You Can Visit This Incredible Farm Animal Sanctuary
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forever
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what's up everybody welcome back to
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another episode of greetings from the
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garden state i'm mike hamm we're here at
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tamerlane sanctuary and preserve in
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montague new jersey with peter nussbaum
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peter welcome to the show thanks so much
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for having me well thank you for having
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me here so this is our the second time
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we've done an outdoor episode but
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honestly the first time was not nearly
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as picturesque as this is so if you're
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watching on youtube
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people could see us on youtube over
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there we got the fields the hills the
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trees the animals i'm sure we're going
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to hear some because dottie's walking
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around i don't know where she where she
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is right now but um but yeah so tell me
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like where are we what is this place
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yeah so uh tamerlane sanctuary preserve
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we're sitting here
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overlooking our
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336-acre sanctuary for
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rescued farm animals so we rescue abused
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abandoned neglected geese
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geese ducks
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chickens goats cows pigs sheep
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horses
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they all come to us from awful
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situations yeah and their sole job here
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once they come live at the sanctuary
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this is their forever home once they're
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here their only job is just to live out
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their best life our job is to give them
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their best life and we take that job
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very seriously yeah
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we have
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about 250 animals and we have 15 people
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on the staff taking care of the animals
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we
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started the sanctuary and i guess the
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cameras set up nicely so that i can sort
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of point this up but
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if you look at that ridge straight over
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that way right on the other side of it
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my wife and i have a house a farm much
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smaller farm 40 acre farm and in 2013
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my wife called me up at work i don't do
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this as an occupation i was going to ask
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about that too because i know what you
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do we'll get into that yeah in a minute
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yeah this is a this is a labor of love
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it is uh business-wise it's the
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stupidest thing you could ever do but
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it's the most rewarding thing you could
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ever do right so one day she called me
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up at work in 2013 and she said we're
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adopting two roosters now at this point
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we had dogs and cats we loved chickens
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we loved all animals we believe that all
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animals should be treated you know
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properly and humanely by humans
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uh but i was a little skeptical because
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we had never cared for chickens before
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and she said don't worry it's gonna be
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great we had a garden we were growing
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all of our own peppers we make hot sauce
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and she said we're going to put a little
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coop in the yard they're going to
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be your favorite animals you just wait
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and i was like all right so that it was
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the summer i came home came up here from
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my my day job on friday evening met the
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two roosters by the next morning
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saturday morning i went out to the
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garden where they were hanging out i was
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smitten head over love head over heels
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in love with these two guys and they
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quickly became part of the family so
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much so
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it was such a profound realization for
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us so literally within a week instead of
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having two dog balls down in our kitchen
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for breakfast for the dogs we had four
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bowls down because the dogs and the two
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roosters named yuri and jupiter yeah the
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four of them would eat breakfast
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together awesome they figured out
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quickly that when we opened up their
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coop door
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where the food was they'd make a beeline
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for our kitchen they were hanging out
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with the dogs yeah and we said you know
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what we got to share this with people so
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we started taking in a few more chickens
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before you knew it we had 200 some odd
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animals over at our little farm
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and then uh one day my wife called me up
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at work again end of 2017 and she said
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there's a for sale sign here
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and my reaction to that was like oh god
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here we go because i know how my wife
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thinks and i know that this is a massive
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magical beautiful historic property this
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house that we're sitting uh outside of
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right now is built in 1774.
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and the family that built this house was
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here all the way until the 1940s same
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family yeah second family came along in
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the 1940s that family was here until we
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got it so we're the third owner and the
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second family turned this place into a
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winery okay and it was a really cool
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place because we were right over the
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ridge we would take friends here for
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wine tastings you know
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destination spot up here in in sussex
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county and when she said there was a for
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sale sign i knew where she was going and
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i knew that we had like 25 in the bank
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and i was guessing that the asking price
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was going to be a bit higher than that
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yeah i would imagine so i said to her uh
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yeah and she said
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we gotta turn that into the sanctuary
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and i said you're nuts there's no way
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she said i'm gonna find a foundation to
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help us yeah and i said no you're not
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there's no foundation that's gonna help
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us i was the total pessimist naysayer
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knocking down her her dreams
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yeah and she didn't like that too much
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and she said watch me and i should have
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known right then and there when she said
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watch me that we would be
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occupying this in uh short order because
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she she usually is pretty persistent in
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getting
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you know making dreams happen if it was
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up to me we'd be we'd be doing nothing
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um
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she uh she found a foundation and the
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foundation agreed to help us acquire
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this property the family the second
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family that had the winery at this point
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there were six siblings in their 50s and
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60s that owned the property together
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they decided to sell they had another
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winery down in south carolina they
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decided to consolidate
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and
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even with the help of the foundation
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they had offers from other people that
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were considerably higher than what we
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could muster up to pay yeah and the six
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siblings got together they came to us
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and they said look we have higher offers
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from you know legitimate bona fide
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purchasers
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um
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our mother and their mother passed away
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in the 1970s they said she loved animals
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so much she would rescue any animal onto
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the farm that she could
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and in her memory in her honor we've
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decided to leave a lot of money on the
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table we want to honor her by having
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this place become your sanctuary wow and
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so they're still involved in what we're
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doing and it was just you know we got
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super lucky
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all the stars were aligned and we were
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able to move over here so um yeah that
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that's basically the history of the
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place yeah which i think is incredible
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and you mentioned in that answer also
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like a lot of that is there's so much to
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unpack which we will get to over the
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course of this episode but you mentioned
