I wanted to tell one more story, and that is of the numerous missing, nameless, and unidentified animals of the former Twist of Fate.
I have mentioned this before, but as far as the old Twist of Fate posts go I only have access to the Patreon account which was active from August 2017 to July 2022. After Ashley DiFelice's neglect and abuse was discovered, the account was turned over to Rancho Relaxo and is now called the 'Rancho Relaxo Takeover' Patreon with all money going towards Rancho Relaxo, the sanctuary that took over the former TOF property, as well as the cleanup, repairs, and mortgage. They also took in about 17 of the surviving animals (horses Moose and Tommy, cows Rigel, Mintaka, and Betelgeuse, and about a dozen barn cats).
Ashley had both Instagram and Facebook accounts that she posted on even more frequently than the Patreon, but very shortly after the horrible things that she had been up to for months were finally discovered, she cowardly made her social media accounts dark.
In making my notes for this case, the petition, the petition updates, and telling the stories of the animals I went through every single post from the old Patreon and saved the photos with the date and name(s) of any animals in the photo. I then put those photos into files with the animal's names and sorted them by species. This was incredibly tedious, but proved VERY helpful in the long run. I have files for Cats & Dogs, Cows, Horses & Donkeys, Pigs, and Sheep & Goats. I also have a file of animals that I was able to confirm passed away before 2022, before the neglect started (at least that we know of). These include cows Mooey, Hump, and Andre, horses Belle and Crescent, and dwarf mini horses Pumpkin and Cutecumber, to name a few.
In total I had about 130 files, which sounds like a lot but there were so so many more animals that lived at TOF that she never posted about on Patreon, only Instagram or Facebook. Over time I was able to match up a lot of the animals from the list of survivors and I have told their stories for the last few months, along with several of the animals that did not survive her cruelty. I was able to sort my files into animals to be shared and I have files of the "missing" animals too.
There are so many who have open and unknown endings to their stories. Because you see - for the most part, every animal in my 'missing' file isn't actually missing...they're dead. I'm just missing information, pieces to their puzzles. The survivor sheet didn't have everyone listed, so sure - it's possible that a few did make it. The survivor sheet did have a few notations of "goats in pasture", "sheep in big field", "12 pigs in big pasture", so any of the animals listed below could have been part of those groups. It is also sadly easy to assume that every single one of them didn't make it simply because so many did not and she made absolutely no effort to save or spare anyone.
In the spirit of complete transparency, it is also possible and definite that many of the animals listed below passed away before her neglect started - you'll see in their descriptions that several arrived to TOF with health problems or already very old, so many or all of them could have died from medical issues and complications, old age, or pre-existing conditions. Some of my files for these animals begin and end in 2017, over 7 years ago. Ashley didn't post about the deaths of the animals at the sanctuaries very often, later telling people that it upset her too much or that it was too sad. So it is possible that any and all of these animals passed away years ago and she either never posted about it or she did in fact share it on Instagram or Facebook, but likely we'll never know that for sure since we can no longer view any of those posts. There are also animals in posts that I am not that great at matching up - Ashley often posted about a new rescue that didn't have a name yet, and then might post about that animal again the next day or not for a year or more, so it was hard to keep track at times.
I still wanted to share the names of the animals in my 'missing' files, and if I know anything about their stories to share those too. If you know or remember anything about the following animals, please feel free to comment here or to reach out to me on Instagram @ispellithaley and I can update this post with the asterisks of people's memories, which may or may not be accurate facts. I'll also be sharing the photos that I have of them in the next day or so.
The earliest one that I have is from August 2017 - cow Brittany Lynn, who is also pictured above. I chose her as the representative for the missing, nameless, and unidentified animals because she was the one that people asked me about the most, to see if I knew her current whereabouts at the time of the rescue in July 2022 or what had happened to her when she wasn't on the list of survivors. Unfortunately - I don't know. I don't really know anything about her story or how she came to be at Twist of Fate in the first place but she was in a lot of the photos, especially with the other TOF residents. *UPDATE: I was told that Brittany Lynn passed away of cancer before July 2022.
Horse Beau - the only post about him he is pictured with horses Aiyanna, Willow, Everest, and Colton, all of whom survived. Sadly however, Ashley took those four with her, holding them hostage and refusing to let them live their lives at a true sanctuary.
