Wild Heart Ranch buys land to leave alone

CLEREMORE, Okla. – Wild Heart Ranch is in the process of raising more than $275,000 to buy land it won’t do with.

The terrain near the ranch site is quiet and Annette King, its founder, wants to keep it that way.

King says she has always been fascinated by wildlife.

“I’m not afraid of them, that’s the simple thing….”it’s the lack of fear,” King said.

She’s not afraid of much. Just two days before speaking to 2 News, she learned the property was for sale.

She felt that if she didn’t buy it, someone else would develop it or use it for hunting, so she and her husband Daniel Hardt decided to buy it.

King raised $5,000 of his own money and has since raised nearly $180,000 from donors in the United States and around the world. She buys the land for $275,000.

“We’re not going to do anything with it,” King said.

The wildlife will enjoy it. Through this purchase she ensures that no human takes power. People, she says, ensure that most of the animals end up at Wild Heart.

“It’s our fences, it’s our cars, it’s our dogs, it’s our cats, it’s our kids, it’s our buildings, it’s our phone lines, it’s barbed wire,” King said. “It is all the things we must have” to have our existence. And it clashes with hers.”
King and Hardt put their lives on the line and relied on donors from across the United States and around the world simply because they care about Oklahoma’s wildlife.

“Because no one else is doing it,” Hardt said, “that’s why we’re here. There was a need to take care of these animals even though no one else would.”

“I know one day there will be developers who will curse my name, but that is my goal,” King said.

The total was $180,000 as of October 15 at 5 p.m. Organizers expect funds to grow quickly.

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