Photo Credit ( Pixabay )
“I don’t have any human offspring. Laurie Zaleski has more than 600 rescue animals at Funny Farm Rescue & Sanctuary in Mays Landing, New Jersey. “I have animal children.”
Laurie Zaleski’s eleven-year boyfriend objected when she brought her twelfth pet inside the house—a chicken dressed in diapers, this time. Zaleski’s answer? “Well, there’s the door.”
Not long after, the relationship fell apart. She explains that “he didn’t want Funny Farm to be what it is,” referring to the split in 2017. “And I couldn’t have that.”
Animals have always taken precedence for Zaleski. Originally from Mays Landing, New Jersey, she founded Funny Farm sanctuary & Sanctuary, a charity animal sanctuary that currently houses over 600 animals (instead of her ex’s preferred 200). Zaleski wrote the inspirational memoir Funny Farm, which was released this spring, while managing one of the biggest animal shelters in the Northeast.
Some of the most remarkable creatures at the refuge are presented to readers by Zaleski in the book. On her 25-acre property, a large number of the rescues—a mixture of agricultural, wild, and domestic species like pigs, dogs, goats, horses, emus, and skunks—roam freely.
In Funny Farm, a few unusual (and cutesy!) friendships are showcased, like the one between Bradley the sheep and Scooby the German shepherd, Yogi the steer and Cooper the alpaca, and Hope the kitten and her “seeing-eye duck” Jello. Save lives is the main goal of Zaleski’s rescue, despite its cuteness. According to the 53-year-old author, the animals have been “abused, neglected, unwanted, and lots of them are disabled.” “Usually, we’re the last stop.”
Funny Farm’s beginnings can be found in Zaleski’s early years. For many years, her mother Anne saved animals. Zaleski purchased the Mays Landing land in 2000 for her mother, who loved animals, but passed away from cancer before the transaction could be completed. Volunteer-run Funny Farm welcomes guests on Sundays and Tuesdays for free. “I wanted to pick up where she left off and rescue animals,” Zaleski adds. “And it just grew and grew.”
The heroic pig, named Petunia, is credited for saving the veteran owner of Laurie Zaleski’s apartment from a New Jersey apartment fire. Annie, Laurie’s mother, is pictured with Petunia on the couch. With grace Zaleski Laurie
In her book, Zaleski shares personal details of her difficult upbringing and presents a compelling picture of her mother as the one who inspired her to adore the creatures that others shunned. According to the author, her mother was her “superhero.”
According to Zaleski, Anne was just 26 years old when she decided to end her marriage to her husband in 1973 after he threatened her with an ax. “She was literally fighting for her life and ours because he was abusive to us as well,” Zaleski recalled. Zaleski’s father eventually stopped torturing children, according to what she says in her book. Feb. 2020 was his death month.) After discovering a “shack in the woods” in Turnersville, New Jersey, Anne moved her three children there. The house was meant to be a short-term fix, but Anne stayed there for the next 28 years with her children, paying $100 a month in rent.
After the family experienced six robberies in their first three months of residence, Anne decided to bring home their first pet, a dog named Wolf. “They’re the best alarm system ever,” Zaleski declares. “We stopped getting robbed after that.”
Despite the family’s financial difficulties, Anne worked for an animal control agency and took in a variety of rescued animals, including a pig named Petunia. “It took the concentration off our own issues and gave us a job,” Zaleski explains. “So even though we were rescuing them, they rescued us.”
