Alex Walch / YaBonks

Primal: Tell us a bit about yourself - your background, your work, anything else you’d like to share?

My name is Alex Walch, also known as YaBonks, and I’m a YouTuber, animal sanctuary owner, software engineer, and entrepreneur. I use my business success to fund Karma Farm Sanctuary, my 501c3 nonprofit animal sanctuary in central Florida.

I’m also a vegan bodybuilder and love self-improvement. My mission is to help people and animals however I can.

Primal: How does your vegan diet and lifestyle define you and enhance your life? What brought you to veganism?

My vegan lifestyle helps me live in harmony with my core values and mission to help animals in need. I became vegan in 2015 after my friend showed me the documentary Earthlings.

Primal: How did you come to run Karma Farm Sanctuary? (And please tell us more about the animals’ art!)

My wife and I started our animal sanctuary unofficially in 2019 shortly after we bought a 5 acre farm in Florida and immediately started rescuing animals in need. Two years later in 2021, we officially incorporated as a non-profit animal welfare organization named Karma Farm Sanctuary. Two years after that in 2023, we received our 501c3 non-profit charity designation from the IRS and became a tax exempt charity.

Our mission is to help animals in need regardless of species.

At the time of this writing, in January 2024, we have around 30 rescues here that call Karma Farm Sanctuary their forever home. We also facilitate hundreds of rescues around the Southeastern United States with other animal rescue organizations and networks. We help mobilize the people and resources necessary to get animals in dire need of help out of bad situations. Then we get them medical care and find them permanent placement at trusted sanctuaries.

As we’ve grown, we’ve come up with creative fundraising methods such as getting the animals to paint beautiful custom pieces of artwork. This is a hilariously adorable process involving lots of treats. We record the process and package up each painting with a biography of the animal artist along with a picture of the rescued animal with their finished masterpiece. Then we send those as gifts to our long-term Patreon supporters as a surprise. For a donation of $50 or more, we would be happy to commission a painting from your favorite resident at Karma Farm Sanctuary! Just reach out to us on Facebook or Instagram, and we’ll have our world famous artists create a custom masterpiece just for you!

Primal: What’s your favorite Primal Vegan Jerky flavor?

My favorite Primal Vegan Jerky flavor is Thai Peanut! It’s so good!

Primal: How does plant based protein - including Primal! - factor into sustaining you in all realms of your life and work?

Plant based protein is great! It’s delicious, affordable, and easy to work with. It’s easy to find high quality plant based protein sources just like what is used in Primal Vegan Jerky.

As a vegan bodybuilder, I try to eat a certain amount of protein every 3-4 hours to keep growing. Sometimes when I’m out and about for long periods of time, grabbing something like a protein bar or Primal Vegan Jerky are super easy and convenient ways for me to get my meals in and hit my protein goals while traveling. I just toss a couple in a bag with an apple or two and go.