If you want to know what love is, all you need to do is spent a few hours at a very special place called, The Gentle Barn. Founded in 1999 by Ellie Laks, on a half-acre property in Tarzana, The Gentle Barn now occupies a six-acre paradise in Santa Clarita, CA, which is complete with large horse and cow pastures, a barnyard for smaller animals, and an organic vegetable garden, which nourishes all the creatures, including the humans.
The over 160 farm animals that reside at The Gentle Barn have all been rescued from severe abuse, neglect, or abandonment. They have been rehabilitated with traditional and non-traditional medicine, top quality nutrition, and countless hours in the arms of the very dedicated staff and volunteers. They have regained their trust in humankind by realizing that they are now loved, and their abuse is over. Because of their ongoing physical and psychological needs, they cannot be adopted and are given sanctuary at The Gentle Barn for the rest of their days.
As a child growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family, Ellie would sneak out the back door of the synagogue during services and find solace communing with the small animals in the field. In the prologue of her new book, My Gentle Barn: Creating a Sanctuary Where Animals Heal and Children Learn to Hope, she describes one day finding peace and stillness for the first time as she lay in the field covered in Monarch butterflies. It was these early experiences that drove her to eventually create That Gentle Barn. She says, “What started off as a personal quest for peace and wholeness has blossomed into something so much bigger than that little girl covered in butterflies ever could have imagined.
Ellie and her husband, Jay, are not only passionate about providing a safe, respectful, loving home for farm animals who are blind, crippled, deformed, sick, wounded or just plain old, they are also dedicated to working with at-risk youth to teach them kindness, compassion and empathy for all living beings. Ellie and Jay say, “At The Gentle Barn, we work with children from the inner-city, group homes, mental health care facilities, foster homes, and schools to teach them that even though we are all different on the outside, on the inside we are all the same and are deserving of the same rights, respects and freedom.”
Support for The Gentle Barn can take several forms. They need horse groomers and walkers, cow huggers, Sunday docents, barnyard buddies, and barn hands. Memberships, animal sponsorships, youth program sponsorships are also wonderful ways to support their efforts. The Gentle Barn is open to the public every Sunday from 10am to 2pm for a donation of $10. They are located at 15825 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita, CA 91390. For more information and to read some of the resident animals’ stories, visit Gentlebarn.org.
Zoë Kors is the Managing Editor of LA Yoga, a writer, yogini, certified life coach, and animal lover. She unexpectedly found her true love at a recent visit to The Gentle Barn—a cow named Buttercup.
Photo: Bryan Reeves
