Texas Cattle Rancher Pens Powerful New Memoir Exploring Transformation, Compassion, and the Hidden Realities of Animal Agriculture

WAELDER, Texas, May 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is proud to announce that Founder and Executive Director Renee King-Sonnen's memoir, Rowdy Girl: Confessions of a Vegan Cattle Rancher, will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing on June 25, 2026. Rowdy Girl delivers a deeply personal and unwavering look at the ethical, emotional, and cultural tensions surrounding animal agriculture, told through King-Sonnen's remarkable journey.

Renee King-Sonnen is the first rancher in the United States to successfully transform a generational beef cattle ranch into a vegan animal sanctuary for factory-farmed animals. Unable to reconcile the cruelty at the heart of her husband's cattle business, King-Sonnen experiences a profound awakening that nearly costs her marriage. But what begins as her personal stand for the animals, becomes a life-altering transformation when her husband begins to see the beings he once raised for slaughter through her eyes—and joins her in turning their ranch into a vegan sanctuary. More than a memoir, Rowdy Girl is a story of spiritual awakening, ethical reckoning, and the search for common ground. It highlights the shared values that can exist between ranchers and vegans, including a deep-rooted commitment to caring for animals, tradition, and sustainability, while challenging readers to reconsider the foundations of animal agriculture.

"My hope is that this book becomes a powerful resource for the animal rights movement and a bridge to people in animal agriculture who have long felt the heartbreak of loving animals while participating in a system that turns them into food," said King-Sonnen. "I want this story to connect with rural communities across the globe, and hope it becomes the kind of story that opens hearts, changes minds, and challenges everything we thought we knew about animals, love, and redemption."

Renee King-Sonnen's transformative journey is the subject of the documentary, Rowdy Girl, now streaming on Apple TV and PBS stations across the country, and globally on GuideDoc. Rowdy Girl: Confessions of a Vegan Cattle Rancher is now available for pre-order from Bloomsbury Publishing, Amazon, Bookshop.org, and Barnes & Noble.

Renee King-Sonnen is the founder and executive director of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary (RGS), a non-profit that provides sanctuary to farm animals at risk of slaughter, and promotes an ethical vegan lifestyle. RGS seeks to educate the public on the Rowdy Girl story, plant-based food options, FFA/4H, factory farming practices, and the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the environment.

Media Contact:

Hannah Larrew, Director/Publicity
Spellbound PR
[email protected]
919-636-1322

SOURCE Rowdy Girl Sanctuary