Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. Whata great idea, fun I heard radio
Welcome to Maria's MutS and Stuff andwith me today. I'm so very excited
to learn and to talk with DanielleMania about Utter Chaos Farm Sanctuary. So,
(00:21):
Danielle, thanks for taking some timeout. Yeah, thank you so
much for having me. Absolutely,so let's talk about it. It is
a farm sanctuary that is in rightdown New Jersey and how long has it
been in existence? So we actuallyjust turned to at the end of June.
We took over an old beef cattlefarm. Actually it was my grandfather's
(00:47):
friend's farm. He ended up passingaway from his injuries from a fire there
and we just knew that we couldn't, you know, let anything happen to
these animals, So we took overfrom there. We started with ten cats.
All of them are pregnant because itwas a beast catle operation. Sure,
and so now we have sixteen.We've grown quite a little heard in
(01:10):
the last two years. Um,you know, everybody's been neutered since um
and we've been able to rescue acouple more goats in the last two years
as well. Oh my goodness,that's amazing that. I mean, I'm
sorry about your grandfather's friend. Um, but I feel like as a result
of that tragedy, it's it's thisblossomed out of it, like kudos to
you, thank you. Yeah,it's definitely been a very interesting journey over
(01:37):
the last two years. But uhyeah, we know, make the best
of it and tried to keep allthe cows happy and safe and give them
there forever home. Wow. Yeah, I'm sure. So did you have
any farming in your background or wasthis like baptism by fire that you learned
as you went along? For sure, baptism by fire. I have a
(01:57):
background in animal affair and just workingin different animal shelters over the last probably
thirteen years or so. Okay,so dogs, cats, gerasing, stuff
like that. I've done farm animals. It's a totally different world. Yeah,
it's crazy. Well tell me sayingit's crazy, what's one of the
craziest or um, Like, yeah, what's something that the most unexpected thing
(02:21):
that would happen that knowing stuff aboutdogs, you'd be like, oh,
I know this is I know howto do this. But it was something
crazy that happened. Honestly, justtrying to even get a vet to come
out, and just learning the differenttypes of cows and different breeds and everything
like that was really difficult. There'ssuch a shortage of veterinarians already across the
(02:44):
US, even just for dogs,cats, private practice everything like that,
so trying to find a farm vetthat actually has cow experience really difficult too.
So we're lucky that, you know, after some difficult trials and yeah
issues that we've had going on,everybody's now healthy, happy, we have
(03:06):
a great vet that comes out.I luckily, with my background animal affair,
I can the least like administer myown vaccines if I need to.
But we have a vet that comesout for all emergency stuff and whatever else
that we could possibly need. That'sdefinitely been the hardest. Um even just
trying to figure out how to usea tractor. Oh, I'm sure that
you know that was not my fiveyear plan things to learn And yeah,
(03:30):
well that makes sense. I meanthat's something crazy like Okay, I saw
a tractor on green acres, butI don't know how to use it,
you know, Yeah, And likeI can't drive stick a stick car,
manual car, and then trying tohop on like a massive tractor and that's
all manual. I'm like, well, I guess I'll figure out how to
use a clutch today, right right, I can imagine. Yeah. And
(03:51):
do you have like a big staff, do you have a many people to
help you or I have a feelingyou're small. It's small. Yeah,
we're very small. All so weall of the donations that go towards the
farms stay at the farm. Wedon't really we don't pay anybody for their
salaries. Um. I have afull time job outside of it. My
boyfriend is a full time job outsideof it as well. But we do
(04:13):
have a team of about ten orso really cool volunteers that come pretty much
once a week, sometimes twice aweek, and they help us out tremendously
throughout the day. That's amazing.So you could definitely use volunteers in like
the New Jersey area, correct,New York, New Jersey area, Yeah,
definitely. And we set up acouple of volunteer days for the people
that can't volunteer as regular as weneed them to. So we'll do like
(04:38):
group volunteer days about once a monthevery other month, especially in the warmer
weather, right right. And thendo you get do you get like you
know, every once in a whileand it goes and it's all over the
news all the time. If ifa cow runs away from a slaughterhouse and
then it goes to a sanctuary,would a cow like that come to you
(05:00):
you to utter chaos? We wouldlove too. That is the main goal
we've been able to, like Isaid before, like rescue some more goats.
