I visited PAWS for the first time at an open house. I didn't know a place like this existed in the US. The animals were well cared for, had a lot of space to roam. I was educated by the staff, and left with more knowledge. I wish sanctuaries didn't have to exist. I wish that animals could live in the wild. This was as close I've seen to the wild - given these animals are in captivity. The elephants look healthy and strong. Finally a place that allows the animal to live the rest of their life as an animal, not a circus prop. read more

It took this sanctuary three years to kill off the three elephants they received from Canada. TB runs rapidly in this scammuary too. During the fires three years ago, In true AR fashion, the animals were left to burn to death as the disgusting owners did nothing to evacuate them. Just another disgusting scammuary that doesn't bother to give their animals proper medical care, and seeps up money from idiots for their animal rights agenda. This is truly sad anyone could support a disgrace of a sanctuary. I wonder if it would be okay for a pet owner to allow their pets to burn to death if there was danger of fire. My pets are savannahs and hybrid mixes. I have no doubt that if I let my cats toy burn to death, AR groups would have judged and condemned me. There was a fire a mile from my home, and I got enough cardboard boxes to transport my pets. Yet, when a fire was a mile away from this scammuary the AR leadership would have left those animals to burn to death. I hope this facility shuts down or is taken over by people that actually value animals over their stupid AR agenda. The small zoo near my house had all the animals evacuated in 30 minutes when the same fire I prepared for was a mile close. Yet, AR scammuary didn't care enough about their animals to do the same. I hope the people from the Toronto Zoo gave those idiots a piece of their mind for killing their elephants. There are elephants that are working animals that live longer! You are all sick and disgusting! AR has nothing to do with the welfare and well being of an animal, it is about destroying the human and animal bond. read more

This was a fun experience. Hearing the staff talk about the animals you learn a lot of the staff's experience and the experience of the animals. With this new lease in life, it's amazing to see all the work PAWS does and staff. You will also hear sad stories the animals past life. So when you first drive in, you are picked up in a shuttle bus. During the shuttle ride, the staff member will drive past a few enclosures. I highly recommend you have your camera ready, because there are some enclosures that you cannot walk to and the but does not slow down or stop for photo ops. When you arrive in the central area, there will be more elephants, tiger and bear enclosures that you can walk to and take great pictures with camera phones. In the central area, I tried the corn hole game to try to earn treats for the elephants for a small donation. It seems elephants prefer the apples and bananas over the oranges. There are many tables for merchandise and refreshments for a small donation. From the SF bay area, the drive itself may take two hours or more. So plan accordingly. We stopped for food on the way up. A worthwhile experience I highly recommend. read more

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PAWS is was a huge heartbreak. Sadly I went to support their efforts without having done enough research. They have 2300 acres, yet the animals live in fenced areas no bigger than a horse corral. The long cry from the lonely big cats was painful, as was the depressed bear. If you are sensitive to animals feelings/vibrations, do not visit this sanctuary. Their CEO, Chris, seems kind, but the minute he left the group before lunch the staff ramped up their sharing of the horrors that the majestic beasts they housed endured throughout their shortened and painful lives. It was excruciating. They even have the nerve to show a bull elephant in his barn doing circus tricks, couched in the need to make the animal perform the tricks for health reasons. Let's say for the sake of argument that this is true, why make the elephant go through the paces for the crowd. Why not only ask the elephant to lift it's foot and open it's mouth for when it is ACTUALLY getting vet care. They shared how the elephant hated the nephew of the owner (think Duck Dynasty) and resisted him for 2 years before finally giving in to being herded and manipulated by this man who would not have the job if not for nepotism. He even referred to his mock bull hook as his "weapon" during the performing segment. I wanted to vomit. If you try and get a breath of air by going so much as 6 feet from the crowd you are followed by a staff members. For this I get it, some people are nuts and you can't have people running off on their own. But the way they went about it was like trying to leave a cult. Not only do they follow you, but they don't stop talking to you - even when you are just trying to breath from being gut-wrenched by having to listen the terrible stories you can't escape from hearing. Even the people following you also continue the narrative of the horrors. It's not like they follow you and just ask if you are ok and talk about the weather. I left the barn area. I don't want you to bring me the mold of the elephant tooth, while knowing that the nephew is raising a stick to make the elephant open its mouth. I don't want you to keep telling me of the elephant's past sufferings. I'm trying to stabilize from being traumatized with such things. I believe that the original owner, the wife who died from cancer, was likely the soul for this organization. This is just conjecture, but I'm guessing that when she died so went the only heart these poor animals could hang onto. IDK. If you are an empath, whatever you do don't go to this place. The pain from the animals is palpable. Sure, it's better than the atrocious environments they came from, but it's not the paradise I had hoped for them. Frankly I think animals who endure great suffering such as they have should just be put out of their misery entirely - unless they are going to be able to have room to roam and every person who comes into contact with them has an angelic heart. It took me weeks to recover emotionally from the tour. I kept hearing the things they said over and over in my head and felt physically ill for days. I wish I had read a review like mine before. This and that other person's reviews that reveals what seems like ineptitude on the part of the staff. I notice now that in all the details they shared, they were remiss in mentioning how those elephants from the Toronto Zoo died there. They spoke about the zoo and the 7 elephants it once had, but only mentioned only elephant from the zoo that they have now....not the others that died there. Interesting omission. My two cents. read more

