Animal Place

I love this place and would recommend everyone to go there!

This place is awesome! I did a self guided tour with my boyfriend and the staff was so friendly that we got to actually meet some of the animals! Which we weren’t even expecting because it wasn’t a tour day! I love what this place stands for. I am so glad they are able to save so many animals and inform the public of what is really going on in the meat and dairy industry. Thanks so much animal place! Keep doing what you’re doing!

This sanctuary is absolutely incredible. They’re doing amazing things here that should be not only acknowledged, but celebrated.
Interning here is the best choice you can ever hope to make!

Caution: Grass Valley can get extremely hot during summer, over 90 most days and often 100. You’ll be walking around a farm without much shade. This is not a criticism, just the reality of a working farm in the country.
My son lives really close to here, and I’m also a huge fan of the now renamed Republic of V in Berkeley, so this was definitely on my list of places to visit. I’m not a huge animal rights person (I mean, it’s important, but I’m not one of those people) and I grew up on a farm briefly and around many farm animals, so I had an idea of what it would be like.
The place is nice enough, although a bit off the beaten track (and I should know, I’ve been coming up this way for 15 years). The animals were mostly not to be seen up close, and I don’t blame them, due to the aforementioned heat.
Our favorite was the donkey, which clearly loved the attention. It’s a shame it was by itself, since they are particularly social animals, although I’m told it likes to hang with the goats.
The demonstration of the factory farming cages I think was informative to my son, who mostly gets to see farm animals in the area which have plenty of room to roam.
Still, I felt a little unsatisfied at the visit. Perhaps if we’d done a formal tour. I don’t know.

Great, beautiful place, but where are the rescued animals? There are hardly any animals here on this sanctuary. Very strange indeed.

I came here for a meetup and it was wonderful. They had vegan food samples as well as coupons and merchandise. I tried the BEST vegan cheese ever!
The animals were great and we got to meet them. It was sad to hear some of their stories but comforting to know they are in a safe, happy place to live out their years.
This may seem like obvious advice but wear closed-​toe shoes.

This place is amazing! I’ve been to other farm sanctuaries before, and they’re all great, but this one is by far my favorite. The animals are so well cared for, they have so much open area to roam around and the place is absolutely beautiful! The animals that get to call this place home are so lucky. You get to walk around a nice path surrounded by grassy hills and you’re greeted by sheep, cows, pigs and turkeys that come up to the fences to say hi (and you might even get some cow kisses like I did today). I live down in LA, but I definitely want to come back here and visit next time I’m in the area!

Love this place. I cannot say enough about the staff and their drive to do good. I was able to adopt 10 hens that were rescued from some inhumane farm and I want to shout from the mountain tops to everyone I know to come here. There needs to be more places out there like Animal Place that help, educate, provide, support, care, love and have the dedication like they do! I will be back… :)

A great place to visit. Did a self guided tour today with our kids and the loved it. A very peaceful place & you can see that the animals are very well kept.

Couldn’t wait to give this place a well deserved 5 stars! Standby for updated review after today’s amazing visit!..

