KOHALA — New homes were found for dozens of rescued pigs, sheep, goats, cows, donkeys, horses and geese around the island late last fall after the closing of Avalon Animal Sanctuary in Kohala.
“Our hearts were broken by having to leave most of our animals in Hawaii,” Doreen Virtue said, who left the island with her elderly parents in November to meet her husband, Michael, at their new home in Washington State. “We couldn’t afford to fly the farm animals here so we found good homes for them in Kona, Waimea, Hawi, Hilo, Puna and Volcano. We miss them dearly, and I cry when I see photos of them. Most of them we rehomed without asking for a fee.”
Nearly all of their dogs and cats joined them at their new residence off island.
“We flew our pets on three separate flights. Debbie Cravatta of KARES helped us and was so sweet,” Virtue said. “That took a great deal of planning and expense too.”
Running the rescue ranch was exceedingly expensive, Virtue said, mounting from the initial costs of buying the animals — to keep them from being slaughtered — and paying for them to be neutered or spayed, to dental care, hoof care, X-rays, grooming, food, care and ranch maintenance.
“We made the mistake of rescuing and not rehoming, as most rescue facilities do,” Virtue said. “We should not have attempted to keep all the animals after they were rescued.”
Last year they received individual donations to the rescue program totaling nearly $4,000.
“We appreciated each and every donation. Most of them were around $5 or $10, which we realized was a lot of money to the donator,” Virtue said, “But it wasn’t enough to sustain even one week of expenses.”
Financially forced to put the ranch up for sale, the nearly 35-acre estate is on the market through Hawaii Life real estate company. The couple’s rescued birds remain there, with their feed and care funded by the Virtues until the ranch sells.
“We had some wild boars from our ranch rounded up and released free range because they were endangering others on the ranch,” Virtue added.
The couple had rescued and housed nearly 300 animals, including birds, at their safe refuge before leaving.
“She was a wonderful neighbor and an asset to the community. We miss her,” Cravatta said.
I am confused why this piece does not mention that Doreen Virtue was illegally soliciting donations for the unregistered ranch . This piece demeans the truth & those scammed by Doreen Virtue’s hustle and is not in the spirit of truthful journalism .
I am confused how this piece does not mention the many people who were told Doreen Virtue was land rich & home poor & lived in only a 1,000-1,200 cottage while she was hitting up poor new age women & men for their limited resources while she lives in what seems to be an utter mansion. Virtue lived in a mega home spread that is larger than any those she exploited shall ever live in.
There are people who were defrauded by Doreen Virtue’s rescue ranch scheme who have been taken for their money & trust due to believing Doreen Virtue’s lies. . Doreen Virtue left Hawaii & was so “broke” she bought an almost 1 million dollar mansion in WA state. She bragged in a recent video she did she moved to WA state because they don’t have income tax.
Very well said, Desiree!
Interesting how this paper did not mention how Doreen Virtue afforded a multi-million dollar ranch & did not list her lover/partner Michael David Robinson as having any actual job. Odd how the background check a lady Virtue scammed via the rescue ranch scheme ran on her did not show her as married to him , but maybe it was fluke .Robinson was part of her angel scam act when she traveled & has been videotaped on stage at events where Virtue scammed people in the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary , angels. ,archangels & even when she was filmed telling people there are no weapons of mass destruction. I wonder if its him or Doreen who decided to keep leading on new age mentally fragile ppl via her Facebook Certified Realm Reader page scam going.
I let the editor of the West Hawaii paper Tom Hasslinger see the connects to the various schemes Virtue runs & ran on people so I was shocked they ran a puff piece promoting her & the ranch (which was tied to scamming animal lovers to include a cancer patient ) when he was amazed at all the scams she took people in to include her certifying people as having angel gifts for just showing up to events & giving her & Hay House money
Seems highly unethical with all the people defrauded by Doreen Virtue & with her having been dumped by Hay House publishing due to her unethical various issues that the paper did not at least write about that..
She was dumped by her publisher after 24 yrs w/ ppl finding she had all kinds of Jesus claims before her alleged Jan 2017 Jesus visitation story .Her April ’17 nde Jesus video & the 2x in ’16 that she had claimed she has born again as teen having visitation of Jesus all those decades ago & her book Archangels & Ascended master where she claimed she had been n direct communication with Jesus & her 2015 video where she claimed she could see Jesus clairvoyantly totally knock her 2017 Jesus visions story as her meeting Jesus for the first time.
You must have some sort of personal relationship with Doreen Virtue and her Partner Michael Robinson because if you did any sort of REAL journalism you’d expose them for the frauds they are. This piece is obviously a cover up to make them appear as borderline saintly when the truth is quite the opposite. There are numerous articles on the internet proving they are liars.
Did you see Youtube video : Happy Lambs! posted by Lilith Adams
Published on Mar 22, 2018
Animal Sanctuary Promo on day of Doreen Virtue’s Jesus Vision 7 Jan 2017 –
Funnel feeds people to the EarthAngel. com website that was used to
illegally solicit donations for Doreen’s unregistered charity.
Such nasty comments; and Michael is her husband, not her lover. Doreen has worked hard and it is nobody’s ‘democrat’ business how she spends her money. They were trying to help animals in need; not scam money. You democrats are all the same… think everyone is like ‘you’ evil.
Pamela you obviously don’t like the truth and would rather believe the lies and half truths of this article. The truth is out there if you took the time Iook instead of following blindly.
