“When will I hear back?”

For questions asked through email or social media messages that have been answered within this FAQ, we will likely choose not to respond under the understanding that the query has effectively been answered. For any questions that are not covered here, we will do our best to respond on an upcoming administration day.  

“What is happening?”

After 20 years, RASTA Sanctuary is changing. Due to health issues, the Sanctuary’s founder, Lucie Cerny, is no longer able to continue in the capacity in which she has been operating for the past two decades. As a result, she has made the incredibly hard decision to transfer the animals from RASTA Sanctuary into the care of A Home for Hooves Farm Sanctuary, who are planning to purchase land and to build a new facility that can accomodate all the animals from both sanctuaries, and many more for years to come.

This is a huge win for animals here on Vancouver Island and throughout BC.  RASTA will continue to exist, but after a period of recovery will be adjusting and changing to continue to advocate for abused and abandoned animals and educate the public. The sale of RASTA Sanctuary assets will provide a large monetary donation to help secure operational and emergency funds for A Home for Hooves, and the donation of physical assets from RASTA, along with the combination of donors and volunteers, will create a much more sustainable model that can grow and adapt and continue to serve those in desperate need of rescue.

“What about the Barn?”

Details about the barn and how it plays into these changes are available HERE.

“How did RASTA get started?”

Check out our history HERE.

“I have an animal that needs a home”

We are no longer taking in rescues.  Please contact P.E.A.C.E.  for any animal surrenders and they can hopefully be of more assistance. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON ROOSTERS.

A Note About Roosters…

Roosters are wonderful, lovely individuals, and also sadly are the species most frequently in need of Sanctuary.   We strongly discourage purchasing animals from breeders as we quite literally can’t keep up with the volume of Roosters being rehomed. We have to turn them away almost daily.

As a sanctuary, we don’t intend to judge, but it’s our job to educate so we hope you will consider the following:

The only way to avoid this scenario is not to breed chickens for humans to eat eggs (something we don’t need to eat). An advertisement online will almost certainly end up with someone purchasing or taking the rooster to kill them which is quite common unfortunately. Every Sanctuary we know of (which is a lot) is constantly maxed out for roosters because of the breeding but our recommendation would be to speak to www.peacecanada.org as they have the connections to know if anyone has space. 

That said though, the only way to really avoid this scenario again would be to not buy chicks and we’d encourage you to look into alternatives to consuming eggs, as roosters are always killed in that process. (one rooster is born for each hen, and the roosters are discarded because they don’t lay eggs). We truly appreciate you trying to do the right thing here, and it’s clear your intentions are good and you really do care for the wellbeing of this rooster.  As such, our hope is you will be willing to consider the above as our attempt to educate with kindness so we can avoid others like him being in this situation. This scenario can only be avoided by people like yourself not buying animals who then need to be rehomed, although we certainly hope it may be possible to find a home in your current situation.

“What kind of animals lived at RASTA?”

Each of our resident had their very own profile! You can read their stories HERE.

“Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start a sanctuary of their own?”

We have all sorts of helpful tips! Information about starting a sanctuary is available HERE and you can read more information on various subjects here on our BLOG.

“I’m just learning about veganism and living a plant-based lifestyle.  Any tips?”

We have a whole post written with loads of tips, links and information available HERE!

“I think there’s an animal in distress and I want to help them!”

If you suspect abuse or neglect, gather as much information as you can and contact your local SPCA animal cruelty hotline.  In BC, that number is 1-855-622-7722.
If you believe an animal needs assistance but they are not at risk, we recommend speaking directly to those the animal currently lives with and trying to convince them to surrender the animal to a sanctuary.  If they agree, P.E.A.C.E. is best equipped to find sanctuary homes and transport for animals in western Canada.

“What kind of animals did RASTA take in?”

As a farm animal rescue, our focus was animals that are traditionally farmed for human use.  As such, RASTA took in many species, but did not take in wildlife.