Meet the Pioneers

Elena, is the heart and soul of the sanctuary, and describes herself as "the mother of the animals".

Elena is an animal welfare activist who has spent most of her life saving animals in need, of all species. For Elena, the fight to help them is never ending and she is always thinking of how she can improve the lives of the innocent animals that fall into her arms, saved form terrible situations of neglect, abuse, exploitation and abandonment.

Elena also continues to play a high profile role educating, influencing, and inspirings others about veganism. Her passion and positivity has convinced many other people to adopt the vegan way of life; a way of life 100% free of any kind of animal cruelty.

Laura is co-founder of Santuario Vegan. She is responsible for the daily care of the animals and has been since the beginning in 2011. Laura is one of the visible faces of Santuario Vegan and together with Eduardo manages the social networks Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the Blog.

Her fascination for animals, especially farm animals, the lack of shelters, specialised staff and awareness of the situation of animals on farms, led her to found Santuario Vegan in 2011 together with Eduardo.

Laura is a person with a great commitment to helping animals and she invests all her time in doing so, whether it be in the individual care of the inhabitants, as a spokesperson, or looking to improve and professionalise the work that the organisation does in order to help more and more animals and spread a message of respect, love and coexistence.

Laura has always felt a special connection to animals, and felt that she had to do everything possible to help them. For this reason, along with Alberto, she co-founded theier amazing animal welfare Foundation, Santuario Compasión Animal.

In 2011, Mel came into their lives. Mel was a discarded sheep that was abandoned to die in the countryside alone. As if on cue, Mel came into their lives at a time when the idea of founding the first sanctuary specialising in farm animals in Spain became a necessity so that all these animals would have somewhere to go.

Eduardo brings together two passions: Individual animal rescue and raising awareness. He believes that the animals rescued from the sanctuary are the best ambassadors for those who have no chance of being saved and he has managed to get their stories to travel the world even without means. Helping many people to change their conscience.

His knowledge of organisations and philosophies, and his desire to bring the message of animal rights and anti-speciesism to the people have made him a tireless worker, always looking for the best for the organisation and to help animals in the best possible way.

Eduardo started Santuario Vegan in 2011 selling vegan feed to fund animal rescues. Today the sanctuary is one of the key organisations in the state and has managed to help and shelter hundreds of farm animals. Eduardo has been their ambassador and has brought this message to thousands of people.

One day he decided to dedicate his life entirely to animals, and two years later he co-founded Santuario Compasión Animal with Laura.