Colorado
Opinion: Colorado ranchers, restaurants worried about ballot issue that would shutter meat processing plant
Lamb is as Colorado as 14,000-foot peaks and Palisade peaches. Raised in rugged terrain, Colorado lamb is known for its lean meat and rich flavor. Many connoisseurs have long claimed its superiority over its New Zealand counterpart.
It’s also less niche across culinary cultures than you might realize. It is served as birria or barbacoa in Mexican restaurants; Aleppo kebab in Syrian restaurants; on extra-large noodles in spicy northern and Sichuan Chinese menus; stewed in a dark gravy on Indian dosa or in a curry; shawarma or burgers in Mediterranean cuisine; in Nepalese dumplings; or in Moroccan tagines.
Some of Denver’s best or most well-known restaurants serve it, including Buckhorn Exchange, El Taco de Mexico and Michelin-starred Brutø. Most of it is Colorado-raised. A5 serves Buckner Ranch rack of lamb, as do Safta and Blackbelly. Chef Paul Reilly of Coperta gets lamb from Longs Peak Lamb. Alma Fonda Fina and Frasca Food and Wine get their lamb from Superior Farms.
“Diners eat meat,” Reilly said. “That’s just not going to change. They like beef and pork and lamb and chasing an essential service — the slaughterhouse — out of the city of Denver is not going to change that. It will only make it more expensive for diners and harder for ranchers. No one wins.”
“Colorado Lamb has been a staple on my menus for as long as I’ve lived here,” shared chef Max Mackissock of A5 and the Culinary Creative Group. “There is no other protein that is as synonymous with our state. Chefs locally, as well as around the world, cherish the amazing product for its mild yet nuanced flavor, and unparalleled texture. Colorado Lamb is one of the few local products that us Coloradans can share with pride wherever we go.”
Chef Matt Vawters, this year’s James Beard winner for Best Chef: Mountain category, regularly features Colorado lamb at his two restaurants in Breckenridge, though said it has become harder to source since a prominent facility in Greeley shuttered.
This November, lamb will also be served up on a Denver ballot referendum. The measure, proposed by an animal-rights group, would shut down the only lamb slaughterhouse in Denver and prevent any others from opening.
Superior Farms, located on Clarkson Street in northwest Denver, is a 70-year-old business responsible for processing between 15 and 20% of all the lamb raised in the United States. The employee-owned company is the only Halal-certified slaughterhouse in Colorado; its staff of 160 workers, predominantly Latinos, help supply meat to many restaurants, but also to retailers like King Soopers, local favorite Tonali’s Meats, and renowned gourmet food purveyor D’Artagnan.
The Denver Slaughterhouse Ban would shut down its operations by 2026 and ban any other meatpacking businesses from the city and county of Denver. A group called Pro Animal Future submitted the measure, arguing that “slaughterhouses are inhumane to workers, animals and the surrounding communities they pollute.”
As it is the only business affected, Superior Farms feels specifically targeted.
“I take pride in my work and the work of my colleagues,” said Gustavo Fernandez, general manager at Superior Farms. “I started here as a janitor when my brother was already employed by the company and worked my way up. We train our staff and see ourselves as an important link between ranchers and people who love to eat lamb. This proposal to shut us down could really hurt our employees, but also the ranchers and restaurants and the American lamb supply chain.”
Pro Animal Future maintains it is focusing on the bigger picture: ending factory farming across the U.S. While there are no factory farms in Denver, spokewsoman Natalie Fulton acknowledged on a local radio show recently, the group sees this as a first step in its long-term mission.
But Superior Farms does not get its lambs from factory farms; it sources them from a collective of ranchers, most of them in Colorado — and most of them are worried.
“This would have a huge impact on our industry as a whole,” Julie Hansmire, rancher at Colorado’s Campbell Hansmire Sheep, said. “We care for our animals and we are lucky. Sure, we have to manage around hikers, skiers and other land use, but our lambs thrive on the native forage in the mountains and desert.”
Hansmire owns three herds, each with around 1,000 animals, in Eagle County, north of Edwards. They graze in Colorado in the summer and fall, and are moved to Utah in the winter and spring.
According to Colorado Agricultural Statistics, in 2023 there were 415,000 lambs and sheep in the state in 2023, making it the third-largest sheep and lamb inventory in the United States, behind Texas and Wyoming. About half are ready to be processed at any time, Colorado Food Systems Council statistics show, which makes Colorado second nationally, behind California, in terms of slaughter-ready lamb inventory.
