The Gentle Barn was founded by Ellie Laks in 1999 and now run by Ellie and her husband Jay Weiner who joined forces in 2002.  The Gentle Barn is currently home to 130 animals who are rescued from severe abuse, neglect or slaughter.  Once the animals are rehabilitated they stay at the barn for the rest of their lives and serve as ambassadors helping to heal abused children. The Gentle Barn is host to kids in foster care, on probation, in gangs, on drugs and from the inner city, as well as school groups and special needs kids and adults.  Through the interactions with the animals and their stories, kids learn kindness, compassion, confidence and reverence for all life.

The Gentle Barn has been a dream of Ellie Laks’ since she was 7 years old.  She would bring homeless or injured animals home and her parents would get rid of them while she was in school.  When she came home to find them gone, Ellie would say that when she grows up she would have a huge place full of animals and she would show the world how beautiful they are.

Ellie and Jay had similar childhoods where they both felt alone, unseen and misunderstood.  For both of them it was from animals that they received their attention, friendship, and unconditional love.  Having been saved by animals it was their dream to have a place that allows children to be supported and healed by animals like they had been.  Ellie and Jay see their 130 rescued farm animals as teachers, healers, friends and heroes. Every animal at The Gentle Barn has been rescued from horrible abuse, neglect, and loneliness, and yet they have all survived using forgiveness, trust, love, and courage.  These are the qualities that Ellie and Jay strive for on a daily basis, and that they teach the children that visit The Gentle Barn.  Ellie and Jay live on the property with their three children.

A Message From Our Directors

We want to thank you for visiting our website. We hope you love it as much as we do!

In these times of gangs, drugs, crime, violence and war, it is essential that we make efforts to ensure a more peaceful future for our children. We feel it is imperative that we teach our children kindness and compassion, and empathy for all living beings. When a child meets another, looking different than themselves, with perhaps a different religion, race, sex, or language, if that child knows that we are all the same on the inside, then perhaps that child will accept the other and we will be closer to having peace on earth.

At The Gentle Barn, we work hard every day to achieve this goal. We work with children from the inner city, group homes, mental health care facilities, foster homes, and schools to teach them that even though we are all different on the outside, on the inside we are all the same and are deserving of the same rights, respects and freedom.

We can’t do this work without you and are grateful for your support. Enjoy the website and check back with us from time to time to see what's new. The best way to help is by making a donation, sponsoring an animal or sponsoring a group of school kids, at-risk kids or special needs kids to come to The Gentle Barn. Please take a look at our wish list to get other ideas on how to support The Gentle Barn.

Thank you so much for your support!

Respectfully, Ellie & Jay

A Brief History

Ellie Laks founded The Gentle Barn in Tarzana in 1999; it was a dream of hers since she was 7 years old. Animals were always very healing and nurturing to her as she faced the challenges of growing up, finding herself, fitting in, feeling understood, etc. She majored in special education and psychology, and with her special love of animals and children, The Gentle Barn was a perfect way of putting all her talents and passions into one.

Jay Weiner joined The Gentle Barn in 2002 as a volunteer, but fell in love with the place and the two joined forces to heal even more children and animals. Like Ellie, Jay also turned to animals for the support, love and nurturing he needed as a child.

The Gentle Barn started on a half-acre property in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, CA. In 2003 The Gentle Barn moved to a six-acre paradise in Santa Clarita, CA. The property is complete with large horse and cow pastures, a red and white barnyard for the smaller animals, an organic vegetable garden, lots of shade trees, and a panoramic view of gorgeous mountains. Our 130 rescued animals are safe and happy at The Gentle Barn, and there is plenty of room to welcome our visitors and the children we host.

The ultimate goal is to open Gentle Barn's across the country so that every animal and child can have a place of healing and safety and where they can be seen for the perfect beings that they are. Since its inception, The Gentle Barn has been home to hundreds of animals and host to over 100,000 people.

A Success Story

Once in a while we get the chance to support a person in more ways than our animal program. We are always excited to help generate or provide opportunity to those who might not otherwise get it.

We recently had the chance to do this for a boy who came to us monthly with a boy's home. We had learned that he was due to graduate from the program and had been doing very well. The next time that he came to us, we asked him what his plans were after his graduation from the boy's home. He said that his life dream was to be a firefighter helicopter pilot. He further explained that he had never been up in a helicopter before, so although he wanted to do this as a career, he had never experienced it before.

Little did he know that Jay knew someone that owned a helicopter pilot training school. After getting through all of the red tape he was up in a helicopter for the first time...YES! After he landed he said, "Now I know for sure what I want to do for the rest of my life. I can't wait to get out of the home and get things going." We told him that if he wanted to contact us after he graduated, we would support him by helping him put together a grant application to get the money for him to pay for the $15,000 it takes to get through training.

What a success story! And if he is reading this, we have faith in you, and know that you can do it!!!

PS We saw him grow in front of our eyes in the time that he came to The Gentle Barn. He also developed a love for our horse Caesar the first day he came.