August 5, 2024 • 17 mins
Last month I saw a piece on 60 Minutes about The Wild Animal Sanctuary in CO where the Executive Director Pat Craig and his wife Monica saved hundreds of animals from a zoo in Puerto Rico.
I was fascinated and in awe and had to know more about them!
Here's my chat with PR Director Austin Hill on this amazing sanctuary.
They save animals from all over the world.
Please give a listen and learn more. Visit wildanimalsanctuary.org.
I was fascinated and in awe and had to know more about them!
Here's my chat with PR Director Austin Hill on this amazing sanctuary.
They save animals from all over the world.
Please give a listen and learn more. Visit wildanimalsanctuary.org.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Maria's MUDs and Stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What a great idea on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Maria Mutts and Stuff. And with me is
Austin Hill, who is part of the Wild Animal Sanctuary
in Colorado. So, Austin, I first became aware as I
wrote to you of the sanctuary on the sixty minutes
piece from a few weeks back, which you know, I
just found it to be like so pretty incredible. And
(00:34):
then of course I started to do some homework and
went to your website and learned all about you. So
tell me how did the sanctuary all begin? Like how
many years ago and how did it all start?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, so the sanctuary started with our founder and executive director,
Pat Craig, who was also on the excuse me it
was on the sixty minute special quite a bit as well.
So Sanctury started with Pat forty four years ago, going
on almost forty five in January of nineteen eighty. So
long story short basically is that you know, Pat kind
(01:06):
of learned through visiting a zoo on the East Coast
where a friend of his was working, that there was
a lot of animals. He learned of kind of a
zoos surplus situation. And not every single zoo in the country,
but many of the zoos had a surplus of animals,
and they really were also trying to capitalize on having
babies there not as much for conservation. And every zoo
was a little bit different. But the zoo he visited
had animals that were kind of anguishing behind the scenes,
that were perfectly healthy, and they were younger, but they
(01:30):
were kind of tuck back behind the scenes, and that
he found out that sometimes they would trade and sell,
and they would there's all these kind of crazy as
they call it, dot dot dots are happy with the animals,
and he just was like it just kind of planted
the scene in his mind. You know, he was pretty
young at the time of what where do carnivores go?
You know, we know where dogs and casca. Where do
carnivores go? Who could place them? And he basically, long
story short, got his family farm of twenty acres in Boulder, Colorado,
(01:53):
got everything licensed up with the USCA and fixed up
and risk of the first animal he was nineteen, he
had just turned nineteen eighteen eighty. He was a young
jaguar named Freckles who had to be twenty four. The
amazing age and that's kind of what started, and in
doing so, created the first carnivore sanctuary and now we're
the oldest and largest in.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The world, which is phenomenal. I mean, it's just so
incredible that it started. You know, he was like a
child almost not that of nineteen as a child, but
you know what I mean, like he was a kid
starting it nice.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I mean, yeah, me, it pretty much is. Yeah, I
don't know anyone that was doing anything quite that noble
at eighteen and nineteen is Oh my.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
God, that's perfect. That's exactly right. Anything that noble, You're
absolutely right, You're absolutely right. And seeing Pat and his
wife Monica on the sixty minutes piece, I mean you
could see it's their passion. It's like it's in their
DNA and they're just I just found it so incredible.
So I know you have there are four facilities, is
(02:48):
that correct, Three in Colorado, one in Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Correct. Yes, Now we're at four and most are in Colorado.
And yeah, so we just opened our newest one, which
is the Wild Horse Refuge up in Craig, Colorado, northwest
call it's a bit different than the other ones, and
the lions and bears and so on, but it is
basically an answer for all of them, well, many of
the Sandwash base in Colorado's wild wild born mustangs. I
(03:11):
got rounded up and go to auction and again face
a dot dot situation. So we had supporters that reached
out and want us to see what we can do
to kind of help with that, and then that kind
of snowballed into finding their own chunk of lands. So
we just secured it last year of twenty three thousand
acres thirty minutes from when they got rounded up in
the first place. So it's like they went right back home. Basically,
it's pretty much unbelievable. There's just under one hundred and know,
(03:35):
about one hundred and sixty horses roaming. They're free and
we have a few more to go.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
That's incredible. That's really incredible. Congratulations, really thank you. Well,
it's true. I mean I can tell well, I can
also tell that you're very humble about it, modest too,
But for those of us who are like hear about
it or see it, it's just it's pretty incredible that
you know, it's like it takes a village and you
guys are that village.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, I would like to think. I mean, yeah, that's
the thing is, you know, there's always folks willing to
do the work and waiting to figure it out. And
that's a quote from Pat, you know, but it does
take everyone. It does take everybody. You know, so much
of what we're doing now is is you know, things
so much what we talked about in terms of new
facilities and this and this wasn't there even just ten
(04:20):
years ago. A lot of it wasn't there even five
years ago. So there's so much and that just takes
I think the amount of people that believe in this place,
and it's a global village. And I mean Pat definitely
led that charge. I mean he's the man that started everything.
