Stephen Glover, better known to the world as Steve-O, spent 44 acres worth of capital to buy a wooded plot in Sumner County, Tennessee, and turned it into a working animal sanctuary. The Radical Ranch, co-founded with Lux Wright in 2023, officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2024. It now shelters nine rescued animals, including goats, pigs, cats, and dogs, on land located about an hour northeast of downtown Nashville. The move marks a sharp departure from his Hollywood roots, driven partly by a desire to escape the wildfire insurance crises plaguing the Hollywood Hills.
The sanctuary’s roster is small but specific. Three goats—Sam, Drake, and Phil—arrived in 2019, serving as the "starter kit" for Glover’s rescue efforts while he still lived in California. Then came Fonzarelli, a bristly-haired pig who landed on the ranch the day after his former owner died of a terminal illness. Daniel Amaya, the nonprofit’s sole employee, handles the daily feeding and care, ensuring the animals receive individual attention rather than institutional management. Glover insists this personal approach is the core of the mission: letting people see the intelligence and emotion in these creatures without the shock value of traditional animal rights campaigns.
Glover’s path to this quiet life in the Tennessee woods traces back to his time in clown college and his later circus work, which left him unsettled by the treatment of performance animals. That discomfort boiled over during a 2006 television appearance, leading to an invitation from PETA to join anti-circus campaigns and a subsequent shift to a vegan lifestyle during his recovery. But The Radical Ranch rejects the confrontational tactics of those earlier campaigns. Instead, it relies on positive, direct encounters. Glover wants supporters to meet the animals, understand their personalities, and feel a genuine connection that drives donations and care.
Expansion is the immediate priority. Glover plans to add cows, build new fencing, and eventually bring in donkeys, which he believes can help protect the cattle. He is also converting a children’s playhouse into a chicken coop and designing a tunnel system to let chickens roam the goat pen for natural tick control. Horses remain a longer-term goal, though Glover admits they require significantly more skill and resources. The ranch is not yet open to the public because Glover still lives on the property, but he envisions a future where visitor access could boost fundraising and allow more people to meet the residents. For now, the organization relies on online photos and stories to connect with supporters, alongside a unique fundraising tactic: Glover offers tattoos in exchange for charitable donations. The next phase depends on securing the infrastructure and funding to turn this private refuge into a broader public resource.