From Director/Producer Jason Goldman and Executive Producer Moby
After a spiritual awakening, a former Texas cattle rancher leaves the cruel cycle of animal agriculture and transforms her husband’s beef operation into a sanctuary. Rowdy Girl showcases the inspiring work of Renee King-Sonnen, who has lived on both sides of the fence, and proves that there is a common ground between farmers and vegans: a shared mission of compassion and sustainability.
On June 2, 2024, I had the opportunity to speak my heart’s truth at the National Animal Rights Day event in New York City. This event, organized in NYC by Jamie Logan and worldwide by Our Planet, Theirs Too, Animal Save, Anonymous for the Voiceless and We the Free, is a growing, revolutionary movement to bring the truth to the public - through our collective grief and hope. With speeches, poems, songs, performances, marches and direct action, this day is an incredible demonstration of our purpose to end animal exploitation. I was honored to be a speaker at this event where I could pour out my heart and be heard by the people who truly get it and are on the vanguard of ethical progress for our culture.
Doing this work can be soul crushing. I am driven by an intense passion but it takes a toll. Having this space to air my grief and desire for animal liberation and really be heard was invaluable. I felt buoyed by our collective work and intention and held by the united compassion of our hearts. This is truly a special and historic day and I encourage you to get involved and participate next June. We are building a critical mass of resistance to our system of speciesist tyranny.
It was very powerful being there as a former cattle rancher who experienced a vegan spiritual awakening. Our story brings hope and possibility and it is our members who allow us to keep spreading this message far and wide, ensuring that the monthly costs of caring for our many animals are covered. We need to see this system end, y’all. I need it. I long for the day that I will be able to see with my own eyes, the liberation of all animals.
"Vegan: Everyday Stories" is a feature-length documentary exploring the widespread rise of veganism in mainstream culture. The movie takes a fascinating, in-depth look at how everyday people follow a vegan lifestyle while interweaving renowned expert interviews and heartfelt community stories.
Texas Cattle Ranchers Go Vegan, Turn Farm Into Animal Sanctuary
Tommy & Renee King-Sonnen are the owners of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in Texas. The animal sanctuary was formerly known as the Sonnen Ranch before it became the Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, a sanctuary for cows. Once Tommy's wife Renee decided to go vegan, Tommy started looking at statistics and watching documentary films like Forks Over Knives, a film and website that advocates for changing our diets from animal-based to plant-based, and Kip Andersen's 'Cowspiracy.' Eventually, Tommy decided to become vegan as well.
Words cannot describe the moment when Lillie, a Brazoria County FFA Mom, said YES to Rowdy Girl Sanctuary rescuing our two newest residents, Chi Chi & Alana. The video below vividly describes in real time how the rescue unfolded. We are very grateful to our Brazoria County FFA mom that pardoned two of the turkeys that would’ve been “processed” or “dressed” to be consumed along with the other 20 turkeys that were raised for one reason only—to be slaughtered and eaten next Thursday, November the 24th in remembrance of our yearly holiday tradition of Thanksgiving.
In the words of Lillie, here is what she says about what FFA means to her:
“Future Farmers of America” teaches children where their food comes from and all about their farming roots – some kids don’t know corn is grown in a pasture they think it comes out of the can. They learn about agricultural marketing from showing animals to getting animals ready for market and then to selling them to judging them – to learning different crops, farming techniques, etc. The kids also learn how to weld, work on machinery and construct buildings for “livestock”.
I then asked Lillie why they chose turkeys instead of other animals to raise and she said that turkeys are a short-term project (4 months), and that they require a lot less land. 4 MONTHS OLD?!
I got to thinking about that and realized that the turkeys are processed and eaten at 4 months old—they are just babies. If I would have known that I was eating a 4 month old baby all those years I ate turkeys, I don’t think I could have ever done it.
Finally, I asked her if any of her kids ever got emotional before they were sent to be slaughtered. She hesitated for a minute and then said—“they are taught that when you show a market animal they know it is meant for market”.
That concept of “food animals” is deeply ingrained in our culture. If we ever really thought about these animals as anything but food we couldn’t eat them – it would be like eating our dogs and cats or any pet that we loved and had feelings for. The “food animals” are not to be considered with feelings and emotions – they are raised for one reason only – to be processed and eaten.
The 5th Annual Humane Hoax Online Conference was held on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Attendees heard presentations from experts and activists on informative and interesting aspects of humanewashing and greenwashing.
Renee gave a presentation on “There’s No Right Way to do the Wrong Thing”.
VOLUNTEER EFFORTS | Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, the day to day on a rescue farm. Duck, goats & more
We feel lucky to have been able to volunteer at this amazing place for 4 days. We helped build a goat shed, dug a trench, cleaned out metal scraps, cleaned the duck pond and so much more. We knew we loved farm animals, but this place helped solidify our plans for the future... Farm Sanctuary here we come!!! I won’t lie, goats were not my favorite but after meeting Sugar, I cannot wait to save some…they have so much personality! Rowdy Girl is a unique and special place. Prior to the sanctuary they used to be cattle ranchers and after many tears, decided to go vegan, saved their entire heard and have never looked back! They have since been a haven to goats, chickens, pigs of all shapes and sizes, cows, horses and more. Renee and Tommy, the founders, are incredibly compassionate and passionate about their cause. You can’t help but fall in love with the farm. If you would like to show your support, you can become a member for $5 a month, which helps them feed and care for the 50 plus animals they have living on the farm. You can also make a one-time donation or simply subscribe to their YouTube channel, watch, like and comment on their videos. Every little bit helps in the rescue world so don’t discard what one like and one view can do!