And I think it always takes We've seen rescues that
just started with somebody that got a petition started and
look what happened. So I think, yes, it's a village.
(04:41):
It's a bit of both. It's a village and it's
also take someone to kind of step up and say,
you know. The way I look at it is I
think it's I think we all are innately good and
I think if we see something it doesn't look right,
we all go, well, somebody will do something. Somebody will, right.
But the problem is if if a thousand people think that,
then that's a thousand people that that didn't get didn't
do something correct. One person said I'm gonna do something
(05:01):
about that, and then there's then people get behind that person.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's true, that's true. It's actually I mean, just to
go off on a tangent. It's like what they tell
you to do. If there's an emergency that you walk into,
most people think, oh that person, someone will call nine
one one. But the thing to do is to take
charge of it. So it's like Pat took charge of it,
you know, like they say, you point to people, you
call nine one one, you go get some help, you know,
(05:25):
you assign people. So how many how how large is
your staff? I'm assuming it's very large.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Now, as big as you may think. Really, we only
really have one facility that's open to the public, and
that's the one that I'm at right now. They're all
open to visitors and supporters in different ways, but this
is the only one where I'm at in Keensburg, Colorado,
that's open to the public every day of the week
set nine am the sunset. But across the board, total
Oh my gosh, I'm probably get the number wrong, but
four facilities ninety five, see.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Like that that's a small number. Seriously, with four facilities,
I'm thinking like, you know, hundreds of hundreds, you know,
because that's what you think. So that's pretty incredible. Ninety
five about.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You know, under one hundred volunteers. Yeah, I mean that's
I'm probably some giver or take there. But in our
volunteers out number us, I think almost two to one.
They're absolutely miracle workers. We can't do it, I mean,
any nonprofit can't do it volunteers, but we we you know,
just our food alone and have food coming in when
the barriers red of hibernations will everyone's awake and the
tummies are ready to go. We go through one hundred
(06:30):
thousand pounds of food per week. Wow. And our and
our and our and our volunteers and the staff of course,
but our volunteers are just absolutely critical to help with get
all that food ready for the animal's mouths feeding them.
So I mean, it's it's just you need a lot
of hands to kind of make the whole machine work.
It's it's just huge.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right right, Yeah, for sure. So I mean when I
was watching the sixty Minutes not to keep going back
to that, but the animals that were rescued in Perto Rico,
I mean, it was just it's it was heartbreaking, you know,
to see now the neglect that these poor animals, you
know that they were just left behind, and then you know,
(07:10):
Pat and Monica came and rescued all of them, and
it was fascinating to watch how they got these wild animals,
you know, into their cages or even you know, the
elephant on a plane. That was incredible. But I guess
for like say, for you, it's just another day, another
day of running the sanctuary.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, yes, and no, that one was was just huge
and that's why sixty Minutes was present for that one
was I think it's safe to say the biggest thing
we ever bit of part of it. We've been part
of the massive, massive rescues. That was a whole other balla.
I mean, it was historic in terms of rescues and
something that large, and I think, uh, yeah, that was
that was a definitive bookmark moment. And I think in
(07:52):
our history that we will, all of us here will
just reflect to well, when Puerto Rico happened, like we know,
we know what that means. There's a there's those two
words have a lot behind it, yeah, and just the
amount and then and then the sanctuary was supporting it
financially and doing the work. And I mean, of course
with the consortium of you know, rescue groups out there
helping and being on hand physically and stuff to help
(08:13):
get the animals out of there. But it was again,
it was Pat Lee in the charge. I remember one
day calling him for something and he and Monica had
just got out of cleaning the hippo pool, or we
just got out of it, which, as you can imagine
a hippo pool on any given day, right on one
that had been not cleaned in a minute, was probably
pretty rough. And it was like a record breaking hot spring.
