When you think of someone who is likely to
go vegan and start a farm sanctuary, I’m

pretty sure the first person to pop into your
head is not a multi-generational cattle rancher

whose entire livelihood is dependent upon
the slaughter of cows. Such a conversion would

be nothing short of miraculous, right? Well
my guest today is here to share with you a miracle.

Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
to another vegan nugget. There is seldom anything

quite as powerful of a vessel for veganism
reaching unlikely populations than the conversion

of the most unlikely of the unlikely. I say
this all the time to people who email me and

are upset they didn’t go vegan until their
50s or 60s, or more, but they will now have the ability

to reach other people in that stage of life
who may not want to listen to a ridiculously

tattooed girl on YouTube.

In the same vein, my guest Renee King-Sonnen,
who married a multi-generational cattle farmer

in Texas has the unique ability to reach other
people who work in the heart of animal agriculture

and show them there is another way, that they
don’t have to make their income from the

suffering and death of other beings. One of
the objections to a vegan world is that farmers

will be out of work. Well Renee is blazing
the path to an alternative. I’m so excited

for you to meet this one-woman revolution.

Alright well, Renee I want to thank
you so much for taking time out of your busy

schedule caring for the animals to be on the
channel and talk a little bit about your story.

Awesome! So good to be here.

Alright, so you could tell us a little
bit about how it is that you became a cattle rancher?

Well, I became a cattle rancher by
default. I assure you it wasn’t in my plans

to have anything remotely to do with even
living in the country. My husband Tommy, he’s...he’s

been and his whole family generationally has
been in cattle ranching and so when I moved

here, the cow’s were here, the chickens…
that’s how I became a rancher was by being

a city girl that moved to the country, and
married a man that I really loved.

Talk to us a little bit about the turning
point.

Well, I moved out here and I always
fancied myself an animal lover. I always loved

my dogs and my cats. I had a ferret. My grandma
had birds. She used to take us to the zoo

and I loved all the animals, and the rodeo,
and being from Texas, that was just a big

deal out here. Never once did I ever have
a connection that there was anything remotely

ill conceived or wrong. And when I came to
the ranch, I guess in my naivety, I would

go ‘Oh, you know, the cows are so cute!
Look at the little babies!’. And I would

want to go out there, and get to know them,
I was just naive. And because who...who

in their day to day life pets a cow? Who in their
day to day life goes and picks up a chicken,

and hugs it, and loves it? It’s kept from
us. There’s a sort of a barrier there. And

so living here, because I love animals, I
gravitated to animals that I also ate.

And I also wore on my skin or my feet, or gravitated
to animals that I used to watch in rodeos.

But...and so I started getting this connection
because I did have an innate love for animals

but it was enforced and indoctrinated upon
me as a young child to love the one’s at

home, and eat the one’s out there. And so
basically, the turning point for me was the

first time the red trailer took the baby calves
that I had grown so used to and loved to the

sale barn which eventually meant to be lot
and slaughtered. And I threatened my husband

that I go to the sale barn. If he...if we
were going to keep doing this, I told him

at the final analysis. I said ‘if we keep
doing this and that red trailer leaves one

more time, I’m gonna follow it to the sale
barn’. And what they do there is once they

leave here, their life changes forever. They
become just slaves! They go into these horrible

metal chutes! They’re just whipped into
line! They’re tagged! They’re branded!

They’re sold! They’re traded! They either
go straight to feedlots where they're...where they're just...they step

in their own feces! Their own urine! They’re
just clustered all together in these horrible

environments! They do that or they get sold
to one of these nice, peaceful, wonderful

farms where everything looks so good on the
outside, and you’re driving down these Texas

roads, and you look out, and you go ‘aww,
look at those humane cows. Those are grass

fed beautiful cows’. So, the baby cows will
go to ranches like ours was where everything

looks so wonderful from the outside. You know,
all it is...we are part...we were part of

big agriculture. We were part of the system
that is destroying the fiber of everything

we stand for as humans.

Did you try to...I mean, I am just
trying to picture this. You see them going.

Was is it just this light that went off and
did you talk to your husband about it?

How did it progress to where you are now?

