Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Lockey.
Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hi, thanks so much for having me! As a young girl, I believed I was the caretaker of all the animals. I spent my days after school and during the summer pretending I lived in the wild and would make huge pots of food made of water, twigs, leaves, and berries. I lived in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio so only small creatures such as birds and squirrels would come around so you can imagine I had a lot of leftover food! My dog Shamus, our few cats, and my horse Nickel were my very best friends. I think we can agree that we can be ourselves around our animal friends. We can cry with them, snuggle them, dance around them, sing the most ridiculous songs to them and they love us unconditionally. At age 11, I decided to become a vegetarian and I joined my first animal rights group.
I walked door to door informing people about the animal cruelty behind household items we use every day such as razors, soaps, and other products. Animal testing is still very much alive today but thankfully people are more informed and can choose to buy cruelty-free products. Throughout college, I joined many environmental groups and during my time at the University of Vermont, I was hit by a car while on a morning run. I took one yoga class and decided to use my settlement money and travel to Thailand for three months for my yoga certification. I am passionate about wellness, moving my body, and inspiring compassion for ourselves, each other, and all beings.
Through yoga, I have become more self-aware, in tune with my connection to the world, and how my choices do have an impact. Animals have continued to be a constant in my life and I knew I wanted to bring more awareness to the unnecessary suffering they endure but wanted to find a way that brought the community together. My dream was to have an animal sanctuary and my partner and I wrote our vision down on a napkin one day in a coffee shop. Three years later, I was driving through Brown’s Canyon to go see my horse, Kizmet and I stumbled upon sixty-three acres for sale and that is when Sage Mountain Sanctuary was born.
Now the home for forty farm animals who were all rescued from the food industry, living their lives out peacefully while free to be their cute quirky selves. We have weekly volunteers, yoga, group volunteer days, kids events, fundraisers, and have the vision for much more. I am going to stop there because I could go on forever!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Haha, even though I was responsible for all the animals in my little suburb of Ohio, I had no idea what it took to essentially run a farm. I had knowledge of how to care for horses but knew nothing about pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, or turkeys. You just get some fencing, put up some shelters, feed them, and love on them right?!
Well, kind of but it’s so much more than that. Anyone out there wanting to start a sanctuary, start small, make sure you have others to help, plan your budget, and make sure you are able to pay for or raise that money and sustain it. We started with one shelter and rescued two pigs named Wilma Jean and Ponyboy who are still at the sanctuary today. It was pretty simple at first with just two animals but as time went on and more animals arrived, we realized the time and money it takes to run a sanctuary. Vet care, food, shelters, and upkeep of the grounds are all ongoing costs. Thankfully we have a team of employees and volunteers who help clean, feed, care for the animals, and help with events. We give our animal residents the best life possible but the reality is that they will eventually pass away. That is certainly a challenge that I can never get used to.
Overall, the biggest challenge has been the winters, especially this last winter. Dark, snowy, and incredibly windy which made everything really hard at the sanctuary. Snow up to the fence lines and rooflines of the shelters, couldn’t open gates or doors, snow filled the feed rooms and insides of the shelters, freezing water and hoses, broken fences, road closures, etc…The animals are just now able to walk around the property a little bit. Talk about cabin fever!
They were stuck with each other for the last few months with nowhere to go! We are breaking ground for a barn this Spring which will make everything so much easier going forward. This is very exciting for all!
As you know, we’re big fans of Sage Mountain Sanctuary. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Oh yay, this is where I get to talk all about the animals and the amazing community of people they have brought together! In the simplest terms, Sage Mountain provides sanctuary and advocacy for rescued farm animals. We network with other rescues, sanctuaries, organizations, and individuals and if we are contacted about an animal in need, we do our best to provide them a safe haven. Right now, we are at capacity with forty animals but spaces will open up in the future. All our animals have different stories and when visitors hear their stories, they can’t help but smile in amazement that they have become so trusting of humans. They teach us so much about strength, forgiveness, unconditional love, and freedom.
They help us tap into our inherent compassion and inspire us to become better at ourselves and the world around us. I can share a few of their stories! Wilma Jean and Ponyboy were our first two animals. Two pigs rescued from different situations that became the best of friends. Wilma was raised on a small family pig farm and the man caring for her began to see her as a sentient individual and grew to respect her. He decided to save her life and send her to sanctuary. Ponyboy escaped a larger pig farm in CA and was picked up along with his sheep friend Johnny, and taken to a sanctuary. Pigs are normally slaughtered at 6 months to a year old in the food industry. Wilma is eight years old now and Ponyboy is seven. They are loving life.