As soon as I saw Candice's pictures and read her review for PAWS, I knew I needed to go myself. If I can go 4 hours each way for Hula Pie, I can go 2 1/2 hour each way for elephants. In fact, elephant, tigers, and bears oh my! I was lucky enough to recently attend their special 35th Anniversary Open House - http://aroundthebayandaway.blogspot.com/2019/06/paws-performing-animal-welfare-society.html PAWS is a sanctuary for animals that have often been rescued from abuse in the name of entertainment or exotic trade. All those tricks you see them do is often not because they want to but because they have been trained to fear the consequences of the bullhooks if they do not. Thankfully bullhooks have already been outlawed in California but the trauma remains as demonstrated by the first elephant we met, Nicholas whose story will bring you to tears. Despite it being an open house, aside from a quick glimpse on the shuttle ride up from the entrance, not all elephants were available to spend time with as after all, this is a sanctuary and their needs come first. We did get to enjoy the antics of Mara and Thika who apparently knows that the appearance of shuttle buses means special treats are on the horizon other than their normal bales of hay so they came down the hill to join in the festivities. Although both around the same age, Thika is more timid while Mara seems to be the boss of the two being a long time resident of PAWS since 1990. We got to see Mara walk off with her hay bale so she didn't have to share, be the first to make her presence known for treats by shaking the fence, and then almost swallowing an iPhone in a successful attempt to take a picture of her teeth. She was rewarded with apples, oranges, or bananas donated by visitors acquired through a $5 bean bag toss. On the way back to the shuttle, we passed the black bear and tiger habitat as well and was rewarded with a glimpse when they chose to come down. Remember, animal sightings are bonuses, not guarantees as this is their sanctuary and we are guests. Because this is a sanctuary, it is not open to the public except for a few times during the year - http://www.pawsweb.org/calendar_of_events.html for an Open House or Educational Seeing the Elephant Weekend Getaway. Either way, I feel so honored to see these animals get a new lease on life. read more

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For the last 5 or so years my dad has been trying to get me to watch the HBO documentary, 'An Apology To Elephants' and for the last 5 or so years I've strongly declined viewing because I know I'm not emotionally or psychologically equipped to deal with any of the sad animal situations that I know will be presented in what I'm sure is a wonderful and educational feature. Apparently, both Kentucky and California have elephant rescue sanctuaries (I think the doc largely examines the elephants now living at the rescue in Kentucky) but I found PAWS on Yelp, believe it or not, and my Dad made plans to fly in when they host one of their open houses (that requires tickets bought months in advance- they always sell out - so don't just show up unannounced because that's rude) so we could check it out since I refuse to watch the movie. You can purchase entry into the facility for special events but it usually runs in the several hundred dollar range. It all goes to taking care of the animals and the land, so it's not this money-making scheme, but last week someone handed me a $20 bill that I thought was fake because it's legit been so long since I've had that much money in my hand sooo those special tours are unfortunately not in my budget BUT several times a year PAWS hosts an open house event. I think the open houses are 2-4 times a year and extremely limited. It's $50 a person, buy your tickets months in advance, and you also need to be there butt-ass early in the morning (I think we left from my place in San Mateo at 7am to get there right on time) to participate in the event. They bus you up to several of their Elephant habitats and a guide will tell you about each of the elephants' background and lemme tell ya, they are all sad. Particularly Nicolas', who is apparently so aggressive towards any other living thing that he'll likely need to be kept separate from the other elephants forever. He did seem to enjoy being fed and doing his own thing though, so I guess that's as happy an ending as one can ask for. I didn't cry. Which was great. Because I'm a real snot-running down my tear streams and into my mouth when it comes to sad animal stuff. I think maybe because PAWS actively does so much to give these elephants what they've never had, and the animals have sooo much land and care, that it almost makes you think that not all humans terrible, just most, obviously., Even though there's a bus that takes you around, there's still a fair amount of walking and it's outdoors so wearing trainers or hiking shoes isn't a terrible idea. You can't pet the elephants or feed the elephants or anything like that. You're there to hear their stories, observe them from behind the a safety fence, and learn more about their conservation. For $50, it was a grand experience. There's also several rescued bears and tigers on site that have also been rescued and man, if I could be anything, I think it'd be one of those tigers. They looked happier than a pig in clover. They have lots of volunteers on hand for the open house day and you can not only learn a ton about the animals, but there was one table with a Tupperware container FULL of tiger whiskers (for those not in the know, I save and collect cat whiskers... I've got about 8 year of them in a container at home along with whiskers my friends will tape to greeting cards and send me bc they know it is p much the main source of my happiness). I've never been so tempted to steal something in my entire life. The woman running the table even let me open up the tub and hold them and my god my heart was racing so fast but I didn't take anything. And as soon as I put the jar back down my Dad commented that he saw the look in my eyes and could tell I wanted to, but was proud that I refrained. Like a respectable human. Not like the loser ones who were jags to the animals in the first place. Anyway, you should def look up the PAWS website and calendar to see when the next open house is. It's really cool and I'd say the average age of attendees was probably 60, so it's a cool way to support animals but in the company of mature adults. read more

