The Gentle Barn closure left heartbreak behind in Missouri. Then animals started dying episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 6, 2025 · 49 MIN

The Gentle Barn closure left heartbreak behind in Missouri. Then animals started dying

from St. Louis on the Air

The 2017 slaughterhouse escape of six steers turned "The St. Louis Six" into animal rescue celebrities and inspired an expansion of the California-based nonprofit Gentle Barn to Missouri. Eight years later, the sanctuary’s abrupt closure this past October has left its former volunteers and staff feeling abandoned. An investigation by St. Louis on the Air producer Danny Wicentowski goes inside the final days of the sanctuary's existence and the aftermath of its closure. The investigation confirms the deaths of five former residents of Missouri's Gentle Barn in the just four months since its closure. Gentle Barn co-founder Ellie Laks defends the decision to close and addresses the recent animal deaths at the nonprofit’s Tennessee sanctuary.

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The Gentle Barn closure left heartbreak behind in Missouri. Then animals started dying

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This episode was published on March 6, 2025.

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The 2017 slaughterhouse escape of six steers turned "The St. Louis Six" into animal rescue celebrities and inspired an expansion of the California-based nonprofit Gentle Barn to Missouri. Eight years later, the sanctuary’s abrupt closure this past...

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