For the past five years, Elaine West President of the professed vegan farm sanctuary "Rooterville" has falsely claimed to give 300-400 farm animals a "forever home" all while witnesses allege she's been killing them in droves behind closed doors, even by gunshot from “George the lawn guy.” After we filed a complaint in late 2021, a Putnam County Sheriff Deputy conveyed to us Rooterville was down to 112 animals indicating hundreds of animals have been nefariously displaced. The Deputy conveyed Elaine’s interest in reducing her numbers down even further something that appears to have proven true according to a recent visitor’s post stating Rooterville had only 70 free range pigs when before they numbered into the hundreds. 

According to the allegations of approximately 20 witnesses: 1). West has killed healthy animals for years on end 2). the killings drastically increased from 2016 through 2020 after she killed approximately half of a large group of 114 "Polk Pigs" and went on to kill many more 3). She killed animals all whilst taking in new animals which proved a revolving door of abuse. 4). The killings were so prolific that employees began standing up, personally taking in animals and contacting other rescues for help. If not for the actions of these brave people, droves more animals would've been killed by West who dictated regular “kill lists.”

West claims she had to “rehome” animals due to the pandemic and loss of funding but witnesses say this is a smoke screen to try and cover up her long term abuses. According IRS filings, Rooterville had persistently raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year even through the pandemic receiving approximately $600,000 in 2020 (for a total of $3,697,917 for this and the previous 4 years combined)--- plenty enough funding to have continued caring for ALL the 400 animals she was fraudulently claiming to care for but had either killed or had been rehomed by her employees.

While West was reducing her animal population it seems she was seeking to increase a profit by what appears to be over-reaching her nonprofit charity into a high-profit making business to line her own pockets, to explain: 

After selling Rooterville’s property in 2021 Elaine purchased a new property and titled it in her personal name according to public record. It appears she used Rooterville's funds to greatly enhance her new property through the purchase of a new mobile home; new fencing; new shading structures; new equipment, new sheds, and a new shiny red trolley to conduct visitor tours with. Not sure why anyone would want to tour a so-called farm sanctuary that’s ditched most of its animals. Grotesquely, after killing and displacing massive numbers of animals, West actively sought out the acquisition of new “cracker animals” to accentuate her new lucrative Ag Tourism venture. For this venture, she invested at least $80,00 in two new very expensive cabin bed and breakfasts-- something that the CEO of the cabin company said was going to be a “massive draw” for Rooterville, see link:  Rooterville's Lucrative Ag Tourism

Please join us in asking the authorities to hold Elaine West accountable for her alleged crimes and to help get current residents to safety by contacting FDACS bradford.brady@fdacs.gov