Heartstone Veganic Ecosanctuary

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Heartstone Veganic Ecosanctuary PLEASE HELP SAVE HEARTSTONE! 🐮

Vegan organic sanctuary in Ireland, caring mainly for cows, horses, cats & dogs, and v-wilding currently 39 acres. Nonviolence.

Animal rights, no welfarism. No rescue industry, just sanctuary. Registered charity no 20206558. ☙ A place where animal rights are not a lip service ❧

Registered charity in the Republic of Ireland, RCN 20206558

Welcome to Heartstone Veganic Sanctuary, a humble attempt to help creating the peaceful and compassionate more-than-human world our hearts know is possible. 🌻

Heartstone is the first veg

an organic sanctuary in Ireland, possibly the world - but hopefully not for very much longer! 🌱

Veganic means, for me, that not only everything that is grown on the farm is/was grown according to vegan organic (also called stockfree organic) standards, but also, that all food, treats and other products for the animals and for me - including fabrics, supplements, herbal remedies, care products and so on - are vegan and organic, veganic wherever possible - and there’s only very few exceptions I have to make due to unavailability (like wood shavings, and natural but non-organic worming), but everything is always natural, chemical-free, and where available, also seasonal and local or fair trade. 🕊️

Fruit, veg, nuts and herbs at Heartstone have always been grown with no-dig methods, an emphasis on perennials, and along permaculture principles and the concept of forest gardening while there was still time to do that. 🌿

In terms of the bigger of our all food system, a truly sustainable food system would consist of veganic no-dig agroforestry and polycultures focusing on perennial plants, integrated with vegan rewilding and other forms of ecosystem restoration. Only in this way we have a chance to become resilient enough to survive climate collapse and biodiversity breakdown, and all that might come with them - and to not add to those crises more than absolutely unavoidable. In order to try and further this truly sustainable future that science agrees upon, Heartstone is also a friend and collaborator of Irish vegan rewilding project Dunsany Nature Reserve and a founding member of its V-Wilding Network. (An interesting read laying out a holistic model of a peaceful and mutually supportive co-existence with nature (author not known to me):
Can we combine sanctuaries / protected spaces, and veganic land 'use' and merge them into new integrative comprehensive models? https://www.simorgh.de/objects/new-vegan-mergers/)

For more info about vegan organic growing, I recommend visiting http://veganorganic.net. You can find Dunsany Nature Reserve and the V-Wilding Network on Facebook and Instagram. How to help/support us:
Helping hands on a regular basis and live-in volunteers would be very much appreciated as well, with a separate one-room building being available, which, though very basic, contains all necessary facilities. Just drop me a message if you’re interested to support me physically. 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾

If you wish to support us financially towards feed, bedding, vet bills, farrier, supplements, care and maintenance costs, please contact me via private message or email for banking details. Please note: Heartstone is not a registered charity yet, and so cannot accept donations. But we are able to receive gifts of friends and supporters. 🍃

In case you want to contribute directly towards feed and bedding, feel free to ring one of my main suppliers, Pet Stop Ballina (https://www.facebook.com/petstopdiscountwarehouseballina) or Homeland Rathscanlon (https://www.homeland.ie/stores/rathscanlon) and either top up Nía’s account (that’s me), or order some feed for me (they know what I need). Thank you! 💚

☙ Compassion. For the people. For the planet. For the animals. ❧

-`ღ´-

“The moon casts its shadows. What shall you see? Link hands and walk towards the sun.“

Hi all,no authorities today either, but otherwise a nightmare in its own right. I'll spare you the details.It's raining ...
04/08/2026

Hi all,

no authorities today either, but otherwise a nightmare in its own right. I'll spare you the details.

It's raining badly, but rain, of course is needed right now. Only that I can't get damp let alone wet because of the systemic fungal infections the years of non-stop struggle and particularly the last winter in an unheated mould-overgrown house have resulted in. 😬

There also is a power outage - I hope it will have been restored by the morning!

And then I fell asleep (from exhaustion), but Ellis woke me up again, hah.
.. and before I could even post this, I fell asleep for the 2nd time, so I better not try to write more but just post this right now.

Be safe y'all. 🪬

Just Ellis and Río. 🤍🖤🤍
03/08/2026

Just Ellis and Río. 🤍🖤🤍

Yes,Ernie again, I know. 🤍🖤🤍 But, not only is he the sun of Heartstone, its central star, and my soul cow, but also quit...
03/08/2026

Yes,

Ernie again, I know. 🤍🖤🤍 But, not only is he the sun of Heartstone, its central star, and my soul cow, but also quite likely the tallest bullock in the world, taller than the current Guinness Book record holder. It is near impossible to adequately convey his size unless you are standing right beside him: the neighbour had an inspection (for his organic certification), and the inspector saw Ernie in the laneway - and immediately recognised him as he had seen him in the previous place! He is also the talk of the town, wherever we reside.
.. and then I fell asleep again. 😫

