Sanctuary that took in 'Tiger King' tigers struggling during lockdown
The non-profit park relies on $700,000 of meat, fruit and vegetable donations from big-box stores, but those donations plummeted by 80% in March
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFNadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, that the zoo said on April 5, 2020 has tested positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is seen in an undated handout photo provided by the Bronx zoo in New York(photo credit: WCS/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
A Colorado animal sanctuary that took in 39 of the tigers from the hit Netflix show Tiger King says the animals in its care are now facing a new challenge: the coronavirus lockdown has meant that food and financial donations have hit a cliff-edge.Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, run by Pat Craig, is home to 550 animals including lions, tigers, bears, wolves, and bald eagles, which reside across two locations, a 789 acre sanctuary near Keenesburg, and a larger 9,684-acre location in southern Colorado. Together, they consume as much as 80,000 pounds of food a week, as much as a small city.According to Craig, the non-profit park relies on $700,000 of meat, fruit and vegetable donations from big-box stores, but those donations plummeted by 80% in March as panic buying led to supermarket chains having to correct their stocking levels."We had trucks come in with only 15% of what they would normally have,” Craig told the Washington Post. That drop coincided with a spike in unemployment and lockdown orders which meant that the sanctuary lost out on donations from the tens of thousands of visitors it normally receives each year. “We had to buy food to make sure we didn’t deplete our reserves,” Craig said. “We already spent quite a bit of money — $200,000, maybe more.”Cisco recently gave a tractor-trailer load of fruit and vegetables to the sanctuary, helping to bridge the gap, and Craig has said that he is working with beef and chicken suppliers to procure supplies for his charges. He also anticipates that the big-box food contributions will recover to 75% of their former rate as suppliers re-correct their supply lines this month. But that still leaves a shortfall of 25% which is untenable for the sanctuary on its tight budget.Being down 25% could still cost millions of dollars, depending on how long it lasts,” said Craig.Craig opened his sanctuary aged just 19, on a corner of his family's farm. The sanctuary has grown year on year as he strives to offer a safe home to animals relocated from small and private zoos. In 2019, he took in a record 204 animals, including 13 bears from two Argentine zoos, 10 bears and three hyenas from a wildlife centre in California - and the 19 tigers from the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, as featured in the Netflix show.Their former owner, Tiger King Joe Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, who the series follows as he goes head-to-head with animal rights activist and big cat sanctuary owner Carole Baskin, is now serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for murder-for-hire and wildlife violations, including the killing of five tigers.
Vernon Weir, director of the American Sanctuary Association, which represents more than 40 sanctuaries, commented in an email.“Our sanctuary members who have big cats feel that the show did not go deep enough into the cruelty involved in the process of breeding, exhibiting, selling, trading and buying of big cats and the dismal lives they endure and what people can do about stopping it.”A bipartisan bill, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, has been languishing in congress, but the shows success has given it new life. An estimated 34 million American viewers watched the series in the first 10 days following its release.