And I mean that was just that I have to
(08:33):
call one moment, you know, And I just I talked
to him numerous times because he was still so present
with us over here. But I mean, just again, it's
a great testament to just how hard to all, you know,
our staff works for the animals and get him out
of there, you know, s A S.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
A P sure how dedicated everybody is so uh do you?
I mean, I don't think that you go after looking
for this. I feel like people get in touch with
you at the sanctuary and say, hey, we have a situation.
Is that how it works?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh yeah, I mean yeah, we don't have to go
look and so is contacted. And the rescue world kind
of falls into two categories. There is your group, you know,
your official entities, and also your animal afficacy agencies who
are saying, hey, we're gonna we're going to campaign to
get animal freed. If we have to use you know,
legislature or law to do that, we're going to do that.
There's you know, confiscations with U SEA and local law enforcement,
(09:22):
you name it. So there's some way that gets the animal,
that helps get the animal rescued. And then we're part two.
We're almost kind of kind of funny to think of
it this way, but we're almost a resource for those
agencies in those groups. So if we're contacted, it's official
and we're able we'll take care of the animal in
a much more natural setting for the rest of the days.
So we're we're part two. So who's gonna take Okay,
we get them rescue, but who's gonna take care of him?
(09:43):
And we're part two. So yes, yeahs definitely contacted and
just the Puerto Rico that the you know, Department of
Justice contacted him because he was so prevalent with the
Tiger King rescues and helping those. So he was I
think the first guy they called.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I was just going to ask you about the Tiger
King because of course I know my listeners, you know,
everybod he watched that when COVID first happened and Lockdown
and Tiger King. So you are part of rescuing those
animals that Tiger King had, correct.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, it was kind of a trickle down process of
it was a multi step process of you know, the
confiscations that were happening and the facilities that were closing.
We rescued about one hundred and forty eight animals while
mistaken from different players in the show, including thirty nine tigers.
We rescued three years before the show ever came out.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh wow, okay, wow wow, which of course you never
hear about, you know when they that was television for you,
I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well, yeah, so a lot of I actually tell folks.
Sometimes folks don't want to, you know, you're nervous about
seeing a bunch of footage of animals f and duress,
and I totally understand that, and I actually recommend folks
to check out the second fuse of the Tiger King.
It came on a little quieter, but yes, there's more
footage of rescues going on. And they did kind of
an epilogue here at the sanctuary with Pat in terms
of where they now kind of thing, and the Netflix
(10:56):
did so that is there as well for people to see.
There is a been the happy ending of sorts for
the animals.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, sure, for sure. Did it ever and I'm sure
this is a no, but was there ever a situation
where you didn't have a place for the animals to go?
Or there's always been a place for the animals?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Trying to think here, so there was you know, there's
always the ones people call contact us about animals that
we were not specialized to take, and we specialized with
the carnivores. So Colorado's not a good home for half
the year for your packaderms and your primates and that
kind of thing, right, So, I mean, before we got
more land, I think Pat said we had to say
no to fifty five zero percent of rescues just because
(11:33):
we didn't sure. Now we got pre land locked and
acquired the new land in twenty eighteen down southeast Colorado.
It's almost ten thousand acres. So that's a wild animal refuge,
and that one's it's unbelievable. I call it the Lost
World of Colorado. It's unbelievable down there. But anyway, but yeah,
so I mean, yeah, so we don't say no sometimes,
so that does happen. But you know, if we now
we have the space, especially with the South one, then
(11:54):
I think if it's an animal that we definitely know
we care for, I think that happens depends you know,
it depends on the situation. But the nos definitely happened
less right.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right, And as you said before, of the facilities, there
is one that say listeners can come and visit. Correct
your main.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
One, Yeah, yeah, Keensburg, Colorado. We're just about gosh, forty
minutes forty five minutes north east of Denver, Keensburg. So
it's right off the highway right up by seventy six. Yeah,
so you know, definitely check out Wild Animals Sanctuary dot org.
Go under visit us. You know, we're on an elevated
walk when people visit they're on elevated walkway. It's thirty
feet above the animals for the animals come though, so
(12:32):
we're not we're not on ground level and the walkway
is a mile and a half to the end and
back three miles round trip. It's very open to the elements,
so you know, avoid crazy weather, avoid heat, heat of midday.