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at one point in that uh answer that this
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is not your day job so you're an
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attorney correct by day yeah and then a
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animal saver by afternoon i guess
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so um yeah uh this is my second
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full-time job although this is a
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non-paying job so it's my wife's
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full-time job again non-paying so again
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the business model is crazy uh we're the
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biggest donors to the sanctuary
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it's her full-time job for free it's my
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second full-time job
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we don't have much time for rest or
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vacation but that's okay because we're
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we're really doing what we love yeah and
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so like for example we're out here i'm i
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have the the uh pleasure of talking to
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you i've been doing lawyer stuff at our
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house on the other side of the ridge
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since seven o'clock this morning when
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we're done showing you around the farm
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introducing you to the animals
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i'll go back to being a lawyer yeah
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what's been really nice during covid and
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i hate to say anything has been nice
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about covid but rather than commuting
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down to the city yeah i have offices in
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west orange and in new york city and we
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have an apartment down there
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rather than commuting back and forth
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i've been working remote from here and
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so i've really gotten to spend a lot
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more time at the farm without having to
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you know break it up with these big
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commuting times so all the commuting
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time
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is extra time that i get to spend with
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people introducing them to the animals
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and spending time with the animals
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myself yeah so one of the other things
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that i thought was interesting about
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that too is that you're talking about
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how you have this small farm on the
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other side of this ridge you said it was
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like 30 acres 40 40 acres 40 acres which
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is nothing to sneeze at by any stretch
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of the imagination but this is 336 i
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think you said yeah i mean that is like
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next level yeah type stuff and so did
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you have like did you like grow up on a
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farm did you have a background in farm
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like so animals stuff like that yeah
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it's so funny that you ask so i catch
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myself when i say 40 acre small 40-acre
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farm i grew up in an apartment in queens
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yeah when we got so in 2002 we moved out
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here it was a weekend place we were
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living in new york city
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uh my father was in a nursing home up in
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andover in new jersey and we were coming
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up and visiting him a lot and my wife
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who had grown up in new york city she
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wanted to get a place out in the country
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and when we got that 40 acre place i had
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never seen anything that big i would
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walk around pinching myself that we had
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this farm so i recognize saying a 40
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acre farm is small comparatively
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speaking well right exactly yeah
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compared to this it's massive for you
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know queen's apartment boy that's for
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sure right and so like you have this 40
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acre farm and you know two of you i
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guess are you know working with the
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animals i mean before you adopted the
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two roosters did you have a lot of
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animals on the farm none
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except for our dogs dogs and cats yeah
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and then eventually you wind up with 200
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on that 40-acre farm and then expand it
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out to this right correct so
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just talk to me about the undertaking
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that that is with not a you know
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you know considerably not a ton of
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experience working with animals you know
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especially at the level that you're
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doing right now and then getting here
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and then just being like hey we're gonna
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go from 200 animals on this small farm
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to now here and how many do you have
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here now about 250 about 250. yeah so
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basically you know kind of like a
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transportation type thing over here
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right correct yeah we transitioned from
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that place to this place now
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yeah so big learning curve yeah and uh
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we did it slowly we did it gradually so
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we didn't have 200 animals in 2013 when
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we started right it took time by 2017 we
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had 200 animals and mostly smaller
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animals mostly chickens and ducks and
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turkeys i think when we moved over we
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had 21 goats maybe
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four or five pigs
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we didn't have any cows we didn't have
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any horses
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so
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we learned as we went yeah we brought in
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people to help us we work with all the
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local farm vets we hired some people who
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worked on farms before us and we learned
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yeah and my my wife learned really well
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i mean she has become an authority on
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care of a particular type of chicken
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called cornish cross chickens
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and we have remarkable success giving
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them
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long healthy
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enriched lives that they don't live
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anywhere else so just to give you an
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idea and i don't know if you want me to
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hold off on getting into the specifics
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of the animals well yeah so i think one
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of the things would be interesting
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because before we start before we
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wrapped up this first segment yeah um is
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just you know you mentioned they come
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from a lot of you know rough situations
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like what what are some maybe examples i
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guess some of these
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like the type of animal that you're
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you're helping here sure so we rescue
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the animals from religious rituals
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from hoarding situations
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from um animal agriculture trucks that
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flip over leaving the animals you know
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scrambling on the side of the road
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from neglect cases we get calls we work
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with
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humane officers in different towns and
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counties and prosecutors offices
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and the aspca and other rescue groups
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farmed animals are
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very often discarded you know there's
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really no use for them they're not worth
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a lot of money yeah so if people can
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make money off of them they will once
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they're no longer valuable um
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there's a lot of need we have a ton of
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roosters roosters are of no use to
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anyone you know so um there's no
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shortage of animals we unfortunately
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have to turn animals away we get calls
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every single day to take animals in
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right and you know what i think is so
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interesting about that too before we
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wrap up here is that like this is not
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just
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you running a farm this is like you
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taking these animals that come from
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those rough situations that you're
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talking about so it's not just like you
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know you have some pigs and then they
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have babies then you have more pigs and
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you just kind of like do the whole
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farming process with those pigs right
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you know this is like you rescue this
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pig and i would imagine some of them are
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a little bit maybe effed up from some of
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those situations that they've come from
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is that true too yeah yeah sure i mean
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we we uh we rescued one of the first
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pigs that we rescued a girl named clara
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she's a pot belly pig big pot belly pig
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we got her from a neglect case where she
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had been locked in a bathroom for two
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years before we got her holy um and
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she was a little bit edgy she's come
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around she's super sweetheart now she's
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been with us since 2014.