There was one goat on the propertywhen we took it over. So
we've been able to add actually fivemore on a couple more coming in a
couple of weeks. A wow.The situation that we've been working on,
So the smaller animals have been easierto manage right now, but we're still
(05:25):
recovering a lot of the property tomake sure we have proper quarantine areas if
we do bring in more cattle andstuff like that. I mean, starting
with sixteen cows was very costly.Oh, I'm sure. I mean,
I'm just kind of amazed by thiswhole thing because I mean, you know
how people you know, anyone whoworks in animal rescue, what is your
(05:46):
dream? Oh, to have ashelter? You know, you come across
a beef arm, Well what isyour dream, oh, to change us
into a sanctuary, and you guysdid it, which is pretty incredible.
Yeah, you know it, Iknow, but I know you're kind of
modest about it, but it's prettyincredible because it's kind of like every animal
rescue, animal welfare person's dream tobe able to do what you've done.
(06:10):
So, I mean, I'm justI kind of flabbergasted at how the whole
like the whole process. Did ittake years to do? Was it?
Was? It a lot of redtape? So the whole I guess,
like the very beginning of the farm. The farm, the fire that happened
was on March ninth, twenty twentyone, and he was unfortunately airlifted from
(06:33):
the property with severe of severe burnsand he was out in Philadelphia in Jefferson's
burn unit for a while. Andthen once things started to decline even more,
I kind of knew that, like'sif he's going to come back to
the property, it's not going tobe in the full capacity that he is
going to be able to even managefeeding them, let alone all the other
(06:57):
care that goes into taking care oflivestock. So my partner and I had
a conversation with my parents and justsaid, basically, you know, I
know, you guys don't want athing to happen to the cows. We
don't want to see anything happen.You know, none of us can even
save them, sending them to auctionor trying to rehome them. You know,
it's very it's so difficult. Nobodyhas cows as pets essentially. So
(07:21):
as soon as you know, myparents kind of they agreed that, like,
you know, this is the bestsolution, Like, let's try it
out. We said, you know, if we can at least break even
within the first year, we'll continueto go and we'll just continue to grow
and you know, recover more ofthe property to try to make some more
room for some more animals in thelong term. So within the first month
(07:43):
or so of just really realizing thatlike he probably wasn't going to come back
in the good capacity, if hewas going to come back at all,
we did apply for a five oneC three and we got that in June
I think it's actually June twenty seven, twenty eight of twenty twenty one,
so we just made two years.There's like an act. Wow, that's
so cool. Yeah, congrats.Yeah, thank ye. Yeah, it's
(08:03):
so crazy, I'm sure, justdoesn't even feel real, right, So
we're you know, I'm lucky inthe aspect that I do a little bit
of a fun raising background. Sowe made a monthly sponsorship program where people
can sponsor any of the animals inour care and read about them on our
website, will send out like quarterlygifts, and we'll do quarterly visitor days,
(08:24):
little luncheons and stuff at the farm. Also try to have that more
like personal touch for the people thatdo donate to us. Sure, and
we were able to just about breakeven and you know, rescue a couple
more animals here and there. Sowe're doing it. You are like said,
it doesn't feel real, fat,I'm sure making it work, and
it's yeah, I mean it's it'stwo years, which is INCREDI I mean,
(08:46):
it's really incredible and you're probably tooclose to it to realize how incredible
it is, but it really is, because it's true. It's like everybody's
dream to do what you're doing.And the fact that you save these animals
and you're running this farm and it'sa sanctuary and and you you get donations.
I know that's how you survive.And I'm going to give out your
(09:07):
your site a million times so mylisteners can help. But I just think
it's really incredible, you know,I really, you know, you really
deserve a huge, ginormous pat onthe back for doing it because it's so
great. I just think it's socool. Like I have to come visit
you now. Yeah, You're forsure welcome whenever you know, let me
know you're You're always welcome to comeby. Well, thank you. Looking
(09:31):
forward obviously to keep it going.Um, do you have not a goal
but a dream of what the likeI know you have goats with the cows.
