Hello everyone, my name is Ryan and you are listening to The Vegan Report.
To begin 2024 on a good note, I wanted to share a short conversation I had on the topic
of micro sanctuaries.
Have you ever heard of the concept of a micro sanctuary?
It's a relatively recent trend.
Basically the idea behind it is that you don't need lots of resources or space to provide
sanctuary to animals who would have otherwise been mercilessly used as commodities.
It's a powerful concept and to help me learn more about it and its implications, who better
than a micro sanctuary owner?
So today for a special micro episode on micro sanctuaries, I have with me the amazing Jessica
who is behind the farm micro sanctuary.
Welcome to the podcast, Jessica.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
So my first question for you is what is a micro sanctuary?
Your sanctuary is called the farm micro sanctuary.
So what is this concept all about?
So the concept of micro sanctuary is that we don't have to be a big sanctuary to do
good work.
We don't have to have acres and acres of land.
In theory being a micro sanctuary is as little as rescuing one animal into sanctuary.
It allows for more people to be able to take in small amounts of animals which then helps
free up bigger sanctuaries to do their work as well.
So it's just it's a numbers game.
It's being able to help as many as you can.
Micro sanctuaries can be 100% self-funded.
They're not necessarily a 501c3 nonprofit.
They're just somebody who wants to make their bit of difference in the world.
And there is a lot of diversity of micro sanctuaries out there.
Yeah, absolutely.
There are micro sanctuaries for what they call pocket pets, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits.
A lot of times there's a lot of chickens.
A lot of times it's chickens, but it can be any animal.
I think every vegan out there has fantasized at least once about opening our own sanctuary.
But I guess we think, oh, I'm not in a rural area and I need a lot of lands.
So I feel like a micro sanctuary is the answer to that problem, to that struggle.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that was really what started for me was just, you know, I went vegan and I did want
to make a difference.
And so we just started really small.
Well I want to talk about your journey.
But first, I would like you to maybe give us a tour of your own sanctuary.
I want to know how big is it?
Where is it located?
And who are the animals that you're sheltering right now?
Yep.
So we're located in Larwell, Indiana.
It's a tiny little town, about 250 people.
I only have four acres here, not quite four acres.
I live right on the edge of town.
The journey for me started probably in 2019 when I took in my first goat.
We now have 45 animals total.
And that sounds like a lot, but 22 of them are chickens, so they don't take up very much
room.
We have two horses.
One was my own horse before, and then we took on another one, and then a pony.
We have a pony who lives here.
And then we have 13 goats, six cats, and a dog.
That's impressive.
So how did it start?
How did you become vegan and then decide to take the leap to opening your own sanctuary
and doing more?
So I was vegetarian for years, a long time.
And I worked in a veterinarian clinic as a technician for several years.
And at that time, I rescued a lot of cats.
There's always cats in need, so I rescued cats.
And then as the years went by, I took in my first goat, Lucas, who we still have, and
two of his brothers who have since passed on.
And I just fell in love.
And about that time is when I went vegan as well.
And so it started with just, hey, I'm going to do what I can.
Micro sanctuary, I can do that.
So we just started rescuing little by little.
I added another goat, and I added a family of chickens who lost their home due to a zoning
violation.
They weren't allowed to have chickens.
So we just kind of grew.
And then in 2021, I was big enough that self-funding was getting to take a lot.
And I wanted to still be able to grow.
And so that's when I made the decision to go ahead and apply for the nonprofit status
and become an actual 501c3 sanctuary so that we could take donations.
And I still don't make anything off of the sanctuary.
The sanctuary is 100% volunteer-ran.
None of us get paid anything.
But the sanctuary animals, their food and everything has been able to be paid by donations
now.
I want to know more about the kind of work behind running a sanctuary.
So how many hours do you devote to caring for the animals?
Okay.
So my day starts at 4 a.m., 4.15.
I get up.
And from then until 7.30 is taking care of animals.
So feeding, watering, cleaning pens, cleaning stalls, making sure everybody is good for
the morning.
And then because I don't get any money for the sanctuary, I then go to my full-time job.
So I work eight hours a day, just like everybody else.
And then I come home and I spend another two or three hours doing the same thing over again.
Cleaning, feeding, making sure everybody's good, any medications, any special needs.
Some of our animals are handicapped, so they require a little bit more attention.
And then I have a handicapped goat that lives in the house.
So then I usually spend an hour or two with him at the end of the day to make sure he's
getting all that he needs.
So I finally go to bed at 10 o'clock.
That's really impressive.
And do you have any help?
You talked about volunteers.
Are there people who have volunteered to help you?
I have a couple of volunteers.
So I have one, my next door neighbor, who is a huge supporter.
She volunteers almost every day.
She comes while I'm at work to check on the handicapped goats, make sure they're okay.
And then she helps with part of the chores at night so that it doesn't take me quite
as long.
And then I have a couple other volunteers that come once every week or so as their schedules
allow.
And then also my high school age niece is very passionate about it.
So she volunteers whenever her schedule allows to.
