From Green Right Now Reports
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said it is moving three tigers from a closed sanctuary in San Antonio to Pittsboro, N.C. The tigers will be transported on a 36-foot rescue trailer and cover more than 1,300 miles to their new life-long home at the Carolina Tiger Rescue sanctuary.
Tigers are one of the most critically endangered species.
Because of the economic downturn, the Wild Animal Orphanage decided to close its doors and has been working with the USDA, the Texas State Attorney General’s Office Charitable Trust Division and the IFAW to dissolve the sanctuary and relocate itsr 300 animals to other facilities.
“IFAW is standing by to help the animals at WAO to find a secure long-term future,” Dr. Ian Robinson, IFAW emergency relief program director, said in a statement. “This unfortunate situation points to the larger issue of the exotic pet trade – wild animals belong in the wild.”
IFAW has had staff working on the ground at WAO feeding and caring for the animals during this transitional time. The group is planning to moves healthy animals to other viable sanctuaries across the country. The tiger move is a small part of the overall rescue effort.
on our planet. Experts predict that tigers may be completely extinct in the wild within the next two decades if habitat loss, poaching and trade in tiger body parts continue unabated.
There are twice as many tigers living in captivity in the U.S. than exist in the wild today. Some 5,000-10,000 tigers live in captivity in the U.S., but as few as 3,000 tigers remain in the wild.
Later this month, IFAW and leaders from 13 countries where wild tigers still live will gather in St. Petersburg, Russia, to adopt a global tiger recovery plan that aims to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 and bring this critically-endangered species back from the brink of extinction.
