Colorado plan for development adjacent to the Wild Animal Sanctuary worries the tourist attraction in Keenesburg
The popular Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg is seeking legal assistance from a contract lawyer, citing their concerns with proposed development around their property. The sanctuary, which houses dozens of bears, tigers and more, is located north of Denver International Airport in Weld County.
CBS
Executive Director Pat Craig said the sanctuary was notified nearly a decade ago that a neighbor to their south was intending on developing their property into some homes. Recently that process regained momentum with paperwork and approvals filed through Weld County's commissioners.
"It is a big deal for us," Craig said.
Craig said he never thought he would see the day that homes were being built around the sanctuary, noting how rural the land has been since the sanctuary relocated there from Boulder County.
"We needed more space for the animals, so that is why we moved out here about 31 years ago. This was an ocean of wheat fields back then," Craig said. "When we moved out here 30 years ago the nearest house was 5 miles away."
However, today, there are homes that share fence lines with fence lines that keep in the tigers, bears, horses and more.
Saying he loves most of their current neighbors, Craig shared his concern with more people moving in near the sanctuary. He compared it to Stapleton Airport and Bandimere Speedway, both of which existed before communities surrounded them and started complaining about noise and other congestion issues.
"We were really concerned about a concentration of people, because it is like an airport where a lot of people move in around it and pretty soon the airport needs to move. That would be really hard for us, or put us out of business, because it is too big of a facility to pack up and move," Craig said.
Craig said some people have complained in the past about the smells that can come from the property, the amount of birds that are attracted to the land by the thousands of pounds of meat they serve weekly and even the sounds many of the animals make throughout the day and night.
"You are going to have people starting to say maybe it was okay when it was nothing out in the middle of nowhere, but now you have to move," Craig said.
CBS News Colorado attempted to reach the land owners who are seeking to sell their property for development, however they never returned requests for comment or interview.
Weld County's board of commissioners confirmed their stance that they believe the landowners, who reportedly have moved to Florida, are in compliance with the county when it comes to sale of the property.
The sanctuary does have a contract with the land owners to the south which helps set some guidelines as to what steps must be taken before development can happen. Craig said the sanctuary is hoping to retain legal council to help enforce the contract.
"We are just trying to protect the animals because we have had issues in the past," Craig said.
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Fox News
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MORNING GLORY: Antisemitism is shameful and evil. None of us should ever be neutral on such hate
An attack on any Jew in America is an attack on every Jew in America. It does not matter if the victim of the intended violence was murdered, maimed or escaped unharmed. It does not matter in the least if the targeted Jew was an American, an American-Israeli, a Jew from a third country, or a gentile mistaken for a Jew or an Israeli, or a supporter of either the Jewish people or the state of Israel. The perpetrators of the violence are all evil. Deeply evil. Diseased in mind and soul. Their accomplices, whether in the display of action or via expressed or unexpressed sympathy —and including the apologists thereof attempting to explain motives — all are evil. As a Catholic Christian, I believe in Hell. Those who indulge antisemitism in act or word or in the silence of their mind are headed to Hell absent genuine repentance. For antisemitism is the exact opposite of Christian beliefs and practice. The "Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love," stated the document, "Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, "decries hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone." So, let's hear this in some homilies this Sunday and from the pulpits of Protestant churches. The Catholic Church's doctrine was unequivocal in its condemnation of antisemitism: "At any time." By "anyone." Including, of course, the attacks on Jews in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025, the murder of two Israeli diplomats in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 2025, outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, and the firebombing of the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on April 13, 2025. 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But so too does non-Jewish opposition to antisemitism have a distinguished pedigree which includes, most famously, President George Washington's 1790 letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. The "father of our country" wrote then that the new nation he was helping build would give "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." President Donald Trump's condemnations of the violence directed at Jews has been equally unequivocal. Good. There has always been clarity on this issue. Too many, however, dodge the horror. Where is the non-Jewish chattering class today? Mostly silent or mumbling or posting attempts to link the criminals to Trump, or Elon Musk or a dozen different excuses. "But, but, but" is the first refuge of the Jew hater afraid to go public. There are some notable exceptions to the quiet or the equivocal. 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Will anyone else from the vast community of media join him? Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/tv show today.
CNN
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Judge issues order halting deportation of Colorado antisemitic attack suspect's family
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Associated Press
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