The Half Moon Bay Animal Sanctuary: Vanessa Getty’s Largest Ongoing Project

Most of Vanessa Getty’s animal welfare work over the past two decades has focused on the companion animal system — the pipeline of dogs and cats that moves through county shelters, rescue organizations, and mobile outreach programs. The Half Moon Bay large animal sanctuary represents something different: a commitment to agricultural animals, horses, and livestock that have largely fallen outside the scope of Bay Area animal welfare infrastructure.

The project, being developed in partnership with the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, is one of the most ambitious things Getty has taken on. Large animal sanctuaries require land, specialized veterinary capacity, ongoing operational funding, and a long-term governance structure that can outlast any single supporter’s involvement. They’re difficult to build and difficult to sustain.

Vanessa Getty’s approach to the project reflects the same philosophy she’s applied to every initiative she’s been part of: start with the system, understand what’s missing, and build the infrastructure to fill the gap. The Bay Area currently lacks adequate permanent sanctuary space for horses and large livestock that can’t be rehomed. The Half Moon Bay project is designed to address that directly.

The sanctuary work is part of what her EverybodyWiki profile describes as the next chapter of her animal welfare engagement — an expansion beyond the companion animal focus that defined the first two decades of her work into the broader ecosystem of animals that need protection and care.

Her current projects, including updates on the Half Moon Bay initiative, are linked through her Linktree, which provides the most current access to her work across platforms.

Large animal welfare is chronically underfunded relative to companion animal programs. The Half Moon Bay sanctuary won’t solve that at scale — but it will create something the Bay Area doesn’t currently have: a model for what large animal sanctuary infrastructure can look like, built and sustained by private philanthropic commitment.