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um
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we don't use the animals here so you
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know we don't use them
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we're not um it would be completely
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irresponsible for us if we were breeding
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and making more animals could be a
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sanctuary right yeah yeah well well
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beyond that i mean so we we we don't eat
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them we don't use them for food or dairy
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or eggs um but we we um
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we we neuter all the guys when they come
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in because we don't want to add to the
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problem by creating more babies we do
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have babies who come in uh when we
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rescue a mother with our babies or when
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we rescue a pregnant mother right but um
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yeah
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yeah yeah no it's so interesting and i
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can't wait to get to more but we're
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gonna take our first break uh quick
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break here this is the greetings from
12:53
the garden state podcast i'm mike hamm
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we're here at the tamerlane sanctuary
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and preserve in montague new jersey with
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peter nussbaum we'll be right back
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it is time for today in new jersey
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history on january 10 1946 the u.s army
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successfully reflected radar signals off
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the moon the experiment called project
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diana after the roman goddess of the
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moon was held at camp evans a part of
13:16
fort monmouth in wall new jersey and
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that is today in new jersey history
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all right we're back this is the
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greetings from the garden state podcast
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i'm mike ham we're here at tamerlane
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sanctuary and preserve in montague new
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jersey with peter nussbaum so peter in
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the first segment we talked to kind of
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your background how it doesn't
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necessarily like exactly coincide with
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what you're doing now but you're doing
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it now um and it's great and we talked
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about why it's great and all that kind
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of stuff but was this something you know
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the the you mentioned that you don't use
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the animals for really anything uh milk
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eggs meat all that kind of stuff which
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is great
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but also is that something that has
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always been the way that you've kind of
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operated or was that something that kind
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of maybe as you learned more about
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industries like that that that was
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something you wanted to kind of pursue
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more yeah sure so you know where my wife
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and i happened to be vegan and were um
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animal rights uh proponents that wasn't
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always the case we weren't always vegan
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we always loved animals we're always
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compassionate towards animals for as
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long as i can remember we always went
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out of our way to buy humanely raised
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meat and humanely sourced eggs and
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mainly sourced dairy that was very
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important to us
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one thing that i tell people about what
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we're doing here and so let me back up a
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second sure our mission here is to
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rescue and protect and care for
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uh abused abandoned neglected exploited
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farm animals and a big part of it is
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bringing people to the farm so we have a
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big educational component we work with
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schools we work with
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we do private tours we do public tours
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we bring people in and a big goal of
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ours is to introduce people to animals
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that are generally only thought of as
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sources of food yeah and for us uh
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there's nothing greater than giving
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people an opportunity to connect with
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the animals 90 of the people that come
15:06
here aren't vegan one thing that i know
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some certain you know fact is that
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being vegan doesn't make you all of a
15:14
sudden compassionate towards animals
15:16
everybody's compassionate towards
15:17
animals everybody loves animals i know
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firsthand i loved animals every bit as
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much before i was vegan
