Tigers, Friends Need New Fridge

The 20-year-old compressor for the Carnivore Preservation Trust's walk-in cooler went kaput last week, forcing staffers at the nonprofit to begin storing bananas, raw chicken and other foods in their household refrigerators, animal curator Kathryn Bertok said.

"We lost a lot of fruit every day because we don't have enough space to keep it cool," Bertok said. "The quantities (of food) we're dealing with are huge."

The CPT has 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.

A new cooler for the food costs $14,000, and more money is donated daily, Bertok said. But more money is needed so the CPT can properly store the animals' food, she said.

"We have donations coming in. We have reached at least the halfway mark," she said.

Anyone wishing to donate can call the CPT at 919-542-4684.