Ranch of Dreams

The Heartwarming Story of
America's Most Unusual Animal Sanctuary


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Review by Katherine Wyrick

I've always loved yard sales. I'm drawn to discarded things, the broken and unloved. From this passion another was born when, as a child, I came upon, one lonely volume, once part of a set of encyclopedias, the letter "R." It was a lapis-colored book, faded pale, with the spine exposed. This was just about the time that I was discovering the joys of reading, and this book fascinated me. Sure I was interested in Ramses II and the Rubicon, but I loved the animals: rabbits, raccoons, ratels, reindeer, rhinoceros, ruffed lemurs, you get the picture. Glossy black-and-white photographs showed them doing all kinds of things, from scratching logs to nibbling foliage.

In Cleveland Amory's important new book, "Ranch of Dreams," he shares the story of how his childhood dream of establishing an animal sanctuary was inspired by an experience with a book, and how as an adult he realized his vision. Born with a love for animals, Amory was encouraged to respect them at a young age. His Aunt Lu cultivated in her nephew a reverence for the animal kingdom, and Amory's great-uncle, George Thorndike Angell waged a war against animal cruelty in his own time. Not the least of Angell's accomplishments was introducing Anna Sewell's classic "Black Beauty" to the American public in the late nineteenth century. Reading "Black Beauty," the very book that his uncle helped popularize, Amory was struck by these words at the end of the novel:

These words resonated throughout Amory's life, and he eventually took action by purchasing land in East Texas and founding Black Beauty Ranch. Be forewarned, the stories that follow are as heartwrenching as they are heartwarming. There is a young buffalo who, terrified and lost after his herd is massacred, wanders the highway in Montana until he is killed by a speeding truck. There is the elephant at the San Diego zoo who is abused, tortured and forced to perform tricks for the zoo's visitors. Unfortunately there are many stories like these. Thankfully, because of Amory's efforts, there are also many uplifting ones, too. There is Nim, the famous signing chimpanzee rescued from a laboratory existence now living happily at the ranch. There is also the Grand Canyon Burro campaign in which the Fund for Animals airlifted to safety hundreds of "wild" -- Amory prefers the word "feral" -- burros in danger of being slaughtered by the Park Service. As with his other books, "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" and "The Best Cat Ever" among many others, this social historian and critic turned animal rights crusader writes with his trademark dry wit and compassionate eye.

Never shying away from a fight, Amory and the Fund for Animals have over the years met with such formidable opposition as the National Park Service, U.S. Navy, various Congressmen and even media mogul/hunter extraordinaire Ted Turner. And the battle is far from over. Just last spring more than 2,500 buffalo were killed in Montana. But despite stories like this, I left this book feeling comforted knowing that there are still some safe places for animals to call home. Lucky for some 600 animals who reside at "Black Beauty Ranch," and for thousands of others, Amory has made his life a practice of speaking for those who cannot.

©1997, ProMotion, inc.

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