Our Story
We are John and Debbie, we packed up our suburban life and moved to beautiful Northern Victoria in October 2021 to start our sanctuary – J&D’s Farm Sanctuary, which is in memory of our Gussy girl the goose . We came across Gus when Debbie put her hand up to help a friend in need who had lost her flock to a fox, we brought Gus into our small rental in the eastern suburbs and what a wonderful majestic lady she was, sadly she passed away at the age of 22 before we had a chance to take her with us to the country to start our new life. Gussy girl came and went before we had found our path in life, to dedicate our lives to animals who deserve so much love, though she lives on as the ambassador of farm animal rescue!
It will be of no surprise to anyone who knows us - that we thought we knew what we were in for before we started this adventure - we were a little off the mark!
It turns out the life of rescue is a bit bigger than we imagined. We had good intentions to have structures in place and funds sourced before we took in too many rescues, but the reality is far from anything resembling structure or sensibility - because there are too many animals out there who need rescue, and how can you possibly say no...
Our first ever rescue happened the day before we moved to the country, we picked up two baby roosters who were accidental hatchings and could not live out their lives in the suburbs, 2 quickly turned into 8, which has now turned into 50+ rescue roosters calling sanctuary home!
Then came our first large animal rescues, only weeks after moving to the farm we hit the road to Gisborne to pick up 2 pigs and 2 goats who without rescue were to be shot. We rescued Nucky the shy pig who later became the boss of all pigs, Pumpkin the 18 year old grumpy lady, and Peach and Tayla the retired twin goats who were no longer any use on the farm as their breeding and milking days were over.
We have been on the farm and running the sanctuary for a couple of years now, during this time we have been fortunate enough to become friends with many other sanctuary folk, particularly our sister sanctuaries - Free Spirits Sheep Sanctuary & Shear Existence Sanctuary who provide us with invaluable support (including emotional), advice and guidance, particularly regarding the need to pace ourselves and be sustainable - something we really struggle with!
Our goal has been and remains firmly - to demonstrate to as many people as possible the need to treat every animal with kindness, we want the faces and stories of the animals here at sanctuary to spread far and wide, to give the animals a voice and a chance to live a life that is loved, and have the opportunity to live out their natural lives without fear or exploitation. So here we are, overseeing the care of the wonderful residents at J&D’s Farm Sanctuary!
Why Start a Sanctuary?
Did you know that under Australian law – not all animals are protected?
We were shocked to learn that in Australia there are no laws to protect farmed animals, that in fact laws that protect domestic animals – our family pets, are not relevant to animals that we consider as having ‘value’ or “use” for humans in terms of exploitation. The capacity for an animal to suffer is not taken into consideration when it comes to our beautiful farm animal friends.
There are codes of practice in each state in Australia that allows sentient animals to suffer terrible abuses – legally sanctioned acts of cruelty that we would never inflict on an animal that we love. These animals are affectionate beings that are capable of rich emotional lives, though they are denied any quality or freedom of life.
Many people are unaware of the cruel treatment these animals receive, or that these practices are outdated. We want people to have a better understanding of factory farming, and animal protection standards, and to have a better connection with the animals who are being exploited. We want people to see the animals we rescue for the beautiful, loving, intelligent, playful, sentient beings they are and not 'something' that can be used for our consumption, amusement, clothing, testing – these animals deserve a life that is happy, free and protected.
Our Team
John Sims
Co-Founder
John is a passionate advocate for the animals - also goes by - @farmerjohnthevegan for anyone who wants to follow him on Facebook 😉
John and Debbie met in 2017, it was not long before their journey together grew from a love for animals to a true understanding of their suffering and need to do what whatever they could to help give the voiceless a voice.
John was working as a warehousing & inventory specialist, then an opportunity to work remotely came up in the materials team for the same company, this allowed John and Debbie to ditch the suburbs and work remotely in the country. Only 6 months into this role John was conflicted about his time at the desk and the need to be working on the sanctuary, it became impossible for John to keep doing paid work, and he made the difficult decision to ditch the job and devote his time to the sanctuary.
There have been and I am sure will continue to be plenty of times of panic and the need for more income, but then an animal emergency happens that makes it clear that John can never leave the farm!!
And so it is that John is now full time Farmer John the Sanctuary Vegan.
Debbie Sims
Co-Founder & Director
Debbie has been looking for a way to live for and love animals her whole life, it just took a while to understand what it meant to truly love animals and advocate for them. It started with a small backyard farm with ducks and chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs and cats, and of course Gus the goose. Debbie had so much love for these animals but had not yet made the connection - she ate animals but of course not the ones that she loved and cared for in her suburban farm, at some point this cognitive dissonance needed to be questioned.
The journey took a turn after watching a few documentaries, but the ultimate change happened after watching Dominion with John - the sanctuary plans were in place before this but the whole outlook changed afterward - once you know you know, and there is no going back! From that point on Debbie and John have been determined to help people understand the plight of animals.
(If you ever want to know more about the agricultural industry behind the scenes in Australia - 'Dominion' is available to watch on YouTube, or you can go to - www.farmtransparency.org).
Debbie runs her own business from home as a Disability Support Coordinator, which is also something she is passionate about, and is happy to finally find her place in life to work in this role and be in a position to care for, protect and advocate for animals at the same time.
Melinda Heron
Director
Melinda is a wonderful addition to the team, bringing with her years of experience in philanthropy, research and business development. Melinda is a big part of the sanctuary family and a fellow vegan - for the animals, she also happens to be Deb's best friend of 18 years 🙂