Definitely come in the morning. We open or shot ourselves
about three hours to come more in the evening. But
we have a little we have a little restaurant here
on site, little ice cream shop and gift shop, so
welcome center, you know, can house folks comfortably, you know,
(12:55):
before and after their visits. And I think we're closed
only fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, and
of course if there's like a crazy freak blizzard or something,
but we're so outdoors. But otherwise, yeah, I mean even
the way we you know, are visiting. We didn't even
open the public until two thousand and one for visiting.
So the big reason what we did was education for
people to learn about your thousands of animals. They're existing
(13:16):
outside of the zoos system, exactly what tier King talked about.
That's shown such a giant spotlight on the exact thing
that we talk about every day out here and generally
and so well, you know, the walk with a vehicle
of education to see these animals rescued and living freely
and thriving now and learn about why they're here and
how they're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, no, for sure. And you survive on donations.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Correct, Yeah, we're five one c three nonprofit. So every
single thing people saw in sixteen minutes from them when
they visit or on our website or social media or
Facebook or what have you, is all coming from people
just giving what they can when they can.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah. So for my listeners, and I know because there's
always you know, the call to action, because I'll get
feedback on you know, on the interviews and be like, well,
how can we help? Well, you can go Wild Animals
Sanctuary dot org, plan a trip to visit, or make
a donation. And I'm sure, and I know there's on
your your Website's amazing because there's so many bits of
information that anyone can learn about.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, no, I think this is so fascinating. I'm so
happy that you you know, I reached out to you
and you reach back because I just you know, you're
just amazing for all the work that you've done, your
whole crew, all little ninety five of you, you know,
because that's pretty incredible. It really is pretty incredible. So
(14:34):
I mean, thank you. I was going to say, like,
what is next for you guys, but it's just it's
probably unpredictable, and you take a day at a time
and see what phone call is going to come in.
I'll assume that that's how it works.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Right, I mean, yeah, I mean there is so much
in a wide variety. Every day is so different out here.
By the time this airs, I'm not sure, but we
have a first ever concert of its kind tomorrow night,
August third, and it's going to be a string quartete
laying to some kind of fun movie score kind of music.
Out here at the Sanctuary is kind of a fundraiser concert.
We call it sun call it Sunset Serenade, And who knows,
(15:09):
there may be uh there may be uh wolves or
lines that want to participate with the music that the years,
so it's a full gambit of things. The rescues, you
never know, there's all this stuff coming down the line
of course, trying to work out and figure out and
and we're still open every day right now, we're just
navigating all this darn heat, making sure folks know to
kind of come in the morning, they're coming the last
(15:29):
few hours of the night to enjoy the cooler weather.
And yeah, we just can't thank everyone enough for the
support learning about us. And we just put oh, we know,
we just put out our new newsletters, so people can
sign up for that if they like you. We do
seasonal quarterly newsletters. We just put out the summer edition,
which is I think our biggest issue yet. We did
kind of retrospective on the last few years of rescues,
and people can look that up online or we'll reach
(15:50):
out to us and we'll send you a free one. And
so yeah, I mean, and we're very we're still you know,
we're creat you know, we're basically you know, we're so
incredibly transparent. We're here for you know, we don't exist
without people, so we're here for the animals. We've don't
insisted out people, so we always recommend folks to email
us or contact us and call us and we'll talk
to you about whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That's amazing. Wild Animalsanctuary dot org. And you said this
will be your first concert. You see this will become
like maybe a regular thing seeing how it goes.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Goodness, I think it'd be wonderful. Yeah, sounds wonderful. We're
all extremely excited for of course it's always prepped.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Of course it's a lot of work, but.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
We're so excited. U it's I can't wait to see
how it goes. But you know, we've hosted, we've had concerence,
you know everyone, so on the past. It's a little
bit different. We never had one like this, never did
the sunset thing, and yeah, we're boy, we're lighting it
and stuff. We're just you know, we never say never.
I think it could become a regular thing and I
just hopefully everyone enjoys it and the animals enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Too, I'm sure. Well, good luck with that in Austin Hill.
Thank you so much for taking the time out. I
know you're busy, I know you know you're you're Yes,
you're busy. And the fact that you took time out
to talk about Wild Animal Sanctuary. I really appreciate it.
And for my listeners again, please learn more, make a donation,
sign up for the newsletter, or even go visit and
(17:09):
it's Wild Animal Sanctuary dot org. So thank you again.