Goats Nico and Scarlet, friends who were both used for most of their lives for their breastmilk at a dairy farm in Virginia before being surrendered.
Charlie the alpaca or llama (sorry, I tried to research this but the only photo I have of him is just the top of his head and it's hard to tell which one he is).
Stickers the baby goat, who came from a hoarding situation and was extremely sick. She also had a bad laceration on her eyelid so the vet stitched the wound shut and she made a full recovery. Stickers made fast friends with Ashley's young son Deacon, who was a toddler around the time that Stickers arrived (the fall of 2017). She went back to the hoarder's to rescue another goat and came home with a friend for Stickers, who was named Spider. Spider survived and became Clovis, and now lives at Riley Farm. It's a shame that his friend was not so fortunate.
Chip the goat.
Griffin the horse was about 10 years old when he was rescued and had been used as a plow horse all his life and was having issues with his back leg, which is how he ended up being sold to a kill buyer and was waiting to be shipped to slaughter when Ashley stepped in. X-rays showed that he had severe arthritis and that the vet believed that Griffin would be living with chronic pain for the rest of his life, and Ashley posted that they would keep him comfortable for as long as they could. He was saved along with a Percheron and a Morgan, who were both super skinny. The Morgan didn't make it, but the Percheron is:
Horse Atlas, who was described in one post as an "old man", around 30 years old, and arrived very skinny. He put on weight though and both Atlas and Griffin spent time in quarantine before arriving at their new home, where Atlas continued to slowly put on weight.
Sheep Rocky. The only post that I have of him he is standing next to cow Brittany Lynn.
Austin, Phoenix, and Q, horses photographed together in December of 2017. There was an additional post of Phoenix in March of 2018.
Donkey Timothy, saved in January 2018. Timothy was about 20 years old at the time.
Dobby the sheep.
Belgian mare Merida, rescued from an auction and believed to have been pregnant when she first arrived but suffered a miscarriage and had some health complications from that. She was older (around 30) and had probably been passed around to a few auctions and got sick at some point, though she tested negative for strangles and after quarantine was able to go out into the fields with the other horses.
Horse Wally, who was described as a senior that had to gain weight. I believe he was saved around the same time as Timothy and Hollie.
William the sheep, who spent time with Dobby as well as Margo and her baby Poe. Margo and Poe survived - Margo was renamed Artemis and went to live at Sowa Goat Sanctuary, and Poe was renamed Ethan and is living at Blackbird Animal Refuge.
Sheep Luke, pictured in one post with sheep Margo/Artemis.
Spirit the horse, who was around 20-25 and was saved from a feedlot in Texas. He was in quarantine for a bit to gain weight since he was so malnourished, and he was very eager to be with other horses again. Ashley described him as a fighter and a true survivor. He arrived on the trailer to his new home at TOF along with horse Remmy (Remington).
Goat Gingerbread.
Horse Jericho, saved from an auction where he was sold for slaughter. He was 18 at the time and arrived with a horribly infected cut on one of his legs and is blind in one eye. He was rescued along with a mule named Darwin (I don't have any photos or info on Darwin).
Fezzik, a big Belgian boy around 15 years old with a mustache on his lip saved from a feedlot in Texas.
Horse Romeo, a senior horse about 30 years old from the "Labrador Hill" cruelty case, as Ashley referred to it. He arrived very thin and in need of a lot of TLC.
Baby Ray the goat, saved from a livestock auction in October 2018. We was very weak, emaciated, and sick and was fighting pneumonia and some GI issues. Per the post, he hadn't had much of an appetite at first but for the past few days has started to perk up. A quote from the one post about him: "Let's hope he continues to improve. He is just a baby and has his whole life ahead of him".
Buck the horse, 18 years old and rescued from a feedlot. He had been saved by someone who last minute decided that they didn't want him after all and Buck had no where else to go. He would get a little nippy, but loved attention. Buck later tested positive for strangles, an upper respiratory infection that is commonly passed around at auctions.