The first time that it happened I remember
the red trailer being out in the field. And

just was like, so stark against the green
grass, and the cows, and the babies, it was

there. It was there for several days because
you had to bait the babies to go in. They

didn’t want to go in except that they were
baited, and there was a chain on it so that

the babies could get through, but the big
ones couldn’t. And so, I watched that for

a few days and my connection began to get
disrupted as my disconnect. I started going

‘What the hell! What is going on, ya know?’.
And I just...then I snapped back to the good

rancher’s wife, you know, I gotta be tough.
And the first time they had like, I don’t

know, 6 to 8 of the baby calves trapped in
there that I had rumble love the first 7 or

8 months I’ve been here. And then when the
trailer pulled out, and the mother cows literally

chased the trailer, crying, literally chasing
it trying to catch it. The little babies in

the trailer, bugged eyed, trying to get out
the little bars, their prison, and I just

stood there in disbelief. I think I went into
a literal shock. Ack, it was the most horrendous.

I have been so tough until that point. And then
when I saw the trailer go out of the gate,

and down the highway, and the mother cow still
chased them along the fence side, and something

broke in me. Just broke and I told my husband
after it all happened, you know, ‘How do

you do this?...how do you do this?’. He
said ‘Do what?’. ‘How do you raise these

cows, these babies, and watch them go every
6 months to the sale barn?’. He said ‘Well,

Renee that’s what we have to do. That’s
what ranchers do. That’s how you get to

keep your property in agriculture. That’s
how, you know, pay for the tractors. Pay for

you know, the insurance. Pay for the bills
that come in. You know Renee, we gotta do

that. If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t
be able to sustain the ranch.’ And I’m

like ‘Well, there’s really something wrong
with this picture, ya know.’ I just started

sensing something really wrong. Well so then,
Tommy decides I need a calf of my own. That

I need to be ‘a real rancher’s wife’
so that’s when Rowdy Girl came in. I bought

Rowdy Girl for $300. A little bitty calf that
had lost her mother. I don’t know how it

happened. Bought Rowdy Girl, you know, I never
had any of my own kids so she kind of became

my little baby that I bottled fed twice a
day, watched her grow up. And he didn’t

know that was going to be his biggest mistake.
So anyway, that’s kind of how it happened, you know the babies would...

...the mama’s would cry every single night
when the babies left. I mean for days and

days. They never stopped. They did not stop
until they lost their voice. There was no

break, and my husband would just go about his
business watching the news, eating, doing

whatever. And I’m over here about to go
out of my mind, go outside with them, screaming,

hollering, crying, begging forgiveness. And
of course, all the while I was eating hamburgers,

and chicken sandwiches.

So, when is it that you decided not
only that you were going to create a farm

sanctuary out of this cattle ranch but also
go vegan. I mean, was that kind of a simultaneous

thing? When and how did that all of that happen?

Well, what happened was every 6 or
7 months is when you sell the calves. You

know, the mama cows were here enslaved I later
learned after I went vegan. The calves will

be born. They go to sale barn every 6 months.
Well, me living here made it very difficult

for my husband to do that so we started getting
pushed out 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, until

the last time it had been 10 months. The red
trailer has not gone to the sale barn since

February of last year. In this past December,
he was...we were like at a breaking point.

Almost ready to divorce. I gone vegan October 31st
of last year, Halloween. I started watching

just videos. I started like peeking at stuff
that I didn’t really want to watch. I would

bring chicken sandwiches home. I’d be eating
them and my chickens would be at my feet,

and I would start getting this breakdown in
my awareness that I was eating their cousin

or their mother. I’d be eating, I’d be
bringing home hamburger meat or steaks from

Kroger and I would be pulling into my driveway,
and not wanting to look at the cows. I find

myself literally not wanting to look, like
I didn’t even want to know that they were

there. I had this vision like this- that was
right before I went vegan.

And from that day forward I’ve done everything
I can to no matter what it is, even from honey

to...I used to eat my own eggs here at the
ranch. I don’t do that anymore. We just

don’t do that. I mean, every time I find
out something’s vegan I immediately make

a decision to act in integrity with that ethic
because we need to be doing that.

