The November 4th live event featuring some of the 141 animals so far rescued from “The Tiger King” was a rousing success , Wild Animal Sanctuary Executive Director Pat Craig told Wild Life News and Information in an email.
“The Wild Animal Sanctuary’s Live Fundraising Event was a giant success, as it not only raised over $600,000 for the animals, it also educated thousands of people about many aspects of the Captive Wildlife Crisis and the Sanctuary’s work involving shutting down numerous Tiger King characters.” Craig said.
The 55 minute video feed is still available at the link above.
As noted in other posts The Wild Animal Sanctuary has been rescuing animals caught up in the tawdry drama surrounding “Joe Exotic, ” “The Tiger King.” His real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage and he ran a private zoo for about a decade until he ran afoul of animal rescue groups and the federal government. He was convicted of animal abuse and an attempted murder-for-hire scheme and is now in custody in a medical prison facility due to poor health.
Craig is very outspoken about what the terms “The Captive Animal Crisis,” which is the trade in live wild animals kept and sold for profit and entertainment. As noted in other posts, the trade is a multi billion dollar affair said to rank third after drugs and guns in the herarchy of illegal for-profit schemes,
The trade in captive wild animals is also closely related to the trade in hides, parts and souvenirs from animals for medicinal or other purposes.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary, headquartered in Keenesburg, Colorado, has stepped forward and rescued 141 of the animals Maldonado-Passage held and has housed them on the more than 10,000 acres they own in three states.
The Joe Exotic saga attracted the attention of Netflix which produced two series about the dramatic events, the second one featuring The Wild Animal Sanctuary,
“The Wild Animal Sanctuary was featured at the very end of the last episode of the new Tiger King II docuseries,” Craig’s email said. ” At the end of episode #5 there was an uplifting moment that showed many of the Tiger King cats running free within large acreage habitats at the Sanctuary in Keenesburg, CO. Additional footage of the Sanctuary’s work to provide amazing natural habitats is due to air on Netflix in the coming weeks as part of a related story involving the Tigers that were rescued from joe Exotic. Netflix hasn’t released the air date yet, but we are sure the mini story will be announced in some manner that connects it with the Tiger King saga, ” Craig continued.
Craig said the sanctuary remains “extremely busy” as the year winds down. The sanctuary does not discuss upcoming rescues, according to spokesman Derek McCormick, but the email did disclose that the sanctuary expects to announce two major rescues in the next few weeks involving animals from Asia finding new homes at the sanctuary.
The sanctuary currently has three locations. The flagship is in Keenesburg, Colorado and is 700 acres. A second site in Texas has 45 acres and the site that is the home for most rescues sprawls over 9,000 acres at a second Springfield, Colorado site, called The Wild Animal Refuge. Visitors are allowed at the Keenesburg site but not at the other two sites.