By Cathy Miller

Nine years ago Tamala Lester founded The Barnyard Sanctuary, now located in Columbia, with the goal of helping people who needed to re-home their pet farm animals. As word got out, local animal control officers, the New Jersey SPCA and other authorities turned to the organization for help with their farm animal cases. They quickly learned about farm animal cruelty, and their mission became to rescue and rehabilitate by providing the animals with a safe, loving and nurturing home for the natural lifetime of each animal. Over time, they have rescued more than 3,000 farm animals, with approximately 600 currently in residence. They became advocates for the animals and living a plant-based life.

The Barnyard Sanctuary currently rents a 15 acre farm, and while it has allowed the organization to do great things, they recognize the limitations of the property. Ms. Lester, founding director of The Barnyard Sanctuary, said, “The perfect location is just four miles away. It’s a 153-acre farm which could provide sanctuary for more farm animals, and allow us to become a self-sustaining, working, organic farm. We could lower our current overhead and run with greater efficiency.” With the new property, the animals will have fields to graze almost year-round and excess hay will be stored for the winter. The water supply and electrical service will be vastly improved. The new “forever-farm” has a house and two apartments, which will provide living quarters for multiple onsite management personnel, making a safer, supervised haven for the animals. Other features include four large ponds, a huge dairy barn, fencing, multiple outbuildings, a storage shed and workshop. Once the farm animals are settled in, Ms. Lester wants to establish a program to provide a safe living environment for displaced women and their children and pets, where they can learn new trades. Having spent 32 years in construction, she is determined to empower women in their journey. The Barnyard Sanctuary will help bees, butterflies and others by creating a habitat for them. They will partner with local schools on plant-based food education programs. They plan to build a vegan, organic, hydroponic, vertical greenhouse and provide the public with free vegan cooking lessons. So in addition to saving more farm animals, the new location will allow them to strengthen the community. But, the first step is to purchase the property, then make any necessary repairs, and finally, move the “residents” to their “forever” home.

There are several ways to financially assist in The Barnyard Sanctuary’s Mission Financial donations, sponsoring an animal, and volunteer work are all valuable contributions.

For those wishing to visit The Barnyard Sanctuary please email them to schedule an appointment (info@barnyardsanctuary.org). There are no general visiting hours. Although there is no charge to visit, donations are gratefully accepted. The Sanctuary is supported solely by donations and fundraising.

For those interested in diving deeper into the mud by contributing to the daily maintenance of farm and fauna, The Sanctuary works with one to six volunteers every day. In a perfect world, Ms. Lester said it takes nine people to manage all the animals – but there is funding for only six paid employees. As of Monday, Ms. Lester is looking to fill three paid positions: horse and cow caregiver (experience required); sheep, goat, and pot-belly pig caregiver; and carpenter/handyman. Email inquiries to info@barnyardsanctuary.org.

When asked what she’d like to add, Ms. Lester wasted no time in saying, “We want volunteers. We need donations, especially monthly donations for a consistent revenue stream. And we hope to fill those three job openings soon.” Her final words? “Animals are people too!”

The Barnyard Sanctuary
Tamala Lester, founding director
Columbia, NJ
Tel: 973-670-4477 Email: info@barnyardsanctuary.org
Website: barnyardsanctuary.org
The Barnyard Sanctuary is a NJ 501(c)3 tax exempt non-profit charity.

Cathy Miller is an award-winning photo-journalist. Her works appear regularly in insidewarren.com as well as many other publications in the region and state. If you would like to nominate someone for the person of the week, please reach out to Cathy at info@insidewarren.com