We were just here yesterday for their guided tour! We initially found out about Animal Place in a recent documentary called Cowspiracy. If you haven’t yet seen it, I highly recommend it. It is full of wonderful information that will further educate you and reinforce your love for a vegan lifestyle.
We made the 2.5 hour drive all the way out to Grass Valley, which is beautiful by the way. We weaved in and out of winding roads and admired the autumn foliage the whole way. This is a gorgeous time of year, and we just to happened to get lucky enough to visit on a sunny day!
When we arrived we gathered at the picnic tables and checked out their cool merchandise. There are lots of shirts, tank tops, hats, and fun stuff that you can buy in support of their mission. They have a lot of information about vegan lifestyle as well which is wonderful. I really appreciated the consistent efforts to educate the visitors.
It turned out that our group was a large one, and though many people were on time, there were about 18 people that were late. Because of this, our tour was delayed about half an hour. Please arrive early!
Our tour guide as well as the volunteers and staff at Animal Place were all wonderful. They were fun to be around, easy to talk to, and were very educated about all of the animals on their farm, their individual histories, and about factory farming as well. They had a lot of really vital and important information that they shared with us throughout the afternoon.
As we went on our tour, we went to see the cows; Panda Bob to be specific. It took a while to find the cows, but we eventually tracked them down. It was really fun to get a chance to pet them. They were so friendly and gentle and were very much in tune with the people around them. Something that I didn’t care for was that a few people hung around the cows, preventing other people to approach them and experience petting them. It would be really lovely to have some sort of line or just a higher awareness of the fact that everybody should be able to have the experience of getting up close to the animals.
The land that Animal Place owns here is vast, and all of the animals were allowed generous room. They all could roam freely and happily. It was truly a beautiful thing. You’ll find that the sanctuary is just beautiful with all of the trees and hills and open land. Walking around on our tour was a treat in itself!
We made our way over to the sheep. Our group was too large for everybody to enter their enclosure, so we split in two (so as not to scare them or stress them out). Not all of the sheep were exactly «social,» so we were asked to go up to only one sheep that they pointed out to us. It was sort of the same situation with the sheep– some people spent a lot of time hugging and petting the sheep as others patiently waited to hopefully have a moment themselves. The sheep were adorable, and they loved the staff from AP. They ran right up to the staff. It was very endearing.
We also got to see a veal crate, and were spoken to about veal production, and some really great information about cows. It is definitely hard to hear and imagine how so many of these animals are treated. But on the other hand, it is very empowering to learn about these animals. I find that there are always things I haven’t yet discovered, and I use this knowledge to further embrace my lifestyle of compassion. The more you know about the reality of the livelihood of these animals, the more you can share with others and help to create a valid, sound foundation.
Visiting with the pigs was amazing. Pigs are one of my favorite animals, so I couldn’t wait to get in there with them. There were three young babes and they were all so curious and adventurous. I admire the playfulness that pigs always seem to have. They come right up to you to say hello, and will nudge you to pet them; much like a dog. They were just so much fun. They brought so much happiness into my heart.
The enclosure for the rabbits was sensational. They have SO MUCH ROOM! There are places for them to hide, to run around, to jump, and their enclosure even reaches outside in a secured cage. It was brilliant.
My favorite part of the whole tour was the chickens. I never would have thought that I would connect to deeply with these guys, but I did. My fiancé did, too! They were so gentle. We would squat down to their level with some grain in our hands, and they would approach, shyly at first but then becoming more comfortable, and eat right from the palms of our hands. It was such a powerful moment. I now have a deeper sense of just how alert and alive these animals are. You look into their eyes and you feel their souls. It is something everybody should experience in their lifetime. You cannot truly understand the feeling until you are in the moment yourself.
Thank you so much to Animal Place for all that you do and have done. You make this world a better place.

Adopted for our 4^th time from the Animal Place today. We brought home 10 battery farm rescue chickens! The world needs more places out there that are making a difference. Chickens are not thought of as pets or animals that need love or attention but the Animal Place is helping to educate the world that battery farms treatment of chickens is Inhumane, starting from the awful debeaking and continuing through the life they spend sitting in a tiny box with little to no natural light, no attention, and certainly not love! Chickens deserve all of the above!!! The Animal Place provides education, resources, and money caring for these animals and deserves many accolades for what they do! Interested in adopting a farm animal and adding more love to your home? I would recommend this agency hands down above the rest!

A great place to visit and support. The staff and volunteers really care about the residents, and teaching about how we can all not only make a difference, but really help the abused and mistreated. They have different events and fundraisers to participate in.

The organizers and volunteers are doing a most amazing job rescuing and caring for otherwise unwanted farmed animals. The facility is rated A-​1 in my opinion.

I was here the day after Christmas… a wonderful, idyllic, serene setting. except…
if this is truly an animal sanctuary, set on 400 acres. um… where are all the saved animals?
We were simply flummoxed. But… having come out on the 80, we thought we would stroll the whole place. 3 large hogs, about 20 rabbits, no cows visible anywhere, wild turkeys, chickens, and a few goats.
That’s about it. As far as the philosophy of the place, and the dedicated workers… score. Awesome. trail is easy to spot. center gate. go through it.
Super clean bathrooms. We went in to donate $$ and grab a shirt. Loooooong windy 15 minute drive once veering off 49.

The work that this sanctuary does is truly inspiring.
I highly recommend everybody take a tour here– seriously it changed my life.
After laying on the ground next to a sweet, smiling pig let you hug him for 20 minutes straight, you realize that animals truly are friends and not food.
The people who work here are amazing, truly wonderful people.

Support Animal Place!!!

This is a wonderful sanctuary! They rescue farm animals and take fantastic care of them. Kim Sturla. the founder is dedicated to animal welfare and lovingly rehabilitates and gives the animals in her care the attention they deserve. You can go up to visit and take a tour if you like — it is a wonderful place!

It is awesome to have this incredible opportunity to connect with the rescued animals, and hear their stories. They are indeed individuals with their own sense of being.
Thank you to Kim and all the staff & volunteers who make this all possible.
For anyone who isn’t close enough to visit the sanctuary in person, look for the documentary the «Emotional World of Farm Animals» which is a great companion piece of the book «Pigs Who Sang to the Moon» by Jeffrey Masson.