An entire goat family - Mama Mittens, and babies Flash, Rudolph (Rudy), Pig, and Speedy. At the time of their rescue they all had upper respiratory infections and were put on antibiotics. Little Flash seems to have been the sickest. There was another post about them about a month later of Mama with Pig and Rudy and it mentions that Speedy is in with them most of the time but often got head butts from his mom, so he would spend a lot of time with a dwarf mini horse named Cutecumber. Another post about Rudy was shared a few months later, mentioning that the babies were all doing well, and Speedy was in a photo with Deacon about a month after that. The post mentioned that Speedy, Pig, and Rudolph had all gotten castrated and would soon move outside along with their mom Mittens.
Horse Gucci, who is massive and at only 7 years old was thrown away more than once in his life. He was evaluated by a neurologist, but the post does not mention what it was for. The next post about him was about a month later, mentioning that he was doing well with his new herd and enjoying the mud.
Horse Lucy, who was possibly a mini (it's hard to tell from the photo, where she is next to sheep Zebra, who survived and was renamed Linus. He is now living at Goats of Anarchy).
Meadow the horse, saved at an auction at the end of February in 2019. She was sick but got better after being on antibiotics.
Baby sheep Littlefoot, Ducky, and Cera.
Pig Peppa, who liked to act as the "barn supervisor". She was a special needs pig with some leg issues. Around July of 2019, Ashley was contacted about a pig that had the same leg issues and asked if they would take her in. Happy to have a friend for Peppa, they named her Snowflakes.
Snowflakes the pig is also among the "missing".
Flower the Pyranese dog, who was rescued from someone who had 16 animals living in an apartment without the landlord's knowledge, and the person faced eviction if they didn't place all of the animals. Flower arrived at TOF around only 11 weeks old.
Ezra the goat, rescued with a ram named Ezekiel, aka Backpack, who was in an August 2019 post and photo with Ezra but passed away sometime after that.
Horse Perfect, a former race horse turned buggy horse who was dumped in the slaughter pipeline after he was deemed no longer "useful".
Thelma and Louise, a bonded sheep and goat pair. They were rescued together after Thelma gave birth to 3 babies. Both had been left to fend for themselves after their caretaker entered hospice. A family friend had been coming to feed them every day but there was no one to care for them long term - Thelma had a huge udder full of abscesses and couldn't even nurse her babies, so they were bottle fed until they could be reunited with their mom. I don't know the names of any of the 3 babies or what happened to them.
Horse Gampaw, over 30 years old and described as an old man. His post also mentions him having a second surgery to have chondroids (hardened stones of pus) removed from his guttural pouches and that he has been a carrier of strangles for over a year which had gone untreated. After getting treatment and finally testing negative he was able to come home. He also had Cushing's and was being treated for that too.
Earthshine, a Belgian mare who was at a livestock auction having neurological problems, spinning in circles and off-balance in general. She was scheduled to ship to slaughter the next day, but the hauler was concerned that if she was loaded onto a crowded trailer with the other horses and fell over and lost her balance that she would get trampled. Earthshine also showed some aggression, most likely because she was in pain. She was able to go to the hospital, where she settled in to get comfortable, allowed someone to remove the rope that was around her neck, and was also given pain meds. She continued to have a few issues (can you blame her?), biting someone at the hospital and kicking a door so hard that it broke. However, once she walked off the trailer at TOF she seemed like a different horse and just needed some time to adjust and learn to trust people.
Flake the dog. The only post about Flake he/she is with sheep Reggie, who survived and was renamed Norman at Goats of Anarchy, but passed away about a month later since his poor body couldn't recover from the massive neglect inflicted on him by Ashley.
Poinsettia (aka Pretty) pig - she was rescued from a feedlot after unexpectedly giving birth to 10 piglets, who all sadly passed away before she reached TOF.
Sheep Bumpkin, who originally came from a petting zoo with her best friend. This petting zoo would only keep baby animals in order to attract more attention so the animals were constantly aging out of their "work" and being sent to livestock auctions (do NOT support petting zoos or zoos of any kind!). Her best friend was not named, nor do I know what happened to him/her.
Bonded horses Astrid and Hiccup, two auction saves in February of 2020. Prior to being dumped at the auction they were being used to work on a farm as plow horses.
Myrtle, a skinny mule that was pulled directly out of the kill pen and for some reason had her tongue hanging out of her mouth. She was in the same pen with her best friend, who was also pulled by TOF. Upon further exam, Myrtle had some missing teeth and some growths in her mouth as well. The next post about Myrtle was that she had settled in nicely, is a lot spunkier that expected but is very shy, and she loves to eat. I don't know the name of her best friend or what happened to him/her.
