Spring Visitors Weekend at West Place Animal Sanctuary shows off the nonprofit’s old and new friends
- May 9, 2025
- 5 min read
Visitors can see firsthand the work West Place does for animals, as well as meet a new addition to the family: Alfie, the baby emu
May 10, 2024
Ruthie Wood
West Place Animal Sanctuary is gearing up for their first public visitors weekend of the year: Spring Visitors Weekend.
The nonprofit is opening their doors to the public on May 31st and June 1st from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to raise funds for their wards and to showcase their ongoing efforts to provide a safe haven for neglected and abused animals.
While West Place is still closely monitoring avian flu in the state with the help of local veterinarians and the Wildlife Clinic of Rhode Island, in late April there were no reported cases of the bird flu. As long as this trend keeps up – with the hope that avian flu will dissipate for the summer – visitors will not have to undergo precautions to be able to visit the sanctuary. Likewise, as the threat of bird flu decreases for the time being, the flock of chickens and gaggle of domestic ducks that call West Place home will be free to wander and interact with other animals and visitors.
Guests can buy tickets for Visitors Weekend online ahead of time (there is an online discount for doing this) or at the gate, per availability. Tickets correspond to a time slot for a guided tour of the sanctuary and the historic farm property, with tours leaving every half hour and lasting about 90 minutes. On the guided tours, visitors will hear about animal stories – their origins and how they came into the care of West Place, as well as their resilience – learn more about the nonprofit, and visitors will be able to feed and interact with some of the animals that call West Place home.
West Place is home to over 300 animals, including a plethora of fish and turtles, and some of the friendly animal faces people can expect to see will be the alpaca and sheep (freshly shorn), Felix the horse, cows, goats, and even peacocks and pheasants. There will be many familiar animal faces for guests who have toured West Place previously, but there will also be sightings of new arrivals, too. The sanctuary recently took in more domestic ducks, rescuing them after they were found dumped in the wild.
There is also a unique new addition to West Place, an animal that was bought rather than being rescued and brought into the sanctum. His name is Alife, and he is a baby emu.
Alfie’s addition to West Place is unusual, as the nonprofit is a place of rescue and long-term care, which typically does not include buying eggs of any type – including an exotic emu egg – and hatching a healthy chick. The decision to raise a baby emu came after having rescued an adult female emu, Clover, last year, and subsequentially watching her mental and emotional health decline; Clover's mate had passed away before the pair of emus came into the care of West Place. He froze to death. Without her mate, or any other emu with whom to socialize, Clover was not thriving. Mental and emotional health are just as vital as physical fitness, and to meet Clover's needs, West Place needed to obtain another emu.
As emu rescues – particularly in Rhode Island – are not everyday occurrences, the West Place team decided to take on the role of emu parent and bought an egg. After hatching on a farm in Pennsylvania, Alfie was brought to West Place. For the first weeks of his life, Alfie was kept safe in West Place owner Wendy Taylor's home in a playpen. Now, about three-and-a-half feet tall, Alfie has outgrown the playpen and currently lives in his own wing in one of the new chicken coops West Place staff and volunteers built. "His growth is astonishing," says Patrick Cole, director of operations at the nonprofit.
Alfie lives alone in his part of the chicken coop because "baby emus are very fragile," Cole explains. "They're susceptible to leg injuries when they're young, so they can't be around other emus or farm animals." His lack of roommates does not stop the baby emu from being incredibly social and curious. Alfie has his own roaming area on the grounds that is near Clover and the other farm animals, though to protect his legs, he must first be carried over the cement to get to the soft soil and grass. "It’s a wonder they survive at all in the wild," Cole marvels.
Outside in his own special area, Alfie can socialize (from a distance) with Clover and the other animals, and he receives plenty of doting interaction from his human caretakers. There, he is also able to exercise out his "zoomies." "It’s a little like raising a toddler," Cole jokes. One minute, Alfie will be energetic, playing, zooming, excited, then the next, he'll curl up and be ready for a nap.
When Spring Visitors Weekend arrives at the end of May, Alfie will be nearing three months old, and if his rapid growth is any indicator, he will be quickly transitioning from "toddler" to child, with emu adolescence approaching in another three months. How Clover will view Alfie is still a question on everyone’s minds. "We don’t know how exactly that relationship will unfold," Cole says. Clover might see Alfie as a child, though, admittedly, female emus are less than motherly – the fathers raise their young in the wild. She might see Alfie as a potential mate when he is fully grown. Or, she might see him as a friend and an emu companion. "We are leaving it up to her to define the relationship," Cole affirms.
To continue to learn about Alfie and watch his physical and emotional growth, patrons are invited to join Alfie's fan club for two dollars per month. It is a private Instagram page that documents the entire process of raising an emu, and it will chronicle Alfie and Clover’s relationship as it moves forward. As with Spring Visitors Weekend, all proceeds go towards benefiting the animals under West Place care.
After touring the grounds and visiting with Alfie and the other animals, guests can browse West Place's spring plant sale and their gift shop. The plant sale will have flowers, herbs, and vegetables grown from the nonprofit’s greenhouses, and the gift shop will have "farm-centric" volunteer-made goods, like gourd bird houses, alpaca and sheep knits, and reusables bags from upcycled grains sacks. Unique animal by-products will also be available, like peacock feathers and alpaca feces – "it makes a great fertilizer," Cole stresses, noting that this particular animal product can seem unusual.
Last year, West Place saw about 800 visitors over the weekend. This year, Cole expects to see even more guests as interest and adoration for Alfie takes flight. The weekend is "so much fun, even for the volunteers," Cole says. "It is a reminder for us about all the important work that goes on here and how incredible this place is; it really is a testament to the animals’ resiliency."
Comments