The majority of sheep and lambs raised in Colorado are harvested in USDA-inspected facilities or custom-exempt facilities in Colorado, according to the council. The USDA seal ensures that facilities comply with rigorous federal animal welfare standards. Of 21 such facilities in Colorado, two stand out for capacity over 1,000 heads. One is Colorado Lamb Processors in Brush, which handles up to 165,000 head a year and ships full carcasses to the East Coast for fabrication, further processing and distribution. Lambs harvested there are not distributed within Colorado.
The other one is Superior Farms, which processes only lamb.
Sheep ranchers all over the state are concerned with the possibility of losing a vital link in making their business viable, whether they use Superior Farms or not for processing. Reducing the capacity of lamb slaughter in Colorado and in the United States by nearly 20% will exacerbate the issue at a time when less than a quarter of the lamb consumed in the United States is American lamb. The other 75% is imported, mainly from New Zealand and Australia.
Mary-Kay Buckner, a supplier of restaurants and consistent presence at farmers markets, is not among Superior Farms’ clients, but she’s still worried.
“Sheep ranching, like much of agriculture, is a lovely but fragile business model with small margins and many variables that can shatter one’s plans,” she said. Buckner, who raised animals in Boulder County for 13 years, stumbled into the industry. “I was a vegetarian in college and after, mostly because I didn’t know how animals were being raised and didn’t like that,” she said. “My grandparents were butchers and farmers and agriculture just made sense to me through my family background.
“For our family, it is important to give animals the best life, let them roam and graze and never feed them grain. They only have one bad day in their lives.”
There is a lot of emotion in the way Hansmire and Buckner speak about their animals, their livelihoods, and about this proposed ordinance. There is also a lot of emotion in how the ordinance is presented by Pro Animal Future, and rightfully so. “A slaughterhouse is a facility where animals are brought for the purpose of being killed to be processed into food,” reads the Pro Animal Future website. “Denver’s last slaughterhouse kills over 1,000 baby lambs every day,” blasts a poster.
Meat eaters should recognize that our diet choices mean the taking of animals’ lives. While we as diners support trendy, hip phrases like nose-to-tail butchery, whole animal kitchens, and farm-to-table restaurants, we brush aside the uncomfortable reality of animals dying for that.
But that isn’t going away.
Nick Maneotis of High Country Lamb is also worried about the the Denver Slaughterhouse Ban. When his grandfather immigrated from Greece, he arrived in Utah and worked in mines, but soon bought sheep and traveled with them to Colorado, near Craig, where lots of Greeks also established their ranching roots.
A third-generation sheep rancher, Maneotis has been on high alert since the beginning of 2024, after wolves have been reintroduced to his area following a state ballot measure, approved by voters. “We are right in between where the wolves are between Jackson County and Grand County, holding our breath hoping they don’t come our way. This new proposed ordinance in Denver would affect sheep ranchers in a new way, when we already have a lot of serious challenges,” he said.
Chefs and restaurateurs are also concerned. EatDenver, an independent restaurant association, is opposing the ballot measure, as well as the Colorado Restaurant Association.
Restaurant consultant John Imbergamo, a vegetarian for over three decades, said: “I like Colorado lamb being available to restaurants and their guests. Closing that plant will increase financial and environmental costs to consumers during a time that everyone is concerned about value and climate change.”
Pro Animal Future, meanwhile, is hoping to change the national tide of the agricultural system away from using animals and toward a more plant-based food system.
Denver voters will decide this fall.
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Colorado
Colorado faces LA in first round as Kings captain Anze Kopitar embarks on final Stanley Cup chase
DENVER — Anze Kopitar wrapped up the last regular season of his storied career. The Los Angeles Kings captain wants to prolong his final playoff run for as long as possible.
Kopitar, who announced in September his plans to retire, instantly becomes a postseason rallying point for the Kings. They have a tall task ahead of them against the Colorado Avalanche, the top team in the league, with the top goal scorer in Nathan MacKinnon and one of the best defensemen in the game in Cale Makar. Game 1 is Sunday at Ball Arena, where the Avalanche are 26-9-6.
“Playoffs,” said the 38-year-old Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Kings. “I’m not going to say anything can happen, but we’ll go in and we’ll play hard and we’ll see where that takes us.”
This will be the third postseason series between the two teams and the first in 24 years. Colorado won in seven games during both the 2002 conference quarterfinals and the 2001 conference semifinals.
