Protecting The Future Of The Animals At TCWR
June 24, 2020
Turpentine Creek loves and appreciates all of our donors; you are amazing people who help us to care for these animals every single day! Yet, the global pandemic COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of recurring donors to our animals’ and Refuge’s future. Recurring donations give us a gift beyond just financial sustainability and stability; they give us peace of mind and hope when things can be a bit unsteady in our world.
When we had to temporarily close our doors to the public to protect our animals and team members, we quickly realized that our current income source was unstable. During the spring and summer, we rely heavily on lodging and admissions to cover our costs and in the winter time our donors step up, donating approximately half of our annual income. This has always helped to cover our expenses year-round, but this year, COVID-19 hit right as we were gearing up for our spring and summer visitors.
We were lucky; we have been planning for emergencies for years, tucking away extra money here and there to build a small emergency fund. It is due to this pre-planning, and the fact that our amazing supporters came together in a big way to donate during our time of need, that we were able to make it through the closure and find a safe way to reopen to the public. Now, that emergency fund has been greatly depleted and COVID-19 has not gone away. Although we do not know what the future holds with COVID-19, there is a lot of evidence that a resurgence is coming, and we need to be prepared for that possibility.
While we were closed we reduced all costs to a minimum, going to essential employees, reducing spending, stopping new projects, etc. and found out that it would cost about $140,000 a month to run the Refuge when we are closed to the public and on a reduced staff; that number increases when we are open to the public even on a limited capacity. Normally, operating at full capacity it is about $200,000 – $225,000 a month.
With this in mind, we began to look at ways to protect our animals if another emergency were to happen, or COVID-19 creates a situation where we are forced to temporarily close again. The solution is to create a steady, reliable, income source that does not fluctuate based on the season or visitor count: monthly recurring donations.
Monthly recurring donations creates a steady foundation to fall back on, to be reassured that in rain, shine, sleet, hail, or global pandemic we can continue to provide quality care for our animal residents. These donations allow us to plan ahead, purchase food when needed, rescue animals, and continue advocating for their future- all things that cannot be paused even when it seems as though the world has.
Currently, we receive a little over $10,000 a month in recurring donations. We have set a goal to add 200 new recurring donors between now and September 1. Can you help us reach this goal?
Setting up a monthly donation of $5, $10, or $25 (less than the cost of most streaming services!) will protect the animals at Turpentine Creek.
Monthly recurring donations are just small automatic debits that add up to a lot of money for the animals!
- $5 a month = $60 a year
- $10 a month = $120 a year
- $25 a month = $300 a year
- $50 a month = $600 a year
Your ‘bite sized’ monthly donations go a long way over an entire year!
Now, more than ever, please help us give our animal residents a stable and sustainable future. Click here to set your monthly recurring donation up today!
Turpentine Creek has been reopen to the public for two weeks. We have had to make many changes on how we lead our tours and how we interact with our visitors due to COVID-19. This has been a learning process, and will continue to evolve and adjust as we encounter new challenges. 
We are entering the warmer months of our season; during this time it is vital to come prepared when visiting. Wear light clothing, sunscreen, a hat, proper shoes, and to drink plenty of water. It can get 
We have begun offering tours in our brand new trams! These open-air trams allow for airflow and shade on hot days. They allow for better viewing of the animals, more seating, and a more engaging environment for our riding tours. In order to properly social distance, seats are more limited than usual so we highly recommend reserving ahead of time at 
We look forward to seeing you this summer. As COVID progresses we will continue to adjust and adapt to protect the animals, our team, and our visitors. We hope to see you all soon!
This Friday, June 12, 2020, is the fourth annual Sanctuary Caregiver Day. The 
Our animal care team not only completely isolated themselves for two months, not leaving the Refuge for any reason, they also spend every day working in the heat, wearing hot masks, maintaining habitats, feeding the animals, avoiding crowds of people, and doing their best to enforce social distancing to keep the animals safe from exposure.
Seven animal care team members and fourteen animal care interns provide food, water, clean habitats, enrichment, and pools for the animals every day no matter the circumstance.
We ask you to join us in celebrating our animal caretakers on Friday, show your support and appreciation for all that they do. We will be promoting our animal caretakers throughout Friday, featuring our keepers and showing our appreciation. Please join us on this day of celebration.
For the first time in two months, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge has welcomed visitors onto our property. On June 1, 2020, the Refuge reopened to the public with some limitations and restrictions in place to protect our animals, team members, and visitors from the COVID-19 pandemic. Temporarily, things will look very different around the Refuge. 
Tours are being operated at a limited capacity, but it does have some perks! We are capping tours at 60 participants each, broken up into groups of 10 and limiting tour times to 10 AM, 12 PM, and 2 PM. While walk-ins will be welcome, the only way to be certain you can go on our desired tour is to reserve ahead of time at 
Turpentine Creek is home to 45 tigers, 18 of which are white. These beautiful animals have all been rescued from backyard breeders or pseudo-sanctuaries that exist for the sole purpose of using them to make a profit.
