[KHTS] – Featured on the “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” a few years ago, The Gentle Barn was recently awarded the honor of ‘Nonprofit of the Year’ from VegNews, a national publication featuring Vegan news.

The Gentle Barn remains “a place for people and animals to be reminded that they matter.”

The honor of “Nonprofit of The Year” was a pleasant surprise to the two owners.

“We had been nominated several times in the past, but this was our first win, and it’s pretty exciting,” said Jay Weiner, co-founder of The Gentle Barn along with his wife, Ellie.

The Gentle Barn recently opened a sister site outside Knoxville, Tennessee with plans to expand to all 50 states. The next state on the list, according to Ellie, is Oregon.

The Santa Clarita location is open to the public on Sunday and during the week for private groups, schools, children of special needs, inner city youth and kids in foster care.

No special foods are donated by area companies to help speed animal recovery, just hay and hands-on healing expertise.

“For now, the biggest drive is for hay to feed the animals because of the recently raised cost of getting it. With the drought,” said Ellie. “Hay that used to be found locally is in short supply, so much of the stock has to be trucked in from neighboring states which of course, raises the costs.”

Online drives, including ones where people volunteer to pay for hay bales via the website has become a necessity.

The Santa Clarita nonprofit is funded completely by donations; those who believe in animal rights donate from all over the globe.

While her husband and co-founder has been vegan for over a fifteen years, Ellie’s journey started long before, when she was only eleven.
Petting a frightened pet chicken in a carrier at school, she had the animal snatched away from her and was told not to be become friendly because the chicken was destined for the slaughterhouse. This became Ellie’s ‘Aha’ moment, and for the next three decades, she has shied away from meat.

Upon hearing about the recent suspected animal cruelty case involving horses, Ellie stated, “Those are just the kind of experiences we get involved in. It is especially sad because like dogs and puppies and kittens, horses are largely to be considered members of the family, unlike the disconnect many people have with other animals like sheep, turkeys and pigs. Like the most common pets, all of these animals need and deserve our protection.”

The next Gentle Barn event will be The Gentle Thanksgiving, taking place on Oct. 26, 2015. Limited to only 200 people to protect the intimacy of the event and not scare the turkeys, the participants at Thanksgiving will feed specially made pies to the turkeys and participate in a Native American Drum Circle.