It’s been a record season for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche as they amassed the most points (121) in franchise history. That broke the mark set by the 2022 team, which went on to win the Stanley Cup title. MacKinnon had a career-best 53 goals.
Goaltenders Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood shared the net this season and surrendered a league low in goals. They earned the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is presented to the goalies who have played a minimum of 25 games — Wedgewood suited up in 45 and Blackwood 39 — for the team with the fewest goals allowed. The other goaltender to win that honor for Colorado was Hall of Famer Patrick Roy (2001-02).
“We’re in a good spot,” Colorado forward Brock Nelson said. “The mentality of this group throughout the year, right from the start of training camp, (was) set on a mission to be the best team.”
Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon (29) celebrates the goal against Edmonton Oilers goalie Connor Ingram (39) during shoot-out NHL action, in Edmonton on Monday, April 13, 2026. Credit: AP/JASON FRANSON
Record against each other
The Kings went 0-3 against Colorado this season and were outscored by a 13-5 margin.
“You hear the hype. They have good players,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We’re a scrappy team. We keep it close with everybody. That can really frustrate them.”
Leading after two
The Avalanche were 41-0-0 when leading after two periods. They’re the first squad to have a lead after two periods on 40 or more instances and capture each one, according to team research.
“Even though we’ve been smart, we’ve been committed, we’ve been relentless at times, it’s going to have to go to a whole new level now,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I have faith in our guys.”
Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who is retiring after this season, acknowledges the crowd after being recognized after losing to the Vancouver Canucks during overtime NHL hockey action in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Credit: AP/DARRYL DYCK
Remember the season opener?
Six grueling months ago, the Avalanche and Kings opened the season against each other. The Avalanche won 4-1 in Los Angeles behind a pair of goals from Martin Necas, who would go on to register his first 100-point season (38 goals, 62 assists).
The two teams join an exclusive club by becoming the fifth pair since 2015-16 to open the regular season and the playoffs against each other, according to NHL Stats. The other pairs to do so were Montreal and Toronto (2020-21); Colorado and St. Louis (2020-21); St. Louis and Winnipeg (2018-19); and Los Angeles and San Jose (2015-16).
Of those teams that won the season opener only San Jose went on to win the series. It’s a trend Kopitar and the Kings wouldn’t mind joining.
Kopitar and the playoffs
Kopitar helped the Kings to the Stanley Cup title in 2011-12 and 2013-14 along with goaltender Jonathan Quick, who now is with the New York Rangers and recently said he’s retiring. Kopitar has played in 103 postseason games with 27 goals and 62 assists.
“The intensity ramps up, everything ramps up,” Kopitar said of the postseason. “Every mistake, every little play, magnifies now.”
Familiar faces
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper was in net for the Avalanche when they won the Stanley Cup in 2022. In addition, Kuemper and Drew Doughty were teammates with MacKinnon, Makar and Devon Toews when Canada won silver at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Colorado
U.S. Women’s National Team Closes Three-Game Series Against Japan With Emphatic 3-0 Victory in Colorado
COMMERCE CITY, COLO. (April 17, 2026) – Naomi Girma, Rose Lavelle and Kennedy Wesley scored second-half goals to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 3-0 victory over Japan in the third and final match of the series between the two sides.
Wesley recorded her first international goal and assist in her sixth cap to become the 27th player to score under U.S. head coach Emma Hayes. Girma scored her third international goal and Lavelle scored her 29th, marking her 10th goal contribution in her last 10 appearances.
Precision in the final third had been a key point of emphasis for Hayes heading into the match, and even though the USA did not score before the break, it showed flashes of what was to come in the second half, dominating 70% of possession and firing nine shots. The USWNT then broke through with three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half to record its largest victory over Japan since 2017.
For the first time in this three-game series, the match went into halftime scoreless, but the Americans came close on several occasions. Off one of the USA’s four first half corner kicks, the most dangerous look came in the 21st minute from a Lavelle service that was headed around the box before defender Tierna Davidson nodded the ball down to Sophia Wilson, who had her back to goal. The forward chested down the ball and smashed a turnaround half-volley that forced a point blank save from Japanese goalkeeper Chika Hirao. Girma leaped up to get her head on the rebound, but her shot went over the crossbar.
