Every year, billions of animals are killed not by accidents or natural causes, but by everyday human choices. While rescue work saves lives, changing the behaviors that cause suffering in the first place has a far greater impact.
That truth anchors this episode of Better Life for Animals podcast.
Cheryl Moss speaks with Robin Singh, co-founder of Peepal Farm, an animal rescue, veterinary clinic, and awareness organization based in the foothills of the Himalayas. Robin shares how his search for happiness led him to a life defined by purpose, service, and working directly against suffering.
When Happiness Failed, Purpose Took Over
After exiting his tech company and returning to India, Robin spent nearly 18 months searching for happiness and finding none. Everything changed when he met an elderly woman caring for dozens of stray dogs with no money, poor health, and unwavering commitment.
Watching her tend to animals others had abandoned shifted Robin’s focus from happiness to purpose. Once he began working with suffering, he could no longer look away.
Why Rescue Alone Is Not Enough
Helping individual animals matters. But Robin quickly realized one person can only rescue so many.
Peepal Farm was created to do both:
- Rescue and provide medical care for injured stray animals
- Prevent future suffering through sterilization programs
- Change how people perceive and relate to animals
At any given time, Peepal Farm cares for around 140 animals, while treating roughly 1,000 injured animals each year.
Awareness That Reaches Millions
Peepal Farm’s impact expanded when storytelling moved online. Through social media and animation, the team now reaches millions across India.
Their approach is intentional and gentle. They do not shame or lecture. Instead, they remind people of something simple: good people do not want to cause harm.
By packaging awareness inside entertainment, Peepal Farm meets people where they are and nudges compassion forward.
One of their most effective messages says it all: Friends are made, not bought.
Living With Purpose Is Not Optional
For Robin, this work is not a passion or a project. It is inseparable from who he is.
After recognizing that nearly every act of consumption hides suffering, he faced a stark choice: turn away or repurpose his life to work against it. Purpose became the answer to emptiness.
That journey is explored in his book, Happiness Happens: Happiness For Those Who Have Everything Else, which traces how purpose, not pleasure or success, fills the void so many people feel. https://amzn.to/49xpyxe
Lighting a Lamp in the Darkness
Robin does not believe suffering will disappear. His work is about creating resistance to it.
Darkness exists. His responsibility is to keep his lamp lit.
Episode Highlights
[00:00] Introduction
[02:00] Peepal Farms humble beginnings.
[04:15] Turning pain into purpose.
[07:00] Animal edutainment.
[10:00] Empowering women quotes to helping more animals.
[14:30] Determining life purpose and identity.
[17:30] Living to avoid suffering.
[21:00] Happiness Happens book.
[24:30] Stop objectifying animals.
About Robin Singh
An ex-hacker and ex-techie, Robin Singh today runs Peepal Farm, an animal rescue and awareness organization that helps animals heal and be heard. He lives on-site in a mud house, grows his own food and brews and sells Kombucha.
His bumpy career start in 1997-hacking Internet accounts and selling bootleg CDs-had landed surprisingly smoothly, when a misspelled e-mail landed him a job in the US in 2003. That same year, he started a technology service that helped tens of thousands independent artists sell their digital goods directly to consumers.
In 2010, with all the checkboxes checked on the societal template, he had a crisis of meaning of sorts, and he came back to India to try and be happy perpetually. It was his pursuit of happiness that put him on the path to purpose. It was eventually on that path where he stumbled upon happiness after having given up on it.
https://peepalfarm.org/
About Cheryl Moss
Cheryl Moss is the host of the Better Life for Animals podcast, where she shares uplifting stories from sanctuaries and highlights the work of vegan activists, ethical consumers, and animal welfare leaders. She is also the founder of the Funding Blueprint for Sanctuaries
summit designed to empower those involved with sanctuaries sustainable funding streams.
A passionate advocate for animal welfare, she is dedicated to ending factory farming and is working to raise $100,000 for Mercy For Animals to support underrepresented sanctuaries.
Beyond podcasting, Cheryl is a banking professional and an accomplished children’s author. A graduate of Main Street Vegan Academy, she promotes plant-based living through her books, Gabriel, Cluck, and Pickle the Pig, which inspire young readers to embrace kindness, sustainability, and compassion for animals.
When not advocating, she enjoys Pilates, and spending time with her rescue dogs and grandchildren. Through her work, writing, and activism, Cheryl continues to inspire positive change for animals and the planet.
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylmossabetterlifeforanimals/
