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