In the 39th minute, Lavelle received the ball just past half field and played a long switch over to Alyssa Thompson on the left side. The forward beat her defender before playing a pass centrally to midfielder Claire Hutton at the top of the box. Her first-time shot from just outside the penalty box clanged off the crossbar and out for a goal kick. In one of the final plays before the half, forward Trinity Rodman cut inside the box and sent a cross in that deflected off defender Toko Koga, nearly causing an own goal before Hirao collected the ball.
As it did in the first match of the series, the USA came out hot to start the second half and scored almost immediately. On April 11, the USA scored 141 seconds into the half and tonight the goal came 155 seconds after the half began. The USA earned a corner kick after Wilson blasted a shot from outside the box that forced another leaping save from Hirao. Lavelle sent in service from the right corner that drifted towards Wesley at the back post. Wesley headed the cross back in front of goal for Girma, who redirected the ball with a powerful header into the back of the net. The goal was a combination of two center backs and former Stanford University teammates for Girma’s first goal since October of 2024.
Less than 10 minutes later, Wesley started the counterattack that led to the second goal. The defender picked off a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played captain Lindsey Heaps in the midfield. Heaps passed the ball forward to Rodman, who nutmegged her defender with a long pass, splitting two more Japanese players to send Lavelle in on a breakaway. Lavelle dribbled to the top of 18-yard box and then slotted a low shot into the bottom left corner with class to double the lead.
The squad kept the momentum rolling following substitutions just after the hour mark. A few minutes after entering the match, midfielder Jaedyn Shaw stepped up to take the USA’s sixth corner kick of the match. She sent a cross to the center of the box where Wesley leaped to hit a shot with the outside of her right foot, redirecting the ball through traffic and into the left side goal for the third of the night and the first of her USWNT career.
The USA held Japan scoreless for the first time in the series with goalkeeper Claudia Dickey making three saves to earn her eighth clean sheet in her 10th appearance.
Goal Scoring Rundown:
USA –NAOMI GIRMA (KENNEDY WESLEY),47th minute: Rose Lavelle lofted a corner kick from the right to the back post to Kennedy Wesley, who drifted under the ball and headed it back in front of the face of goal. Naomi Girma was in perfect position to redirect the cross with a forceful header into the back of the net at the center of the six-yard box. USA 1, JPN 0
USA – ROSE LAVELLE (TRINITY RODMAN), 56th minute: Kennedy Wesley intercepted a pass in the USA’s defensive third and played Lindsey Heaps near the center circle. Heaps played the ball forward to Trinity Rodman, who split two defenders with a pass up the field as Lavelle made a run inside. Lavelle dribbled toward the 18-yard box before slotting her shot to the bottom left corner of the goal. USA 2, JPN 0
USA – KENNEDY WESLEY (JAEDYN SHAW), 63rd minute: Jaedyn Shaw sent a corner kick toward the center of the box. Around eight yards out, Kennedy Wesley connected with the cross using the outside of her right foot, sending her shot through traffic into the back of the net. USA 3, JPN 0 FINAL
Additional Notes:
- Emma Hayes made 10 changes to the Starting XI from the last match against Japan on April 14 with Claire Hutton as the only player to start two games in a row. However, this Starting XI had only two changes from the Starting XI on April 11 in the first game against Japan. From the first match, Tierna Davidson replaced Kennedy Wesley on the back line and Hutton stepped in for midfielder Sam Coffey.
- With her cap today, Colorado native Lindsey Heaps tied Shannon MacMillan for 18th most caps in USWNT history with 176, making her one of only 19 women to reach the milestone. Heaps will return to her hometown to play professionally as a member of the NWSL’s Denver Summit upon the completion of her contract with OL Lyonnes in July.
- The other starter from Colorado was forward Sophia Wilson. The last time Wilson and Heaps played in Colorado was on June 1, 2024, vs. Korea Republic. The U.S. also won that match 4-0, which was also Hayes’ first match as head coach of the USWNT and the fourth-to-last match before of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Wilson hails from Windsor just an hour from Commerce City and Denver proper while Golden, a suburb of Denver, is Heaps’ hometown.
- Davidson earned the start, her first since Feb. 23, 2025, in a 2-1 win over Australia. In the WNT’s previous match on April 14, Davidson entered as a substitute in the 65th minute, her first appearance in more than one year following her recovery from an ACL injury she suffered in March of 2025. Tonight, she played the first 45 minutes before coming out on pre-planned sub.
- Center back Naomi Girma scored her third international goal – and all three have been headers. She scored her first two international goals on Oct. 30, 2024, against Argentina.