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Unforgettable! I treated myself to the Seeing the Elephants tour and I'm so glad I did. The tour I went on just happened to be on rainy day...not a break in the rain throughout the whole day but the staff and Ed, the co-founder, never rushed us or tried to shorten the time of the tour because of the wet weather. Ed answered all of our questions and told really interesting stories about PAWS, each elephant's particular story, and how each one came to be at the PAWS facility. The amount of space they have for the elephants to roam is impressive. You can tell from the facility and from the volunteers and staff that there's a lot of thought and care going into this unique place. If this is your kind of thing, you will definitely want to check out PAWS and the Seeing the Elephants tour. You might hesitate to do so based on the price of the tour but really, it will be something you will remember forever plus your money will be spent supporting a great cause. read more

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I came away from their holiday open house impressed that all the employees and volunteers are trying to accomplish a noble deed with little funding and a facility that is in rapid decline. Wasn't sure what to expect of the Galt location. Mostly, it seems to be a temporary spot for animals waiting to be transported to the San Andreas facility. There are several big cats, including lions, tigers and a black leopard. A couple of bears and an amusing monkey round out the bunch. Interaction with the animals is limited to standing a few feet away from the cages. Understandable, considering their fear of liability issues. There was a volunteer or employee outside of each cage who was eager to give information about the animals or the facility. It's been open since 1984 and does the open houses periodically. The San Andreas location was having an open house the weekend after I visited Galt. Sounds like that facility is much newer, with a lot more animals( including elephants). Schedules are available on the website. read more

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A must see for all elephant admirers and is the only humane way to see elephants in California. There are limited days where the sanctuary is open to the public and tickets sell out quickly. All the elephants, big cats and bears were rescued and are allowed to live out their lives in a peaceful environment, free from being forced to perform or being gawked at by hoards of humans on a daily basis read more

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A wonder educational experience. It helps you understand what all the animals have gone through in their lifetime along with others. It can be heartbreaking but it makes everyone understand that we need to respect animals. This is not a zoo, so if you are looking to take you kids to the zoo, this is not that. It takes a lot of ppl to make the experience an amazing one. I appreciate all those who not only provided the valuable information today, along to those caring for the animals. This will be a non profit group I will continue to donate to. read more

Came here on my birthday for a See The Elephants tour, and was very impressed! They really put the animals here first, and do everything they can to make sure their animals are happy. Ed led the tour and it was great to hear everything from his beginnings to creating PAWS with Pat, the experiences over the years, and how the mission continues today. The animals truly seem happy here, and they make sure to never make them feel like they have to perform for the tours coming through. Although, they seemed more than happy to get a glimpse of us knowing they had some extra treats coming their way! Besides the elephant tours, they also have open houses which I will be sure to stop by on next time. They run purely on donations, so if you're a fan of elephants or want to donate to a cause which puts animals first look no further! read more

PAWS - She saw us, and waited like this until someone came over to feed her some treats! - Animal Shelters Near Me - San Andreas, California

I took my Granddaughter here and although it was expensive for us... I understand that the funds are needed to care for the precious animals that they have acquired. The animals have special needs because of their medical or emotional needs. Some have been abused in circus or roadside zoos. The care they receive at PAWS is phenomenal and it was worth the money to see them. My only wish is that PAWS would somehow figure out a way to help lower income families have a chance to see these beautiful animals and see the great work that you're doing also! read more

