I also grew up working on a cattle ranch and we would see the abandonment mainly from heifers having their first calf. Typically, the cows that were onto their second calves didn’t abandon.
A couple times we were able to get an abandoned calf to be taken in by another cow that had milk (some are very maternal) and once we had one taken in by a goat. No kidding.
I’ve camped on Assateague Island a few times. There is a wild pony herd that roams freely. The park has/had a nonintervention policy.
One time a foal was separated from the herd. Campers were freaking out, insisting that the foal had to be reunited with mom. I tried explaining the policy to people, but eventually someone hunted down an official who explained the official stance. There were some very vocal, unhappy campers.
A couple times we were able to get an abandoned calf to be taken in by another cow that had milk (some are very maternal) and once we had one taken in by a goat. No kidding.
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Never saw that with cattle and goats, but I saw it with dogs and cats several times.
We had a husky bitch that rejected her whole litter (7 pups). 1 at a time. She killed one every day. The first couple, my dad was repeating the idea that she saw something wrong with them.
When she killed the 4th one, I took the remaining 3 and raised them by hand. They were fine.
She just didn’t want those pups.
We fostered a cat who hissed at her kittens and batted them away when they tried to suckle. We helped them until they were weaned, They were fine. Mom just didn’t want kittens.