(upbeat music) - Welcome to Animal Talk.

I'm your host, Karen Kalunian.

And today we're at the beautiful West Place Sanctuary, with executive director, Wendy Taylor.

And you have to come see this place to believe what's actually here in Rhode Island.

Wendy, just a little bit of the background.

I mean, your backstory is amazing but I don't think people really know, and what brought you to this amazing facility?

- We'll start out with a little bit of a sad story, I suppose.

20 years ago, my house caught on fire and all of my pets perished in the fire.

A friend of mine who was a colleague, another attorney, suggested that I make a donation to an animal organization in honor of the pets that I lost.

And I probably should have because I had a really good job.

I loved what I did.

But being the type of personality I am, I thought, well, why would I donate if I could start my own sanctuary and focus on an underserved population, which was farm animals?

Dogs and cats get a lot of love- - They do!

- And they deserve it.

I have several of my own.

But farm animals are often overlooked.

And the laws certainly aren't keeping up with the public's desire to do right by these animals.

So I started a farm animal sanctuary.

- And I agree with you because I don't think... People do see the cats, the dogs.

Farm animals sort of do get left off to the wayside.

So this is just amazing here.

I can't emphasize it enough.

And I really hope that folks that watch us today here either come out and visit you or at least look at your social media or something to get a sense of what you're doing.

- We're a closed-door sanctuary, which means that every animal we take in, because we've taken them in specifically from neglect, abuse, and cruelty, we're not going to turn them back out to the public again.

- They live here?

- They live here.

- This is their life?

- This is their sanctuary.

- [Karen] What a beautiful place to live.

- Thank you.

So, because we give them a lifelong time of sanctuary, we are always running full.

We make room when we can, and if we lose one to old age, we know they've lived a good life and it's time to help another.

- If folks wanna get involved with West Place, I think it's really important because a lot of people say, "I love animals, I wanna volunteer," but they might not know the magnitude.

So what actually can volunteers do for you?

- [Wendy] We have about 50 or so on-hand every-week volunteers.

We have handy people, but we need more.

Little fix-it projects everywhere all the time.

Green thumbs.

We have a great team of gardeners (pig chewing) And then we always need more animal care people.

- I think once people come here or they hear about you, and I hope that's what we're here to do today to sort of spread the word about West Place, they're gonna be incredibly inspired to come and help and really just make West Place better; better for Rhode Island and better for the animals.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to show us around today.

I can't wait to get out there and see the animals with you.

And I just wish you all the best, and thank you from all of us here in Rhode Island for making a difference in the lives of the animals.

- [Wendy] Thank you.

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