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.  

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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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Dillon Thomas

Dillon Thomas is multi-Emmy Award winning general assignment reporter/MSJ for CBS News Colorado. Read his latest reports or check out his bio and send him an email.