HARTVILLE – Nestled in between the rolling hills of Manville and Hartville, right off Wyoming State Highway 270, sits a patch of grasslands and beautiful rock formations. The 1,200 acers are the new home of a handsome, four-month-old colt, Solemn and his mom, Ziggy. The pair recently came to the Kindness Ranch, an animal sanctuary, but they aren’t alone. Ziggy was brought to the ranch after being used for hormone production at a factory in Canada. She was one of a handful of horses in a program where she was bred repetitively for her hormones. The duo shares their patch of land with a handful of passionate caretakers and over 100 different animals who have spent the majority of their lives in laboratories or testing centers around the world.
John Ramer, executive director of the ranch, provided Wyoming Newspapers, Inc. a tour this fall of the sanctuary.
“I started work here six years ago, [and] took over as director about six months after I started,” Ramer said. “…As with a lot of sanctuaries, they were struggling to really get a foothold in the local community.”
Ramer grew up in a small town on the Oregon coast, bringing to the plains of Wyoming a different point of view on animal husbandry and how to work with the community to better the sanctuary.
“It’s been my philosophy, if you’re not able to go to your local grocery store and ask them to donate vegetables to your farm animals, then you have no right to reach out to people thousands of miles away and ask them to support you,” Ramer explained. “I spent a couple of years trying really hard to educate people of the community about what we do and have them come out because, you know, a vegan animal sanctuary in Wyoming…” Ramer chuckled.
According to Ramer, when he took over the care of the sanctuary, the community didn’t have the most positive perception of the ranch.
“There were a lot of rumors, a lot of speculation about a bunch of vegan hippies out here going our little cult thing and all of that,” Ramer said. “So I started doing open houses. I hired local people to come work and fast forward a few years…it’s been really nice.”
In the October interview, Ramer mentioned he was taking a trip to Washington, D.C. to advocate, once more, about animal research. The sanctuary houses farm animals and domesticated animals, each of which Ramer knows by name.
“This is Kevin,” Ramer said introducing a male goat who came to seek attention. “He comes from EWC (Eastern Wyoming College). He was part of the vet tech training program there in Torrington. We have a great relationship with the college there,” Ramer said. “When they’re done going through whatever training and whatnot that they’re being used for, we take them. Kevin came here five years ago or so.”
Wondering around the farm, Ramer stopped at a pen full of goats and sheep.
“That’s Acorn McSquashy and then we’ve got James Earl Jones, Han Solo, Carrie Fisher. Obliviously, a Star Wars theme,” Ramer said, pointing to each animal. “We’ve got Spring, Summer, Grace, Georgina and Huck and all of them came from various veterinary training facilities or actual lab research.”
Ramer explained, the sanctuary also has guest accommodations, which are typically booked all summer long.
“Our guest facility is up on the hillside there. The people can rent and come,” Ramer said. “We work with a bunch of youth camps. Basically, July through August, this place is overrun by a bunch of 12- to 13-year-olds,” Ramer said with a chuckle. “They come out with an organization call ‘the road less traveled’ and a lot of the kids are coming from big cities. They’ve never seen a cow before so, it’s a fantastic experience.”

As Ramer wondered from pen to pen, he brought attention to the large grassy pasture the farm animals called home. Additionally, each species of animal has its own winter enclosure and inside the sheep and goat barn, Ramer opened a standard size refrigerator, full of fresh produce.
“We spend about $2,000 a month ordering fresh produce and vegetables from a restaurant supply company to chop up for all of our pigs,” Ramer explained. “They get a better diet than most of the people that work here.”
“Regardless of your faith or history, most people would agree that we’re here to be stewards of our environment and that’s exactly what I preach, which I don’t think very many people understand,” Ramer said.
As the truck began to climb up the mountainside, Ramer explained a recent federal decision had put their sanctuary at risk for losing valuable connections to receive research animals.
“[Senator Cynthia] Lummis actually wrote a letter to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) about their recent decision to prevent or stop entirely the import of animals from high-risk environments [which] put a stop to us receiving potentially hundreds of animals from American-owned research facilities in China,” Ramer explained. “Lummis, unbeknownst to us, wrote a letter [where] she mentions how the CDC’s decision was shortsighted and directly impacts Wyoming organizations, which she supports. I thought it was kind of cool.”
