Dearest supporters, animal lovers, and Fox and Zeus fanatics,
Marie here! I am the Executive Director of Herbivorous Acres and on behalf of the Board of Directors and our rescue animals, I have some exciting news. After many years of searching, we have found a place to call home! The wonderful owners of our current animal home offered us the option to expand our organization on their property. This is an enormous opportunity for Herbivorous Acres. We are so lucky that the owners believe in us and our mission, and will continually welcome and house our sweet animals. This means that we will be growing our roots in Scandia, MN!
Since we incorporated in 2016, we have attempted to lock down a property 4 times and have looked at countless others. Whether it was zoning, acreage, insurance, financing, or having the rug pulled out from under us, we kept coming up empty handed and let me tell you- we experienced many heartaches. There was a time back in 2017 when I had given up my residence, everything I owned was in a U-Haul, the sale fell through at the last minute, and I found myself homeless. It’s been a long road so we are grateful to have received this opportunity!
Our setup is a little different than most sanctuaries out there, seeing as how this is a private property that is owned by others. While we are working on having occasional events down the road, we will not be holding your typical “farm sanctuary tours” and “volunteer work days” on a regular basis. We know this may come as a disappointment to some. Here is the thing: the bare bones of our mission is to save farm animals. By continuing to look for a place that we can own, we haven’t been able to expand on that mission these last few years. With the opportunity given to us in Scandia, we can finally start to grow our herd and take in rescues, which we know everyone can get behind! I have relocated to the area in order to be close to the farm in order to ensure this next step goes smoothly for Herbivorous Acres.
I’ll be honest- starting a new business is no joke. It literally takes a village and in this line of work, it takes multiples villages. Despite the struggles, there are two guys in particular who kept me going. Their names are Fox and Zeus. Every time I am around our two rescue pigs I am reminded why I am here on this planet and how needed this work is. There is also all of YOU! Our Board of Directors knew there were compassionate and like-minded people out there like us, but y’all have blown us away over the years with your generosity, grace, enthusiasm, trust, and patience. We CAN NOT thank you enough.
Other exciting news is that over the last few months, we have been able to take in a few other rescues that we want to announce. We have one rooster that will be remain part of our permanent “herd,” and we have been lucky enough to save a few others that have been rehomed. Pictures will be posted soon on our social media sites!
We have lots of other plans in the works and are looking forward to what lies ahead. The search for our forever home won’t stop here but for now, we are going to spread our wings and begin making Herbivorous Acres into the organization we dreamed it to be. Thank you all for sticking with us and being so very supportive of our every move. Let’s continue down this road together- #ForTheAnimals!
Sincerely,
Marie DuCharme
Executive Director
Herbivorous Acres Farm Sanctuary
