September 23, 2025 • 12 mins
Ever wondered what 250 goats in tutus could do for your mental health? In this heartwarming episode, we sit down with Jennifer Clark, founder of J&J Second Chance Small Holdings—one of only nine specialized goat rescues in the United States.
Jennifer's journey from military veteran to animal rescuer reveals how the creatures that saved her life are now helping others heal. After sustaining injuries during her service and witnessing how animals helped both her autistic daughter learn to read and her father with Alzheimer's connect to cherished memories, Jennifer created a sanctuary where both animals and humans get their second chance.
The work at J&J goes far beyond typical animal rescue. Their therapy goats—often dressed in tutus, diapers, and bows—visit hospitals to cheer sick children, help students practice reading without judgment, and provide mental health support to veterans and seniors. As Jennifer puts it, they're "stopping suicide one fluffy at a time." She also dispels common misconceptions about goats, explaining their rapid reproduction rates and dietary needs, while highlighting their natural talent for fire prevention by consuming dried brush.
Running a nonprofit sanctuary for nearly 300 animals comes with significant challenges. From the 200 round hay bales and eight tons of grain needed annually to unexpected veterinary bills reaching thousands of dollars, the financial demands are substantial. Yet Jennifer maintains an unwavering positive outlook, refusing to post anything sad on social media and welcoming visitors seeking a moment of joy. Whether you're looking for animal therapy, considering adoption, or simply need a dose of happiness, J&J Second Chance Small Holdings offers a powerful reminder that everyone—human and animal alike—deserves another chance.
Ready to experience some goat therapy for yourself? Visit jnjsecondchancesmallholdings.com or text 307-772-1220 for a dose of instant happiness from a goat being goofy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a uniqueanimal rescue and sanctuary that
also dabbles in therapy?
Well, one such institutionmight be closer than you think
or practice.
Today I have the great pleasureof introducing your good
(00:33):
neighbor, jennifer Clark, withJ&J Second Chance Small Holding.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Jennifer, how's it going?
Hi, hey, it's going really well.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good, tell us all about your very, very unique
company.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, we're kind of a unique concept, very unique
company.
Well, we're kind of a uniqueconcept One.
We're only one of nine goatrescues in the United States
that specializes in goats.
We do miniature farm animals atour rescue, so miniature cows,
miniature horses, miniaturedonkeys and, of course, about
250 goats about 250 goats.
(01:11):
We rescue and offer sanctuaryto animals in need.
But we also take animals intothe community where we do a lot
of community outreach, fromgoing into hospitals and
visiting sick kids.
The goats wear clothes, diapers,ribbons and bows and they go
run around in tutus and visitall the patients.
We also go to schools and teachkids to read.
The goats don't care how theyread or if they read the right
(01:35):
words or the wrong words, theyjust want the attention of the
kids, and every once in a whilewe'll slip in a flavored book,
so the goats eat the books forthe kids.
We go to senior centers andveteran centers and do cognitive
therapy and mental health.
We go into high schools andmiddle schools and do mental
health there, also because westop suicide.
(01:58):
One fluffy at a time, so onebaby goat at a time.
There's a lot.
How did you get into thisbusiness?
Well, I'm a veteran who did acouple tours and got pretty
injured, and animals saved mylife.
(02:18):
So now I'm saving theirs andgiving them a second chance and
having others get help from that.
My daughter is high functioningautistic and I taught her to
read using animals.
My father had Alzheimer's anddementia and yet he could still
tell me about the goats he hadwhen he was a kid.
And so I do all of these and Icontinue these, because
(02:39):
everybody deserves a secondchance.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Wow, what are some myths or misconceptions in your
line of work?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
There's so many.
The big one is I get is dogoats really need rescuing?
And yes, they do.
Unfortunately, you can go fromthree goats to 20 goats in two
years.
Goats can have up to eightbabies at a time and they can
breed every six months and youknow we can end up with a lot of
(03:13):
goats very, very, very quickly.
Wow.
And the other is that they caneat anything they can't.
They actually can get what'scalled metal stomach, where you
actually have to go in withmagnets and remove parts of
metal and things like that.
Now they can eat things thatwill kill your cows and your
horses which is why they areamazing at weed management and
(03:39):
they can go in and do fireprevention by eating dried
leaves sticks.
They eat all of that and itcauses fire not to have a place
to burn.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Right Gets rid of the fuel exposure.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yes, sometimes all you got to do is get rid of the
dead branches, and goats thinkdried leaves are potato chips.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's funny.
So marketing is the heart ofevery business.
Who is your target client?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
All of them, I mean, are we?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
targeting people that want therapy, or are we
targeting people that want torescue animals?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Kind of a both.
