About the Sanctuary

Welcome to Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, where a Texas beef cattle ranch had a vegan change of heart and transformed into a haven for farm animals.

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is an oasis of compassion in Texas that champions the rights of farmed animals. As the first-ever documented beef cattle ranch in the world to go vegan and transition into a sanctuary, we are committed to changing how the world views animals typically raised for food.

Our Unique Story

Founded on Halloween Day 2014, Rowdy Girl Sanctuary began as a radical journey of transformation when a working cattle ranch in Texas turned into a refuge for farmed animals. Our personal story of redemption has gained international attention and is lighting the path for those wanting to challenge the status quo of animal agriculture.

What We Do

  • Sanctuary for Farmed Animals: We provide a permanent home for animals such as cows, goats, pigs and chickens who would have been slaughtered. Our residents live out their lives free from harm, representing the sentience and individuality of animals worldwide.
  • Education & Outreach: We engage audiences through educational programming and the Rowdy Girl documentary to highlight the importance of veganism and animal rights. We are exposing a food system based on normalized violence and the institutions that have conditioned us to accept it.
  • Inspire Change: As leaders in the vegan and animal rights movement, we’re here to inspire farmers, consumers, and activists alike to create a world where compassion, sustainability, and justice prevail over exploitation.

Our Impact

Rowdy Girl has been featured on major media platforms like CBS Evening News, Vogue, Bon Appetit and VegNews, helping to amplify our message across the globe. Our story has shown that even the most entrenched animal farming systems can change when compassion leads the way.

The Rowdy Girl Story

“My husband wanted me to be a good rancher’s wife. I bought a two-month old calf for $300 and named her Rowdy Girl. To raise for slaughter. The story begins there. That little calf took me down the rabbit hole and I came out the other side a vegan with compassion for all sentient beings. Even those that used to be on my plate. The rest they say is her-story.”
~ Renee King-Sonnen

Meet Our Team

Click on each photo to learn more about our team members.

Mission Statement

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary (RGS) provides sanctuary to farm animals at risk of being slaughtered and promotes an ethical vegan lifestyle. RGS seeks to educate the public on the Rowdy Girl story, plant based food options, FFA/4H, factory farming practices, and the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the environment.

Vision Statement

Our vision is to create a palpable atmosphere of communion and acceptance where farmed animals, visitors and volunteers from across the United States and the world will be drawn to experience our transition from a Texas beef cattle ranch to a vegan farm animal sanctuary. Once touched by the Rowdy Girl story, our vision is to open hearts, minds and souls to a vegan lifestyle and its many benefits. We aim to disrupt cultural programming that has people consume animals and cause a transformation where people realize the horrors of factory farming and its devastating impact on human health and our environment.

Financial Statements

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (tax ID number 47-3375043).

For Rowdy Girl Sanctuary’s financial information, you can view our IRS determination letter, state registration information and most recent IRS forms:

Testimonials

The compassionate mission of Renee and Tommy Sonnen has been a beacon of promise for me that the human spirit can – and will – rise and return to it’s innate propensity for respect, non-harm, and solidarity with our fellow earthlings. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is a soulful meeting place of inter-species hearts, minds, & souls. My heart has been nourished and my soul uplifted that our world can heal and re-frame! Thank you Renee and Tommy for your dauntless courage!!

Kathy Landry, Animal Communicator/Psychic Medium, Singer/Songwriter, Vegan, Native Texan www.kathylandrypsychicmedium.com

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is a reflection of the transformation that is happening all over the world towards a new paradigm of compassionate living. Ranchers becoming protectors reminds me of the Garden of Eden, where the lions once laid beside the lambs. And what a beautiful story that is being played out on this love filled sanctuary that reminds us that this next step of evolution has already arrived, truly, once again.

Kip Andersen

Since meeting Renee and learning of her journey into Vegansim I am more than encouraged that many more will come to the same realization as she has. To transition from cow ranchers wife to Vegan activist setting up a Sanctuary, is a life altering and amazing feat! Renee you will forever have my support in this venture of transition to a cruelty free Sanctuary where animals may live free their entire lives. Bless you my friend and thank you for being you in this world.