Goats, Pam and Bruce come from a 4H program where young children are paired with baby farm animals. They are responsible for caring for them and raising them which is such a positive attribute and skill. They spend a lot of time with them and naturally bond with their animal friends. However, when the animal reaches roughly a year or two, their young caretakers are forced to haul them to a fair where they are auctioned off to eventually be slaughtered. To me, this teaches such a deep betrayal of not only our animal friends but also of ourselves, our kindness, and values. I have witnessed children in tears as they walk their friends onto a semi-truck and say goodbye. It is heartbreaking. Bruce, Pam, and cows, Bradley, Benji, and Star were all rescued by their young caretakers whom often visit them at the sanctuary!
Morgan is a pig who was on his way to a finishing barn. Lucky for him, he was near the back door of the semi truck and he jumped or fell out! Scraped, bruised, and scared, he arrived a few days later to Sage Mountain Sanctuary. Now, his goal in life is to win Wilma Jean over, lay in the mud wallow, and get a belly rub or two.
Our turkeys all come from one of the largest factory farms in the US. You can imagine how scared they were upon arrival. Their toes and beaks are purposely mutilated at these farms because they are packed so tightly in the sheds. They can’t establish any sort of pecking order or get away from one another. Because they are bred to grow so big so quickly, they often collapse under their own weight or have heart attacks. Since our ten turkeys have been at the sanctuary, they have grown to trust humans, get to meander through the fields and hide under the sagebrush, and will often purr like kittens.
We had 5 surprises this last year too! We had no idea Harriet the blond haired pig and Reba the cow were pregnant when we took them in. Four piglets and one calf later, they get to experience their first spring and summer at the sanctuary. Thank goodness Winter is at a close right?!
So many more stories to tell about the animals but I am already going on too long here. All their stories are on our website, www.sagemtn.org. Over the last few years, more and more people have joined the sanctuary family and this has been so amazing to watch. What started with just the two of us with a vision has become an incredible community of people who want to help run the sanctuary itself and love being with the animals and sharing their stories with others. When people come out to volunteer, do yoga, visit, or attend an event, they can’t help but become really present and connect with Sammie the sheep or Smooch the steer. There is a joy and kindness that the animals inspire so people can’t help but walk away with a new perspective. It’s empowering to realize we can choose a different path where we can not only make kinder choices, but also make the connection in how our food choices impact our own health and the environment.
We could do an entire interview on just the environmental impact of animal agriculture alone. Since water has been on all of our minds with this last massive snow fall, I will stick to that and make it short. We will need ten more winters like this last one to get fresh water back up to where it needs t be. And we can also look at the fact that 80% of Utah’s water goes toward growing alfalfa to feed cows and sheep. We also ship it to countries like China and Saudi Arabia. The Colorado river is shrinking at a very fast rate. The thirstiest reason? One gallon of cow milk requires 2000 gallons of water and one quarter pounder requires 2900 gallons of water. This issue continues to be the elephant(or cow) in the room. As a community, we must keep pushing this issue and create coalitions with other environmental groups. At home, the best thing we can do is choose a whole food plant based diet and buying local is even better!
We have group volunteer day every Saturday from 10am-noon. You can also reach out to volunteer on your own during the week. Every summer and fall, I teach Wine Down Yoga once a week and that should start at the end of June. This will all be on our website soon! We also have a big fundraiser on Saturday August 26th called Plant Based Palooza where we will have Michelle Moonshine as our musical guest, Blatch’s Backyard BBQ and Sweet Hazel for food, and our live animal sponsor auction! Tickets available soon.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
As I mentioned it in the beginning, being outside pretending to care for all the woodland creatures was a great memory. I also loved spending time with my horse Nickel. It wasn’t even the riding that was my favorite, it was just being with him, brushing him, walking him around, going out to the pasture and finding him then walking him back to the barn.
I loved both those memories because I felt safe and I could be myself. As we get older, and our modern world continues to move at such a fast pace, we seek those experiences and relationships that challenge us to be our best version of ourselves, where we can love and give fully, because it inspires growth but they also remind us of who we were as kids and how we can embrace and nurture those aspects of ourselves. I cherish those moments skinning up the mountain at dawn and the light hits the trees in such a breathtaking way, or seeing the moon or camping in the desert under the stars, laughing until my stomach hurts with friends, being there for someone in need, and walking around with our rescued animals while witnessing the joy they bring to all they come in contact with. My heart literally feels like it will burst because in that moment I realize how lucky we are to live this wild and wonderous life! Making time for those experiences is so important for our own wellbeing and that of others. I know I could improve there for sure! Being in the presence of nature and animals will always be that for me. My constant, my rock, my reset.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sagemtn.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sagemountainsanctuary/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sagemountainutah/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sagemountainsanctuary