Do you have a dream of havingmore animals or or is it still
too new to think that far ahead? Absolutely? I mean I I'm very
realistic and very I to make aquick decision when I need to, um,
(09:54):
you know, and I try tobe realistic about our our means and
what we can do there. Um. But absolutely I would love to rescue
more. Um. You know,I have a lot of hopes and dreams
of building a better Barnum. Weactually just had a massive tree fall and
take out our hay shed on Monday. While again, like things we would
(10:15):
never expect. Sure, So,you know, to build a better area
for hay storage, we want tobuild another area as well. UM,
just like a little pavilion where wecan have our monthly yoga classes under a
shaded area. Right now, wedo it in like a smaller little pasture.
Um, and then after yoga,people can go out and visit the
cows and the goats and everything likethat. Um. I love chickens.
(10:39):
I've had chickens for the playoff pastlike six years at my house where we
still reside, So I'd love tobring them over there. And there's just
so many other animals that need rescuing. Um. Pigs are another one that
are huge, and there's just sohard to find homes for so I would
absolutely love to in the next Likeyou know, my five year plan is
to definitely exp and further than justthe cows and goats, right right,
(11:03):
No, that's awesome. Well,I just think that you're awesome. I
think this whole farm sanctuary thing isamazing. And of course the name is
great Utter Chaos. It just wasthat the name was that was That wasn't
the name when it was a beefcattle farm? Right? No, No,
um, he didn't really have aname for it. Um. He
sold both beef here and there,and then with the pandemic and everything that
(11:26):
hit, really he stopped. Um. And then with everything else like regular
illness and then the um yeah.Yeah. So we when we were thinking
about, you know, applying fora five on three and like getting a
name for the farm, we threwaround so many things. Um, we
really like the monsters, so wewanted to do maybe a spin on the
(11:46):
monsters. And then we're like,oh, you know, I love the
Golden Girls and like, yeah aboutlike shady pines, like a nice retirement
community theme. Um. And thena friend of ours was like, no,
you should do like a for chaosbecause this place is insane, because
it's just everything that the snowballs andhappens over the last the first year,
(12:07):
let alone the last two. It'sso clever. Utter Chaos. It's a
perfect name. It's so perfect nowit really is so okay. So for
my listeners, I want them togo and help you utter chaos dot org.
They can learn all about the sanctuary. They can also make donations,
they can volunteer, they can seeevents because you have fundraising events as well.
(12:30):
Listed yep. Yeah, absolutely.We have our Blueberry Festival coming up
on July fifteenth at our friends ClementFarm at their blueberry Farm in Pemberton,
New Jersey. Last year with ourfirst year doing it, and it's all
take your own blueberries across their televiakerblueberry field. We had about thirty vendors
last year and some other raffles,prizes and stuff like that, and this
(12:54):
year we have sixty five vendors anda bunch of food trucks and it's just
so much a larger event. Lastyear we had about five hundred people come,
so we're in fitcipeding. I looksort of like seven or eight hundred
this year, so which would beWe're excited. That's our big fundraiser of
the year. Yeah. Yeah,it's big, and it's something I think.
It's it's cheap. It's like fifteenbucks to get in. I mean,
it's it's cheap. And I sawthat you could. I mean that's
(13:15):
where I first learned about you fromthat press release. And you can get
up to like four pounds of blueberriesand see all these vendors and help you
out. So it's all like winwin, good good, and that's July
fifteenth, correct, yes, yes, yeah, July fifteens from ten to
three yep. Excellent. Well Danielle, thank you so much, Utter chaos
dot org. For those who arelistening, and I know people who listen
(13:37):
to this podcast, I know thatthey are totally into animal rescue, animal
welfare because why why they listen?So let's help out Danielle so she can
continue doing this amazing job of savingthese cows and goats and chickens and pigs
down the road and everything else.Utter chaos dot Org. Danielle, thank
you, and more power to you. And I hope this last forever for
you because I think it's so cool. I really thank you, thank you.
(14:01):
Yeah, you'll have to come visitone day. I will. I
promise I'll come visit. Never beena bad operator and just want to see
you later. Moericator