FLORIDA 2008

 

We had the opportunity to go to Florida in December 2008 as ecovolunteers, in the sanctuary Wild Life Survival which protects big cats. Our mission was to discover the different species, observe them, feed them, clean their cages...
Tigers, leopards, servals and cougars are animals collected by Jim and Susan in different conditions. The most common case is when owners buy an animal on impulse and then are unable to take care of it and to meet his nutritional needs.

Indeed, the meals of felines in captivity must be balanced and adapted to the little exercise they do in their cages.

Note that in some states, it is possible to obtain a license to own wild animals at his home in cages woefully inadequate in size to the size of the animal (imagine a tiger in a cage of about 10m²).
In this refuge with large cages, Jim and Susan also recover feline victims of profit-oriented crossings which have failed. (Ex: white tigers sold to circuses).
Fortunately there are also very healthy animals brought by the owners because they are too old to look after them.

In parallel to this experience, we travelled throughout Florida and enjoyed the hospitality of Americans.
The word "Huge" defines very well our feeling when we arrived in America. Cities, houses, cars, roads, supermarkets, everything is big and what a pleasure for us French, living in a country where everything is tight, narrow, small.

In addition, we noticed a multitude of small jobs enabling many people to avoid poverty (repairman of shopping carts, sandwich man, attendant ...).

Our very pleasant experience made us forget the negative image we had of these big children who spend so much time in amusement parks.

Here is our sheet about the reserve pdf