That kind of work can be hard and it takes dedication.
What is the driving force behind it?
Well, so I've always been an animal lover and seeing these animals that they've all
come from, not all, but most have come from bad situations, seeing them happy and relaxed
and safe.
That's everything.
And also, I guess, we know that by going vegan, we make a huge impact environmentally.
And so we try to advocate for veganism whenever we go out to events or anything and advocate
for what we believe in.
And I guess part of that is just my little bit of trying to save the world.
Well, that's the goal of this podcast is to help or inspire vegans to do the extra step
to be more than vegan because we need it.
Animals need it.
And yeah, this is how you decided to contribute to the fight for animal rights.
Now, why are sanctuaries important to have?
It's important because so many people, there's such a disconnect between people and where
their food comes from.
When we go to the market in Fort Wayne, the big city nearby, we go to the farmer's market
in the summer and we take our handicapped goat to greet people.
He is very social.
He loves people.
So he enjoys it.
And a lot of people have never met a goat or they've never really thought of it.
So we have a lot of good conversations with people because they just don't correlate an
animal to what they see in the grocery store.
So having a sanctuary and having people follow along and posting pictures or videos of the
animals, it's important because it helps people make that connection and see that these animals
want to live and they are full of character and emotion and smart.
So it's important to help spread that awareness.
I absolutely love this argument.
I think that it is better to show people than to argue with them online or something like
that.
I think it's more powerful.
I did an entire episode on the Vegan Festival of Montreal and just the idea of taking a
non-vegan and immersing that vegan in a vegan environment is, I think, more convincing for
our cause than anything else.
So I love that aspect of it.
Yeah, a lot of times if you use numbers, the numbers are so large that it's hard to comprehend.
And so it's easier to ignore for most people.
And if you argue with them, then of course you're a militant vegan.
So I find that we try to take a more positive approach and really highlight the animals.
That's part of what was so great about having Jack, our goat, at the farmers market.
A lot of times we were somewhere close.
Our booth would be close to a booth selling animal flesh, which was disconcerting from
my point of view, but it also opened a dialogue with several people that went, oh, hey, wait,
you're doing this, but that person over there is doing that.
And maybe it opened some channels of conversation.
And what is it like to be vegan in a rural area?
Because I have seen a trend online of many vegan influencers deciding to live a rural
life, a self-sustaining life.
And then they stop being vegan because I guess the environment in which they're in is just
not propitious for a vegan diet or they don't get social support.
I don't get it.
Yeah, can you tell us about what it's like to be vegan far from the city?
It's not easy.
I mean, I'm lucky that Fort Wayne is about half an hour away and we do have a lot of
vegan options there.
And in the grocery stores, it's getting better.
We can get a lot of vegan stuff now that even five years ago you couldn't get.
It's hard though, because I live right smack in the middle of deep ag.
There's a multimillion dollar dairy two miles down the road.
There's hog farms everywhere.
There's a huge egg producer the next town over where they have lots of those big long
sheds just crammed full of chickens and it's heartbreaking.
So it's hard because you know that you're outnumbered, right?
But you just do your thing and keep at it and hope that you plant a seed somewhere.
You're not going to win them all over, but you can at least plant some seeds.
But there is something beautiful thinking about how you're this ray of sunshine in
the middle of this darkness.
I don't know.
There's something beautiful to it.
Yeah, I try to be that way.
Yeah.
I'm the only sanctuary in a pretty big area here.
The closest sanctuaries from me are a couple hours away.
So I'm the only one.
Yeah, it's autumn right now and this is the season when many of the people who adopted
backyard chickens will get rid of their chickens.
I'm already noticing ads for getting rid of their roosters or other chickens that stopped
laying eggs because many people here in Canada don't have the adequate place to keep the
chickens for the winter.
They have no isolation and things like that.
That's also the time when a lot of sanctuaries here in Canada cannot take any more residents.
It's heartbreaking the situation that it creates.
So I wonder, Jessica, what kind of obstacles does someone who starts a sanctuary encounters
in everyday life but also during the different seasons?
So you're right.
Certain seasons you get more requests.
I've already had a few requests about chickens.
Only at this time we're closed.
So new intakes.
We're full until I can develop more of a volunteer program and bring in more volunteers.
There's just not enough time in my day to add more.
So that part's hard because you just want to help them all.
It's heartbreaking to say no.
The different seasons have their challenges.
Winter here isn't as cold as Canada, but we still get pretty cold, sometimes snowy.
So that obviously adds work.
I'm lucky that we have really good, we have four barns and I'm able to at least provide
some heat source in three of them.
So we've managed that pretty well, but if it snows, that's extra work.
It's extra shoveling.
It's harder to get around.
It's harder to haul the hay around.
All of that.
So it's extra work.
Plus, the animals are inside more, so it's extra cleaning.
And then in the summer you deal with the heat, so you got to keep everybody cool.
We run fans 24-7.
And then on top of that, I try to keep a garden for fresh produce for them and sometimes me,
but mostly for them.
So there's that to manage mowing because we don't use any kind of spray on any of the
ground here.
