Elena and the Animals by Ruben Vazquez

Public Story

Elena and the Animals

Copyright Ruben Vazquez 2024

Updated Nov 2022

Elena Tova is a woman committed to a cause: saving animals.In 2009 she left her job and her lifestyle to found El Hogar ProVegan, a animal sanctuary located in Tarragona that today is home to 300 animals, most of whom have come from the food industry.According to the FAO, between 800 and 850 million farm animals are killed in Spain every year. However, sick, old, injured or disabled animals are not profitable and are discarded.Elena rescues them and takes them to the sanctuary, where they become part of a large family of different species. Healing both their physical and psychological injuries and giving them a space where they can grow fully, is resource-intensive and requires long working hours every day of the year. But Elena remains as passionate as on her first day.She knows that she cannot save them all but, through their stories, she wants to show that another kind of relationship between us and them is possible.

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