Rowdy Girl Sanctuary now houses rescued cows, chickens, pigs, and more.

When Renee King-Sonnen’s husband Tommy asked her to take care of a two-month old baby calf named Rowdy Girl, he’d hoped the process would make her want to be a “good” cattle rancher’s wife. Instead, it led the couple down a path of vegan activism, turning the farm that had been in his family for generations into an animal rescue sanctuary.

King-Sonnen moved into the Sonnen Ranch in 2009. Almost immediately, she “fell in love” with the cows. She gave them names, and would regularly talk and sing to them. She started bottle feeding Rowdy Girl in 2010, and taking care of the calf helped her see the rest of the cows through a new lens. But these cows were being raised to be sold for slaughter, and she started feeling “haunted” by seeing them carted off in trailers.

Everything changed one day in 2014. She watched Dr. Melanie Joy’s video on  carnism, and for the first time saw a plate of meat as chopped up dead animals. “I went vegan on that very day,” she tells Plant Based News (PBN). “And that decision propelled me forward with great enthusiasm, passion and determination to convert our working cattle ranch into a farm sanctuary.”  >>MORE