Meet Amber Heine | Sanctuary Manager & Board Member (aka – servant to the animals)

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amber Heine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amber, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
In the beginning, I was only looking to volunteer to spend time with animals. Broken Shovels was a emerging goat dairy that specialized in artisan goat cheese and yogurt. I quickly became attached to the animals and supported Andrea Davis’ mission. Over the years, working as a dairy and breeding goats, people and local shelters reached out to Broken Shovels to take their unwanted animals. It became a realization that despite our goal to become a sustainable, truly humane (not the marketing buzzword) dairy, it stopped making sense to breed more animals – there are literal millions of unwanted companion animals in addition to unwanted, neglected, abused and of course – slaughter bound farm animals. Not wanting to be a part of the breeding animals for human gain cycle, our ethics shifted and we stopped producing dairy in 2018 and become a 501c3 non-profit, vegan farm animal sanctuary.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My particular story with Broken Shovels is 10 years in the making. I worked in corporate America for all of my adult life. I had no experience in working with animals beyond my own companion animals. After a change in occupation, I started out as a volunteer milking goats to sanctuary manager/primary animal caretaker.

At the very heart of Broken Shovels, we provide life-long sanctuary to abused, neglected and slaughter-bound farm animals. Through our public events, people get to meet the rescues up close and personal, hopefully make meaningful connections and in doing so, allow the animals to advocate for themselves. If you looked up the definition of the word “Introvert” in the dictionary, my photo would be next to it. However, I will tell you the story of every single rescue animal here if you asked me. I would spend hours sharing each animals’ personality and the silly things they do and the bonds they share with other animals here. It’s important for people to know their stories because each animal is deserving of respect and deserve to live their individual lives. They didn’t end up here because they came from a caring and supportive environment.

Choosing this life – because let’s face it, you get no life outside of taking care of over 500 farm animals – has not been easy. As a non-profit, we are harangued by those in animal ag because we’re doing too much, as a vegan sanctuary, we are judged by those in the animal rights movement because we aren’t doing enough – on top of the hard physical work and the crushing emotional labor – it feels like we can’t win some days. Every day presents a new challenge whether that is a farmer starting a virtual fight on one of our social media posts or we are struggling to meet a crucial fundraising goal, whether one of our aging animals suddenly needs an emergency trip to our vet or whether a critical piece of equipment has broken or whether the water buffalos escaped their enclosure…we have no choice but to deal with it because the goats don’t care if the water buffalos have broken out – they want their breakfast! (All true stories. even the great water buffalo escape last wednesday.)

I feel like I could write a book on what I want people to know about Broken Shovels Farm Sanctuary and all the crazy surrender stories, trials and emotional tribulations and what sets us apart. But would it help make a difference for farm animals? We have said yes to becoming the forever home to animals when many other rescues who have multiple times our annual budget have said no. We have made an impact on our surrounding community and continue to make an impact on our supporting visitors and social media followers. Our goal isn’t to turn the world vegan – that’s unrealistic. But it’s incredibly important if we can make one person rethink their relationship with the “traditional” animal agricultural and exploitative systems humans have created and help that one person understand how they can make a difference for animals.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well of course I’m going to say visit Broken Shovels Farm Sanctuary. Our public events offer the opportunity to meet wonderful rescue animals from cows, to goats, to sheep to horses, to alpacas, to pigs, to turkeys and even water buffalos. This sanctuary isn’t a petting zoo and that allows us to not only share the animal’s stories, but help people understand to respect this place as the animals’ home. Additionally, there’s almost always a phenomenal food truck/vendor on-site serving up delicious plant-based fare, like American favorites from Vegan Van to authentic, flavorful creole food from The Creole Vegan and exiting and creative plant-based morsels from WongWayVeg. This gives visitors to Broken Shovels the chance to get out of their comfort zone and try some mind-blowing vegan cuisine!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Every single person that has dedicated any of their time or money to Broken Shovels’ cause; for every social media share, for every water bucket filled, for every guest greeted during a public event, for every $5 donation, for every Board member that strives to make the lives of the on-site caretakers easier – we couldn’t have made it this far without that support!

Website: www.brokenshovels.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/brokenshovels

Facebook: www.facebook.com/brokenshovels

Youtube: @brokenshovelsfarm9780