We go and do events and I'vehad psychological counselors
come up to me and go what isthis goat therapy crap?
And I look at them and I'm like, well, did you smile when you
saw the goats?
And they go well, yeah, thenyou got goat therapy honey, and
it's as simple as seeing ananimal be goofy or being able to
(04:46):
pet an animal.
You know it's an endorphin rushto watch these animals play and
have a great time.
But we also want to try to findsome of them homes.
We do.
We had over 30 adoptions lastyear.
It's a few, but we're verypicky.
(05:07):
We don't want to re-rescue, soyou're going to go through a
process in order to adopt.
But we also teach classes onhow to maintain your goats
properly, called Goat 101, whereyou come for our class.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
How do you market yourself right now, because it's
such a unique thing?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We don't.
To be honest, we're really busy.
This next month alone, I have14 events going on, at least in
the next 30 to 40 days.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Have you ever thought about podcasting?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I have, but I kind of need somebody who's a little
more technical savvy than I am.
Unfortunately, I grew up in atime pre-computer and then I was
military and computers werekind of thought of evil Because
you didn't want your informationto get found out on them.
(06:06):
You know and I was, was medical, so we were very careful about
what we posted or wrote.
So I'm still a little thathesitant self, so I'm looking
for interns right now understood.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
What do you do for fun outside of not dealing with
technology?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
um, actually you'd be shocked.
I sit and I play with the goats, and when you have baby goats
running around, you don't reallyhave a bad day I'll bet I used
to have ferrets.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's a world that most people don't understand,
and it's fun I have a chinchilla.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's awesome, I thought about that.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
that was on the table when I was thinking about
ferrets.
Jennifer, what's one takeawaythat people should take away
from our interaction today, thispodcast?
What do you want people toremember about J&J?
Second Chance small holdings?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That you know there is a second chance out there for
everybody.
Just because you can't find oneat this exact moment, you know
there is another one out there.
And if all else fails, comewatch our silly videos we post
on TikTok.
We don't post anything sad,unhappy on any social media.
It's always positivity.
(07:23):
And if you really need help,come on out and visit us.
You know we have goat visitswhere you can come out and sit
with the baby goats and feedthem.
We can come feed the Highlandcows.
You can come feed the miniaturehorses.
You know, if you need a littlehappy, we'll share ours with you
.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's beautiful.
Well, jennifer, we reallyappreciate you being on the show
and we wish you and J&J SecondChance Small Holdings the very
best moving forward.
Oh, one more thing Please tellour listeners all of the
addresses where they can findout more about J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings on social mediawebsite and then the
old-fashioned way by phonewebsite and then the old
(08:07):
fashioned way by phone, noproblem.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So we have a big website called
jnjsecondchancesmallholdingscom.
Or, if you really want to gosimple, go to thegoatladiescom.
That's our secondary website,where you can then find us on
our primary website.
We are on TikTok, instagram,facebook as JNJ Second Chance
Small Holdings, which you canall get off our website.
We are on TikTok, instagram,facebook as J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings, which you canall get off our website.
(08:28):
We're also on YouTube underWyoming Small Holdings, and then
we are in Rock River, wyoming.
We are only by appointmentbecause we are very busy and we
are always out there taking careof almost 300 animals, and so
we want your experience to bejust for you, and so that's part
(08:50):
of the reason why we asked youto make an appointment.
You can email us atthegoatladies L-A-D-I-E-S 307 at
gmailcom, and if all else failsand you just want some happy
photos, you can always text usat 307-772-1220.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And you know, just send me a text, I'll send you a
silly photo of a goat beinggoofy, like sticking their face
out and going ah Well, Jennifer,we really appreciate you being
on the show and we definitely dowish you and J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings the very bestmoving forward.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And you know that we are a nonprofit, federally
recognized.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, you can actually help support the
animals through our website.
There's a Zephy account.
It charges us zero.
We lose no income through them.
So if you donate a hundreddollars, a hundred dollars goes
straight to the animals, andright now we're raising funds to
get hay.
Unfortunately, we go throughabout 200 round bales a year and
(09:58):
about eight ton of grain.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently ton of
grain.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently no.
And we get in a lot of senioranimals because people move or
retire or pass away and so weend up with a lot of those
animals.
They're not meant to beneglected, they're just things
happen in people's lives andwe're the ones who try to pick
up the slack.
But my last vet bill was fortynine hundred dollars.
It hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
No, I thought you need the funds right.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Always, and you can donate directly to our vet or
whomever if you'd rather,instead of donating through us.
But we are a tax write off forthose that are looking for that.
You know we're happy to sendyou videos and pictures and we
always send a thank you forsupporting us letter where you
get a goofy the goat of themonth picture and we actually
(10:55):
have a couple of goats withfollowings that people only
donate to that specific goat and, yes, you can pick your goat.