Bubbles the horse - originally rescued in January, here is a quote from the March 30, 2020 post about her: "Bubbles was supposed to have surgery tomorrow to have her eye removed and some masses removed from her good eye. However, our quarantine provider dropped her off yesterday due to scheduling and our vet found that bubbles is still very sick. I am extremely upset and angry at that fact because I was told she was healthy and not contagious anymore when she absolutely is. They are still doing surgery, right now actually, because her eye is so bad, but she will need to stay there until she is healthy." The next post about Bubbles was in the end of May and mentioned that she was finally able to come home. She had spent months in quarantine because she was so sick and then had to stay at the hospital to have her eye removed because of cancer. In the photo of the May post she is happily munching on grass in a field.
Horse Maude, who was mentioned in Buster's rescue story. This bonded pair was previously saved by another "rescue" who rehabbed them back to a good weight, but with one being completely blind and the other being blind in one eye they were unable to find them a great home together. They asked if TOF could take them in, otherwise they faced euthanasia (I don't believe you can call yourself a "rescue" or "rehab" if killing animals is your solution to an inconvenience or a lack of space. Yikes.) Buster survived but became one of the 17 charges of animal cruelty against Ashley since he had a body score of 0 in July 2022. Sadly I don't know what happened to his best friend Maude or when she passed.
Venom the pig. A quote from the only post about him on September 29, 2020: "One of our haulers was at an auction to save some chickens. While she was there, this potbellied pig was being auctioned off. He sold for $1 because no one wanted him. The man the bought him told her he was going to take him home and cook him for dinner. The man realized he could not take home the crate that the pig was in and was unable to get him home. Because of that, he abandoned him at the auction. Our hauler found out at the end of the night and texted me at midnight to ask if we would take him in. I agreed and he arrived today! The saddest part is that he is very friendly and was clearly someone's pet who almost became someone's dinner. A twist of fate for this boy! Deacon has named him Venom Pig".
Horse Frankie, a new intake in October of 2020. He was 32 years old at the time and had a rough time for awhile. Ashley was working on putting some weight on him.
Goats George, Trees, and Beetles, who lived together for years until the elderly person who had them no longer wanted the commitment of taking care of them and gave them to a local farmer. Ashley went to the farm since there were several animals in desperate need of help and loaded them onto the trailer. George had what was originally believed to be a bad case of pinkeye but turned out to be an infected injury and that his eye had been punctured. He was put on antibiotics and an ointment, which if they didn't work he would need to get his eye removed. (Ram Horns, later renamed Apollo after he was rescued from Ashley, came from the same farm. Apollo survived and is living at Sowa Goat Sanctuary.) Based on a later post, it looks like George's eye improved and the three of them got to move to a pasture outside.
Mini horse Buttercup, who was originally living with a couple that ran a boarding facility until the wife passed away and the husband decided that he no longer wanted to run it. Buttercup was in her 20's and also had Cushing's, and the husband wasn't sure that he could give her the care she needed and considered euthanizing her. Instead, she went to live at TOF.
Pig Cute Pie, who arrived in April 2021 and came from a farm after her sibling passed away. She had been fostered by a family until she was big enough to live at TOF.
These are just the animals who a) had posts about them and b) had names that were known. I'm not saying that any or all of these animals starved or were neglected to death, but it is definitely a possibility for several of them. Their lives may be over, but their stories are incomplete and they remain pieces that are missing from this puzzle.
Along with the animals whose outcomes are unknown, there were also many, many unidentified remains of animals on the property. Fields, pastures, barns, and pens were all strewn with various bones - not even full skeletons, just a rib bone, skull, maybe a foot or a femur. Fields, pastures, barns, and pens were also all strewn with bodies in various stages of decomposition. It keeps making me wonder: "How long was this really going on?" I once tried to research how long it took for an animal's body to decompose in open air - I think I used a goat in my Google search. However, this research very quickly proved too upsetting and disturbing to continue and I never got my answer. Based on the photos from the Twist of Fate scene that kept coming in though, it seemed like some animals were dead much, much earlier than others. Most animals died and decomposed in the very same spot that they drew their last breath.