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um and so we're not these people who are
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bringing here to judge them and
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proselytize to them and say you have to
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be vegan or you're a monster or a bad
15:32
person or you're not kind to animals
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nothing could be farther from the truth
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as far as we're concerned it's very
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important for us to introduce people
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these animals in a manner that they can
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make the connection and do whatever they
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do whether it's become vegetarian or
15:46
vegan or
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think
15:50
about using animal products a little bit
15:52
less whatever connection they make is
15:53
fine by us but we want to give them the
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outlet to make the connection and that's
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why we're doing what we're doing yeah so
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our mission involves that but it equally
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involves conservation and preservation
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we care a lot about the planet the
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environment and the wildlife and
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what's incredibly important to us
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is not to screw things up for the
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animals that have been inhabiting this
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property
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uh for generations
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by clearing away space for the rescued
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animals you know good case in point when
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we moved over to this property uh
16:22
directly behind you where your viewers i
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don't know if they can see in the in the
16:27
uh camera angle but um there's a big
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pond back there and to us that pond
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looked like a great spot to bring our 20
16:34
some some-odd rescue ducks
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we quickly quickly realized that there
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were
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wild ducks and wild geese that had been
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occupying and breeding in that pond for
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generations and if we had moved our
16:45
domestic ducks in there we would have
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had to
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make changes we would have had to put we
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put string over all the tops of the
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areas
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that our small animals live in we do
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that it's a great deterrent it keeps
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eagles and hawks from swooping in right
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we would had to put that up over that
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big pond and it would have worked it
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would have deterred the eagles and hawks
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from coming in but it would also have
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deterred the wildlife from coming back
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to their native place and we would never
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do that same thing we have 300
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now 70 some odd acres because the two
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properties touch up on top of the ridge
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you know if we were diabolical we could
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say wow we could rescue like ten
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thousand animals let's clear cut we'll
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clear cut the whole property we'll make
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pastures all over the place we would
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obviously never do that putting aside
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the great expense uh financially to do
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all that work it would be an even
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greater expense on the environment and
17:36
on
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the wildlife and so
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we have a real healthy balance here
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we're very fortunate to have this
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property and to have so much cleared
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pasture already and have such great
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infrastructure uh we do plan to expand
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so again behind you
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that way we have uh 26 acres that three
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cows live on okay it's pretty sweet
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sweet potatoes
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they're amazing cows and they deserve
17:59
every bit of it
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but we can put some more cows out there
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with them and one one project that we're
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in the beginning stages of working on is
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building a bigger cow barn yeah
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the barn that they live in right now
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which people might be able to see back
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there in the distance that red barn over
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there right um we repurposed that it was
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basically a structure built in the 1800s
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here and the the roof was pretty much
18:24
collapsed the walls were dilapidated it
18:27
was not usable the first thing that we
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did when we got here was we shored that
18:31
building back up and made it livable for
18:33
the cows and again it's great spot for
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the three cows
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we could uh do better so if any of your
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listeners viewers want to get involved
