Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center – now operating as “The Wild Animal Sanctuary”- is located just outside of Denver, CO and is a state and federally licensed zoological facility. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (tax deductible) and operate with your donations and the help of very dedicated people who volunteer their time.

We have been rescuing exotic wildlife and endangered species since 1980, and are currently home to more than 155 Lions, Tigers, Bears, Jaguars, Leopards, Mountain Lions, Lynx, Bobcats, Servals, Wolves, and other wildlife.

The residents of our Wild Animal Sanctuary were abandoned, abused, illegally kept, or came from other terrible situations. The vast majority of our animals were so-called “pets” – and were confiscated by law enforcement officials – usually within the first six months of their lives. We also provide permanent refuge to surplus animals from zoos and other wildlife facilities, where they face euthanasia due to over-breeding.

How big is this problem?

Currently there are roughly 70 Accredited Sanctuaries in the United States. However, only 14 of those take in large exotic felines or bears. Our Sanctuary works closely with City, State, and Federal Agencies, to provide relief when they confiscate animals… but with over 20,000 large exotics living outside of our zoo system today – and hundreds of those being bred year after year – you can imagine the size of the problem we face.

In addition to the overpopulation and illegal ownership issues we face, there is a also a huge difference in how each Sanctuary cares for the animals they do save. Here at The Wild Animal Sanctuary, we have one of the most contemporary facilities in the nation – with multiple habitats ranging from 5-acres… to 25-acres. These amazing habitats offer unprecedented freedom, and natural living spaces for the animals we rescue.

However, no matter how hard we work to save captive wildlife, and how well we care for the ones that are lucky enough to get rescued… we can’t begin to do what’s necessary without your help.

Our current facility is situated on 160 acres of rolling grassland – with additional areas under development.

Our Sanctuary was designed and built with a centralized round house located in the middle of all the habitats. This building provides a year-round temperature controlled environment – which can be vitally important during extreme weather situations.

The facility has a unique system of elevated cat-walks and observation platforms which allow people to view our rescued animals, enjoying their beautiful habitats.

The Make The Difference Network Story
MTDN was founded by four people with the intention of creating a business that could help “Make The Difference” for thousands of nonprofits and those they serve.

We felt that by combining the ease-of-use of Web technology, with the reach of Web marketing and leveraging the both the media and “Celebrities for Social Good,” then we could create an individual grassroots philanthropy movement that would make a significant difference in the world.

MTDN History
We began developing the original version 1.1 of the MTDN Web site in the spring of 2004 and went live with our first version in December of 2004. Since then we’ve been deliberately making improvements and preparing to move to a new, scaleable and fully automated Web platform with a new look and feel to the Web site.

In June of 2006, we launched version 1.2 of the MTDN Web site and did some test marketing nationally. We discovered that we needed an even more robust back-end database system in order to serve tens of thousands of potential donors and hundreds of new nonprofit members.

A much more powerful MTDN.net, Version 2.0, is now under development and will be launched nationally by the end of November.

Stay tuned, this is going to be big!