There was a "dead pile" at the back of the property where Ashley had just moved the bodies of the animals, pushing them into place with a tractor and stacking them up on top of each other to rot in the open air. This is incredibly disrespectful to them, not to mention a health hazard for anyone who lived on the property, most notably a young child, and for numerous physical, emotional, and psychological reasons. These animals were all at one point friends of young Deacon. As they decomposed into the earth and on top of each other they sank, making the pile appear much smaller than it really was. I know the names of a few of the animals whose remains were on the property (Gatsby, for instance), but I don't know the names of the animals in the pile. Ashley claims that they were there because it was too expensive to call someone to properly haul them away and since she was short on funds (again, so she claimed) she wanted to purchase food for the animals instead. Yet she wasn't doing that either and numerous animals starved to death or got very very close to it.
Along with the missing and the unidentified, there were so many animals there that either didn't have names or there were posts about them announcing their rescue, but then they were never mentioned again. It seems like most of her recent "rescues" fell into this category. When she was finally caught she claimed that she was short on funds for quite a while, yet she had kept pulling animals from auctions and kill pens even months after she had already been neglecting and killing animals, all to continue to bring in donations. These statements are quite contradictory and show intent. She then used that money on herself.
There were pregnant rescued pigs OJ and Pearlie Mae, who in the summer of 2020 each had 7 babies - that's 14 piglets. In talking with all of the sanctuaries who took in the survivors, other than the 2 mothers none of the babies seemed to have names and there were many that had never been spayed or neutered. Most were described as "feral" and hadn't had very much human contact in their lives, if any at all. They had lived at Twist of Fate for 2 years. Two YEARS.
I have a photo of a beautiful brown and white cow from a May 28, 2021 post. In the photo she is on a trailer, but I never see her again. I have no idea what her name is, but I know that she didn't survive. Here is a quote from the caption of the post: "This sweet girl was sent to a kill pen a little over a month ago. Chances are, she is sterile and could not be bred so she was sold for slaughter. Our hauler was there picking up some horses and sent me a photo of her surrounded by dozens of other cows. She told me she was so friendly and she didn't want to leave without her. She asked if we could possibly take her if she covered her initial expenses and I told her we would! She has been in quarantine and arrived to TOF last night. Sure enough, this little girl is sweet as pie. She settled in so fast and she has already made some new friends! Name to come!!!! We can only take in animals last minute like this because of all of your support. You all are literally our backbone here at TOF and I could never thank you all enough for believing in and supporting our mission here." Who knows what happened to this poor sweet and friendly girl.
Another example: the name of goat Mama Karen's third baby is unknown. The baby did not survive, but her siblings Len and Leanne did, and the 3 of them went to live at Riley Farm. However, none of the four goats in this family seemed to have names at all during their time at TOF, and they were also one of Ashley's most recent "rescues" in February 2022.
Ashley's posts on her Patreon account had gradually started to really dwindle - for the last year or so she only posted on average once or twice a month, a fraction of what she shared in her earlier days. I know that she was most likely posting more on Instagram and Facebook and that's where she shared the majority of her new rescues and fundraisers for them as well as any other fundraisers for the care of the other animals. It's probably safe to assume that she shared a lot more of the animals' names, day-to-day lives, emergencies and deaths on there too. Unfortunately though, we'll never get that information or those answers and so everyone above plus so many others will sadly remain unresolved.
It's hard to properly mourn animals when you don't know their names or what happened to them, but I think about the missing animals, the ones without names, and the ones that have never and will never get the chance to be identified often.
If you would like to honor or support these animals in any way, please join the Rancho Relaxo Takeover Patreon. You can join for a higher amount if you wish, but even at the minimum $1.00 per month every little bit adds up and the money supports the surviving animals that Rancho Relaxo took in from the Twist of Fate cruelty case, along with the bills that they took on with cleaning up and repairing the property and taking on the mortgage. You'll also have access to updates about the court case and all of the old posts about the animals of TOF, going back to 2017. Rancho Relaxo is also currently hosting a hay fundraiser on their Instagram!
Thank you so much for reading. Now that all of the animals' stories have been shared, you should only be hearing from me on occasion with updates in the case or summaries of any court appearances. Her next day in court is next Thursday, February the 22nd, and I will be writing up a summary afterward. Hopefully it's one of the final updates I have to make! This case is approaching 18+ months now and enough is enough.