Renee spoke at the AVA Summit in Los Angeles July 27-30, 2023. The AVA Summit is an overarching conference series for the animal and vegan advocacy movement, bringing advocates together from around the world who are focusing on systemic change and working on various tactics, strategies, and approaches toward one shared vision: removing animals from our food system and other human use.
We had an incredible talk with the inspiring Renee King-Sonnen of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in our AJA Lunchtime Live: From Cattle Rancher to Animal Activist. In 2015, after feeling like she could no longer be a part of the cruelty of the animal agriculture industry, Renee King-Sonnen and her husband converted their Texas beef cattle ranch into an animal sanctuary. At the end of the month a documentary about Renee and Rowdy Girl Sanctuary will premiere at North America's premiere documentary festival, Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto. In this AJA Lunchtime Live, we find out what the turning point was for Renee deciding to make herself and the ranch vegan, the viral sensation that resulted, and her hopes for the "Rowdy Girl" documentary. We also dig into the mindsets of animal ag farmers, the possibilities for the AR movement to collaborate with farmers, and the top things about animal farmers and the industry that Renee thinks animal advocates should be informed around.
Dr. Sailesh Rao interviews Renee King-Sonnen about her Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP). You'll learn about ranchers and animal farmers who have gone vegan and transitioned their businesses to plant-based farms and sanctuaries.
About Renee: After witnessing time and time again the ranch’s baby calves going to the sale barn, she became more and more depressed about the inherent cruelty of the ranching business. By October 2014, she had decided she no longer wanted any part of ranching. She went vegan and began her pursuit of a dream to open a farm animal sanctuary. She forged relationships with many key leaders in the vegan movement who offered insight and counsel, and with tremendous determination worked toward creating a sanctuary out of what was once a beef cattle ranch.
As a result of her transformation numerous media stories have been published, and have gone viral. Their story has been seen all over America numerous times on CBS, ABC, RFD, and Animal Planet. Rancher families reach out to Renee on a regular basis because her story has landed in their living room via the news, a TV story or a documentary. Ranchers and their families relate to Renee, and it wasn’t long before she realized that she was also a Ranchers Advocate–and the Rancher Advocacy Program was born.
Dr. Sailesh Rao is your host of the Exploring Solutions Summit, and the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated towards healing the Earth’s climate. Dr. Rao is the author of two books, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies and Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis, and an Executive Producer of four documentaries, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), and A Prayer for Compassion (2019).
Animal Studies Initiative and the Animal Welfare Collective at New York University Panel
Renee participated on a panel in New York on November 10, 2016 about the role of farm animal sanctuaries in the animal rights movement. The panel, which featured three other sanctuary founders and directors and was moderated by Jasmin Singer of Our Hen House, endeavored to present the many and varied perspectives on this important topic. The topics ranged from the direction sanctuaries will play in the future to the strengths and weaknesses of them as a system for animal liberation. With an audience comprised of NYU’s vibrant animal rights community, and drawing on the city’s activists, and supported by strong social media and traditional promotional campaigns, there was a lively discussion and Q&A session.
Texas is known for farming but what about having a VEGAN FARM? The owners of Rowdy Girl Farm and ranch is one of the first farms in Texas to push the vegan movement on an agricultural level. The Vegan Farm Sanctuary is located between San Antonio and Houston, in Waelder, Texas. @DownieLive decided to surprise me while in Texas and I had no idea this concept existed in my home state of Texas.
Meet our rescues, Jan and Dusty. Jan is Dusty’s momma. They lived up the road from us about 5 miles from here and their life is now forever changed. Jan is 12 years old and her son is 1-1/2 years old. They are the last of a herd that has been sold off. Jan’s story is truly heroic. She’s a warriorress! Carol and Charlie, started going over to feed their neighbor’s cows with their grandson and fell in love with Jan’s spirit. When the neighbor decided to sell all their cows, Carol and Charlie asked if they could buy Jan. And then they couldn’t separate her from her son Dusty, so bought him too. They couldn’t keep them on their property and so they reached out to Rowdy Girl. They had been trying to get these two to Rowdy Girl for months but Jan outsmarted everyone who tried to apprehend her to bring her to safety. After several failed attempts, dozens of cattle panels, cowboys, vets and broken spirits, they were finally successfully and safely loaded up. Now they are settling in at Rowdy Girl and we are all breathing a whole lot easier.
Ranch Rescue is a poignant depiction of life as it happened during the epic Hurricane Harvey that tore through Rowdy Girl Sanctuary late August of 2017. This 30 minute documentary is chock full of dramatic footage covering the farm animal rescue, the grueling evacuation, the unfolding topic of climate change and the growing need to rescue ranches and keep animals off of our plate.
