Mar 31

Meet Wendy Taylor | Non-Profit Executive Director & Attorney

April 1, 2024

We had the good fortune of connecting with Wendy Taylor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wendy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

I view risks as challenges. It is so satisfying to prove to yourself you can do exactly what you set out to do. Viewing life in this way began when I was very young. I didn’t come from money. My mom was a single mom of two, and she was eligible for food stamps and for WIC. But she was too proud to accept those and instead worked two full-time jobs to make sure we could get by. My clothes were hand me downs or she sewed a lot of them herself. She would take my sister and me to get fast food, but she could only afford one meal between the three of us so she would watch us eat.

Growing up the way I did certainly came with challenges. My mom was a waitress and a cashier at a grocery store, and I was in all Advanced Placement classes, and a program called Special Perceptions In Education. She could not help me with any of it, not my homework, not school projects. So, I had to study a little harder and dig a little deeper. After college and law school and the bar exam and then starting and running a law firm, challenges become firmly rooted in your DNA.

So, when my house caught on fire and I lost all my belongings, my pets, a place to live and everything changed, once the smoke cleared – and I mean that literally and figuratively – I thought I’d easily succeed in the challenge of changing my course and doing something totally different with my life and career.

I began a non-profit called West Place Animal Sanctuary to rescue farm animals from neglect, abuse and cruelty. I decided to walk away from my successful legal career and take on what has probably been the biggest challenge of my life. The organization’s mission itself is a challenge. Not everyone cares about farm animals so I had to figure out a way to implement something that would resonate with everyone. I always say I started a sanctuary for animals and not for humans, but to stay relevant, you need to touch humans and to connect with people. You need to affect people. So, I created a student educational internship program for high school and college students wherein we provide them with hands-on skills they aren’t able to get in a classroom and we are able to cultivate a compassionate community with dozens of teens and young adults each year.

In a world where so many are getting cancelled for saying or doing the wrong thing, social media can be a challenge, especially when you’re saving animals. We’ve been told we’re not vegan enough, we’re not political enough. Promoting our mission, sharing our vision, and controlling our message in today’s sensitized and finicky world is not easy. West Place might be a non-profit, but we still have a brand and it takes vigilance to protect it. We manage to find ways to meet the challenges of getting and keeping the public’s interest. There is always something to learn and I have learned a lot of good lessons in business.

I’ve learned that it’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to have fear. And I don’t even mean fear in the sense of the big picture, of a life change, or a career change. I just mean having fear in the day-to-day. It’s OK to be afraid as long as you don’t let it stop you from taking action. One day at the sanctuary, a volunteer left the feed room door to the barn open and an empty plastic bread bag was dropped on the floor. No bread, just the bag, but old horses love bread and one of our horses, Johnny, could sniff it out from a mile away. About one second later, he is choking on it and people start screaming for me to come over. I have no idea what had happened. All I know is his eyes are bulging out, he’s having trouble breathing, and everyone is upset and panicking, so of course I want to panic. Just really panic. It’s one of those moments where it seems so overwhelming that you can’t see the way to the other side without help or without someone else coming in and saving the day for you. But there was no one else to save him, or to save me for that matter, so I ask the volunteers if anyone knew what happened to him. Blank stares. Did anyone give him something to eat? More blank stares. Did he get into something he shouldn’t have? Finally, a volunteer points out that there was an empty plastic bag missing from the feed room floor. I think, great, Johnny is suffocating, so there’s no time to call the vet. Before I know it, I grab a shovel from the barn, jam it in his mouth as a makeshift oral speculum and put half my arm down his throat and grab the bag and pull it out. By that time, one volunteer is crying, another is shouting, and another is standing there, frozen. By the time I fully appreciated what I had done, Johnny was already back to grazing the grass like nothing ever happened. Taking action means taking control, and taking control is very empowering. You have to have faith in yourself and in that moment, whether I knew it or not, I instinctively had faith in myself. Believing in yourself will help you overcome so many obstacles.

Running your own business brings challenges, and failure, and fear, and obstacles. And sometimes it’s basking in the glow of a hard-fought accomplishment that makes it all worth it. For me, it took the life altering tragedy of my house fire to change my course. But we are all here on our own journey. If I were asked to give advice to anyone, it would be to do what you want to do, for the reasons you want to do it. And do it your way. Don’t compare yourself to others. Do what is right for you, and embrace it, and own it.

We get one life. It’s up to each one of us to make sure that what we do with it is enough. You need to make it count, you need to accept the challenge, face the fear, embrace the failures, and overcome the obstacles. When you can do that, you will leave your impact and you enhance your life’s value. And all you really need to get started is to be inspired, to find a story that inspires you. Then go out and create your own story. And make sure it is a really good story to tell.

I would tell someone that this is your life. Your value. Your impact. Just as with my story, I can’t promise anyone it is always going to be easy, but I can promise you that taking a risk is going to be worth it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Since 2007, West Place Animal Sanctuary has provided a permanent home and lifelong care to farm animals rescued from cases of abuse, neglect, and cruelty. Our 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is also a licensed wildlife rehabilitation facility, and we assist the town of Little Compton in Newport County, RI, by providing temporary shelter and care to lost dogs.

West Place is the only organization of its kind in our area, and we serve all of Rhode Island and much of New England and beyond, as we have rescued from Pennsylvania and as far away as Texas. We are a resource for municipal animal control and police departments, as well as statewide law enforcement agencies. We are also an official response partner of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and assisted their response to the largest case of animal cruelty in the history of the Northeast, which occurred in Westport, MA, in 2016.

