Roosters Of Ragnarok Microsanctuary

Loads of sites come up in my feed. Some I scroll through, others I block and a few catch my interest and I click through to their page. Sanctuaries usually grab my attention and I often reach out to offer to post about their work on my blog. So far, I’ve profiled several rescue groups for my blog: in England, Canada, Australia and the USA.

This is my twelveth profile of a chicken sanctuary. From experience, I know that folks running a rescue are busy 24/7 and don’t have a lot of spare time. I suggested that I scroll through their Facebook page to see what I could use. I also sent a series of questions for Lorna to answer.

What is your origin story? When did you start, and why?

Roosters of Ragnarok unofficially started in 2020, although I definitely didn’t set out to start an animal sanctuary.

Like a lot of people during the early days of COVID, I suddenly found myself spending a lot more time at home. I decided it would be fun to get a few backyard chickens for fresh eggs, so I brought home three chicks. I knew very little about chickens at the time and learned very quickly that there was a lot I didn’t know.

One of those three little ‘hens’ turned out to be a rooster. When I contacted the hatchery, they offered to take him back and send him to auction. I looked into what that could mean for him and realized I couldn’t send him back knowing he could end up as someone’s dinner, so he stayed.

Within just a couple of months, those three chickens had completely changed the way I looked at them. They weren’t interchangeable farm animals. They were individuals with distinct personalities, preferences, relationships, and quirks. I’d already been vegetarian for many years, but getting to know chickens personally ultimately led me to become vegan.

From there, three backyard chickens gradually became something much bigger. I started learning about the enormous number of chickens in need of homes and began taking in birds from different circumstances. Roosters of Ragnarok eventually grew into a micro-sanctuary dedicated to providing chickens in need with a safe, secure, and loving home while promoting compassion through advocacy and education. I officially submitted all the paperwork when I moved to Alloway, New Jersey in 2023.

How are you funded?

Roosters of Ragnarok (RoR) is primarily self-funded. The majority of our residents’ day-to-day care, including food, supplies, routine veterinary care, medications, and the many ongoing expenses that come with running a sanctuary, is paid for personally.

We do receive donations and hold fundraisers, particularly for larger projects, unexpected veterinary expenses, improvements to the sanctuary, or other specific needs. The support we receive from our community allows us to take on projects and provide care that would otherwise be much more difficult to manage on our own.

Because we’re a small microsanctuary, we’re very conscious of our capacity. Rescue isn’t just about being able to take an animal in today. It’s making a commitment to provide that individual with a safe home, proper care, and veterinary treatment for the rest of their life. That responsibility plays a significant role in how we approach both our finances and decisions about intake.

Who is involved?

RoR is a small, hands-on microsanctuary rather than a large organization with a staff. I’m involved in the day-to-day care of the residents, from feeding and cleaning to medications, veterinary appointments, housing, and the less glamorous realities of sanctuary work.

But RoR doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We’re fortunate to have people who support the sanctuary in different ways, whether that’s donating, sharing our work, helping with projects, transporting animals, offering placement, providing veterinary care, or simply following along and learning about the animals who live here. We also have an amazing board who help me with every aspect of the sanctuary.

The name Roosters of Ragnarok comes from Norse mythology. The crowing of three roosters signals the beginning of Ragnarok, the end of the world of gods and men. The world ends in ice, fire, and one hell of a battle before what remains sinks into the sea. In some versions of the story, though, that isn’t really the end. A new world, green and beautiful, rises from the water. That idea of change is at the heart of Roosters of Ragnarok.

Chickens are among the most familiar animals in our world, but they’re rarely given the opportunity to simply exist as individuals. Living with them changed my perception of them completely. They’re curious, social, complicated, funny, opinionated individuals, and each one is someone worth knowing.

Here at Roosters of Ragnarok, we hope to see change, too. We hope to see a world where chickens, and all animals, are recognized as someone and not just something. If three little chicks could completely change the way I saw chickens, maybe getting to know the residents of RoR can help change the way someone else sees them, too.

Every single member of the RoR Crew has a story. Every one of them has a reason for being here. There’s so much grief involved in sanctuary. Active grief, grieving for those who have passed, and anticipatory grief knowing that the inevitable will eventually happen. But there is so much more happiness and pure joy. I love this crew, this sanctuary, and what we’ve built together.

As the chickens start to head to bed tonight, there’s a quail chirping off in the distance and I’ve seen a family of turkeys wandering by. There’s so much happiness here. Some days are hard. And some days are really, really hard. But there’s joy in each day as well. I couldn’t imagine life without them.

A little while ago someone told me that another sanctuary had said that if I didn’t spend so much time trying to make the runs and coops look nice I could rescue more chickens. It hit me at the time, and honestly, it still rattles around in my brain every now and then.

Because this is a sanctuary. And honestly it’s not just a sanctuary for the chickens. This is my safe place. My happy place. I spend a huge amount of my life here and I want it to be a place that makes me happy too.

The way the sanctuary looks doesn’t really have much to do with the care I provide. Making the runs and coops nice doesn’t mean I’m spending less time caring for the residents and it certainly doesn’t mean I could just keep adding more chickens if I stopped caring about how things looked.

The number of chickens here is dictated by so many things. The residents we already have, their individual care needs, their special needs, quarantine space, medical care, time, money, the amount of attention each individual chicken deserves. There is a limit to what I can reasonably provide and I would rather have fewer chickens who are well cared for than take in more animals than I can give that level of care to.

As I was locking everyone up for the night tonight, in the rain, that old comment came back to me again. And I found myself thinking about how strange it is that making this place beautiful can sometimes feel like something I need to justify.

I love making this place look nice. I love building things for the chickens. I love seeing their little runs turn into something that feels like a home instead of just an enclosure. This is their home but it’s mine too. And I don’t think those things have to be mutually exclusive with doing rescue work well.