I really appreciate this.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Of course, Maria, you're the best. Thank you so much
for being an animal ambassador as we call it, and
speak on behalf of those the voice lists right, they
need our voices. And again, people, people have the website
and there's also our email addresses information at Wild Animal
Sanctuary dot org or my name Austin at Wild Animalcancry
dot org. Feel free to email us if we can
help you with anything. But thank you again so much
for having us. And you're in your in your house
(17:36):
and your ears wherever you're listening today, and thank you
for thinking of the animals.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Absolutely, thank you
It's Maria's MUDs and Stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What a great idea on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Maria Mutts and Stuff. And with me is
Austin Hill, who is part of the Wild Animal Sanctuary
in Colorado. So, Austin, I first became aware as I
wrote to you of the sanctuary on the sixty minutes
piece from a few weeks back, which you know, I
just found it to be like so pretty incredible. And
(00:34):
then of course I started to do some homework and
went to your website and learned all about you. So
tell me how did the sanctuary all begin? Like how
many years ago and how did it all start?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, so the sanctuary started with our founder and executive director,
Pat Craig, who was also on the excuse me it
was on the sixty minute special quite a bit as well.
So Sanctury started with Pat forty four years ago, going
on almost forty five in January of nineteen eighty. So
long story short basically is that you know, Pat kind
(01:06):
of learned through visiting a zoo on the East Coast
where a friend of his was working, that there was
a lot of animals. He learned of kind of a
zoos surplus situation. And not every single zoo in the country,
but many of the zoos had a surplus of animals,
and they really were also trying to capitalize on having
babies there not as much for conservation. And every zoo
was a little bit different. But the zoo he visited
had animals that were kind of anguishing behind the scenes,
that were perfectly healthy, and they were younger, but they
(01:30):
were kind of tuck back behind the scenes, and that
he found out that sometimes they would trade and sell,
and they would there's all these kind of crazy as
they call it, dot dot dots are happy with the animals,
and he just was like it just kind of planted
the scene in his mind. You know, he was pretty
young at the time of what where do carnivores go?
You know, we know where dogs and casca. Where do
carnivores go? Who could place them? And he basically, long
story short, got his family farm of twenty acres in Boulder, Colorado,
(01:53):
got everything licensed up with the USCA and fixed up
and risk of the first animal he was nineteen, he
had just turned nineteen eighteen eighty. He was a young
jaguar named Freckles who had to be twenty four. The
amazing age and that's kind of what started, and in
doing so, created the first carnivore sanctuary and now we're
the oldest and largest in.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The world, which is phenomenal. I mean, it's just so
incredible that it started. You know, he was like a
child almost not that of nineteen as a child, but
you know what I mean, like he was a kid
starting it nice.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I mean, yeah, me, it pretty much is. Yeah, I
don't know anyone that was doing anything quite that noble
at eighteen and nineteen is Oh my.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
God, that's perfect. That's exactly right. Anything that noble, You're
absolutely right, You're absolutely right. And seeing Pat and his
wife Monica on the sixty minutes piece, I mean you
could see it's their passion. It's like it's in their
DNA and they're just I just found it so incredible.
So I know you have there are four facilities, is
(02:48):
that correct, Three in Colorado, one in Texas.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Correct. Yes, Now we're at four and most are in Colorado.
And yeah, so we just opened our newest one, which
is the Wild Horse Refuge up in Craig, Colorado, northwest
call it's a bit different than the other ones, and
the lions and bears and so on, but it is
basically an answer for all of them, well, many of
the Sandwash base in Colorado's wild wild born mustangs. I
(03:11):
got rounded up and go to auction and again face
a dot dot situation. So we had supporters that reached
out and want us to see what we can do
to kind of help with that, and then that kind
of snowballed into finding their own chunk of lands. So
we just secured it last year of twenty three thousand
acres thirty minutes from when they got rounded up in
the first place. So it's like they went right back home. Basically,
it's pretty much unbelievable. There's just under one hundred and know,
(03:35):
about one hundred and sixty horses roaming. They're free and
we have a few more to go.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
That's incredible. That's really incredible. Congratulations, really thank you. Well,
it's true. I mean I can tell well, I can
also tell that you're very humble about it, modest too,
But for those of us who are like hear about
it or see it, it's just it's pretty incredible that
you know, it's like it takes a village and you
guys are that village.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, I would like to think. I mean, yeah, that's
the thing is, you know, there's always folks willing to
do the work and waiting to figure it out. And
that's a quote from Pat, you know, but it does
take everyone. It does take everybody. You know, so much
of what we're doing now is is you know, things
so much what we talked about in terms of new
facilities and this and this wasn't there even just ten
(04:20):
years ago. A lot of it wasn't there even five
years ago. So there's so much and that just takes
I think the amount of people that believe in this place,
and it's a global village. And I mean Pat definitely
led that charge. I mean he's the man that started everything.
