Amanda Seyfried lives the dream life with her husband Thomas Sadoski, and two children, on their farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York — and all animals are welcome.
“I’m locally known as somebody who will take the emergency situation and adopt an animal in need,” Seyfried, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Best Friends Animal Society’s Benefit to Save Them All event in New York City. “It’s been great. And honestly, I’ve been able to do it. I have the means to do it. So I love it.”
The Best Friends Animal Society aims to end the killing of cats and dogs in American shelters and give them a second chance at a happy home.
“I love this organization. You have to advocate for the ones without voices. And they’re a grounding presence in our lives,” Seyfried praised to Us. “Animals are innocent and pure and peaceful and beautiful. I can’t imagine life without animals.
The Mamma Mia! actress has “always wanted to have horses,” which led to her taking in more animals.
“I grew up in a postage stamp backyard in suburban Pennsylvania. I always wanted space,” Seyfried told Us while also holding onto a rescue dog. “So when I was in my early twenties, I went to look for it, and the space I got, the property had horses on it, so I inherited those horses. And then from then on, I just started growing with goats and everybody [sic] that I wanted was available to me.”
However, it’s not uncommon for her animals to break loose on the farm.
“It just sucks,” Seyfried explained.“They don’t go far because there’s grass everywhere. They just want to eat. The mini horses get loose. The goats get loose quite often, but that’s an easy one to wrangle.”
When asked if Seyfried had to chase after the mini horses, she jokingly replied, “Yeah, pretty much.”
“You have to go slow and open the gate. If there are other people in the paddock when you’re opening the gate, you have to move them. Often we have injuries and we have to bring certain horses in, and they have to leave the paddock, and sometimes they want to be in together,” Seyfried said. “So screaming and a lot of weird dynamics and beautiful dynamics, tricky dynamics. And so sometimes they just get loose and you just have to be patient. It’s funny, though, they really don’t go far. I think they just know. I think they just want to be home.”
Seyfried also gushed to Us about her Australian Shepherd, Finn who recently turned 15 years old saying there’s a “special place” in her heart for that breed and having her own dog makes her passionate about this cause.
“Every creature deserves some semblance of a happy life and a safe life,” she said. “I’ve watched Best Friends over the years and they’ve proven to really make change in the world of rescuing pets and advocating for spaying and neutering and making sure that pets have a better chance to end the suffering.”
Reporting by Andrew Nodell