Tag archives: animal welfare

Greener Pastures Farm Sanctuary
By Steven Libowitz   |   November 18, 2025

If animals could talk – at least in a way where humans would understand them – there’s no doubt that the 40 or so who currently live at Greener Pastures Farm Sanctuary would never stop sharing sentiments of gratitude. That’s because they’re among the nearly 100 animals that have been rescued and rehabilitated at the […]

Dogs Need Temp Home ASAP as Shelters Do Repairs and More News Bytes
By Montecito Journal   |   September 9, 2025

In an all-hands-on deck request, Sarah Aguilar, director for the Santa Barbara County Animal Welfare Services, is asking community members to temporarily or permanently adopt one of 50 dogs that are being displaced while the SB and Lompoc shelters undergo repairs and upgrades. The SB shelter received a grant from the ASPCA in partnership with […]

Breaking Ground, Saving Animals
By Richard Mineards   |   August 26, 2025

Santa Barbara Humane, which was founded in 1897, truly had paws for thought when three rescue dogs were brought to the 3.98-acre site to break ground on a new $18 million addition, the first since the 1960s, which will include a new behavior center. In two years’ time, Phase Two will begin, which will quadruple […]

‘Wild Night’ is Calling
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 29, 2025

Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN) rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild sick, injured, orphaned and/or oil-impaired wild birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Over the years, the organization has grown from a grassroots effort that saw volunteers caring for animals in their homes to a nonprofit that […]

C.A.R.E4Paws Happy Tails Celebration and Fundraiser Event
By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 13, 2025

The C.A.R.E4Paws organization held a “Happy Tails Celebration and Fundraiser” event on Sunday, May 4, at the Cabrillo Pavilion. The event focused on celebrating the organization’s establishment 16 years ago this May, its mission, and the work it does for pets and their owners on the Central Coast.   Starting with a silent auction during […]

This Little Piggy Went to Greener Pastures: The True Story of How Kindness Saved a Little Pig
By Christopher Matteo Connor   |   December 17, 2024

Dear readers, meet Dinkey, the potbellied pig with one hell of a story. Destined for an early date with the great beyond, the mysterious powers of fate and chance led Dinkey to Diane Dieterich, owner of Greener Pastures, the farm sanctuary in Arroyo Grande giving neglected animals set for slaughter a second chance at a […]

FurBall Gets the Green Light
By Richard Mineards   |   September 17, 2024

It was paws for thought when Santa Barbara Humane hosted its second annual gala The Great Gatsby FurBall at the Hilton, with 250 guests raising around $200,000 for the 136-year-old organization which, in its illustrious history, has helped more than one million animals find homes and has provided low cost veterinary care, their two campuses […]

A Wild Night Out at the Rockwood
By Richard Mineards   |   September 17, 2024

The party animals were out in force when the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network hosted A Wild Night Out at the Rockwood Woman’s Club. 200 creatively garbed guests raised around $150,000 for the popular Goleta-based organization, which has an annual budget of $1.8 million. The fun fête, emceed by auctioneer Nick Di Nieri, also featured […]

A Rawr-ing Good Night
By Richard Mineards   |   October 10, 2023

Party guests at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network gala got an early taste of Halloween with its theme Wild Night Out: Nocturnal. Many of the 225 party animals dressed as Dracula or sported bat wings at the beastly bash at the historic Santa Barbara Club that raised around $150,000 for the popular 35-year-old nonprofit, […]

A Purr-fect Evening
By Richard Mineards   |   September 19, 2023

Santa Barbara Humane, founded in 1887 and the fourth-oldest animal welfare organization in the United States, went to the doge when it held its first-ever gala An Evening in Venice at the Hilton, attracting 267 guests and raising more than $250,000. The beastly bash, designed by local party planner Rebecca Gigandet and chaired by Susan […]

Talking TLC with SB Humane
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 4, 2023

This week we visited with Kerri Burns, CEO of SB Humane and her team of CFO Paige Van Tuyl, and COO Dori Villalon at the Santa Barbara location on Overpass Road. The four-acre property holds a veterinary clinic and surgery center, food, lodging and training of dogs, a cat hotel, and offers shelter during local disasters […]

The Elephant Project Continues its Mission
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   February 7, 2023

Kristina McKean, founder of the philanthropic toy company The Elephant Project, is proud to share that she has returned from a life-changing, successful journey to Chiang Mai, Thailand. She just completed a visit to the source of her company’s initial inspiration, Elephant Nature Park.  McKean crossed the globe to meet the world-renowned sanctuary’s staff and […]

The Elephant Project
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 28, 2022

Estimates say that there are nearly 2,000 nonprofits in Santa Barbara County, each with a mission of supporting the local or at-large community in some way. But as far as we know, only one organization – The Elephant Project – has exactly one full-time employee.  But don’t underestimate the impact of Kristina McKean, the founder […]

Redwings Horse Sanctuary
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 17, 2022

Back in 2006, the year before horse slaughter in the U.S. ceased for good, the last three such stateside slaughterhouse facilities killed more than 100,000 horses for human consumption, shipping the meat overseas. Even with those facilities shuttered, approximately 75,000 American horses are still shipped to their deaths in foreign slaughterhouses every year, although the […]

Feeding the Flock
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 3, 2022

The COVID crisis has been quite a challenge for nearly everyone in the world. But for Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary – the nonprofit founded in 2004 by director Jamie McLeod to rescue and often rehabilitate unwanted and displaced companion parrots – the pandemic really has been for the birds. Or rather, not so much, as […]

Planet Duck: An Out-of-this-World Solution to a Real-Life Problem
By Nick Masuda   |   September 28, 2021

As the Richard Bransons and Elon Musks of the world compete for their moments in space, ducks have seemingly beat humans to the punch. Welcome to Quackzar, home to ducks that lived in harmony before The Snake King — or Oxyuranus — attacked, putting the duck population in peril in this galaxy not so far […]

Voice for the Voiceless
By Gretchen Lieff   |   August 12, 2021

The double-crested cormorant, not a particularly lovable animal. But don’t tell that to the more than two dozen concerned and compassionate people who called the SB Wildlife Center from Butterfly Beach Tuesday evening and then the following morning. The record number of calls about a large gangly black bird started with Montecito resident Daniel Feinberg, […]

Animal Planet
By Zach Rosen   |   April 2, 2021

Kristina McKean’s passion project is saving one elephant at a time in the United States and abroad Kristina McKean has funneled her lifetime passion for helping animals into a full-time profession by creating The Elephant Project. McKean had always felt drawn to animals and their related causes but it wasn’t until her honeymoon to Thailand with her […]

Odorless, Colorless, and Harmless
By Montecito Journal   |   October 11, 2018

Earth’s oceans breathe in carbon dioxide when it gets colder and exhale carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it gets warmer. This happens because cold water absorbs more CO2 than hot water, and that is why Coca-Cola quickly loses its fizz when it gets warm. Al Gore yelled “global warming fire” on a crowded planet […]

One for the Books
By Richard Mineards   |   June 28, 2018

It was some enchanted evening in the upper village when Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum launched his new well-researched, 386-page book Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution with a bibliophile bash at Tecolote, the lively literary lair. Purdum, who worked for The New York Times for more than 20 years as White House correspondent […]