Founder Elaine West Info

Founder/President

Elaine West

Elaine West founded Rooterville Animal Sanctuary Inc. with the help and support of her late husband and partner Dale West, in 2004. Elaine was disabled after a car accident in 2011 and Dale passed away in 2015, leaving her to manage the operation of the sanctuary, a daunting task! She did not back down, showing her undying commitment to help the animals and share them with as many people as possible.


Elaine serves as president and leads a small team that handles everything in the daily operations of the business and upkeep of the sanctuary, as well as caring for the amazing, happy animals that call the sanctuary home.  Her greatest joy is seeing the smiling faces and hearing the comments of happy visitors like "this is the best day EVER"!  What a priviledge to bring joy and peace to so many visitors every year while giving the animals treats and attention, its a win-win for everyone.

In 2021, the private foundation that supported our sanctuary decided to cut funding, claiming sanctuaries didn’t provide a good return on investment and that they were "run by older, mostly burned out older women in bad locations". This happened despite promises from the founder, who had assured me that I would "never have to worry, he would always be there for me" after Dale’s sudden death. As a result, we were left scrambling for financial support, with private donations never being enough to care for over 300 animals.

The foundation initially promised to rehome all the animals except for a few, but at the last minute, they backed out of finding homes for 100 pigs. I was forced to change plans and find a much larger  property to care for that large a number of animals.

It has been a struggle to keep the animals well-cared for while managing finances, especially after COVID. However, with the help of a life-saving loan and support from kind people through visits, stays, donations, and shopping in our online store—we are getting back on our feet. Despite my disability making much of the work extremely difficult and exhausting, we are continuing to provide excellent care for our animals and exceptional experiences to our guests and the community.

If you would be interested in being a part of an incredible, first class organization that offers the most memorable stays and experiences to guests while helping share the message of compassion for ALL animals, please get in touch.  We need good business people to help Rooterville reach its potential and bring more joy, inspiration and ddddkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk                                             




Background

Elaine West founded Rooterville Animal Sanctuary Inc. in 2004 with the help and support of her late husband and partner Dale West who died unexpectedly in 2015. A disabled widow, Elaine works tirelessly to keep up with everything in the daily operations of the business and upkeep of the sanctuary, as well as overseeing the care of the amazing animals that call the sanctuary home.

​At Rooterville, our animals get the best care in an interesting environment in which they can express their natural behaviors.  Grass, trees, ponds, ample fresh water and good forage and feed are important for them to live their best life.  The majority of animals at Rooterville are in their senior years now.

When their health fails or they are not living a good quality of life, they are humanely euthanized to keep them from suffering.  We wish they could all live forever but that is not reality and when an animal is suffering, the kindest thing is to humanely let it go. 

Compared to animals raised on factory farms whose lives are taken while they are babies at less than 6 months of age, 2yrs for cattle, our animals live a long and happy life, the life that God intended for them to enjoy.  With your help, we can put an end to one of the greatest evils and source of misery in our "modern", heartless world-- factory farming.  A plant based diet is not only kind to animals, it is kind to the planet and our own bodies.  Try it for 30 days and see!

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