Storm hammers animal sanctuary

After losing their income during the COVID-19 pandemic, selling their former farm sanctuary in Benson and starting over in Middlebury this year, Erika and Mark Butel felt like they finally had their feet on the ground. 

Erika and Mark Gutel had been operating a dairy farm in Albert County, east of Denver, Colo., years before the twists and turns of their life would lead them to running an animal sanctuary in Middlebury.

BENSON/BRANDON — It’s been exactly five months since police seized more than 400 animals at a farm on Kimball Road in Brandon. So, what happened to them?  The answer lies at Kinder Way Sanctuary in Benson, where the animals are thriving, but the cost of t … (read more)