Sandy Bainbridge stands in a pen on the farm with a miniature donkey. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Robbinsville Police Lt. Sandy Bainbridge holds Lizzy the goat as Abdul the camel inspects. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Sandy Bainbridge, a lieutenant with the Robbinsville police department, looks forward to relaxing on the weekends, as most working people do. She spends time with her daughters, Casey and Taylor, her husband, Rick, and their pets. Inside the house, they have three dogs, a cat and a pot-bellied pig.
Outside the house? That’s a different story.
The Bainbridges live on a sprawling Chesterfield farm with more animals than Sandy can even count.
“I’ve never counted them, and I don’t want to know,” she said. “People ask me all the time, and I just say ‘A lot.’ I don’t need to know.”
She knows for sure they have five camels, two zebras, three horses, three Bernese mountain dogs, an emu and a number of donkeys, miniature donkeys, miniature horses, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese. It sounds like a handful, but Bainbridge said it’s not as intimidating as it seems. She spends between 15 and 20 minutes outside with the animals in the morning. An hour is sufficient to complete her evening chores, but she usually stays outside until dark.
“It’s my psychiatry couch,” she said. “It relaxes me. It makes me happy. I have to say that I’m very happy. A lot of people come here and go, ‘Oh my god, the work,’ but it’s not a lot of work because I enjoy doing it. I can have the worst day ever, but to come home and be surrounded by your animals that don’t ask for anything, that don’t want anything, it’s a good feeling. Nobody’s telling you what to do. Nobody’s asking you for anything. It’s what I do. It’s my other life outside of work.”
Bainbridge’s animals have been part of her life since before she even had thoughts of becoming a police officer. She grew up on a small farm in Robbinsville on Meadowbrook Road with a horse, cows, chickens and ducks.
Just before she and Rick got married, though, Bainbridge was without animals for the first time in her life.
“I was miserable,” she said.
After their wedding, that changed. They bought a small farm and a few horses.
“We got horse after horse because I missed that from my childhood,” she said. “My husband wanted a couple of donkeys, so we got a couple of donkeys. It kind of evolved.”
It certainly did. They started taking some of the donkeys to shows, and once their children were born, they got involved, too.
“I’ve been outside since I was born,” Casey, 16, said. “The first time my mom ever took me outside, she took my right to my first horse.”
The girls breed and raise their own rabbits and donkeys, and both have bottle-fed several animals on the farm. Bainbridge said their interest has waned as they’ve gotten older, but they still love to be outside.
“I love it,” she said. “I grew up as a little farm girl, and they love that my kids are, too. They’re still into their clothes and their hair and their makeup and their boys, but they also have this side of them, which I think is wonderful. They’re very well-rounded.”
Casey said she gets that trait from her mom, the police officer by day, farm girl by night.
“My mom is such a role model,” she said. “She can do everything and more. There’s no limit to what to what she can do.”
She said their unique upbringing is different from others in the best possible way.
“I can go from being outside in the mud to going out with my friends,” Casey said. “We’re outside a lot, and sometimes I want some personal time, but it’s still a lot of fun. It’s a great experience. I think all the work has made me much more mature and responsible.”
Casey said she prefers to take care of the goats, while Bainbridge enjoys the donkeys.
“They’re like dogs,” Bainbridge said. “They will follow you anywhere. They will leave food to come get love and attention. They look to be with people. There are a lot of other animals where if you don’t have food in your hand, they take off. Donkeys are not that way. They’re just gentle, sweet animals, just like your favorite dog.”
The donkeys are popular outside of the farm, too. Churches started asking the Bainbridges to use the donkeys in live nativity scenes during Christmas. Much like on their own farm, that soon developed into a sheep, goats, a calf and a camel. Sandy also brings the animals to community events like Septemberfest in Hamilton, Octoberfest and National Night Out. The community reaction is always enthusiastic.
“They love seeing the animals because a lot of people don’t see animals anymore,” Bainbridge said. “It’s kind of a lost art in New Jersey. A lot of people don’t even know what they are. They see a donkey, and think it’s a horse. They see a goat, and they think it’s a sheep.”
Without her animals, Bainbridge said she would not be the same person.
“It’s my thing,” she said. “Everybody has a thing, I guess, and this is mine. My critters.”
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