And I think it always takes We've seen rescues that
just started with somebody that got a petition started and
look what happened. So I think, yes, it's a village.
(04:41):
It's a bit of both. It's a village and it's
also take someone to kind of step up and say,
you know. The way I look at it is I
think it's I think we all are innately good and
I think if we see something it doesn't look right,
we all go, well, somebody will do something. Somebody will, right.
But the problem is if if a thousand people think that,
then that's a thousand people that that didn't get didn't
do something correct. One person said I'm gonna do something
(05:01):
about that, and then there's then people get behind that person.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's true, that's true. It's actually I mean, just to
go off on a tangent. It's like what they tell
you to do. If there's an emergency that you walk into,
most people think, oh that person, someone will call nine
one one. But the thing to do is to take
charge of it. So it's like Pat took charge of it,
you know, like they say, you point to people, you
call nine one one, you go get some help, you know,
(05:25):
you assign people. So how many how how large is
your staff? I'm assuming it's very large.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Now, as big as you may think. Really, we only
really have one facility that's open to the public, and
that's the one that I'm at right now. They're all
open to visitors and supporters in different ways, but this
is the only one where I'm at in Keensburg, Colorado,
that's open to the public every day of the week
set nine am the sunset. But across the board, total
Oh my gosh, I'm probably get the number wrong, but
four facilities ninety five, see.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Like that that's a small number. Seriously, with four facilities,
I'm thinking like, you know, hundreds of hundreds, you know,
because that's what you think. So that's pretty incredible. Ninety
five about.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You know, under one hundred volunteers. Yeah, I mean that's
I'm probably some giver or take there. But in our
volunteers out number us, I think almost two to one.
They're absolutely miracle workers. We can't do it, I mean,
any nonprofit can't do it volunteers, but we we you know,
just our food alone and have food coming in when
the barriers red of hibernations will everyone's awake and the
tummies are ready to go. We go through one hundred
(06:30):
thousand pounds of food per week. Wow. And our and
our and our and our volunteers and the staff of course,
but our volunteers are just absolutely critical to help with get
all that food ready for the animal's mouths feeding them.
So I mean, it's it's just you need a lot
of hands to kind of make the whole machine work.
It's it's just huge.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right right, Yeah, for sure. So I mean when I
was watching the sixty Minutes not to keep going back
to that, but the animals that were rescued in Perto Rico,
I mean, it was just it's it was heartbreaking, you know,
to see now the neglect that these poor animals, you
know that they were just left behind, and then you know,
(07:10):
Pat and Monica came and rescued all of them, and
it was fascinating to watch how they got these wild animals,
you know, into their cages or even you know, the
elephant on a plane. That was incredible. But I guess
for like say, for you, it's just another day, another
day of running the sanctuary.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, yes, and no, that one was was just huge
and that's why sixty Minutes was present for that one
was I think it's safe to say the biggest thing
we ever bit of part of it. We've been part
of the massive, massive rescues. That was a whole other balla.
I mean, it was historic in terms of rescues and
something that large, and I think, uh, yeah, that was
that was a definitive bookmark moment. And I think in
(07:52):
our history that we will, all of us here will
just reflect to well, when Puerto Rico happened, like we know,
we know what that means. There's a there's those two
words have a lot behind it, yeah, and just the
amount and then and then the sanctuary was supporting it
financially and doing the work. And I mean, of course
with the consortium of you know, rescue groups out there
helping and being on hand physically and stuff to help
(08:13):
get the animals out of there. But it was again,
it was Pat Lee in the charge. I remember one
day calling him for something and he and Monica had
just got out of cleaning the hippo pool, or we
just got out of it, which, as you can imagine
a hippo pool on any given day, right on one
that had been not cleaned in a minute, was probably
pretty rough. And it was like a record breaking hot spring.
And I mean that was just that I have to
(08:33):
call one moment, you know, And I just I talked
to him numerous times because he was still so present
with us over here. But I mean, just again, it's
a great testament to just how hard to all, you know,
our staff works for the animals and get him out
of there, you know, s A S.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
A P sure how dedicated everybody is so uh do you?
I mean, I don't think that you go after looking
for this. I feel like people get in touch with
you at the sanctuary and say, hey, we have a situation.
