Exploring The World of Animal Shelters: An Inside Look At Freed Spirits Animal Rescue From Phoenix, AZ

/ Arizona, Interviews, Phoenix / By michelle

An interview with Freed Spirits Animal Rescue from Phoenix Arizona.

Table Of Content

Introducing Kaylee Thorne from Freed Spirits Animal Rescue
How did Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Start? What Are The Challenges Encountered Along The Way?
Tell Us About The Most “Unusual” Animal That Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Has Ever Taken.
Tell Us More About The Volunteers In Freed Spirits Animal Rescue
Tell Us More About The Animals In Freed Spirits Animal Rescue
What Are The Busiest Periods And How Does Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Cope?
What Animals Does Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Focus On?
Working With The Local Community
Tell Us More About Your Events
What Is Done Differently at Freed Spirits Animal Rescue?
How Has Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Adapted To The Challenges Presented By The Pandemic?
Share With Us Some Of The Heartwarming Stories Of Animals Rehabilitated And Rehomed By Freed Spirits Animal Rescue.
What Are The Help Needed From The Local Community?
Connect With Freed Spirits Animal Rescue here:

Introducing Kaylee Thorne from Freed Spirits Animal Rescue

My Name is Kaylee Thorne, and I am one of the Co-Founders of Freed Spirits. I am the event coordinator and team lead of the rescue a few days of the week, I am involved because it was my childhood dream to have a rescue ranch one day, and I got lucky enough to make that dream come true with the help of our close friends and family.

I love animals and humans, and here we have the perfect blend of helping humans and animals together.

How did Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Start? What Are The Challenges Encountered Along The Way?

There are three founders that started the organization together. I fell in love with animals at a very young age and loved visiting rescues and places where I could learn about them. Over time my mother begins to have a deep love for animals as well as her wife.

We all sort of knew one day we would help cows and be free and pigs but figured it would be a retirement goal. We use to think for now we will just volunteer at places and learn as much as possible about having rescues.

We volunteered at local rescues when we all had days off together and traveled out of state to a few others. This only inspired us to keep working hard and learning.

We took a family trip to Thailand and volunteered at an elephant rescue, and listened to Lek give a speech. It was so inspiring and moving.

The entire trip was life-changing, so when we came back to America we both moved from our homes, My mother purchased the land, and we moved onto the rescued land together and opened the gates to Freed Spirits.

We all have different ideas and visions of the rescue as we each have our own superpower that we bring to the team and how it runs, so having the three of us work together to come up with ideas is really how we have been so successful in making it all happen.

We also have a strong group of friends that listened to our ideas after coming back from the trip about how we want to open a rescue, and they helped give insight and inspiration and helped fundraise while we got everything into place.

The hardest part in the early stages was working full times job while also figuring out who stays with the animals each day, this is how we came up with having volunteers. We all work the in the healthcare field as well, so we have a system where one of us three is home with a set of volunteers each morning while the others work.

It’s an obstacle now that it is close to impossible for all of us to take another weekend trip somewhere as a family, but a plan is in place for that, and there are no obstacles we can’t figure out together.

Tell Us About The Most “Unusual” Animal That Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Has Ever Taken.

I would say the most unusual animal we took in as a farm animal rescue would be a hedgehog.

He was very scared of humans and pretty meant the day he got here. He belonged to a family that only enjoyed him for the first couple weeks that they got him, and then he was sort of just left in his cage and didn’t have much socialization for a couple of years.

Finally, the family reached out and said he deserved more love and that is how we got him. He was adopted out a week or two after getting here to a lady that just absolutely loved him till he passed away. The last year or two of his life was filled with a ton of love that we are so grateful for.

Tell Us More About The Volunteers In Freed Spirits Animal Rescue

Every volunteer brings their own talent and superpower to the table. We have many volunteers that we just absolutely just love and have become like family.

One, in particular, is loved by all the volunteers. Grandma Sandy is what she is known as around here. She is 82 years old and is here every day raining or shining with a smiling face.

Her life’s mission is to educate people about donkeys and their personalities. Anyone that comes for a tour and all the Volunteers love her.