Well, I’m not a ‘democrat’, I’m an Australian and this con artist ripped me, and so many others off, and this article is full of lies. Since you are such a fan Pamela, you would remember her mentioning on her videos, when she was still ‘new age’ and tending to the animals, that her, Michael and her elderly parents, were living in a shoebox of about 900 feet, or whatever measurements you use over there. When in fact, she was living in a massive ranch with a gazillion rooms – and that was only ONE of her homes. Believe her lies all you want. But do not insult people who are exposing her fraud.
I’m not a Democrat either and I’m writing from the UK where Doreen ripped off many people. I’m one of the suckers who bought a course on the promise that I was funding these animals in their ‘forever home.’ I’m also someone who is profoundly concerned about the truth. When Doreen cried poor, I knew intuitively that it wasn’t true and my research confirmed this. You say her money is her business… It totally would be if she didn’t make it our business by asking for donations for an unregistered charity – which also happens to be illegal. Is illegal soliciting for donations something Republicans are OK with in general… or is it just you?
I am Republican. Doreen Virtue is scam artist & is nothing a true republican would support.. She has risked lives in lies & Republicans are pro-life.
So it seems responding to being called nasty and evil, and discussing the truth about this entire situation is classified as spam.
My latest comment is being held in moderation Lilac… I’m educating Pamela about the fact that it is actually illegal in the state of HI to solicit for donations for an unregistered charity. The name-calling is just sad…. Sorry you had your comment deleted.
Interesting… I can reply to you without my comment being held in moderation but not to Pamela… I wrote “Nobody is calling you names, Pamela, yet you feel the need to call people names (‘you nasties’) for calling Doreen out on wrongdoing. I’m sorry but it is actually illegal to solicit for donations in the state of Hawaii, which is why the Attorney General of this state has taken an interest in what happened. You might want to study up on the Laws of your Great Nation. The truth is that Doreen never needed that money in the first instance, so ehtically (besides it being illegal), she really ought not to have asked others to help. It was her choice to start hoarding animals that she was clearly not equipped to give adequate long-term care, just as it was her decision to start soliciting for donations without registering the rescue ranch as a charity. Many Blessings in Return!
Well said. 🙂 xo
Thanks, I was able to post it directly as a reply to her minus the link.
*scratches Hawaii off her list of potential holiday locations*
At this rate, that’s one publisher, one author, and now a country I refuse to embrace in my life.
Unbelievable that their not even bothering with the truth. SO disappointing.
Very disappointing indeed. Turns out I’m not allowed to share links to articles that back up our findings and that is why a couple of my comments were censored. I have no idea why your comment was censored, Lilac. Scary!
Fascinating just how deep this deception is actually going.
For sure
I guess it’s spam because the truth that she conned someone who was suffering medical concerns and what not, just makes it all too REAL.
I have medical paperwork to support ALL of my claims, thank you very much. All of the information we mention about Ms Virtue is supported by public record, and it’s just a shame that this article published in the media is not based on as much FACT as our heavily censored comments!
Nobody is calling you names, Pamela, yet you feel the need to call people names (‘you nasties’) for calling Doreen out on wrongdoing. I’m sorry but it is actually illegal to solicit for donations in the state of Hawaii, which is why the Attorney General of this state has taken an interest in what happened. You might want to study up on the Laws of your Great Nation. The truth is that Doreen never needed that money in the first instance, so ehtically (besides it being illegal), she really ought not to have asked others to help. It was her choice to start hoarding animals that she was clearly not equipped to give adequate long-term care, just as it was her decision to start soliciting for donations without registering the rescue ranch as a charity. Many Blessings in Return!
People donated directly too. I spoke to one woman who got suckered into donating $100 while… Money she could have used on herself since she was being treated for cancer at the time. Yes, it was her free choice to donate but she was heartbroken when she found out she had been lied to on two counts: 1) The animals were not safe in their forever home and 2) Doreen never needed that money anyway – whereas she really did and it was a huge sacrifice to her.
Doreen used her home and surroundings to get people to donate in her almost daily solicitation attempts. She talked about how small her living quarters were so it is not strange that people take an interest and want to know the truth.
She is the biggest-selling New Age author all time and is still cashing in on millions of New Age (as well as Christian) products world-wide. She isn’t poor and she never will be. She needs to stop taking advantage of people’s good will.
Another peice of fiction, I mean story trying to put a spin on Doreen and paint her in a nice light. We all know she left one million dollar property for another and the ranch hasn’t even sold yet. That just shows how much money she has. She is also buying properties and putting them in her kids names. It sickens me that she is still crying poor mouth when she isn’t but she is still refusing to give refunds to people who brought her now disbanded courses. There are genuinely poor people living on the streets of Hawaii but you choose to write a story about Doreen crying poor mouth. Shame on you.
What kind of publication posts an article full of lies? Didn’t you do any research before writing this puff piece? Doreen Virtue is lying daily to her new Christian followers about a myriad of things. She was illegally soliciting donations. You could have at least exposed this. This article needs to come down. It is a complete fairy tale. For the love of God Doreen, stop lying and stop lying for her Landry Fuller of West Hawaii Today.
This story is very biased in favor of Ms. Virtue and Mr. Robinson. You really need to extend your research beyond a Q & A with Ms. Virtue. Further investigation on your part would undoubtedly uncover a far darker tale that the one you have published.
So now that there is video evidence of the rescue pigs being sold as free range pork, are you going to do another follow-up?
I tried to share the evidence but WHT won’t let me post the video link. It’s being held in moderation.
Same here.
Oh no…..! That’s horrendous and heartbreaking to hear.