What happens when learning the truth about animal agriculture inspires you to completely change your life?
In this episode of Top Dog Podcast, we sit down with Deborah Blum, Founder and Executive Director of Goatlandia Farm Animal Sanctuary, to talk about her unconventional journey from fashion and restaurants to aviation and ultimately farm animal rescue.
Deborah shares how learning about the realities of animal agriculture led her to start Goatlandia more than a decade ago. Today, the sanctuary cares for roughly 150 to 175 animals across 36 acres in Sonoma County while providing adoption and fostering opportunities, plant-based food experiences, an organic farm, and other programs that help connect people with farm animals.
In this conversation, we discuss:
✔ Deborah's unconventional journey from fashion and restaurants to animal sanctuary leadership
✔ How learning about animal agriculture inspired her to start Goatlandia
✔ Building a farm animal sanctuary without prior sanctuary experience
✔ Caring for goats, sheep, pigs, birds, alpacas, and other farm animals
✔ Why adoption and fostering are important parts of the sanctuary's mission
✔ The challenges of finding appropriate foster homes for farm animals
✔ How Deborah's hospitality background shapes the visitor experience
✔ Using food and plant-based events to inspire people to make different choices
✔ How the sanctuary's thrift store and organic farm help support its mission
✔ Why compassion fatigue and self-care are important in animal welfare
✔ The importance of incremental change rather than judgment
✔ How farm animal sanctuaries and the broader movement are evolving
✔ Deborah's goal of changing people's perceptions of farm animals
Deborah also shares why she believes small, positive choices can add up to meaningful change and why her ultimate goal is to help people see farm animals as individuals with personalities, intelligence, and their own unique ways of experiencing the world.
Learn more about tools supporting animal welfare organizations:
https://doobert.com/
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