Charlie's Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary — Local services in Sonoma

As a passionate animal lover and someone who’s worked and spent my whole life with animals I came to Charlie’s Acres looking for a place to gain more experience with the actual personal care of a variety of animals. I spent a good amount of time filling out the volunteer form making sure they knew my experience so they would be comfortable with me around their animals especially because Im young. When I arrived, no one I talked to knew anything about my experience, and I completely acknowledge people get busy and forgot that’s totally ok, but they obviously did not read my form, or really care if the people “taking care” of their animals had any experience. I was initially greeted by a young lady that was very sweet, but way too sweet to the point where every interaction i felt was extremely fake and a little startling. We then went on a tour around the property, meeting and learning the stories of each animal. This was nice. The part that was most off to me though, was earlier on in the tour, when asked why there weren’t more animals, the answer was simply there’s not enough space and funds. But clearly, there was enough space - and they proceed to show us at the end of the tour a massive building in progress taking up half of the property, where fundraiser events such as “birthdays, other parties, winery picnics and tastings” would take place to raise money for the animals. Another thing was, they told us some of the tasks we would get and they were things like “spend time with the pigs”, there may have been more hands on tasks, but you’ll see why I never found those out. At the end of the tour they showed me where my tasks would be on the white board, and where to sign up. I left and never went back. And they never noticed. The only emails I get to this day are the ones sent to everyone that’s ever given their email to them that say come to “Beer tastings!” and “Goat Yoga!”. I drive by the property on my daily commute so I think about the odd experience I had there everyday. The vibe and energy was so odd. It did not feel like an animal sanctuary but one big advertisement to get money or a destination stop for middle aged people visiting napa or sonoma for the wine and scenery. If they truly had the animals at heart a lot of things would be different. Honestly though, if your visiting Napa and want to just go take a tour somewhere it’s a very pretty property and the animals are in good condition. But if your a true hard working animal person, unless you wish to be monitoring and child’s b-day party or brushing the pigs, this place is...

I love Charlie’s Acres and its staff! My friend, Michael, and I visited on December 17th as well as during the summer. During our latest visit, the vegan picnic, we had Jenny Filak as our guide, source of information, and friendly company. She was wonderful! She highlighted the animals’ stories, took us through each of the main areas as she shared cute/interesting facts about the animals and how we could best interact with them, talked about their backstories and how Charlie’s Acres is now a sanctuary for them, and so much more. She knew so much about them, and it was clear to us that she’s passionate about animal rehabilitation, rescue, and care. It was a lot of fun hearing about her experience and knowledge, seeing her interact with the animals and help us do so in a responsible, considerate way, and then just chatting about our passions while we had a very pleasant vegan😊picnic, which included wine and vegan charcuterie! We got to feed the animals, pet them (respectfully), witness their cute quirks, and observe their family dynamics.

Folks at Charlie’s Acres just seem wonderful. We briefly met Joe (who was feeding the animals and caring for them) and Gustavo (who photographs the animals), and both were friendly and pleasant. During our summer visit, we had Greg Ord as our guide and he was also really awesome – knowledgeable, friendly, passionate, and caring. I love having genuine animal lovers introduce us to the beautiful little souls that inhabit Charlie’s Acres, share their wealth of knowledge, and spend time with us talking about how they came to work with these animals. Thank you for the wonderful experiences! I’ve definitely shared how fun and wholesome this is with friends and...

Although I fully support the idea of providing a sanctuary for farm animals, there are many things about this particular place which I find disturbing. This property is located in the Sonoma/Napa wine country, which probably has the most expensive agricultural real estate in the United States, if not the world. Property 50 to 100 miles away would cost a fraction of the 4.1 million dollars that was paid for these 32 acres. It is exempt from property taxes (except for a few “direct charges” which amount to about $1000 a year) which means it is being heavily subsidized by the taxpayers of Sonoma County. The founder is an extremely wealthy woman who lives in a luxurious mansion in San Francisco (about an hour away) that cost 21.8 million dollars in 2016. They have claimed to have approximately 150 animals on the property, many of which are chickens, turkeys and ducks. A beautiful, large house sits on a hillside overlooking the rest of the property. They rely heavily on volunteers to do much of the dirty work, and do very extensive fund raising. They charge people to take a tour of the property. I don’t doubt that the founder loves animals and wants to rescue them, but many more animals could have been rescued in a much more cost effective manner in many other locations. Of course, that would not have provided a lovely wine country getaway for the founder and her family and friends, in an area filled with many wealthy...