Habitats get desperately needed upgrade
The staff and interns, at Turpentine Creek, have been working hard over the last few months to update and upgrade our old habitats. Most of the habitats are getting a fresh new coat of paint, higher fence heights, and some needed repairs. All of the tiger habitats in the main field needed repairs and adjustments.
Our goal is t
o keep ahead of our habitats. We want to repair them before they become an issue. Repairs are simple, like bench rebuilds, repainting, and higher fence heights. We have been open since 1992, almost 24 years, and our oldest habitat about 20-years-old. For safety reasons, and because as the years have passed we have gained access to better, stronger, more durable, materials, it is time to tear a few of those old habitats down and build better ones.
With hard work, dedication, and a lot of blood sweat and tears, we have reached the halfway point. Thanks to some unseasonably warm weather we are down to only 6 habitats to update and 2 habitats that need completely rebuilt. We just finished refurbishing BB and Mack’s habitat and have moved onto Heather and Ziggy’s habitat, which is already almost half way done!
If you would like to assist us in our habitat rebuild there are a few things you can do,
Volunteer. We always need extra hands to help paint the habitats.- Donate. It costs a lot of money to maintain our habitats, thousands of dollars per habitat. It also costs between $25,000 and $30,000 (or even more for really large habitats) to do a complete rebuild of a habitat. This is money that is not part of our current annual budget for the care of animals.
- Spread the word. If every one of our Facebook followers, Newsletter subscribers, and other online fans just donated $5 we would have enough to build more than 20 habitats! So truly every dollar helps and spreading the word brings more attention to our mission to rescue abused, abandoned, and neglected big cats.
- Sponsor/Adopt an animal. Part of the adoption/sponsor fees goes towards helping maintain the animal’s habitat. We have over 100 animals here at Turpentine Creek and less than half have sponsors, each animal can only have one sponsor. We can have up to 20 adoptions on each animal (Approximately 2,000 adoptions available) but only have about a quarter of total adoptions used. Adoption doesn’t just help the animals, you get a year membership with your adoption/sponsorship so that you can come visit us at any time, you also get a certificate for the animal you have adopted/sponsored. It is a win, win situation!
Help us, Help them