Jenny Brown

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
—Margaret Mead

BIO

Jenny's path to a career as a champion for farmed animals is not what one would normally expect. She was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist family in Louisville, Kentucky where, like most people, she never thought about the animals on her plate. Nor did she make the connection in a truly conscious way that the animals who are killed for food are as conscious, loving and intelligent as the cats and dogs we share our homes and lives with.

The roots of Jenny's activism go back to 1980, when at age ten, she was diagnosed with bone cancer which led to two years of chemotherapy and the amputation of her right leg below the knee. Her trauma and the resilience required to cope with her illness led her to become highly empathetic with other helpless beings, beginning with a scrappy litter runt. This feline’s personality and emotional capacity planted a seed for Jenny, but it took eight years and a leaflet about all the plight of animals used and abused for medical experiments that helped her make the connection between her beloved cat and all the animals exploited and abused for fur, experimentation, entertainment and the meat on her plate. At age 18, she became a vegetarian and began advocating for animals.

Over the next decade, Jenny built a career in film and television production, while also volunteering her time in activism, including undercover video for various animal advocacy organizations. But it was an assignment in 2003 to film downed animals (animals too sick or injured to stand or walk), that her life was forever changed. During that week in Texas spent traveling from stockyard to stockyard, Jenny witnessed sights and sounds that still haunt her to this day.

With this inspiration, she left her career in film and television to start a sanctuary for animals rescued from food production. In May of 2004, she and her husband Doug bought a house and 23 acres in the famous town of Woodstock, NY, and got to work building the facilities to house farmed animals rescued from cases of abuse and abandonment and many slaughterhouse escapees. Woodstock Farm Sanctuary was born with a mission to rescue, educate and advocate for farmed animals so very soon after, they opened their doors to thousands of visitors each year for educational tours and the opportunity to meet cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep and more, in an environment where they are loved and treated with compassion.

Over the next decade, the pair oversaw Woodstock blossom into one of the most recognized and respected farmed animal safe havens in the country. 

In 2015 Woodstock Farm Sanctuary moved to a much larger, 150-acre farm in High Falls, New York, just 90 minutes from New York City. The sanctuary continues to provide life-long care to hundreds of animals and continues the import connecting people with the animals most overlooked in our society, and advocating for a diet and lifestyle that doesn’t contribute to the suffering of animals.

In 2016, Jenny left WFS to put her energies into a national speaking tour at universities and colleges around the country and now resides in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky with her husband, 6 chickens, 4 cats, 3 dogs and an open-door policy to fosters.

Her story has been featured in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, CNN and more (see Media).

Jenny’s memoir-with-a-mission, The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight For Farm Animals, was released in 2012 to great acclaim.