Donors Get New Fridge For Tigers, Friends

Pittsboro, N.C. — An exotic animal sanctuary received enough donations to replace a broken cooler that stores meats and fruits for its animals.

"We have been absolutely amazed at the speedy and overwhelmingly generous response from the public to our plea for help last week," said excutive director Pam Fulk.

The 20-year-old compressor for the Carnivore Trust's walk-in cooler went kaput last week, threatening to spoil more than 100 boxes of bananas and other fruit.

The nonprofit received more than $14,000 in cash and other in-kind donations this past week, said Fulk. The animals' food supply will be kept fresh by a new walk-in cooler and back-up refrigeration unit, Fulk said.

Robert Rehkop of C.C. Dickson, Phil Spaulding of Cold Shot Refrigeration and Mark Herman of MSH Consulting Group are all providing products and service for free or at deep discounts, said Fulk.

The CPT houses 85 animals on its 32-acre compound on Hank's Chapel Road south of Pittsboro, from tigers to kinkajous, a tropical cousin of the raccoon, to a binturong, a Southeast Asia bearcat.

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I remember the story about the panhandler who worked the intersection out by Crabtree Valley Mall, made so much money doing it that he didn't need to work. I've known people in the past who would hit the food bank every time there was a hurricane even though they didn't lose power, and hit any church or other organization giving out free stuff at christmas, and these were households with a least one person working full time if not more. Funny, I've never met a "poor" person that was ever out of cigarettes. Domestic animals depend on their humans for care. Wild animals that have been attempted to be domesticated can't be released into the wild anymore, because they don't know and were never taught how to fend for themselves in the wild. When your tiger cub becomes 900 pounds and still wants to sit in your lap and be rocked to sleep at times, then you have a problem. Personally, I'd much rather help support an animal shelter or animal rescue than one or more human scammers any time

Silver loves Rebel Red puppies
July 11, 2007 1:02 p.m.

I've been out there in the past, they do great by these animals. I just had read a story where one of their tigers had been placed at a zoo years ago, and now the zoo was closing and they were going to be returning this tiger back to Pittsboro. Kind of neat that they will be able to place her back with her former cage-mate again. They also took in the two small tiger cubs that were found on the roadside up in the mountains about a year and a half ago. If you check their website, they do tours, etc.

phantassy
July 11, 2007 10:27 a.m.

I have volunteered out at the trust on several occassions. This place exists because all the animals out there were taken from people who thought it would be " cool" to have a wild animal as a pet. Many of these animals have suffered terrible cruelty at the hands of human ( some are blind, some are missing limbs) and can not be returned to the wild.

twowolves
July 11, 2007 10:17 a.m.

OALA-I agree. I work with a lady who goes down town during XMAS time to get the presents from the salvation army or whomever gives it out to get free toys for her kids basically when she is gainfully employed and gets support. It is not fair that a few bad apples take away from those who really need it. People are selfish and uncaring. I never thought about the endangered wildlife being unable to fend for themselves. Thank you for giving me a different perspective.

ctrl+alt+delete
July 11, 2007 9:42 a.m.

Geisha Girl- I think the problem is with perception. These animals have been taken out of their natural environment and now cannot fend for themselves, therefore we must help in order to ensure their survival (or put them back where they belong). But sometimes people feel that the human beings (who need help) aren't doing enough to help themselves. It only takes one person pulling a scam to make a group of people look bad. While the majority of people who visit the food bank or panhandle probably need it, the ones who take advantage of it while not needing it ruins it for others (I had a friend who would "grocery shop" at the food bank and other places where they handed out food for free because it saved him on his overall grocery bill- made me sick!)