just took all of them from an end-of-life, which would have been the slaughterhouse," she said.

Now the cows' lives consist of daily feedings and educational visits from groups like the Denver Rescue Mission youth program.

"They got to take fresh fruits and vegetables home, they were so excited. And then they got to feed cows, and a lot of the kids had never seen a cow before, so that was kind of cool to see," said Asha Leos, youth and family coordinator at the Denver Rescue Mission. "Then we got to come here and volunteer as well and help Gwen with moving hay bales, breaking down boxes, and the kids kind of turned it into a playground."

"Homelessness is something a child should never have to experience," Leos continued. "So getting to just be outside, be in fresh air, and be surrounded by an environment that's full of love and joy, that's the best experience you can give a kid."

Buehler hopes visitors will see the animals in a new light and think about where their food comes from.

"Whether it's an animal, a human, they're all alive. They all have souls. They all have feelings. They all have personalities," she said.

Even the theft won't stop her from her mission.

The Adams County Sheriff's Office told CBS Colorado the burglary was reported to them, and that "due to the lack of investigative leads at this time, the case status is inactive. If anyone has information related to this burglary, they can contact our dispatch at 303-288-1535 or contact the Sheriff's Office directly at 720-322-1313."

Pay & Friends Inc. participates in Colorado Gives Day. The nonprofit is in need of cash donations, volunteers, produce, and basic tools and supplies. To learn more, visit their website.