You can even name a goat afteryourself or someone you love.
We always have goats that neednames because they come into us
without names and we like togive everybody a name.
Heck, even our turkeys havenames.
(11:15):
We have.
Jeffries and Girly Girl yes,very creative.
I have goats named Pickles,Whirlpool, like the washing
machine, not the water.
Yeah, we have some veryinteresting names, but we love
it and we try to remember themall.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, that's beautiful.
Jennifer, we really appreciateyou being on the show and, like
I said, we wish you guys thebest moving forward.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Thank you so much, and you too Thank you for
allowing us to come on and kindof talk about ourselves a little
bit.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No problem, thank you .
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPfortCollinscom.
That's GNPfortCollinscom, orcall 970-438-0880.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a uniqueanimal rescue and sanctuary that
also dabbles in therapy?
Well, one such institutionmight be closer than you think
or practice.
Today I have the great pleasureof introducing your good
(00:33):
neighbor, jennifer Clark, withJ&J Second Chance Small Holding.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Jennifer, how's it going?
Hi, hey, it's going really well.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good, tell us all about your very, very unique
company.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, we're kind of a unique concept, very unique
company.
Well, we're kind of a uniqueconcept One.
We're only one of nine goatrescues in the United States
that specializes in goats.
We do miniature farm animals atour rescue, so miniature cows,
miniature horses, miniaturedonkeys and, of course, about
250 goats about 250 goats.
(01:11):
We rescue and offer sanctuaryto animals in need.
But we also take animals intothe community where we do a lot
of community outreach, fromgoing into hospitals and
visiting sick kids.
The goats wear clothes, diapers,ribbons and bows and they go
run around in tutus and visitall the patients.
We also go to schools and teachkids to read.
The goats don't care how theyread or if they read the right
(01:35):
words or the wrong words, theyjust want the attention of the
kids, and every once in a whilewe'll slip in a flavored book,
so the goats eat the books forthe kids.
We go to senior centers andveteran centers and do cognitive
therapy and mental health.
We go into high schools andmiddle schools and do mental
health there, also because westop suicide.
(01:58):
One fluffy at a time, so onebaby goat at a time.
There's a lot.
How did you get into thisbusiness?
Well, I'm a veteran who did acouple tours and got pretty
injured, and animals saved mylife.
(02:18):
So now I'm saving theirs andgiving them a second chance and
having others get help from that.
My daughter is high functioningautistic and I taught her to
read using animals.
My father had Alzheimer's anddementia and yet he could still
tell me about the goats he hadwhen he was a kid.
And so I do all of these and Icontinue these, because
(02:39):
everybody deserves a secondchance.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Wow, what are some myths or misconceptions in your
line of work?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
There's so many.
The big one is I get is dogoats really need rescuing?
And yes, they do.
Unfortunately, you can go fromthree goats to 20 goats in two
years.
Goats can have up to eightbabies at a time and they can
breed every six months and youknow we can end up with a lot of
(03:13):
goats very, very, very quickly.
Wow.
And the other is that they caneat anything they can't.
They actually can get what'scalled metal stomach, where you
actually have to go in withmagnets and remove parts of
metal and things like that.
Now they can eat things thatwill kill your cows and your
horses which is why they areamazing at weed management and
(03:39):
they can go in and do fireprevention by eating dried
leaves sticks.
They eat all of that and itcauses fire not to have a place
to burn.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Right Gets rid of the fuel exposure.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yes, sometimes all you got to do is get rid of the
dead branches, and goats thinkdried leaves are potato chips.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's funny.
So marketing is the heart ofevery business.
Who is your target client?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
All of them, I mean, are we?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
targeting people that want therapy, or are we
targeting people that want torescue animals?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Kind of a both.
We go and do events and I'vehad psychological counselors
come up to me and go what isthis goat therapy crap?
And I look at them and I'm like, well, did you smile when you
saw the goats?
And they go well, yeah, thenyou got goat therapy honey, and
it's as simple as seeing ananimal be goofy or being able to
(04:46):
pet an animal.
You know it's an endorphin rushto watch these animals play and
have a great time.
But we also want to try to findsome of them homes.
We do.
We had over 30 adoptions lastyear.
It's a few, but we're verypicky.
(05:07):
We don't want to re-rescue, soyou're going to go through a
process in order to adopt.
But we also teach classes onhow to maintain your goats
properly, called Goat 101, whereyou come for our class.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
How do you market yourself right now, because it's
such a unique thing?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We don't.
To be honest, we're really busy.
This next month alone, I have14 events going on, at least in
the next 30 to 40 days.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Have you ever thought about podcasting?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I have, but I kind of need somebody who's a little
more technical savvy than I am.
