Santuario Gaia, a farm animal’s haven

Santuario Gaia is an animal haven, a refuge located in Ogassa, Girona. The sanctuary receives farm animals that have been rescued from situations of abuse and exploitation, who are nursed back to health and given a peaceful, dignified life.

The sanctuary’s main goals are to provide the animals with good food, veterinary care, quality shelter, security and peace. Santuario Gaia is deeply in tuned with the animal world, knowing the importance of the animals’ emotions. The animals that arrive at Santuario Gaia have suffered, living in a situation of pain, fear and neglect, which is why healing them emotionally, is so important in order to give them quality of life.

Santuario Gaia was founded by Coque Fernández Abella, veterinarian, and Ismael Lopez Dobarganes, two generous people with a good heart, who are sensitive to the hardships animals have to endure in today’s society. That is why they promote veganism, advising those who are also compassionate to adopt a vegetarian diet, to not wear clothes and shoes that have been made with animal products, to not watch shows in which animals are used, and to not purchase products that have been tested on animals.

Santuario Gaia’s inhabitants

There is a great variety of animals currently living in Santuario Gaia, each of them with a story to tell. If you visit Santuario Gaia, you may get to meet Estel y Llum, two broiler chicken, Rita, a gorgeous 20 year old cow, Dani and Araceli, two young little goats, the lovely Natalia, a female duck, and many others.

Volunteering at Santuario Gaia

If you are an animal lover and would like to help Coque and Ismael, you have the opportunity of volunteering at Santuario Gaia. There are two types of volunteering: the short volunteering and the long volunteering.

To volunteer for just a small amount of time, you need to guarantee Santuario Gaia that you can give them one day a month.  You should know how to speak Spanish, in order to communicate with the group, be a responsible person, hard worker and to be in good physical shape. You will take part of activities like feeding the animals, cleaning their spaces, helping to fix what needs fixing, and caring for the animals that need medical attention.

If you would like to volunteer for longer, you can actually spend some time living at Santuario Gaia. You will work at the sanctuary 6 days a week and have one day off. Being a volunteer is a serious commitment. There may be days when you will have to work outside in cold, rainy weather, wake up at dawn. It may sound like hard work, but the emotional rewards are priceless. This type of volunteering asks you for a minimum of 1 month and maximum of 3 months.

Other ways of helping

If you want to help Santuario Gaia but don’t have the possibility of volunteering, you can help but donating money. You can do this by becoming a partner, purchasing Santuario Gaia’s products, or making monthly donations or one single donation.

Santuario Gaia is also open for visits, but they have to be scheduled ahead of time.