I don't allow any chemicals.
So for weed control for noxious weeds or invasive weeds, we mow.
So there's always mowing to be done and cleaning up all of that.
So each season has its own challenge.
This season, fall, right now we're dealing with walnuts.
We have about 12 walnut trees on the property that are dropping nuts like crazy.
Obviously, we can't just leave them for the horses to stand on or potentially get hurt
on and same with the goats.
So later today I'll be out picking up walnuts.
Yeah, because I'm thinking about the listeners who are thinking, oh, what if I start my micro
sanctuary?
And I want them to know that there are big challenges to starting that sanctuary.
It's a big responsibility to take.
So what would you say to them?
I would say go volunteer somewhere first.
Typically, that's the best way to see what sanctuary is really about because even as
a micro sanctuary, even if you're taking one or two animals, you want to know what the
idea of sanctuary is.
You want to give them the best care.
A lot of times you don't stop and think about what about if they need a vet?
Do you have like an avian vet nearby if you're going to have chickens?
Our closest avian vet is two hours away.
So that can be challenging.
Then also you got to think about funding.
What if there's an emergency?
Are you going to be able to afford the right kind of care?
And the other thing about sanctuary is it's for their whole life.
You're committing to, depending on the animal, potentially 10 or 20 years to giving the animal
their best life.
So it's a real commitment.
It's not like a dog that could follow you if you move out of your house.
You need to take full responsibility for their entire life.
So yeah, it's a big commitment.
You talked about funding.
Now you are present on Instagram and I will leave a link in the description for people
who want to see pictures of your sanctuary.
And I guess one way to support you in your mission is to give you money.
So how is your experience of fundraising for your sanctuary?
So fundraising is the hardest part.
At least it is for me because I'm a very independent person and I've always just done things myself.
So suddenly becoming a nonprofit and going, oh, I have to ask for money.
That's what it means to be a nonprofit.
Asking for money is hard.
It's not fun.
But we do it because that way we can do more.
We're able to give them the best of everything that they need.
My handicapped animals, sometimes a wheelchair breaks or we just had an orthopedic brace
made for the pony and this stuff takes money.
So we fundraise a lot on social media.
We are on Instagram, as you said.
We're also on Facebook.
I have a TikTok account.
One of my board of directors actually runs that for me because I don't know how to TikTok.
And then we also have Patreon.
So those kind of donations are really important because they're recurring and we can depend
on that money as our basis for their standard care.
So that's all important.
And then there's other things too.
Spending time helps tremendously.
Volunteering or donating items.
I have some people who visit and every time they visit, they bring animal crackers for
the animals or bleach or cleaning wipes or something that we use because that helps tremendously.
It doesn't have to be a lot.
It's just every little bit adds up and helps us do everything that we need to do.
That's amazing.
And there is a book.
It is called Asking from Gerald Panas.
And I always reference that book and recommend it for people who start a fundraiser.
It's an essential to how to ask for money.
And he goes in great length describing why it's so hard to ask for money and what you
can do about it.
So it's a great key book.
So Jessica, did you want to add something before we end this conversation?
I think micro sanctuaries are important.
I think every little tiny sanctuary that starts takes a little bit of pressure off those animals
that are just in dire need.
And there's so many different kinds of animals that need us to do this.
We ended up going more towards handicapped animals.
We have several goats in wheelchairs.
We have a handicapped chicken, a blind chicken.
There's just lots of opportunity to do it and do it on a scale that you can manage.
There's lots of resources out there for micro sanctuaries.
There's actually an organization, microsanctuary.org.
They actually will do grants for micro sanctuaries to help with getting that shelter made for
your residents or fencing or medical.
They have medical grants as well.
So there are options out there, even if you're not a 501c3, that you can get help.
Yeah.
And I will add the link to their website in the description.
Yeah.
And you need to be creative.
I mean, how do you care for a blind chicken or a handicapped goat?
It's not like there is a how to guide online or something specialized on that.
I mean, you need to invent.
You do.
So especially with the handicapped animals, there's an especially handicapped farmed animals.
There's not a lot of a previous history of helping them.
The veterinarians just haven't had that put in front of them.
Farmers don't want to spend the money on a handicapped animal.
That's a loss of profit.
So sanctuaries, that's the other amazing thing about sanctuary is we are pushing that field
to explore these options for these animals.
And we're furthering the science for them just by demanding that same standard of care
for these animals versus, say, your dog.
So that's really an important thing.
And also something I forgot to mention.
I guess animals come to you, the animals in need of help.
You don't have to go looking for them.
There are so few sanctuaries out there.
Yeah, you will always have a demand for sheltering animals.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's so many that need help.
All the sanctuaries, big or small, routinely have to turn them away because there's not
room for them all.
So there's always room for more sanctuary.
Amazing.
So thank you so much, Jessica.
This was a great talk with lots of information.
I hope it motivates people to maybe do something about it.
And yeah, thank you for your great work, your inspiring work, and for having accepted my
invitation.
Well, thanks for having me.
That was fun.
Thank you.