By Brian Ojanpa
— Patrick Holt’s back is against the wall, his feet are to the fire and whatever other 11th-hour cliché you’d care to apply to his plight.
A new home for the dozens of dogs and cats at his rural Waseca County animal sanctuary must be found soon. Or else.
“It is what it is,” he says resignedly. “We just have to move forward.”
Holt owns Pathfinder Spirit Ranch, a haven for abused, neglected and unwanted animals that recently was denied a conditional-use permit by the county.
The denial has to do with certain animal health standards not being met, the contested specifics of which have become a he said/he said thing that’s moot at this point.
The upshot is that Holt must wait one year before he can reapply for a permit to operate.
Meantime, he’s running an illegal operation as long as he has that many dogs and cats on the premises. He’s been given 45 days to reduce the number to three.
In other words, he has until April 3 to find new quarters for most of his 64 dogs and 17 cats.
If he doesn’t, the worst-case scenario looms, and the animals would be confiscated and destroyed.
Holt says he’s been searching for a facility to move them to, ideally for a year, and then reclaim them when his operation comes into compliance.
He’s also pondering what he calls an “end-around” idea — installing a state-of-the-art sanctuary on an adjacent land parcel that, he says, would allow him to acquire a permit sooner than one year hence.
Of course, all that costs money, and Holt says during the past eight years he’s spent nearly $350,000 on his animal operations.
Holt has operated the Waseca County ranch since 2007. Prior to that he owned Bearcat Hollow, a southeastern Minnesota animal operation whose previous owners received prison sentences in 2005 for illegally trafficking in the sale of exotic and endangered animals.
Holt says if he can’t move his dogs and cats en masse to another facility, he’ll look to parceling them out to foster caregivers.
He says he’s a guy devoted to keeping animals alive that were discarded by society and would have long since been destroyed or dead of starvation.
He acknowledges he must play the hand he’s been dealt, but he doesn’t have to like it.
“It’s a slap in the face,” he says.
Brian Ojanpa is a Free Press staff writer. Call him at 344-6316 or e-mail bojanpa@mankato
freepress.com.
