Sheba, a nine-year-old Indonesian tiger, just ended a ten-year stay in a concrete enclosure for her new, grassy and spacious sanctuary. The tiger, who was bought by an exotic animal enthusiast as a cub in Oklahoma, was given up when she grew too big, and spent the next decade at a campground in Arkansas. When the camp's director decided the campground was no longer the best place for Sheba to live, they contacted the International Fund for Animal Welfare, asking the organization to find her a home at a qualified wildlife sanctuary.
Now, thanks to IFAW and In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Educational Center, Sheba made the big move from her campground cage to a sanctuary in Wylie, Texas, where she will have a much more natural new home.
One Green Planet reports that Sheba's story isn't so unusual.
IFAW's Wildlife Rescue Program Officer, Kelly Donithan, tells OGP that there may be around 10,000 big cats, including tigers, lions and other endangered big felines, under private ownership across the U.S. While certain areas have laws against exotic animal ownership, Donithan tells us that there are still "several states without any regulations on owning big cats" and that "breeders [are] willing to sell them to individuals for any purpose."
