Check our Events Calendar and come join in the fun! Rooterville is an experience you'll never forget.
We are open for visitors Sat & Sun 10AM til 2PM, no appt needed! Bring treats for the animals!
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All About Rooterville Animal Sanctuary
Our Story
Rooterville Animal Sanctuary is located in Melrose, FL. Rooterville provides a safe and compassionate refuge to rescued farm animals. These precious farm animals are just like us in that everyone is an individual who deserves to be loved. We provide them all with a healthy diet and comfy home filled with love and good care. Our residents, which we kindly refer to as ambassadors, are the lucky ones who have come here from all sorts of situations but primarily as the result of abuse, abandonment, and neglect. They include pot-bellied pigs, farm pigs, cows, goats, turkeys, mini-horses, horses, chickens and a few dogs and cats. Rooterville Animal Sanctuary currently provides a beautiful. loving home to over one hundred animals.
​Rooterville was founded by Elaine West in 2004 to care for the many unwanted, abandoned, and abused pot-bellied pigs in need of a safe and loving home. Unfortunately, most animal control agencies or Humane Societies will not take in unwanted pet pigs, so many of these former pets end up meeting a gruesome fate simply because no one is there to help. In 2015 tragedy struck when Elaine's husband went to be with the Lord suddenly. It was a defining moment, it would have been easier to quit but despite health issues, Elaine stayed the course and made Rooterville into what you will see today. A vibrant, joyful, peaceful place where kindness, care for others and generosity are lived out and shared. Kind folks are GOOD folks!
Your support helps us help more animals, animals no one else will help. Your generosity is what allows us to keep our gates open so that others can meet them and learn about the benefits of making kind choices. Together, we are making this world a better place for ALL of us. Thank you!
Our Mission
Elaine Says: "When I met Stella and realized how smart, gentle, and amazing pigs really were, I wanted to share them with everyone. Stella changed my life and I knew that she would change other people's lives as well. Rooterville was inspired by sweet Stella who we lost to cancer in 2014. By helping educate and encourage people to make kind choices like eating plant-based foods instead of meat, dairy and processed foods, we will have the greatest impact on reducing animal abuse, exploitation, and suffering-besides helping save our environment from the devastation caused by animal agriculture and improving our own health as well.The change brought about by making kind choices every day would be profound and positive in every way and it is so simple!"
Rooterville Animal Sanctuary was inspired by farm animals in need, like Stella, and founded on a singular principle: Compassion. We believe true happiness, a better world, and recognition of our religious ideals require compassion and mercy for animals. Kind-hearted folks are the best folks.
Rooterville does not want to see any animal suffer from abuse, neglect, or mistreatment. Nor do we want to see people suffering from preventable diseases like heart disease, diabetes type 2, strokes and most cancers. ALL of these health conditions are caused by our poor dietary choices. Kind choices of whole, plant based foods are healthy choices that help our bodies heal and fight off disease.
God gave us a miraculous, self-healing body that will do its work when we give it the nutrition that it needs. Falling apart as we age is not natural, it is also the result of what we put in our mouths. If we go back to the Bible to Genesis 1:29, we'll discover the diet our bodies were designed to function optimally on. Eating as close to nature as possible rewards us with good health and puts life in our years.
That's the gift Dale and Elaine long to give to everyone: a healthy, long life full of joy and the peace that comes from knowing where you'll spend eternity as life is not over when we leave this earth. Learn more from one of our favorite, most inspiring pastors here: Joel Osteen
Please download our recipe book and do your research, we recommend visiting Hallelujah Acres and Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine for comprehensive information on the benefits of a plant-based diet and start on the path to a kind, healthy and uplifting life! Make sure to tell us about your decision, nothing is more exciting for us to hear!
We cannot rescue all of the animals that need help, I wish we could. But every person who joins us in choosing a plant-based diet saves 100 animal lives EVERY YEAR! That is HUGE. We may not feel very empowered with our political vote but we have tremendous power with our money. Every dollar we spend is a vote for something. Voting with our hearts will have the greatest impact on making the world a beautiful, kind, and sustainable place for all of us.
Looking for an AMAZING Animal Experience?
Rooterville Animal Sanctuary-FUN for the whole family!
Brian
Our Team
Elaine West
Founder/President
Elaine West founded Rooterville Animal Sanctuary Inc. with the help and support of her late husband and partner Dale West, in 2004. Today, Elaine serves as president and leads a team of eight that handle everything in the daily operations of the business and upkeep of the sanctuary, as well as caring for the amazing animals that call the sanctuary home.
Jackie
Michael
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