I first learned about Leanne Lauricella through her popular Instagram page, Goats of Anarchy. A little over a year ago, Lauricella left her job as an event planner in Manhattan and opened the Goats of Anarchy sanctuary in Oxford, New Jersey, in order to pursue her love of caring for animals—and goats in particular. A passionate vegan, Lauricella now is the proud rescuer of 11 goats, a mini pony, a donkey, three dogs, many chickens, and a pig named Piney, and her flock is growing all the time.
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After I arrived at the sanctuary, about a two-hour drive from Brooklyn, Lauricella and her assistant, Paige Bellucci, showed me around, describing the realities of running their rescue operation and how they keep up an Instagram account with over 200,000 followers. Every animal at the sanctuary has a unique—and often sad—story. "Ansel and Petal came here from a terrible hoarding situation," Lauricella told me of the pair of goats, who have their own separate Instagram account to document their growth. "They were found amongst piles of dead and dying animals." As Lauricella's sanctuary expands, she's currently in the process of moving to a new farm, where she will be able to give her current animals more space to play and add a few more friends to her "Enchanted Goat Forest."
Event planner to farm animal caretaker doesn't seem like an easy transition, but a lot of Leanne's knowledge comes from her time volunteering at Barnyard Sanctuary, a 15-acre farm in Columbia, New Jersey, that is home to 700 abused and homeless farm animals. It's also run almost entirely by women.Sanctuary owner Tamala Lester and her crew of six were eating lunch when I arrived at Barnyard. They all seemed excited to have a visitor, though they eventually explained that they even get excited when the Porta Potty guy comes to take away the waste.While Barnyard tries to find permanent homes for most of the animals, many become permanent residents—the cows aren't going anywhere, and neither are the nearly 200 roosters Lester has acquired over the years. Meghan, Nicole, Kacie, Rachel, and Lester walked me around the farm to where they take care of horses, donkeys, and a 25-year-old Clydesdale named Francis. Marley the pot-bellied pig likes to give kisses; Rachel invited me into the pen as she tried to pull 900-pound Miss Piggy out of the water trough. As Lester fed the cows, Nicole stood near me to distract the troublemaker, Lily, so she wouldn't run me over.
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