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there there are tons of ways that people
18:45
can get involved whether it's um you
18:47
know coming and volunteering if any
18:48
people are good with with a hammer
18:51
if any people want to donate or sponsor
18:53
an animal there are tons of
18:54
opportunities to get involved awesome
18:56
yeah um so one of the things that i
18:57
think is also interesting about that is
18:59
the fact that like you know so when you
19:02
were the stuff with the ducks and the
19:03
geese yeah and putting the string and
19:05
from deterring from like predatory birds
19:07
and that kind of stuff
19:09
do it like
19:10
it sounds so just common sense now right
19:14
but maybe when you first got here and
19:16
started that was it common sense did you
19:18
have to consult with maybe
19:21
i don't know farm animals other farm
19:23
animal sanctuaries because we were
19:25
talking about my old show just quick
19:27
sidebar i had a woman that runs the
19:29
gentle barn which is something that's
19:30
very similar ellie wax we had her on the
19:32
show and that was great we talked a lot
19:34
about some of the similar stuff that
19:35
she's doing with her i think she has
19:36
three one in california one in nashville
19:38
and one in st louis or something um and
19:41
uh
19:42
was that something you had to do to try
19:43
to like figure out you know like what
19:46
is gonna make the the best situation for
19:48
at the rescued animals the wildlife all
19:50
that kind of stuff yeah so um
19:53
we have a whole network of friends
19:56
there's a sanctuary network just by way
19:57
of example
19:59
um this past fall we rescued 600 some
20:02
odd chickens from a religious ritual
20:05
we weren't going to keep 600 chickens
20:07
but we have this network that we work
20:10
network of other sanctuaries these
20:12
chickens after we triaged them and got
20:14
them healthy they were transported to
20:16
sanctuaries all over the country we took
20:18
in a bunch of pigs three years ago
20:21
from a really horrible situation these
20:23
baby piglets were left in a ditch by a
20:26
guy with a petting zoo who realized that
20:28
they were all born with a congenital
20:29
defect they had a hernia that would have
20:31
required surgery this guy didn't want to
20:33
spend money on the surgery rather than
20:34
euthanizing them he just left them for
20:36
dead no food no water we got a call from
20:38
the county prosecutor they asked us if
20:40
we would take them in we did we took
20:41
them all in
20:43
we got them healthy bottle fed them
20:44
around the clock got them healthy enough
20:46
that they could have the surgeries
20:48
as they got healthier we knew that we
20:50
weren't going to keep these 11 500 pound
20:52
pigs
20:53
we started it's a lot of pigs we start
20:55
and they they were tiny when they
20:56
arrived but yeah they we knew they would
20:58
grow to 500 pounders so we started
21:00
transporting them to other friends of
21:02
our sanctuaries in north carolina and
21:04
georgia and south jersey and so
21:06
um yeah we learn from each other again
21:09
there's a whole network of sanctuaries
21:11
and you know you learn as you go so
21:15
uh did i know in 2013 about putting
21:18
straight i mean a strength like
21:20
the only thing that i knew how to do on
21:22
this farm in 2013 was tie my shoes you
21:24
know like i we really we really learned
21:27
as as we went right
21:29
you know yes and as i said we rely on
21:32
veterinarians and other rescuers who
21:34
have been doing it longer than us yeah
21:36
and you have an opportunity to consult
21:37
with them and you know just maybe ask
21:39
questions because that's obviously a big
21:41
thing correct right yeah awesome um so i
21:44
don't want to dwell on this part of this
21:46
segment for too long um but the last
21:49
year and a half obviously has presented
21:50
a lot of challenges by the time this
21:52
episode posts i think it's going to wind
21:53
up being close to two years so i always
21:55
just say year and a half because it just
21:56
feels okay to say that as opposed to two
21:59
years um a lot of challenges for a lot
22:01
of different types of businesses and
22:02
we've had
22:03
non-profits to you know for-profit
22:05
businesses restaurant service
22:08
the whole
22:08
gamut of different types of businesses
22:10
and places that we've had on the show
22:12
and it's obviously affected everybody
22:14
you know in different ways so how has
22:16
that impacted you i mean you talked
22:18
about how like you're the you and your
22:19
wife are the biggest donors here for the
22:21
for the sanctuary and all that kind of
22:23
stuff but did that come into play with
22:25
with the stuff that you were dealing
22:26
with yeah so so covid was a challenge
22:29
you know it brought some great things so
22:31
i'll i'll touch on the positives first
22:33
yeah i like that yeah
22:35
one positive of kovit as i may have
22:37
mentioned um i got to spend a lot more
22:39
time here which was great so i wasn't
22:41
commuting to my office
22:43
um
22:45
excellent
22:46
working remote as a lawyer and being
22:48
close to the animals and close to the
22:49
farm was truly a blessing for me another
22:52
benefit is through our
22:55
zoom educational tours that we started
22:58
doing we reached more students in the
23:00
last year and a half than we reached in
23:02
the first seven years of the sanctuary
23:04
combined
23:05
a lot of the students who come visit us
23:07
at the sanctuary it's an ordeal you know
23:10
for a school trip to rent the yellow
23:12
school bus and bring everyone up here
23:13
for an hour two hour tour that's a whole
23:16
day now with these you know these zoom
23:18
online tours we introduce people the
23:21
animals we're mic'd up
23:23
um
23:24
they get
23:25
i won't say exactly the same experience
23:27
because there's something about you know
23:28
the tactile experience of being able to
23:30
you know touch and smell and hang close
23:33
with an animal but
23:35
again we reach so many people the the
23:37
teacher flips the switch and they're
23:39
with us for an hour and so that was a
23:41
beautiful thing yeah so just in terms of
23:44
reaching people it was fantastic
23:46
now are those things those some of these
23:48
positives that you're talking about
23:48
especially that the educational side are
23:50
those things that like you know
23:53
obviously you said that that
23:55
could be
23:56
it's a better experience actually coming
23:57
here and you know interacting with the
23:59
animals themselves like the kids and
24:01
everybody everybody that you would have
24:02
come here um but from the zoom side are
24:05
those things that you think that you may
24:06
continue
24:07
in the future yeah yeah without a doubt
24:09
yeah yeah it's just too convenient and
24:11
and so we would have classes come from
24:13
the surrounding area and as far away as
24:15
new york city and connecticut
24:17
um pennsylvania
24:18
now we're we're hitting classes all over
24:20
the world literally and it's just you
24:22
know it's it's been fantastic there's no
24:24
way we're gonna stop doing that yeah um
24:28
one of the one of the the downsides for
24:30
us to kovid unlike my legal profession
24:33
where it was pretty seamless we were all
24:34
able to set up our computers and work
24:36
from home and like most industry well
24:39
there are a lot of industries like the
24:40
hospitality industry a lot of my clients
24:42
who were horrifically impacted and
24:45
entertainment industry horrifically
24:46
impacted but professionals who sit at a
24:49
desk we all quickly realized that you
24:51
could get everything done if not as
24:54
productively maybe more productively
24:56
here
24:57
the animals need to be protected our
24:59
staff had to come in
25:00
