When I was 19 my friend and I decided to go vegetarian for health reasons, but morality quickly took a front seat after realizing that I no longer wanted to be a part of animal suffering for my own pleasure. I knew they deserved better.

Believing that everyone had a right to choose what was on their plate I never challenged the status quo.

Thirty years later, after much deliberation about giving up dairy, I chose to go vegan January 1, 2013 and never looked back. Consuming animal products was no longer an option. Several years later I began reading about the horrors of animal agriculture and the unbelievable suffering animals go through for food, entertainment, clothing, science, etc. and decided I need to get involved. I read everything I could, joined animal rights organizations, attended animal rights conferences, networked with animal rights activists, visited animal sanctuaries, went to as many protests and actions as I could, and finally decided that opening my own sanctuary was what I needed to do and made that my goal. I retired in June of 2021, bought 10 acres of land in Occidental, California in April of 2022 and in May 2023…Jolene’s Retreat became a reality with our first rescue of a family of five pigs!