Montana animal sanctuary overwhelms couple

NIARADA, Mont. – Brian Warrington hauled empty boxes into his former wife’s home on a cold, foggy Wednesday, getting ready to pack up.

He and Kathryn, who have run the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary for the past 15 years, were told to be gone from the 400-acre ranch by Wednesday.

Outside of AniMeals of Missoula, which is on site and taking over the care of upward of 1,000 animals left here, other rescue groups are apparently wary of arriving at or returning to the ranch because Brian Warrington is armed.

Dangerous, he says, is a whole ’nother matter.

You can’t run this type of sanctuary, located in remote ranch land 15 miles north of Hot Springs and east of Elmo, without guns to protect the animals from wolves and other predators, Warrington says.

“I’ve been told they’re still saying they want me and my guns off the property before they’ll do anything,” Warrington says of the more than half a dozen animal rescue groups now involved in this large-scale rescue. “Come on, folks, this is Montana. If you don’t want guns, go live in New York.”

Warrington has been unhappy with how things have played out since he and Kathryn sought help earlier this month, after the sanctuary’s funding source dried up and the Warringtons had maxed out their credit cards buying hay and other feed for llamas, horses, cattle, camels, bison, emus, pot-bellied pigs, burros, miniature donkeys, cavies and more.

Just 47 mammals 16 cavies and 31 much-publicized donkeys and burros – and a people-loving emu named Walter have left the ranch since.

It was news coverage of the condition of the donkeys and burros, whose hooves had not been trimmed in so long that some looked like miniature skis, that stuck in Warrington’s craw – and, he worries, could adversely affect finding new homes for the rest of the menagerie left at the ranch.

This is what he’d like people to know.

First, “I’ve never shot anybody,” he says, shaking his head.

Second, he is sorry about the condition of the burros and donkeys.

Veterinarians who examined the animals after they had been moved to Corvallis said the hooves had been neglected for years.

Warrington says it was 1  1/2 years, and coincided with Kathryn, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007, losing so many motor skills she had to use a wheelchair full time.

“I used to get around with canes,” Kathryn says, “but I can’t walk anymore, I can’t feed myself, I can’t go to the bathroom by myself.”

“People want to treat Kathryn like a criminal, but I’m the one to blame,” Brian says. “I know I should have asked for help sooner, but it all just overwhelmed me.”

The time he could spend caring for the animals, he says, slowly but steadily eroded as Kathryn’s condition worsened over the past 18 months.

When he did place the call for help, to the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, on Dec. 4, Warrington says other rescue groups quickly showed up.

“AniMeals has been great,” Warrington says. “They have not been afraid to come up and step in.”

“Brian has been keeping the sanctuary running 15 years virtually alone,” AniMeals founder Karyn Moltzen says. “He has two part-time people, but the magnitude of the job is mind-boggling.”

Her organization took over the operation of the ranch, and care of the 1,000 or so animals still left here, on Wednesday.

Goal one, she says, is to continue to be able to provide the 4 tons of hay a day needed to feed the animals.

Goal two is to start moving the animals, 15 at a time, to Missoula, which will begin after Christmas.

The Missoula County Fairgrounds will start housing some of the animals starting Dec. 27, according to Moltzen.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, they’re busy mending fences and caring for all the baby llamas, called crias, being born.

Brian Warrington is doing his best to show Moltzen, her husband and two AniMeals volunteers the ins-and-outs of a 400-acre ranch, its equipment and residents, in a short period of time.

The out-by-Wednesday deadline won’t be met, he says, but he and Kathryn are actively trying to find a place to live.

“For the sake of the animals, we need to get out,” Brian Warrington says. “Until we’re gone, these other groups will not donate funds, which is just hurting the animals. We want to find a place as fast as we can, and then these organizations can fight amongst themselves, because Kathryn and I are done fighting with them.”