um you know leaving the animals alone
25:03
was was not in the cards so
25:05
we were never able to shut down we did
25:07
shut down to visitors yeah
25:10
and we gradually reopened to visitors
25:12
first we had private tours only where we
25:14
would have one group of people and we
25:15
would check temperatures and you know
25:17
everybody had to establish that they
25:19
were healthy
25:20
and masks all the time for both our
25:23
staff and for those private tour
25:24
visitors we're now back to doing public
25:27
tours um
25:28
and
25:29
because we have the luxury of being
25:31
outside it's a little bit better it's
25:32
not like we're a theater or you know an
25:34
indoor restaurant but for our staff it
25:37
was a real ordeal you know we were
25:38
really concerned that if one staff
25:40
member got sick with kovid
25:43
it could easily spread to the entire
25:45
staff and if we lost our staff
25:48
you know we would we would figure out
25:49
ways to make it happen you know the
25:51
animals weren't going to let them starve
25:53
or not be cared for but that was the
25:55
biggest concern and thankfully we dodged
25:57
a bullet i think from the beginning of
25:59
covid through now we've had maybe three
26:03
employees test positive thankfully
26:05
nobody
26:06
you know nobody got um you know right
26:08
sick or you know really sick or died
26:10
um but uh yeah that was the biggest
26:13
challenge for us yeah that's that's
26:15
incredible um all right so we're gonna
26:16
take our second break our last break of
26:18
this episode uh so this is the greetings
26:20
from the garden state podcast i'm mike
26:22
hamm we're here at the tamerlane
26:23
sanctuary and preserve in monaco new
26:25
jersey with peter nussbaum we'll be
26:26
right back
26:28
it is time for new jersey fun fact of
26:30
the day did you know that the
26:31
hadrosaurus falci the first nearly
26:33
complete dinosaur skeleton to be
26:35
discovered virtually intact anywhere in
26:37
the world was unearthed in october 1858
26:39
in a moral pit in haddonfield new jersey
26:42
by william parker falk a member of the
26:44
prestigious academy of natural sciences
26:46
of philadelphia and that is your new
26:48
jersey fun fact of the day
26:51
[Music]
26:53
all right we're back for our last
26:55
segment of this greetings from the
26:56
garden state podcast episode i'm mike
26:58
ham we're here at tamerlane sanctuary in
26:59
montague new jersey with peter nussbaum
27:01
so peter we've gone through a lot over
27:03
the course of this episode so far we
27:04
talked about your background the
27:05
background of the the farm or the
27:07
sanctuary and the preserve um we've
27:09
talked about the future plans we've
27:11
talked about
27:13
we talked about dottie at some point who
27:15
you could hear in the mics um who
27:16
actually lives in your house right you
27:18
said that yeah yeah which i think a fun
27:20
fact for people that uh are listening uh
27:23
this is the first i've ever met peter
27:24
we've had some email exchanges but you
27:26
just walked out of your car just with a
27:28
rooster in your arm which i just thought
27:30
was
27:31
just something that you don't normally
27:32
see if any of your uh listeners viewers
27:35
think think that's weird i acknowledge
27:37
that it is
27:39
there's nothing normal about it but he
27:41
is right he's a part of our family and i
27:43
love that he's he's an elderly rooster
27:44
that we rescued a long time ago
27:47
he
27:48
doesn't really get along with other
27:49
roosters he over mounts hens and he has
27:51
balance problems now in his later years
27:54
and he just was he was withering
27:58
living in our animal care center our
27:59
infirmary and so we decided to bring him
28:01
home and that was about a year and a
28:03
half ago and he's thriving doing great
28:06
uh has a excellent appetite yeah and uh
28:08
good crow
28:09
yeah love that awesome um so he's
28:12
listening in while we're doing this
28:14
episode uh which i think is awesome um
28:16
but so the last segment that we do uh
28:19
for these episodes is always kind of
28:20
tying it back into the community because
28:22
this is a new jersey focus podcast we're
28:24
highlighting all the great things that
28:25
the state has to offer and obviously
28:27
this is one of those places that's why
28:28
we're here um so i think one of the
28:31
things that we've touched on quite a bit
28:32
and we talked about the importance of it
28:34
is just the importance of volunteers
28:37
coming and helping out here whether it
28:39
be like physically here at the sanctuary
28:42
or monetarily or whatever
28:44
so talk to me about the importance the
28:46
obvious importance of that and what
28:47
makes how that makes this place go sure
28:50
yeah so um
28:51
we are located in montague new jersey
28:54
for those that don't know if you look on
28:55
a map of new jersey we're we're the last
28:57
town yeah if you look at the triangle up
28:59
at the northern uh northwest corner of
29:02
the state the tippy top we're at that
29:04
point right on the border with
29:05
pennsylvania and new york state we're
29:08
next to port jervis and milford
29:10
matamoros pennsylvania right on the
29:12
delaware river it's one of the most
29:14
agricultural areas in the state and
29:17
our community is very important to us
29:19
most of our employees are from the area
29:22
most of our volunteers are from the area
29:24
our employees typical employee for us is
29:27
somebody who grew up
29:29
either living on or working on farms up
29:31
here
29:32
there are a couple of other sanctuaries
29:34
in the surrounding area but for the most
29:36
part
29:37
the people who start working here
29:38
they've worked on farms where animals
29:40
were being raised for
29:41
[Music]
29:43
for consumption or to produce milk or
29:45
eggs and
29:47
we have a tremendous amount of respect
29:51
for our neighbors and for our community
29:53
that's very important to us we invite
29:55
our community with open arms to come
29:56
here and again it's so important for us
29:58
not to be judging anyone
30:01
we
30:02
know so many people who are involved in
30:04
animal agriculture who are great people
30:07
you know there's this misconception i
30:09
believe in uh the animal rights movement
30:12
by some
30:13
that people who work in animal
30:14
agriculture are people who don't love
30:17
and care for animals yeah that's not
30:18
true
30:19
most people families that are involved
30:21
in animal agriculture especially up here
30:24
they're generational family farms and
30:27
they're not exploiting the animals
30:29
because they're greedy or because they
30:30
don't like animals it's what they do
30:32
it's what they know how to do sure and
30:34
we
30:35
we we have respect for them and um
30:37
there's a local organization it's almost
30:39
like a fraternal order like a moose
30:41
lodge or an elks lodge i don't know if
30:42
you've come across any of these in your
30:44
travels but it's called the grange okay
30:46
and different towns have yeah the grains
30:48
it's like a vfw okay i already said what
30:50
it's like so anyway um the the um
30:53
the local grange is comprised you know
30:55
it's it's an older population of people
30:57
that comprise the members of this grange
30:59
so the mount monaghan grange it's in
31:01
this old historic building and they meet
31:03
once a month and it's sort of like a
31:04
potluck and it's you know community
31:07
driven thing they they do uh community
31:10
service in the area and they invited us
31:12
to come speak now these are all
31:13
agricultural farming families a lot of
31:15
them who for generations have been using
31:18
animals the way that we're trying to
31:20
rescue animals from sure um and we went
31:23
and spoke and the connection that we