Unfortunately, I grew up in atime pre-computer and then I was
military and computers werekind of thought of evil Because
you didn't want your informationto get found out on them.
(06:06):
You know and I was, was medical, so we were very careful about
what we posted or wrote.
So I'm still a little thathesitant self, so I'm looking
for interns right now understood.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
What do you do for fun outside of not dealing with
technology?
Speaker 3 (06:23):
um, actually you'd be shocked.
I sit and I play with the goats, and when you have baby goats
running around, you don't reallyhave a bad day I'll bet I used
to have ferrets.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's a world that most people don't understand,
and it's fun I have a chinchilla.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's awesome, I thought about that.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
that was on the table when I was thinking about
ferrets.
Jennifer, what's one takeawaythat people should take away
from our interaction today, thispodcast?
What do you want people toremember about J&J?
Second Chance small holdings?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That you know there is a second chance out there for
everybody.
Just because you can't find oneat this exact moment, you know
there is another one out there.
And if all else fails, comewatch our silly videos we post
on TikTok.
We don't post anything sad,unhappy on any social media.
It's always positivity.
(07:23):
And if you really need help,come on out and visit us.
You know we have goat visitswhere you can come out and sit
with the baby goats and feedthem.
We can come feed the Highlandcows.
You can come feed the miniaturehorses.
You know, if you need a littlehappy, we'll share ours with you
.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
That's beautiful.
Well, jennifer, we reallyappreciate you being on the show
and we wish you and J&J SecondChance Small Holdings the very
best moving forward.
Oh, one more thing Please tellour listeners all of the
addresses where they can findout more about J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings on social mediawebsite and then the
old-fashioned way by phonewebsite and then the old
(08:07):
fashioned way by phone, noproblem.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So we have a big website called
jnjsecondchancesmallholdingscom.
Or, if you really want to gosimple, go to thegoatladiescom.
That's our secondary website,where you can then find us on
our primary website.
We are on TikTok, instagram,facebook as JNJ Second Chance
Small Holdings, which you canall get off our website.
We are on TikTok, instagram,facebook as J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings, which you canall get off our website.
(08:28):
We're also on YouTube underWyoming Small Holdings, and then
we are in Rock River, wyoming.
We are only by appointmentbecause we are very busy and we
are always out there taking careof almost 300 animals, and so
we want your experience to bejust for you, and so that's part
(08:50):
of the reason why we asked youto make an appointment.
You can email us atthegoatladies L-A-D-I-E-S 307 at
gmailcom, and if all else failsand you just want some happy
photos, you can always text usat 307-772-1220.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
And you know, just send me a text, I'll send you a
silly photo of a goat beinggoofy, like sticking their face
out and going ah Well, Jennifer,we really appreciate you being
on the show and we definitely dowish you and J&J Second Chance
Small Holdings the very bestmoving forward.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And you know that we are a nonprofit, federally
recognized.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, you can actually help support the
animals through our website.
There's a Zephy account.
It charges us zero.
We lose no income through them.
So if you donate a hundreddollars, a hundred dollars goes
straight to the animals, andright now we're raising funds to
get hay.
Unfortunately, we go throughabout 200 round bales a year and
(09:58):
about eight ton of grain.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently ton of
grain.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not just for horses, apparently no.
And we get in a lot of senioranimals because people move or
retire or pass away and so weend up with a lot of those
animals.
They're not meant to beneglected, they're just things
happen in people's lives andwe're the ones who try to pick
up the slack.
But my last vet bill was fortynine hundred dollars.
It hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
No, I thought you need the funds right.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Always, and you can donate directly to our vet or
whomever if you'd rather,instead of donating through us.
But we are a tax write off forthose that are looking for that.
You know we're happy to sendyou videos and pictures and we
always send a thank you forsupporting us letter where you
get a goofy the goat of themonth picture and we actually
(10:55):
have a couple of goats withfollowings that people only
donate to that specific goat and, yes, you can pick your goat.
You can even name a goat afteryourself or someone you love.
We always have goats that neednames because they come into us
without names and we like togive everybody a name.
Heck, even our turkeys havenames.
(11:15):
We have.
Jeffries and Girly Girl yes,very creative.
I have goats named Pickles,Whirlpool, like the washing
machine, not the water.
Yeah, we have some veryinteresting names, but we love
it and we try to remember themall.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, that's beautiful.
Jennifer, we really appreciateyou being on the show and, like
I said, we wish you guys thebest moving forward.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Thank you so much, and you too Thank you for
allowing us to come on and kindof talk about ourselves a little
bit.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
No problem, thank you .
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPfortCollinscom.
That's GNPfortCollinscom, orcall 970-438-0880.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!