Colorado Wolf Sanctuary Urgently Needs Our Help

Wolves Offered Life and Friendship, or WOLF, is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt sanctuary and rescue organization that desperately needs our help. WOLF rescues wolves and wolf dogs. It is located in Larimer County, Colorado, and it has a clean record with its neighbors with regard to the fact that it has had no escapes or caused any problems for its neighbors for at least 8 years.

At present, the founders of WOLF own 182 acres of land in Larimer County. However the County Commissioners of Larimer County; in a Special Review which was finalized in January of 2001, have only allowed WOLF to use 5 of their owned acreage for containment of these animals. In addition to the restricted land usage, the following conditions were also imposed by the Commissioners: WOLF could only have a total of 30 animals at the Sanctuary. WOLF could not have anyone except volunteers visit the Sanctuary and WOLF could only have 7 vehicle trips daily to the facility.

These highly restrictive conditions, as well as others, have been in existence for the last 8 years. WOLF has obeyed and lived within these restrictions since their original approval with no transgressions and with no complaints filed against them by anyone.

February 26^th of this year (2007) WOLF filed an application for an Amended Special Review. The major requests that WOLF is making of the Commissioners of Larimer County are as follows: To increase the acreage that WOLF is allowed to use to 30 acres. To increase the total animals that can be housed and cared for at WOLF to 60, and to be able to allow non-volunteers to visit the facility for educational purposes. It should be noted that by increasing the acreage, the number of animals kept at the facility, although increased, will actually total less animals per acre than is presently the case.

The document that WOLF has submitted to the Planning Department is an extensive technical report containing over 170 pages of data covering subjects from waste disposal to 100 year flood plains; including, but not limited to, sound engineer analysis on sound density dynamics expected due to increasing the number of animals at WOLF as well as soil composition, wildfire probabilities and geologic features.

I am proud to be a member of WOLF. I think they deserve the highest praise for the work they do and the love and care they so freely lavish on our brethren of the wild who have had the misfortune to be captives of the human race. During the year 2005, when I lived in Denver, Colorado and could have easily visited the Sanctuary, I was unable to do so as my health forbid me to sign on as a volunteer. What I can and am doing is asking that you, my readers, join me in helping WOLF to acquire the permissions they need from the County Commissioners.

WOLF received the recommendation for approval from the Planning Department, but was surprised at the Planning Commission hearing. The volunteer fire chief for the area, suddenly was adamantly against the WOLF expansion, stating that he would not send firefighters to the facility. Likewise a surprise petition was presented, signed by 29 property owners in the area. Some of these same individuals had already told the founders of WOLF that they had no problems with the expansion. It appeared that someone had begun a fear campaign and collected only verbal approvals to add names to the petition. The Planning Commission however could not recommend approval of WOLF's requests, based on these new events. The final hearing on the application will be heard by the Board of County Commissioners on December 3^rd .

WOLF is well aware of the hurdles they must overcome during their hearing with the County Commissioners. Presently, WOLF is preparing its presentation and views these setbacks as opportunities to educate many more humans about the realities of wolf behavior in the wild as well as captivity. They will be using this opportunity to further their mission and to demonstrate that old myths and irrational human fears are factually unfounded.

How can you help? WOLF needs all the public support they can get. Those of you living in or near Larimer County or Fort Collins, CO please help by attending these meetings. If you cannot attend the meeting on December 3^rd , or live too far away, please write and/or e-mail the County Commissioners. The Commission members are: Kathay Rennels, Glen W. Gibson and Rob Helmick and Randy Eubanks.

The postal address is:

Board of County Commissioners
Larimer County
Post Office Box 1190
Fort Collins, CO 80522-1190

The telephone number is:
970-498-7000

Their e-mail addresses are:

krennels@larimer.org
reubanks@larimer.org
ggibson@larimer.org

If you would like to learn more about W.O.L.F., please go to:

www.wolfsanctuary.net

Thanks for reading and for caring about our 4 legged brethren of the wild.