The Maharaja was fascinated by Mohan, and therefore wanted to create more white tigers. His original attempt to do so had him breeding Mohan to an orange tigress, Begum, who was brought to the palace. First, Begum was introduced to Mohan which produced ten orange-colored cubs. Mohan was then bred with one of his daughters, as the Maharaja was desperate to create white cubs. This inbreeding resulted in four white babies, the first white tigers to be born in captivity. These four were then sold to buyers around the world. These buyers were the National Zoological Park in Washington D.C., Delhi Zoological Park in New Delhi, India, and the Kolkata Zoological Park in Kolkata, India.
While these animals may be beautiful, they do not occur naturally and therefore do not serve a purpose for conservation. Species survival plans, created by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), do not selectively breed, or inbreed, for specific recessive genes in order to avoid anomalous internal and external conditions of the offspring. This differs from their mission of positively affecting the conservation of the wildlife in their breeding programs. TCWR is not an AZA accredited facility, and therefore does not participate in the breeding of our animals. We are strictly a forever home for them and do not support the inbreeding of white tigers.
Recently, as our bears have become more active and are featured more on our social media stream, we’ve been getting questions about the difference between black bears, like Koda G and Xena, and brown bears, like Huggy and Bam Bam. With 10 bears calling our Refuge home, we thought now would be a great time to help our supporters distinguish between these non-feline residents of Turpentine Creek.
Black bears have no shoulder hump, they are level or flat with the rest of their back.
On Tuesday, May 5, the supporters of Turpentine Creek came together to celebrate our 28th anniversary. Due to our temporarily closure due to COVID-19 the celebration was moved online, but it was still a wonderful day of like-minded animal lovers getting together to support our Refuge.
Without your support and donations we could not do what we do daily, nor could we save the lives of survivors of the big cat trade.
It costs approximately $140,000 – $150,000 per month to just maintain our most basic expenses such as salaries, utility bills, and buy basic supplies. Luckily, Tyson has donated enough meat for us to provide our basic big cat diets, but we still have to purchase produce for the bears and meat for our animals on special diets. We are also paying for medicine for our animals and the supplements that go on the food.
In the face of the abuse and neglect thousands of exotic cats and bears experience around the country, Turpentine Creek acts as a forever home and place of refuge. Currently home to 88 animal residents, most of which have been victims of the exotic pet trade or entertainment industry, we are constantly working to increase public awareness about the plight of big cats in captivity. 
Animal cruelty of all shapes and sizes is heartbreaking and detrimental. Turpentine Creek works alongside other Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) accredited facilities and animal welfare organizations to put an end to the suffering of exotic animals in captivity. But, most importantly, our mission would not be possible without our supporters and visitors who become advocates for the animals that cannot speak for themselves. Please lend your voice to these animals by reaching out to your Senators and Representatives to let them know you want to end private ownership and animal abuse. The Big Cat Public Safety Act would do this and is just waiting to be voted on. 
Roadside zoos exist all over the country with one motive: money. Many are found along busy roads, meant to be a quick stop for tourists. But, they can also be drive-through safaris, traveling zoos, and petting zoos. They usually give an interactive experience, luring people in with the options to feed animals or engage in hands-on interaction. Sometimes, roadside zoos are disguised as “sanctuaries” or “rescues”. These titles create the illusion that these facilities are rescues, and that by partaking in their activities, you are helping the animals. Animals in these facilities are not rescues but bought from notorious breeders or bred by the facilities themselves.
Roadside zoos often employ people with no education or expertise in the care of animals. Because of the lack of knowledge, the living conditions for the animals tend to be horrifying. To conserve money and space, animal enclosures may be built with no thought of the needs of the species. Oftentimes, animals have no escape from the weather. In some cases, the enclosures are not big enough for them to move or even stand to their full height. Some enclosures may experience crowding, causing stress if not managed properly. Enclosures may not be cleaned on a regular schedule, leading to an excess of feces and rotting food. This becomes a breeding ground for insects and bacteria that spread disease.
Exotic felines have very particular, and expensive, dietary and nutritional needs. Because of the large price tag associated with a proper diet, animals in pseudo-facilities are oftentimes malnourished, developing health issues. They may be overfed, underfed, or not fed on a regular basis at all. If an animal does become ill, there is typically a high mortality rate due to many symptoms of illnesses or diseases not being recognized or being treated improperly. Proper medical care is typically nonexistent due to the lack of knowledge and steep price of veterinary care and medicines. These questionable tactics lead to sick animals suffering for a long period of time before they receive treatment, or even pass away.
Since there are so many of these roadside zoos, how does one differentiate a true facility from a roadside zoo? Sanctuaries are strictly that, a sanctuary, or place of refuge for animals who have been abused or neglected. AZA zoos have a breeding program in place called Species Survival Plans. These plans aid in conservation of animals whose populations are extremely low in the wild. We understand that it can be difficult to know the difference on your own, so Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge has created a