- Girma was assisted on her goal by fellow center back and Stanford Cardinal Kennedy Wesley, who replaced Davidson at halftime. Girma and Wesley played two full seasons together on the backline over three overlapping school years (2019-2022) as Girma took a redshirt season for her junior year (2020-21) due to injury. It was Wesley’s first international assist in her sixth career cap.
- Rose Lavelle’s goal in the 56th minute tonight was her 29th career goal and second goal of the week after recording one goal and an assist in the April 11 match against Japan. Lavelle now has 10 goal contributions in her last 10 matches for the USWNT.
- Lavelle was assisted by forward Trinity Rodman, who recorded her 11th international assist.
- Wesley scored her first international goal in the 64th minute. She is the 27th player to score a goal under head coach Emma Hayes. The center back ended her 45 minutes of play with two contributions, a goal and an assist, and was voted Woman of the Match.
- Jaedyn Shaw recorded her fifth career assist on Wesley’s goal with her service on a corner kick.
- Two of the three goals scored by the U.S. tonight came off corner kicks.
- The USWNT recorded its first clean sheet of the April window and its eighth shutout win in its last 10 matches.
- With the temperature at 38 degrees at kickoff and patches of snow pushed outside the edges of the pitch, it was the coldest WNT game since February 2022, which kicked off in Frisco, Texas.
- With the new FIFA substitution rules in effect (eight are now allowed in friendly matches), and Japan making use of a concussion sub, which gave the USA an extra substitution opportunity, the USA made its most ever substitutions in a single game over the 778 matches in program history with nine.
- Japan also made nine substitutions.
– U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM MATCH REPORT –
Match: United States vs. Japan
Date: April 17, 2026
Competition: International Friendly
Venue: DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Attendance: 17,589
Kickoff: 7 p.m. MT / 9 p.m. ET
Weather: 38 degrees, mostly sunny
| Scoring Summary | 1 | 2 | F |
| USA | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| JPN | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| USA — Naomi Girma (Kennedy Wesley) | 47th minute |
| USA — Rose Lavelle (Trinity Rodman) | 56 |
| USA — Kennedy Wesley (Jaedyn Shaw) | 64 |
Lineups:
USA: 1-Claudia Dickey, 23-Emily Fox, 4-Naomi Girma (5-Lilly Reale, 83), 12-Tierna Davidson (25-Kennedy Wesley, 46), 22-Gisele Thompson (3-Avery Patterson, 62), 10-Lindsey Heaps (Capt.) (17-Sam Coffey, 63), 15-Claire Hutton (7-Lily Yohannes, 82), 16-Rose Lavelle (13-Olivia Moultrie, 73), 2-Trinity Rodman (20-Michelle Cooper, 73), 11-Sophia Wilson (9-Ally Sentnor, 73), 21-Alyssa Thompson (8-Jaedyn Shaw, 63)
Substitutes not used: 6-Emily Sams, 19-Emma Sears, 24-Phallon Tullis-Joyce
Not dressing: 14-Emily Sonnett, 18-Jane Campbell
Head Coach: Emma Hayes
JPN: 12-Chika Hirao, 2- Risa Shimizu (24-Maya Hijikata, 74), 6-Toko Koga (3-Moeka Minami, 60), 4-Saki Kumagai, 13-Hikaru Kitagawa (21-Miyabi Moriya, 25), 19-Momoko Tanikawa (20-Manaka Matsukubo, 46), 16-Yuzuki Yamamoto (17-Maika Hamano, 46), 14-Yui Hasegawa (Capt.) (10-Fuka Nagano, 74), 15-Aoba Fujino (22-Remina Chiba, 74), 9-Riko Ueki (11-Mina Tanaka, 46), 7-Hinata Miyazawa (18-Honoka Hayashi, 60)
Substitutes not used: 23-Akane Okuma, 1-Ayaka Yamashita
Head Coach: Michihisa Kano
Stats Summary: USA / JPN
Shots: 15 / 5
Shots on Goal: 7 / 3
Saves: 3 / 4
Corner Kicks: 6 / 2
Fouls: 7 / 5
Offside: 0 / 2
Misconduct Summary:
None
Officials:
Ref: Myriam Marcotte (CAN)
AR1: Mijensa Rensch (SUR)
AR2: Stephanie Yee Sing (JAM)
4TH: Carly Shaw-Maclaren (CAN)
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