McKenna Grace Fisher

FAQ

When did you become a nonprofit?

February 20th is the day we became an official 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. You can find a link on this page to view it.

Have there been any other cattle ranches do what you have done?

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is the first documented beef cattle ranch conversion to a vegan sanctuary in the history of Texas, the United States and possibly the world. Since our transition, others have followed suit.

What is the difference between a cow/calf beef cattle ranch and a dairy farm?

A dairy farm is all about producing milk. They do this by artificial insemination or what are called “rape racks.” Dairy cows are impregnated repeatedly so that they can birth calves and thus produce milk. The calves are taken away days after their birth and sold for veal production or to ranches to be used as breeders. A cow/calf beef cattle ranch, like a typical small cattle ranch in Texas, grazes cattle with a fertile bull that impregnates the cows naturally. The cows have babies, and the babies are with their mothers for approximately 6 to 9 months. Then the babies are sold in auctions to the highest bidder to be fattened up in feed lots or used as breeders on other small ranches. That is the basic difference. We are not and have never operated as a dairy farm.

Why are you asking the public to take care of animals that belonged to your husband before you established this sanctuary?

In the time since this story began, Tommy Sonnen underwent an enormous transformation. The once meat-eating, full-time cattle rancher is now a vegan. He’s a full-time volunteer, caring for all of the animals he previously owned, and sold to his wife, Renee, who in turn made them the first residents of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. She established the nonprofit organization to put an end to the buying and selling of livestock as a business. The cows once bound for slaughter were spared. 

Tommy had previously bought the 96-acre former beef cattle ranch as a supplement to his retirement after a 40-year career at Dow Chemical. He bought the land with the cows on it so that he could retire early and generate income. Renee’s decision to go vegan changed Tommy’s plans for a retirement portfolio completely. Tommy walked away from his plans and dreams for himself and the ranch; and supported his wife in the pursuit of a vegan sanctuary. This was an enormous change of heart for a beef cattle rancher who had previously viewed these animals entirely as a commodity. He now sees and treats them as individuals and is relieved that he no longer has to sell them. Seeing them live out their lives free from exploitation is a gift he could never have imagined before.

Now that the animals Tommy formerly owned are safe at Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, he will devote his life to caring for them. Tommy’s shift is a beautiful part of the Rowdy Girl Sanctuary story. The animals Tommy once owned are now part of our mission to provide loving, lifelong care for all the animals in the sanctuary.

Is Rowdy Girl Sanctuary breeding cows?

NO – absolutely not.  Breeding implies that we are deliberately impregnating the cows to sell their babies.  That is what “breeders” do. They deliberately breed and sell the offspring for commercial profit. We are not doing that. We are a vegan sanctuary, and breeding is not consistent with our vegan ethics and our mission.  We do not sell our animals nor are we breeding for the “fun” of it. We have sterilized all the males.  As a cow/calf operation we operated with only one bull that we kept – the rest were always females. All bull calves and baby heifers were sold at market. The breeding occurred with one bull.

How come the sanctuary cows that you bought have had babies if you are not breeding?

Converting a cow/calf beef cattle ranch operation into a 100% sterile herd AND becoming a vegan sanctuary is unheard of.  The cows that were saved from slaughter along with their juvenile children are a miracle and the last of the original Rowdy Girl herd. They would have all been slaughtered.  And, it should come as no surprise that some of the cows saved by Renee were pregnant. On Oct 31, 2014 (the day she went vegan) and May 2, 2015 (the day she raised the rest of the money to buy the herd). The herd she bought had babies. That is not breeding – it is life!  Those children will never go to slaughter. They are saved and will not be sold to be fattened up in a feedlot and slaughtered. They get to stay with their families, and our visitors will get to know them in their own familial environment.

If you have questions, always ask us on our website, email or call. We welcome you at the sanctuary anytime.  In the meantime, get to know our Rowdy family – it is the only one like it in the world.

Are you available to speak personally with people who have questions about Rowdy Girl Sanctuary?

Of course, any time. Call us at 281-684-9101 or email us at renee@rowdygirlsanctuary.org.   Trying to reach us through social media is not always easy to do. We get hundreds of notifications a day but if you call or email, you will receive a response.