My dream is to one day not have to do this: I want people to understand wolves and no longer hate and fear them. I also want people to respect them, not treat them like dogs or props. I hope to educate the public on the importance of wolves in nature and reintroduce them to every state. Right now I am in New York, but I hope to relocate to Colorado once I graduate school in order to open up a large sanctuary for wolves.
I know this won't be easy, so I must educate myself well on the habits of wolves and facts about them. I will have to expose myself to other sanctuaries and facilities (even if I do not agree with how they go about things) to gain insight on what it's like to care for them. Reaching out to zoos and organizations with handfuls of questions about these beautiful creatures is at the top of my list and hopefully by the end of February 2017 I will have all of the information I need on them. The next step is to learn about the laws (such as zoning, taxation (aka filing as a nonprofit), and safety) and researching attorneys I can come in contact with who will help me should anything go wrong. Then I will reach out to veterinarians, even try to meet with some to gain insight on what to do in x-y-z situations. Once I settle on property I will look more seriously in a handful of vets that will aid me. Next is looking at property (once I calculate how much land I need). When I have an idea of the size of land I need, I will need to find land that is somewhat close to a city yet far enough away. I will most likely have to hire a realtor to help me with this as Google searches will make it a lot harder. Finally, I will have to build a large barn. This would be more for housing sick/hurt animals and a place to put an office. I imagine I will need a place to keep files, licenses and a computer while I'm there. This would also double as a storage area for any food/first aid. Obviously the real last step is finding out where to start getting these animals, as zoos would be my first guess yet I'm sure there are hundreds of more places I could get them from. This will probably be the last part of my research as it's less complicated than any other step. I am also going to need money (and lots of it) to start up this project. I imagine myself starting up a GoFundMe page for a lot of it. I have many other plans to gain income as well, however. I hope that by doing this I could save many animals and maybe one day set some free back into the wild. I want it to become normal for them to be roaming around this great big continent!