I went to the PAWS conference in Burbank in 2014 and learned so much about wild animals in captivity. I drove to San Andreas after receiving a complimentary pass for attending the conference. This is a majestic sanctuary and I wish all wild animals in captivity lived in a place like this. Seeing elephants act like real elephants was amazing . Ed and the team are doing an amazing job caring for the animals and advocating for them. Go and see why wild animals don't belong in zoos, circuses, etc. read more

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PAWS stands for, Performing Animal Welfare Society, and it's basically a sanctuary for rescued exotic animals. From their website: The Performing Animal Welfare Society is a place where abandoned or abused performing animals and victims of the exotic animal trade can live in peace and contentment. PAWS is a true sanctuary -- a permanent home where animals come first. Founded by former Hollywood animal trainer and author, Pat Derby, and partner, Ed Stewart, PAWS maintains 3 sanctuaries for captive wildlife -- 30 acres in Galt, California, the 100-acre Amanda Blake Wildlife Refuge in Herald, California and ARK2000, 2300 acres of beautiful natural habitat in San Andreas, CA. I've had the privilege of seeing some of their rescuing first hand and they do truly amazing work. The sanctuary itself is outstanding with thousands of acres for elephants to roam. You know, In the wild, elephants are migratory, walking 30 to 50 miles each day. in a zoo, they often have less than 1/4 of an acre to move around in. As a result, their feet and joints start to severely suffer. Their feet crack open from all the weight and so little circulation and the infection spreads up their legs and ultimately, for a lot of zoo elephants, that is what kills them. it's like a human on bed rest, when you're not moving around and in the same space for too long, you start to get sores. they fall over and are too weak to get back up from the infection. they live, on average, 20-30 years less than their wild counterparts. at PAWS, elephants are given the opportunity to get at least a little of what they need and therefore, live a happier, healthier rest of their lives. anyway, you cannot visit PAWS unless you want to volunteer (which sounds cool as shit) but you can donate and they very much are in need of funds to help save more animals. ALSO! COOLEST THING EVER ALERT! you can watch the elephants on the ARK2000 Elephant WebCam here: http://www.pawsweb.org/site/media/index.htm . so much better than porn. okay well at least COMPETITIVE with porn. anyway, volunteer for them! donate to them! "adopt" an animal from them: https://host258.ipowerweb.com/~pawswebo/cgi-bin/ecommerce/ac/index.html! help save elephants and other rescued circus and zoo animals! woohoo! read more

Ya, I'm a fan and I live right up the road. In fact some times we can hear an elephant trumpeting. I am more of a human lover than an animal lover so this is not where my time and energy go but, I have been there for a tour and during the tour a leopard sprayed on a kid! That was totally awesome... for me that is! read more

Went for a surprise birthday trip, and won't soon forget it. Ed and the entire staff of volunteers are clearly passionate about what they do. The day was highly informative and a lot of fun. I would highly recommend. read more

Recently attended one of their open houses & had a nice visit. Best part was seeing the African and Asian elephants on exhibit and hearing Ed Stewart answer questions. You could stay in those areas the entire three hours if you wanted to. Got to see the elephants pretty darn close. As for the lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), they were all sleeping in the early afternoon so didn't get to see much of them at all. Wasn't overly disappointed because my primary motivation was to see the elephants. Definitely worth a visit especially if you love elephants like I do! Good to take children to see also because they need to learn not to go to circuses and at the current rate of poaching, there may not be any elephants left in the world in about ten years time (unless poaching can be stopped). read more

I visited PAWS for the "Seeing the Elephant" event. It was absolutely wonderful. It is a state of the art animal sanctuary that has elephants, tigers, bears, and a lion. The co-founder, Ed Stewart, led the two day tour. It was obvious that he loves what he is doing and loves the animals. The animals are all in very large, very clean enclosures and are all rescued from a life of performing unnatural and cruel "tricks" or from roadside zoos or from some other deplorable situation. PAWS tries to provide the best possible situation for these animals that cannot be released back into the wild as they would not survive there. Ed knows that it is not ideal but it is the best that these animals can expect to have since they have lived in captivity all or most of their lives. I recommend it to everyone. There is some walking but it is well worth it. It is also a great organization to donate to. The animals love Ed. When he comes up to their enclosures most of them come up to see him while he is giving his talks. I loved it and I think you will too. read more

Most amazing experience!!! Have always been against animal cruelty. The folks who work and volunteer at this beautiful organization must be commended for their outstanding work. This is an organization that needs immense support for the great work they are doing. Do take your family some time. Helps young people realize the need to ban circus and other animal shows and show compassion to the creatures who share our space on earth. Thank you Ida for taking us around in the shuttle. The shuttle service is pretty amazing too. read more