West Place also serves traditional animal shelters and humane societies in Rhode Island who are unequipped to house or care for farm animals who have nowhere else to go. Despite the growing demand for our services, West Place receives no annual funding from the Federal or state governments, and relies on the generosity of individuals, businesses, and foundations to execute our life-saving mission.

I founded West Place following a devastating house fire that claimed the lives of my nine pets. To honor their lives, I chose to form a non-profit organization that would care for underrepresented animal populations. While there are many great organizations assisting dogs and cats, establishing a farm animal sanctuary was uncharted territory. There were no local organizations to learn from, no blueprints to follow, and far fewer grants available for the care of farm animals. West Place was also started without an endowment or seed money. Instead, I personally funded West Place through its infancy while still working full-time as the managing partner of a law firm in Providence. There is a reason why, according to Forbes, more than half of all non-profits are destined to fail or stall within a few years of their inception. Despite the challenges and obstacles, I have continued to guide West Place for more almost two decades, overseeing the tremendous growth that has impacted thousands of lives (and counting).

Others have taken note of the passion, dedication, vision, and intrepid spirit needed to run this type of operation. I was honored to be named Rhode Islander of the Year by Rhode Island Magazine in 2017, and I was chosen to deliver a powerful and inspiring TED Talk during TEDx Newport in 2018. I have been the keynote speaker at press conferences and annual meetings held by businesses and other non-profit organizations, and I was the recipient of the 2019 Best Friends Award given by the Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association. Most recently, I was honored with a 2022 Leaders & Achievers Award from the Providence Business News.

Animal care never takes a day off and West Place relies on a diverse and robust volunteer corps to operate 365 days per year. The sanctuary nearly always operates at capacity, which means there are more than 100 animals representing more than a dozen species in need of daily care at any given time. Although West Place has been able to hire a small number of paid staff members, it is largely the adult volunteers and student interns who perform daily duties and provide our residents with love.

The local high school and college students enrolled in West Place’s popular Educational Internship programs gain hands-on experience within a working farm environment and receive a real-world humane education. They are immersed in farm animal care, wildlife rehabilitation, and working with lost dogs. Students observe and participate in veterinary visits, shearing, hoof trimming, dentistry, and more. They also have opportunities to participate in our food cultivation program, which includes farm-grown vegetables and fruits, and stewardship of our rotational grazing system and sanctuary grounds. Each day, animal lessons are given regarding nutritional requirements, exercise and conditioning needs, anatomy, and animal welfare.

Visitors will agree that West Place is as much a sanctuary for people as it is for animals. The beautiful 8-acre property includes nine pastures for rotational grazing; four greenhouses, an orchard, and a berry garden for on-site food production; a barn, a duck coop, brand new chicken building, a peacock house, and an 80,000-gallon pond that operates year-round. There is even a historic cemetery on the property from the late 1700s, which predates the home by almost 100 years. While the animals enjoy the open space and the constant enrichment, it is the humans who immediately fall in love with this safe haven and the organization tasked with the emotional work of rehabilitating animals so they can enjoy their second act. Through it all, West Place is cultivating a more compassionate community on the Farm Coast of New England.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

There is so much to do in our area of the state that one could definitely spend a week. We are fortunate enough to be located on The Farm Coast, an incredibly beautiful drive, where farmland meets the sea. The road past West Place leads one to Tiverton Historic Four Corners where there are incredible merchants and shops. The Farm for seasonal ideas, and Groundswell for coffee and a bite are not to be missed. Further down the road there is Sakonnet Vineyard for wine tasting, and Peckham’s nursery, with enough greenhouses you could spend hours poking around. The Farm Coast is also speckled with beautiful hidden beaches. We are looking to add an upscale nano brewery to help financially sustain our mission if we are able to secure donor funding, which would certainly be one more reason to spend a day in South Tiverton as a destination spot.

West Place is located in Newport County, also home of Newport, Rhode Island, infamous for the America’s Cup. The seaside vacation destination needs no introduction as it has been drawing visitors for decades. Of course, I have my favorite places to eat. Diego‘s serves incredibly fresh and unique Mexican fare. The Dining Room at the Vanderbilt hotel is striking and if you can get the private table for two with the blue velvet chairs by the fireplace, you will not want to leave. And since Newport is alive and bustling even during the winter months, after an hour or two on the Cliff Walk, warming up with a gourmet hot chocolate at Cara, while overlooking the water at The Chanler is the perfect end to a weekend afternoon. A guided tour of any of the mansions from the Golden Age on Bellevue Avenue are worth a visit and never disappoint. And for car enthusiasts, the Audrain Auto Museum is the perfect place to visit as their exhibits change every few months so there is always something new to see.

And, of course, our beloved city of Providence has an art scene with Art Trolley, a great food scene and Water Fire throughout the summer.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

You cannot run a non-profit without volunteers, and in the early days of West Place Animal Sanctuary, before I could afford to hire any staff, some key volunteers made all the difference. When the 80-plus hour a week pace was too much for me to sustain for long periods of time, volunteer supervisors like Courtney T., Dawn F., Christine C., Pam H., and Pam D. were invaluable. And volunteers that came on in the early years – and are still with us – truly are the foundation of our organization. Nancy M., Diana L., Melanie R., Reem A., Jesse D., Janice S., Sheri G. and Patrick C. helped West Place to keep going day-to-day and certainly helped us grow. We wouldn’t be where we are today if they didn’t come on board so many years ago to give up their days off, or free time to put their efforts behind our cause.