All About Rooterville Animal Sanctuary

Our Story

Rooterville Animal Sanctuary is located in Melrose, FL which is a rural area right between Jacksonville and Gainesville, FL making a great location for visitors from all over the state!. 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, peacocks 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 suddenly passed away. 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!

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.  God gave us a mandate to be stewards of His Creation, we have failed miserably due to convenience and greed.  It is time to go back to Genesis and experience all that God meant for us to enjoy, if we would just stick to His plan!

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 made us to live on plants, our bodies function optimally on plants and a plant-based diet is kind to animals and the environment.  Chosing organic, healthy food from the earth is the best thing we can do.