We purchased a mobilized scooter for her to ride around while she is here, and every day she brushes and takes care of the two donkeys we have here named Charlie and Bernie. She’s pure love, and we are so grateful for her and all her knowledge

Tell Us More About The Animals In Freed Spirits Animal Rescue

A lot of our animals are owner surrenders. People’s lives change and sometimes that change no longer involves the pet they got a couple of years before.

A lot of the horses are surrendered to us once they get older or sick, Horses can live up to 30 years so it’s not uncommon for them to end up in a few different homes in their lifetime unfortunately.

Pigs are another animal that we get phone calls about almost daily. Most people love them as pets for a couple of months and then soon realize there is no such thing as micro mini pigs. A healthy “mini pig” can get anywhere up to 200 pounds.

The public is pretty uneducated on pig health, and sadly pigs suffer a lot of unintentional abuse from new pig owners. They are one the best pets you can have in your home if you know and are educated about them.

What Are The Busiest Periods And How Does Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Cope?

Fall and spring are the busiest times of year here at the rescue.

We are an all-volunteer-based rescue, so we don’t have staff members to help when more people in public want to come to check us out.

We just have the more seasoned volunteers give the tours and we have a buddy system where all new volunteers are paired up with us to learn the daily chores and then once they feel comfortable, they are free to volunteer as often as they want.

What Animals Does Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Focus On?

We take in any farm animal that has health issues, or the owner is no longer caring for them. Pigs, horses, cows, goats, chickens, etc.

Unique challenges are how much rehoming can have an impact on them. Animals bond with their owners when in good care and really develop a connection and love.

Sometimes they just don’t understand why they are getting moved to a new environment and surrounded by all these new animals.

One of the biggest rewards is helping them during this transition and watching them bloom within a couple of weeks. They develop relationships with volunteers and it’s cute to see them develop friendships with another species of animal.

Working With The Local Community

We allow organizations to come for tours to learn how loving and caring horses, cows, pigs, and goats can be. It’s made a positive impact by allowing the community to see how much love and affection these kinds of animals can give and it also gives the animal an opportunity to be loved by some new faces.

Tell Us More About Your Events

Every Month we try to do some sort of fundraising for the rescue, and the community is always welcome to join or pitch in. The best way to keep up with these activities is by following us on our social media platforms.

What Is Done Differently at Freed Spirits Animal Rescue?

We repurpose donated items and turn them into beautiful home décor that we sell to raise money for the rescue. As there are other farm animal rescues out there, not many of them have crafty hands or the time to craft so I find this to be unique to our rescue.

How Has Freed Spirits Animal Rescue Adapted To The Challenges Presented By The Pandemic?

If anything, the pandemic helped our rescue.

More people were locked in their homes therefore they were looking for outdoor places to spend time. The pandemic really messed with the mental health of a lot of people so volunteering really helped people feel better and it allowed more bodies to love and spend time with our herd.

Positive impact on the community and us.

There are many stories I could share. Every animal has overcome something.

One of our greatest ones is Milagro the Racehorse. He was used as a racehorse for the first three years of his life then he broke his leg.

Once he broke his leg they usually put the horse down but he has royal blood. Therefore, they healed the broken leg and he was rehomed.

On his way to his new home, he was in a rollover trailer accident and survived. He had severe PDST from these events, and when he got to his new home he was too wild and dangerous for them to work with him. They sort of left him in a field and never spent the time with him that was needed for him to heal from everything.

A few years later we got him and learned about his history. We were told he was dangerous and that he should be put down. We felt so sad that humans have let this horse down so we decided to work with him every night for months to get him used to us and see if he would be accepting of love.

Today, he goes on walks, gets his hair brushed, and even likes to listen to music and dance. We sure love him. He was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer so we treat him like every day could be his last.

Whenever it is his time to go, we will be there with him. Till then we love him and spend as much time as possible together doing things he enjoys.

What Are The Help Needed From The Local Community?

There are a few ways the community could help. One way is to just share who we are and what we do with everyone they know.

You never know who you are talking with that may be looking for a place like this. Another way is to sign up to be a sponsor for an animal.

Sponsorships are where you pay a monthly donation to one of the animals of choice, and four times a year, your animal will write you a letter with updates on how they are and the latest news. This is so helpful for our rescue.

Another way the community can help is by volunteering. It’s most helpful to have volunteers that can come out once a week. We love our volunteers, and the more we can have part of our team, the better.