Heartwood Haven

The goal of Heartwood Haven is to create a more compassionate world where all animals are treated with respect.

Heartwood Haven gives people an opportunity to learn about farmed animals in a way that they never had an opportunity to before. People have preconceptions about farmed animals that make it easier to commodify them. We are here to break through those misconceptions and show the public that farmed animals are in many ways similar or the same as pets such as dogs and cats. Farmed animals have family structure or friendships. They are intelligent and emotional beings and in many cases are many times smarter than cats or dogs. Farmed animals experience pain and trauma and often times process it very similarly to humans. By connecting with farmed animals whose faces aren't often seen and who we don't have a chance to meet in our urban life with people, we give them names, show their faces and tell their stories.

We are also connected to the community through events, adoptions and community programs to teach about compassion, proper animal care and rescue. This brings the community into the fold and allows our audience to grow.

Heartwood Haven has met or surpassed our goals since the beginning, including raising funds for programs, social media following, and animal rescue. The people leading the organization forward have skills needed to meet our goals, such as excellent animal care for rescued animals. Our marketing and media strategy has been working to increase our following and presence in the community and beyond. In past years of pre-COVID we had many farmed tours booked to visit the animals, unfortunately this year we have had to cancel all in person tours and events. This year has been difficult, however we are coming out on top with new strategies to fundraise and connect with the community digitally and virtually. We now offer virtual tours and continue to grow our social media following. We have also been able to rescue more animals this year than any year before.

The work that we are doing is especially important during COVID as people lose their jobs and livelihoods, we are able to help in small ways by providing pet food through the pet food bank. We are also counted on to absorb animals who people bought at the beginning of the pandemic and now no longer want to care for them.

So far, Heartwood Haven has rescued over 500 farmed animals from urgent situations. We have grown a social media following of 23,000 followers and we have raised $250,000 for the operation. We have built strong partnerships with various animal control and animal welfare organizations in the PNW. These relationships allow more animals to be saved.

We will continue to build the strong leadership of Heartwood Haven within the organization to accomplish the goals set out above.