NOCO Humane coordinated the care and transfer of nearly 80 large dogs from an unlicensed animal sanctuary in Lyons on Wednesday — relocating most of the largely huskies or husky mixes to 10 shelters and rescues across the Front Range, according to a news release from the humane society.
The dogs’ removal comes after nearly a year of back-and-forth between Drew Renkewitz — founder of Lyons’ Just 4 Jacks Ranch & Sanctuary — and the Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act, or PACFA, program, which oversees the licensing and inspection of pet animal facilities in Colorado.
PACFA contends that, after operating his dog sanctuary without the necessary licensure, Renkewitz ignored a cease-and-desist order issued by Colorado’s Commissioner of Agriculture to get him to stop “sheltering, harboring and housing” the roughly 80 dogs in late October.
In early January, the Commissioner of Agriculture filed suit against Renkewitz in Larimer County District Court, ultimately resulting in a Jan. 30 court order instructing the PACFA program to remove and transfer ownership of the dogs if Renkewitz did not remove them from his leased Lyons property by midnight Jan. 30, according to a PACFA news release.