And Houdini had been getting out every single
day, if you heard anything about this story,

you know Houdini was getting out along
the highway, and so my husband was adamant

about Houdini was going to have to get out
of here. She was a liability and there was

no way because that was Rowdy Girl’s baby.
And so I looked all over Texas for a home.

But there was no one that would take these
cows...no one. And so after that, and Houdini,

and the cops, and trying to find homes, one
day I told my husband ‘Look, you know, I

can’t find a home. Why don’t we just figure
out how to have a sanctuary right here in

Texas’. He thought I lost my mind, ya know.
He said ‘You’ve lost your mind literally.

This is not L.A.. This is not New York’.
He said ‘Would that even work? We can’t

do that here Renee, no way. I’m a member
of the Brazoria County Cattlemen’s Association.

We can’t do that. What would everybody
think? And there’s no way that can happen

here in the middle of all these sale barns
all around us.’ And I said ‘Well what

if I just buy your cows?’ And that’s when
he just about lost it. You know, I was screaming

‘No, let me buy...let me try to buy these
cows. Let me figure out how to have a sanctuary’.

And I said ‘Maybe you don’t know how to
do it. Maybe I don’t know how to do it but

I’m sure somebody does’. And so, that’s
what happened, and I didn’t know. But my...think

my heart space and my soul lined up with the...a
real big vacuum and a need for our planet.

It’s a planet. This is for our planet that
I’ve been a force. He’s okay with it.

I mean, he went vegan too, ya know.

I heard about that. When did that happen...how
long did that take and was it...tell me a

little about that. I just want to hear more
about that.

That was crazy, you know. During this
whole time I had tons of deer antlers on my

wall which was about to drive me freakin’
nuts. I felt like I was living in a morgue.

You know, because once...I don’t know about
the rest of the world, but once I went vegan

my sensitivity went out the roof. So, I’m
talking about liberating with this giant elk

on my wall and I would just go [stunned].
I mean, I was feeling the heaviness of them

all over me and my husband was going plant-based
at the time, but his heritage was as a hunter.

His Dad, his Grand Dad, his great Grandfather
had a slaughterhouse for god’s sakes, in

Houston, one of the biggest ones. They used
to drive cows from San Antonio like cowboy

days, ya know. Because his heritage was so
deep it was really hard for him to make the

connection, especially about the deer heads
being on the wall because they were just momentos.

He would use this terminology with me and
I showed him your hunter one, you know that...oh

yeah! Back before he took them off the wall
I showed him, I said ‘You gotta watch this.

You gotta see this’. So, I showed him your...yeah,
I loved that one, and of course he watched

it. It might have been part of his decision
because there were several...several different

things that did. He finally, just one day
decided he didn’t want them on the wall

anymore and now I hear my husband talking
all the time about how good it is for your

health. I hear him talking about, because
we’re having tours, we have tours every

week now, and I hear him telling visitors
how good it is for the animals. He’s making

the connection. He’s gone from plant-based
to now, I would say that in his ethics, in

his mind, he’s probably 75% vegan in his
mind. He’s definitely totally plant-based

but he’s getting there ethically too.

Well thank you so much for everything
you’re doing and for your powerful testimony

and just your…your passion. I think that
alone- I mean look at everything that you’ve...

...you've accomplished by just having this change in
your mind that “I’m not going to stand

for this anymore” and now it’s become
this incredible thing, so just thank you for what you do.

Well, thank you. Thank you Emily.

I hope you enjoyed hearing Renee’s incredible
story of conversion. I think her husband may

win the most unlikely vegan of all time award.

Renee has the support of such heavy-hitters
as Kip Anderson, the creator of Cowspiracy,

and Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher
himself turned vegan animal advocate, and

her mission is growing by the day. You can
check out all of her links below to get in touch.

Now I’d love to hear your thoughts on this
incredible story. Does this make you rethink

the possibility of who can be vegan? Are you
an unlikely vegan or vegan-to be? Let me know

in the comments.

If you enjoyed this inspirational story, give
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Why in the world would you eat a chicken and love a dog?

Why would you do that?

Here's my babies and they are so awesome!

They love side by side together and I hope that all of you can one day make a decision.

To go vegan.

Peace out!