Humane Farming Association’s Yearlong Investigation Prompts Rescue of 600 Animals
MEDIA CONTACT
Grace Wainscoat, Attorney for Humane
Farming Association
510.900.9502 x 709
gwainscoat@greenfirelaw.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2026
Following a yearlong investigation, the actions of the Humane Farming Association (HFA) have resulted in the successful rescue of more than 600 animals. Villa Chardonnay Horses with Wings, operating in San Diego County, California, had been the subject of numerous cruelty complaints over the years. The San Diego County Department of Animal Services repeatedly failed to take meaningful action going back as far as 2020.
In addition to roughly 165 horses and 350 cats, the 40-acre property housed 70 farm animals including goats, alpacas, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, pigs, donkeys, ponies, and a mule. The farm animals are being readied for transport to HFA’s Suwanna Ranch – the nation’s largest farm animal refuge – located in Elk Creek, California. These animals will be provided permanent homes and lifetime care at the 7,000-acre refuge, along with hundreds of other animals seized in cruelty cases who also reside at the Ranch.
As foreclosure threatened the property where Villa Chardonnay operated, the facility’s founder, Monika Kerber, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. HFA continued to investigate animal abuse claims and monitored the bankruptcy case, appearing at bankruptcy meetings and hearings, including questioning Kerber under oath regarding the care of the animals. HFA also submitted numerous requests under the California Public Records Act to obtain information about the animals and prior investigations into reports of abuse.
Through its investigation, HFA uncovered serious operational concerns and animal neglect. In December 2025, HFA urged the U.S. Trustee's office to appoint an independent trustee, emphasizing that a trustee would have the ability to authorize steps such as veterinary inspection and access to the property. When the bankruptcy court appointed a trustee a month later, HFA advocated for urgent veterinary access to inspect the animals. HFA secured the trustee and court’s approval, and on April 23, 2026, HFA funded and conducted a comprehensive veterinary inspection of all animals, and prepared to rescue the farm animals.
The inspection revealed sick and injured animals who appeared to be neglected and were left to suffer in an ammonia-filled "hospice barn," with an apparent lack of adequate clean shelter or true palliative care. Many of the farm animals were kept in small, substandard pens without access to the outdoors, and harsh conditions caused some animals to attack each other and/or self-mutilate.
Following the inspection, the veterinarians authored a report and submitted it to the trustee. Upon documentation of suffering animals, San Diego Humane Society (SDHS) officers were able to establish probable cause to enter the property and investigate. On May 1, 2026, SDHS executed a warrant to search the property, and the bankruptcy court ordered that ownership of the animals be turned over to SDHS to facilitate the rescue. HFA is now working with SDHS to ensure the animals receive care and to facilitate transport of the approximately 70 farm animals to HFA’s Suwanna Ranch where they will receive lifetime care.
“HFA’s policy is to never turn away animals seized in the course of animal-cruelty cases,” said Grace Wainscoat, attorney for HFA. “These longsuffering farm animals will now be given the loving care and attention that they so desperately deserve.”
About the Humane Farming Association
The Humane Farming Association (HFA) is dedicated to the protection of farm animals.
Founded in 1985, HFA has garnered worldwide recognition and respect for its landmark anti- cruelty campaigns including, most notably, its successful National Veal Boycott. HFA also provides direct hands-on emergency care for abused farm animals at HFA’s Suwanna Ranch – the nation’s largest farm animal sanctuary.