31:25
made with these people to the person
31:27
they were incredibly inviting and i i
31:29
think
31:30
at least a dozen or so of the 50 people
31:33
that were in the room came up to us
31:34
afterwards and said ah yeah
31:36
i'm drinking that oat milk the oat
31:38
milk's really great you know i had a
31:40
problem i'm lactose intolerant or my
31:43
niece or my daughter or my granddaughter
31:45
became vegan and i tried the food and
31:46
it's really good and oh yeah i love what
31:48
you guys are doing over there so
31:50
i think being attached to the community
31:52
is really important another thing if god
31:54
forbid we had a cow let's say at three
31:57
in the morning a cow goes down
31:59
um or any animal goes down um
32:02
and we need help
32:04
we're you know we love our animal rights
32:06
friends we have many in new york city
32:08
where we're from yeah we're not calling
32:10
them in williamsburg at three in the
32:11
morning to come help us with that
32:13
montague we're calling our neighbor who
32:15
has been involved with cows and dairy
32:17
their whole life they'll drop everything
32:19
they'll be here at three in the morning
32:20
and they'll do what has to be done to
32:22
help us get that cow
32:23
you know righted and knocking on one
32:25
that hasn't happened but we know that if
32:27
it were to happen right we can rely on
32:29
our neighbors yeah and as i'm sure it
32:31
probably would go both ways 100 right
32:34
and was that something that maybe was a
32:36
concern at the beginning because you
32:37
know like we i mean the obvious
32:40
uh you know like what you just talked
32:42
about i mean obviously like you went you
32:43
were proactive and you know tried to at
32:45
least educate and just kind of put
32:47
yourselves out there like hey we're not
32:48
saying that everything you're doing is
32:51
demonic and it needs to be stopped and
32:52
we're gonna take away your livelihood um
32:55
but was that something that maybe like
32:56
as you started progressing through this
32:58
process back in 2013 i hope i got the
33:00
year right yeah um 2013 was that
33:03
something that you were just like hey
33:04
like this might be a problem or is that
33:06
just something that you didn't really
33:08
because you've lived here for longer
33:09
than that right yeah yeah you know look
33:11
i'll i'll tell you when we first moved
33:12
here in 2002 we really didn't have ties
33:14
to the area at all
33:16
and we had some misconceptions that
33:18
people have you know this very rural
33:20
area we didn't know how we would be
33:21
received
33:22
um this is it's a great community there
33:25
are great people here uh i i have faith
33:28
in human beings you know whether you
33:29
have different political beliefs or you
33:32
know religious beliefs or if you eat
33:33
animals or if you're you know storm
33:35
staunch
33:36
animal rights activists i think the
33:39
similarities that we all have
33:42
are stronger than the differences and i
33:44
know that sounds hokey especially after
33:46
what this country's been through the
33:47
last bunch of years right but i i truly
33:50
believe that up here and we have all
33:51
different types of people who come
33:53
through
33:54
and everybody just has a great
33:56
experience when they come here and i
33:58
think we're really inviting and open and
34:00
i think that's that's super important
34:02
yeah and talk to me also about the
34:04
education side of it because we talked a
34:05
little bit about the zoom education
34:06
classes that you guys would do um
34:09
the
34:09
education side of it like are there
34:12
programs like you talked about the tours
34:13
so people could come here take a tour
34:15
kind of learn but talk to me more about
34:16
like the educational side of it like
34:18
what you're trying to connect with those
34:20
people that come and take those classes
34:22
yeah so um we are
34:25
providing humane education essentially
34:26
and it depends upon the audience so
34:28
we're not going to be throwing
34:30
harsh humane education
34:32
stuff at second graders third graders
34:35
yeah but we're explaining to people who
34:37
really don't have a connection with the
34:39
food that they're eating where it comes
34:40
from people don't understand how animal
34:43
agriculture works on large scale they
34:45
don't understand the
34:47
horrible lives that the animals in
34:49
animal agriculture live they don't
34:51
understand the severe impact that it's
34:53
having on the environment and so we want
34:55
to give people an opportunity to
34:56
understand that also people don't really
34:59
have an opportunity to see pigs other
35:01
than the happy smiling pig in a
35:04
commercial for bacon or ham or on the
35:06
side of a you know a truck
35:09
they don't understand the life of dairy
35:11
cows
35:13
and
35:13
we we explain it all to people again in
35:16
a non-judgmental way sure um but i think
35:19
uh we're doing our job well because
35:21
people make the connection when they
35:22
come here and not to scare people off
35:25
but a lot of people that come with no
35:27
intention of changing the way that
35:29
they're you know interacting with
35:32
animals that are used for food
35:34
a lot of people
35:36
after a visit they reach out to us a
35:38
month six months a year two years later
35:40
and say hey that tour was life changing
35:42
and i've been vegan ever since or i've
35:44
been vegetarian or
35:46
you know i gave up this or i gave up
35:47
that and again that's not the reason why
35:49
we're doing it we're not doing it to
35:51
proselytize but it just sort of happens
35:54
by um
35:56
by osmosis i guess right yeah um so it
35:59
also goes beyond just the the sanctuary
36:02
here because we have the
36:04
hot sauce this is an award-winning hot
36:06
sauce right it is indeed yeah we're
36:08
gonna hold it up for the camera so
36:09
people can see so if you're not watching
36:10
on youtube you can't see it but talk to
36:12
me about this like what yeah did you you
36:14
know just be like hey let's make a hot
36:15
sauce yeah so uh it's it's funny the the
36:18
peppers for the hot sauce were really
36:20
the impetus for us to rescue those first
36:22
two roosters yeah so without hot peppers
36:24
and without hot sauce there's no
36:25
sanctuary
36:27
we started growing peppers we were
36:29
trying to grow our own vegetables before
36:31
there was any thought
36:32
and that first
36:34
when was it so
36:36
yeah it might have been that first
36:37
summer when we first adopted the two
36:40
chickens and then took in a few more
36:42
animals we had
36:44
an excess of peppers my wife decided to
36:47
cook it up into hot sauce someone
36:49
recommended hey and we were giving it
36:50
away as gifts someone recommended why
36:52
don't you go to the local farmer's
36:53
market set up a table it'll be great
36:55
outreach for your fledgling sanctuary
36:59
if you cannot just put up a banner with
37:01
some literature if you could feed them
37:03
people like to be fed so we put chips
37:05
out and hot sauce and it was a great um
37:07
uh
37:08
great starter people right um and it
37:11
grew from that to the point where the
37:12
last cook that we did i think was uh 17
37:15
000 bottles holy we sell in a bunch of
37:17
stores we do a lot of um festivals we do
37:21
hot sauce festivals festivals down at
37:23
the sussex county fairground um
37:26
the taco new jersey taco festival into
37:29
that one we're gonna be at new jersey
37:30
veg fest this this coming weekend
37:33
and the hot sauce really took on a life
37:35
of its own we have three flavors this
37:37
flavor right here is called artie's
37:38
bourbon blend okay and it's named after
37:40
the first pig that we rescued artie who
37:42
still lives at the farm he's been with
37:43
us since 2014.
