Spreading Kindness and Changing Futures, BRCC Outpost Supports Local Shelter
Through a number of chance encounters, Haven 12:10 Animal Sanctuary participated in the Coastalvir giniadriving Company Clarksville outpost’s NASCAR week event and adopted out three of the five dogs on the day of the event. While many people showed up to get coffee and meet Ty Dillon or Matt Crafton, Haven staff were on site with the goal of finding their rescue dogs a forever home.
More than 20 years of helping animals prior to the Haven’s existence prepared CJ and Timothy Hale to get to where they are today: owning their own farm and running a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing the abandoned, abused, and homeless animals of Christian County in Kentucky.
“My husband [Timothy] served 26 years in the Army, first as a combat medic during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, then after going through Green to Gold, his officer career took him everywhere from Fort Drum to Fort Lewis to Fort Campbell,” CJ Hale, Haven co-founder, said. “After a few deployments and a tour to Korea, he worked as a contractor, and that job is what set us up to be able to buy the farm and run the rescue.”
Photo courtesy of CJ Hale/Haven 12:10 Animal Sanctuary.
Haven 12:10 Animal Sanctuary was officially incorporated in 2020 when the Hales bought their farm. Since then, they have placed more than 70 dogs, cats, and equines, the most recent of those thanks to the partnering event with BRCC and a new PetSmart partnership.
“I became a dispatch operator, and in doing that, you really see the need for help,” CJ Hale explained. “There are just countless animal calls, in the form of abuse, neglect, and sometimes more terrible things. We developed a relationship with local law enforcement because, when there are equine rescues, local shelters don’t have space for horses, so law enforcement relies on private rescues to place the horses.”
Hale and the Haven work with a number of local shelters and tackle owner surrenders, but the law enforcement connection is what led to their first horse who didn’t have a place to go. This quickly turned into two horses when a boarding facility ended up with a horse whose owner simply stopped feeding him.
Photo courtesy of CJ Hale/Haven 12:10 Animal Sanctuary.
“Things like that just kept happening,” CJ Hale explained. “We’ve ended up with medically challenged puppies, ones that were heartworm positive, facing starvation or in need of a variety of surgeries. This is part of why we decided to form the Haven as a 501(c)(3), because it was going to take more than just our salaries to keep the rescue afloat. We’ve poured our time, resources, hearts, just everything we have into it — God has really blessed us with a lovely board of directors that includes my mom, retired K9 handlers, and 911 dispatchers.”
At their peak, Haven had 16 dogs and 18 cats in the farmhouse. Their home is also the kennel facility, so the animals live alongside the Hales in a way that allows them to be one large pack.
“Though the open kennel concept limits us sometimes with the number of animals we can house and potential behavioral issues, we have a good pack of stable core animals that will always be at the farm,” CJ Hale continued. “Some of our animals will never be rehomed, but they will live comfortably and happily spoiled at the Haven for the rest of their lives.”
Photo by Lauren Warner/BRCC Blog.
The Haven’s relationship with BRCC stemmed from the Hales being huge fans of the coffee, not to mention the fact that they are a family with connections to both the military and first responders.
“We were so excited when the Clarksville outpost opened,” CJ Hale said. “Even though we’re in White Plains, Kentucky, Clarksville is still closer than Texas. Every time we visited, we noticed the water bowls on the patios and the dog treats indoors, so I made the decision to just leave my card and see if they would be open to allowing us to bring some of our adoptable animals and sit on the patio. Ten days later, we got a call from the outpost inviting us to bring some of our dogs to the NASCAR event.”
Given the heat wave Tennessee was facing in June, the Haven animals were welcomed into the store to stay cool, and it became a team effort to get the dogs adopted.
“Everyone was so gracious and enthusiastic; to have the staff from the store and the corporate employees and even the NASCAR drivers invested in the animals and helping them find homes was just an amazing experience,” CJ Hale said. “This has been one of the most fun things that has happened both personally and for the organization. Rescue is a very emotional rollercoaster — you see the worst of the worst, and then you see the people who go above and beyond to try and provide these animals the chance to thrive, not just survive.”
Three of the five dogs brought to Clarksville were adopted the day of the event. Stella, whose family had adopted another dog from Haven previously, picked her up and made her the first adoption of the day. One of the Clarksville outpost employees adopted Delilah, an 8-year-old deaf pitbull, and Jay Fain, the BRCC Fund Director, adopted Dusty, who has since been renamed Lena. Fain bonded with Lena the day of the event and called Hale the following day to let her know that they were scrapping their plane tickets and keeping the rental car so they could drive Lena back to Texas with them.
Photo by Lauren Warner/BRCC Blog.
The remaining two dogs were both adopted in the weeks following the Clarksville event through PetSmart’s National Adoption Week events.
“It isn’t often that you find a company with the integrity and core values that BRCC has,” CJ Hale explained. “BRCC is just good people. I respect that, and that’s why I left my card in the first place. We love who BRCC is, the product is excellent, and the company is fun and supports all the same communities we do; it’s rare to find that, and we could not be more humbled and more honored to be associated with you all.”
“Our hashtag and motto is ‘spreading kindness, changing futures,’” Hale continued. “And BRCC did that for us and the dogs by including us in their event.”
To support Haven 12:10 Animal Sanctuary or to check out its rescued animals and perhaps bring one home for yourself, head to the website here.