“We’re in a very privileged spot in our development as a sanctuary out here,” Ramer said as the truck passed through groves of evergreens. He explained Kindness Ranch has a quarterly newsletter reaching around 280,000 people. Combine that with the online and social media presence, and the sanctuary reaches over a half million people with its message.
According to Ramer, there are a lot of organizations and worthy causes to support; however all of the people who support the Kindness Ranch are zealous, and Ramer believes in transparency in both his funding and his operation.
“All of those people are very passionate. If you give money to an animal organization, by definition, you’re pretty passionate because there’s a lot of organizations that you can give money to,” Ramer said. “You never know if they’re actually putting it to good use. If you make a donation to Goodwill, how do you know that $1,000 donation is going to be utilized the way that you like to see it?...We’re 100% transparent where all of our money goes and we put out our animal impact report showing everything from how much we spend in our admin costs to direct animal care…[and] everybody that works in the office also works in direct animal care.”
“There are two roles that don’t involve direct animal care: our bookkeeper, who lives in Guernsey, and our director of development that lives in Los Angeles, [Califormia],” Ramer said. “Everybody else is busy, hands on with animals throughout the day. Our supporters are really passionate about that.”
According to Ramer, supporters of the Kindness Ranch don’t just help pay for the feed and care of prior research animals, they also aid in intercepting Beagles from China.
“When we got connection in China for intercepting dogs that were bred and used in research and then being smuggled to the meat markets, we formed a good relationship with a couple of people over there that actually physically intercepted the Beagles before they go to the meat market,” Ramer said. “They house them until I can bring them here.”
A mission of such volume requires measurable funding, according to Ramer.
“It costs an average of between the flight, the veterinary costs, the mandatory quarantine prior to and on arrival, all of the CDC and USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) paperwork and licenses, it runs about $6,000 per dog to get them here,” Ramer said. “Then once they get here, by definition, we’re a non-profit, we adopt them out for $200 bucks.”
“When the CDC put that [policy] into effect in August, it crippled us on bringing those dogs in, and a lot of our supporters are really upset about it and asking why we’re not doing more,” Ramer said.
As the tour continued, Ramer pointed out the sanctuary also has space for volunteers to stay for extended periods of time.
“Then, for our long-term volunteers, they get the nicest house on the property,” Ramer said. “That’s one of the perks. I guess if you are going to work for free, I want you to at least have a good view.”
The sanctuary also houses cats and dogs for adoption to the general public.
The animals, such as the beagles mentioned earlier, have often been born and raised in a completely controlled laboratory environment, and have never experienced even simple things like grass or rocks. Ramer explained the beagles are housed adjacent to two-bedroom yurts occupied by volunteers and their animals. Kindness Ranch slowly integrates the beagles into what it is like to live a more normal kind of life.
“If you think about it, laboratory research is one of the most controlled environments that you could possibly work in. These dogs, before coming here, they’ve never been outside. They’ve never used steps, seen a TV or music, smelled coffee, none of that,” Ramer explained. “They’re like three-year-old puppies with a mental development of an eight-week-old…[At Kindness Ranch, they] each have their own individual dog runs at night, so they can decompress and have some quiet time. They still have outdoor access.”
Ramer noted most of the animals who had come to the ranch had tattoos on their ears or inner thighs. He also mentioned during the interview the ranch would be bringing a few more dogs to the sanctuary the next day.
“They’ve never been outside of the building they’re in in Colorado. Imagine being a dog in Colorado and not being able to go outside,” Ramer explained.
Ramer explained, the ranch has a special job to help the animals at the sanctuary.
“Basically, we’re doing behavior conditioning and just getting them used to what humans think. But even that doesn’t sound deep enough [to explain what we do,]” Ramer said.
According to Ramer, in 2007-2018 the ranch adopted out 400 dogs which were given to the sanctuary from research facilities; from 2019 until January 2024, there were 1,033 dogs who found their forever homes through the work of Ramer and his staff.
“I am pretty proud of that,” Ramer said.
For more information on pets available for adoption, to make a donation or to check out rental spaces, visit the kindnessranch.org or visit their Facebook page.