37:45
hot sauce is great and if anyone comes
37:47
here to visit they leave with hot sauce
37:49
awesome we sell it but we gift it to all
37:51
of our visitors and so whether you like
37:53
hot sauce or not you come here you leave
37:55
them with hot sauce and we have no
37:56
problems with your re-gifting yeah um so
38:00
and then maybe this could be like a
38:01
softball way to
38:02
ask this question but do proceeds from
38:05
the hot sauce go back into the farm yeah
38:08
100 yeah so um
38:12
all of the money that we raise from the
38:13
hot sauce every last penny goes into uh
38:17
goes into the farm and caring for the
38:18
animals and it's donated to the animals
38:21
the only money that doesn't go in is the
38:23
money that we pay to our co-packer to
38:24
make it so you know hard costs yep but
38:27
100 of the profits yeah love that yeah
38:29
um all right so if people are listening
38:31
to this episode and they're like wow i
38:33
gotta get up to montague wherever the
38:34
hell that is and i gotta visit this the
38:36
tamerlane sanctuary i gotta you know
38:38
meet peter meet his wife meet the
38:40
animals meet all that kind of stuff like
38:42
where can they go to do that yeah so
38:45
check out our website or our social
38:47
media it's tamerlane.org and it's
38:49
t-a-m-e-r-l-a-i-n-e
38:52
uh dot org i'm guessing you have like
38:55
the high-tech stuff where people can
38:56
actually see that on the screen so i
38:57
don't have to right we will link it i
38:59
don't have to spell for your people no
39:01
we're good um
39:02
we have stuff there and on facebook and
39:04
on instagram and all the other stuff
39:06
that the kids use these days yeah and uh
39:09
crazy kids yeah the crazy kids and we we
39:11
do the tours um
39:13
we're winding down for the season with
39:16
our public tours but during the spring
39:18
summer and fall we do
39:20
public tours every saturday and sunday
39:23
and we do private tours every day of the
39:26
week every week of the year so we go
39:29
straight through if there isn't a
39:30
blizzard and people want to come and do
39:31
a private tour they can book one we also
39:33
do weddings here in this magical 1774
39:37
seven bedroom farmhouse yeah lovely also
39:40
rent out the house to groups it's not a
39:43
bed and breakfast but you know if
39:45
someone wanted to do a family reunion
39:46
and take on the whole house that's an
39:48
option
39:49
um a lot of cool stuff happens here yeah
39:52
i love that and i mean i've been
39:53
following the instagram and that's
39:55
always cool because you get to meet the
39:56
animals that way
39:58
are there ways that people can get
39:59
involved and i think we already talked
40:00
about this over the course of the
40:01
episode let's say they live in cape may
40:04
uh how can they get involved without
40:05
actually driving i don't even know how
40:06
long it would take to drive the cape may
40:08
from here like four hours we have people
40:10
who come up one of our uh one of our
40:12
workers is an amazing guitarist he's in
40:14
a local jam band and he also has gigs
40:17
down in cape may awesome he's down there
40:19
i think at least once a week playing and
40:20
then he comes back up slips back up and
40:22
works the shift the next morning so i
40:24
think it's i've asked him i think it's
40:26
about three okay three and change
40:28
um well they can come up and people
40:30
people do come up but not to be evasive
40:32
uh with your uh answering your question
40:34
yeah there are lots of ways that people
40:36
can get involved online
40:39
you know you can support us you can
40:40
donate you can follow our social media
40:42
you can
40:44
get your if you have kids you can get
40:46
their school their teachers involved
40:48
with us to do a humane tour but i will
40:51
say that getting up here is great and
40:53
you know one thing about this great
40:55
state that i love so much is that uh
40:57
it's not that big right and so even if
40:59
you're in cape may you come come on up
41:02
and meet the animals nothing beats that
41:03
yeah no i agree and i'm excited to take
41:05
the tour here in a minute my mom just
41:07
got here hey mom my girlfriend's sitting
41:09
over there too they're excited
41:10
to take the tour as well that's why
41:12
they're here um so uh i'll make sure
41:14
that i put those links the instagram
41:16
handle all that kind of stuff in the
41:17
show notes for everybody listening uh
41:19
peter thank you so much for having us
41:21
thank you so much for doing this yeah no
41:22
i'm i'm so excited that we were able to
41:24
come up here and shout out paula
41:25
bruckner for making the intro
41:28
yeah absolutely and so yeah so that's
41:30
that's going to wrap up this episode so
41:32
i'm mike hamm this has been the
41:33
greetings from the garden state podcast
41:34
we were here at tamerlane sanctuary in
41:36
montague new jersey with peter nussbaum
41:38
thank you for listening and we will
41:39
catch you next time
41:48
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42:00
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