Please help, y'all know what is at stake and looming, and the gang need to be fed and bedded, too. There are many ways to help, even if you can't donate. And live-in volunteers desperately needed as well. I can't do this any longer by myself, collapse is not a possibility, but a certainty st this stage. Thank you. 💔

For those who have a hard time telling Stevie & Mike apart (and a few more). 🖤🤎🖤
02/08/2026

For those who have a hard time telling Stevie & Mike apart (and a few more). 🖤🤎🖤

Ernie, Dermie and Bella². 🥰
01/08/2026

Ernie, Dermie and Bella². 🥰

Philip & Dermot: who's at the gate first? 🐂🐂💨I've endless pictures to share, but no time to write a post. Some good prog...
01/08/2026

Philip & Dermot: who's at the gate first? 🐂🐂💨

I've endless pictures to share, but no time to write a post. Some good progress has been made with gates/pens in the cow shed, but nothing else might be happening for a whole two weeks. Not to mention the upcoming bills.

Be safe y'all, and please treat climate collapse, the neuseating speed government-enacted fa$cism is rising with in the States, and the still-ongoing g€nocide in Palest¡ne with the utmost focus and urgency they require. 🚨

🪬

Hi all,I hadn't planned to write much about Ellis - there are too many people writing about cats already, and too few ab...
31/07/2026

Hi all,

I hadn't planned to write much about Ellis - there are too many people writing about cats already, and too few about cows - but to see inter-species relationships forming naturally, without human intervention, is just too heartwarming.

You might have seen Ellis is now joining Río and myself for mucking out, and whenever there aren't any cars or too many cows around. And I noticed that from day one, instead of staying with me, or in a spot where he can see me, Río chose a spot where he could see both Ellis and myself. [He also, in the beginning, would 'defend' Ellis from Jia when she, in his opinion, was playing too rough (Ellis himself didn't mind).] Rio started to keep a close eye on Ellis - being so tiny, he is truly vulnerable, of course - and Ellis soon noticed that Río is always around, and since, two of them are sticking together all the time. Rio is following Ellis around, and Ellis makes sure not to venture too far from Río. Just too cute! (It also means Ellis doesn't scream as if he was tortured when I am out of sight anymore. 🫣)

In cow terms, another week has passed, and unbelievable as it is that we are still here, with every day that passes (and tha we're not ready to challenge the authorities with the then-finished mandatory infrastructure), the situation gets more dangerous. It takes all the self-regulation skills and tools I have to (try and) not be in a constant state of acute panic.

I have no more energy to plead and beg for funds, help, anything - nearly four years of non-stop stress, despair, and extreme overwork, coupled with disappointment after disappointment that absolutely no-one with a bigger bank account was, in the end, prepared to get us to safety: a never-ending nightmare. The funds raised were never sufficient for covering anything but feed, bedding and other basic expenses (and often not even these), occasionally a bit of labour or some hardware - all the rest was and is my own money, a pre-inheritance, and in the meantime, hundreds of thousands in loans that I might or might not be able to pay back when the old, dilapitated place in Sligo can finally be sold (after the squatter who occupied it has finally left).

Hi all,the late, late, late show is on again. 😅I desperately need live-in volunteers. Given the situation I can't promis...
31/07/2026

Hi all,

the late, late, late show is on again. 😅

I desperately need live-in volunteers. Given the situation I can't promise how long the cows will exist (😭), but more and more important jobs - pulling ragwort, the horses' feet, seeds sowed, trees re-planted, plastic collected, timbers sorted and cut... - are falling by the wayside because I simply can't do any more, there are no more hours in a day and there's not enough strength in these old bones (and muscles) left to do more either. As many of you will know, I am running on willpower alone for years now... not healthy, to put it euphemistically. And you can't will yourself very far beyond breaking point.

So, if you have a few weeks or better months to spare and like cows, horses, dogs and cats, please get in touch. Food and essentials will be provided, of course.

And, funds are continuously needed, too, and as y'all know, there will be huge bills coming up again for finishing the cowshed, roof, pens, handling area, and concreting the horse shed. Thank you! 🩶

Ellis and Jia. They must have met in their previous lives! 🤍🩶
30/07/2026

Ellis and Jia. They must have met in their previous lives! 🤍🩶

30/07/2026

Hi all

it's late again, nothing but the farm work got gone - the mucking out has turned into an 8 hrs job since I don't have anyone to clean the large shed with a tractor anymore - all 3 guys previously doing that stole money from me - and the list of things I want/need to write about grows longer by the day.

No progress today, but the authorities haven't shown up yet either. I would never have expected we'd still have that long... ⌛
.. and then I fell asleep again.

Funds are still desperately needed to try and continue our race against time. Until Instagram allows me to post links again, you can find them in the Linktree and pinned on Facebook. Thank you! (😭)

🪬

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