Is that how it works?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Oh yeah, I mean yeah, we don't have to go
look and so is contacted. And the rescue world kind
of falls into two categories. There is your group, you know,
your official entities, and also your animal afficacy agencies who
are saying, hey, we're gonna we're going to campaign to
get animal freed. If we have to use you know,
legislature or law to do that, we're going to do that.
There's you know, confiscations with U SEA and local law enforcement,
(09:22):
you name it. So there's some way that gets the animal,
that helps get the animal rescued. And then we're part two.
We're almost kind of kind of funny to think of
it this way, but we're almost a resource for those
agencies in those groups. So if we're contacted, it's official
and we're able we'll take care of the animal in
a much more natural setting for the rest of the days.
So we're we're part two. So who's gonna take Okay,
we get them rescue, but who's gonna take care of him?
(09:43):
And we're part two. So yes, yeahs definitely contacted and
just the Puerto Rico that the you know, Department of
Justice contacted him because he was so prevalent with the
Tiger King rescues and helping those. So he was I
think the first guy they called.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I was just going to ask you about the Tiger
King because of course I know my listeners, you know,
everybod he watched that when COVID first happened and Lockdown
and Tiger King. So you are part of rescuing those
animals that Tiger King had, correct.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, it was kind of a trickle down process of
it was a multi step process of you know, the
confiscations that were happening and the facilities that were closing.
We rescued about one hundred and forty eight animals while
mistaken from different players in the show, including thirty nine tigers.
We rescued three years before the show ever came out.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh wow, okay, wow wow, which of course you never
hear about, you know when they that was television for you,
I guess you know.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well, yeah, so a lot of I actually tell folks.
Sometimes folks don't want to, you know, you're nervous about
seeing a bunch of footage of animals f and duress,
and I totally understand that, and I actually recommend folks
to check out the second fuse of the Tiger King.
It came on a little quieter, but yes, there's more
footage of rescues going on. And they did kind of
an epilogue here at the sanctuary with Pat in terms
of where they now kind of thing, and the Netflix
(10:56):
did so that is there as well for people to see.
There is a been the happy ending of sorts for
the animals.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah, sure, for sure. Did it ever and I'm sure
this is a no, but was there ever a situation
where you didn't have a place for the animals to go?
Or there's always been a place for the animals?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Trying to think here, so there was you know, there's
always the ones people call contact us about animals that
we were not specialized to take, and we specialized with
the carnivores. So Colorado's not a good home for half
the year for your packaderms and your primates and that
kind of thing, right, So, I mean, before we got
more land, I think Pat said we had to say
no to fifty five zero percent of rescues just because
(11:33):
we didn't sure. Now we got pre land locked and
acquired the new land in twenty eighteen down southeast Colorado.
It's almost ten thousand acres. So that's a wild animal refuge,
and that one's it's unbelievable. I call it the Lost
World of Colorado. It's unbelievable down there. But anyway, but yeah,
so I mean, yeah, so we don't say no sometimes,
so that does happen. But you know, if we now
we have the space, especially with the South one, then
(11:54):
I think if it's an animal that we definitely know
we care for, I think that happens depends you know,
it depends on the situation. But the nos definitely happened
less right.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Right, And as you said before, of the facilities, there
is one that say listeners can come and visit. Correct
your main.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
One, Yeah, yeah, Keensburg, Colorado. We're just about gosh, forty
minutes forty five minutes north east of Denver, Keensburg. So
it's right off the highway right up by seventy six. Yeah,
so you know, definitely check out Wild Animals Sanctuary dot org.
Go under visit us. You know, we're on an elevated
walk when people visit they're on elevated walkway. It's thirty
feet above the animals for the animals come though, so
(12:32):
we're not we're not on ground level and the walkway
is a mile and a half to the end and
back three miles round trip. It's very open to the elements,
so you know, avoid crazy weather, avoid heat, heat of midday.
Definitely come in the morning. We open or shot ourselves
about three hours to come more in the evening. But
we have a little we have a little restaurant here
on site, little ice cream shop and gift shop, so
welcome center, you know, can house folks comfortably, you know,
(12:55):
before and after their visits. And I think we're closed
only fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, and
of course if there's like a crazy freak blizzard or something,
but we're so outdoors. But otherwise, yeah, I mean even
the way we you know, are visiting. We didn't even
open the public until two thousand and one for visiting.
