Texas Butterfly Sanctuary Closes Due To 'Credible Threats' From Pro-Trump Event

LOADING ERROR LOADING A South Texas butterfly conservatory said it will temporarily close after being warned that it could be a target of a nearby rally headlined by conspiracy theorists and allies of former President Donald Trump. The National Butterfly Center announced Friday that it would shutter until Sunday due to “credible threats” regarding activities planned during the three-day We Stand America rally in the neighboring border town of McAllen. The closure comes one week after a right-wing congressional candidate from Virginia accused the center’s staff of being “OK with children being trafficked and raped.” The sanctuary’s director, Marianna Treviño-Wright, said she was warned by an acquaintance, former Republican state lawmaker Aaron Peña, that “she should be armed at all times or out of town this weekend” because the rally included a “Trump Train-style caravan to the border” that would likely make a stop at the butterfly center. It’s a boot camp with a full day of how-to training, to push back against and defeat the Marxists.” "As if we needed further confirmation of the violent sentiment being stirred up against us, this morning, as we drove to work, we found someone had ripped down the National Butterfly Center sign, erected by the Texas Department of Transportation," the National Butterfly Center said in its news release Friday. Treviño-Wright said a doctored image of rafts at the butterfly center's dock was shared online in 2019. via National Butterfly Center Police were called to the butterfly center last week after a Virginia congressional candidate, Kimberly Lowe, and her friend had an altercation with staff.