So the big reason what we did was education for
people to learn about your thousands of animals. They're existing
(13:16):
outside of the zoos system, exactly what tier King talked about.
That's shown such a giant spotlight on the exact thing
that we talk about every day out here and generally
and so well, you know, the walk with a vehicle
of education to see these animals rescued and living freely
and thriving now and learn about why they're here and
how they're doing.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, no, for sure. And you survive on donations.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Correct, Yeah, we're five one c three nonprofit. So every
single thing people saw in sixteen minutes from them when
they visit or on our website or social media or
Facebook or what have you, is all coming from people
just giving what they can when they can.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Yeah. So for my listeners, and I know because there's
always you know, the call to action, because I'll get
feedback on you know, on the interviews and be like, well,
how can we help? Well, you can go Wild Animals
Sanctuary dot org, plan a trip to visit, or make
a donation. And I'm sure, and I know there's on
your your Website's amazing because there's so many bits of
information that anyone can learn about.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, no, I think this is so fascinating. I'm so
happy that you you know, I reached out to you
and you reach back because I just you know, you're
just amazing for all the work that you've done, your
whole crew, all little ninety five of you, you know,
because that's pretty incredible. It really is pretty incredible. So
(14:34):
I mean, thank you. I was going to say, like,
what is next for you guys, but it's just it's
probably unpredictable, and you take a day at a time
and see what phone call is going to come in.
I'll assume that that's how it works.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Right, I mean, yeah, I mean there is so much
in a wide variety. Every day is so different out here.
By the time this airs, I'm not sure, but we
have a first ever concert of its kind tomorrow night,
August third, and it's going to be a string quartete
laying to some kind of fun movie score kind of music.
Out here at the Sanctuary is kind of a fundraiser concert.
We call it sun call it Sunset Serenade, And who knows,
(15:09):
there may be uh there may be uh wolves or
lines that want to participate with the music that the years,
so it's a full gambit of things. The rescues, you
never know, there's all this stuff coming down the line
of course, trying to work out and figure out and
and we're still open every day right now, we're just
navigating all this darn heat, making sure folks know to
kind of come in the morning, they're coming the last
(15:29):
few hours of the night to enjoy the cooler weather.
And yeah, we just can't thank everyone enough for the
support learning about us. And we just put oh, we know,
we just put out our new newsletters, so people can
sign up for that if they like you. We do
seasonal quarterly newsletters. We just put out the summer edition,
which is I think our biggest issue yet. We did
kind of retrospective on the last few years of rescues,
and people can look that up online or we'll reach
(15:50):
out to us and we'll send you a free one. And
so yeah, I mean, and we're very we're still you know,
we're creat you know, we're basically you know, we're so
incredibly transparent. We're here for you know, we don't exist
without people, so we're here for the animals. We've don't
insisted out people, so we always recommend folks to email
us or contact us and call us and we'll talk
to you about whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
That's amazing. Wild Animalsanctuary dot org. And you said this
will be your first concert. You see this will become
like maybe a regular thing seeing how it goes.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Goodness, I think it'd be wonderful. Yeah, sounds wonderful. We're
all extremely excited for of course it's always prepped.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Of course it's a lot of work, but.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
We're so excited. U it's I can't wait to see
how it goes. But you know, we've hosted, we've had concerence,
you know everyone, so on the past. It's a little
bit different. We never had one like this, never did
the sunset thing, and yeah, we're boy, we're lighting it
and stuff. We're just you know, we never say never.
I think it could become a regular thing and I
just hopefully everyone enjoys it and the animals enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Too, I'm sure. Well, good luck with that in Austin Hill.
Thank you so much for taking the time out. I
know you're busy, I know you know you're you're Yes,
you're busy. And the fact that you took time out
to talk about Wild Animal Sanctuary. I really appreciate it.
And for my listeners again, please learn more, make a donation,
sign up for the newsletter, or even go visit and
(17:09):
it's Wild Animal Sanctuary dot org. So thank you again.
I really appreciate this.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Of course, Maria, you're the best. Thank you so much
for being an animal ambassador as we call it, and
speak on behalf of those the voice lists right, they
need our voices. And again, people, people have the website
and there's also our email addresses information at Wild Animal
Sanctuary dot org or my name Austin at Wild Animalcancry
dot org. Feel free to email us if we can
help you with anything. But thank you again so much
for having us. And you're in your in your house
(17:36):
and your ears wherever you're listening today, and thank you
for thinking of the animals.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Absolutely, thank you
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