Carolina Tiger Rescue receives influx of wild animals

The Carolina Tiger Rescue just got a whole lot furrier.

An influx of wild animals in the past year has completely filled the Pittsboro-based operation, halting all of the organization’s rescues.

The sanctuary has rescued 15 animals in the past year, including its most recent arrival — a caracal named Destiny.

Destiny arrived at the center on Sept. 22 from a private owner in Tennessee.

“She’s kind of scared right now — they always are when you first move them,” said Pam Fulk, executive director of Carolina Tiger Rescue.

“It takes a couple weeks.”

Fulk said the sanctuary has seen a steady increase in calls for animal rescue since the center reopened in 2005.

“I think that the words have just gotten out there that we have room and we have the resources,” she said.

The center received four new tigers this year, bringing its total to 12 tigers. The center also has three lions, a cougar and several other breeds of wild cats.

But Fulk said choosing what animals to rescue is a long process.

“We have a whole decision tree that we go through every time we consider a rescue,” Fulk said.

She said this includes the animal’s health and available habitats.

“The last thing we look at is how they line up with our core values,” Fulk said.

She said they will not take any animals from a breeder or a circus because they do not want to enable these businesses to keep using exotic animals.

Fulk said they will need to build more habitats in order to house any more rescued animals.

“The unrestrained breeding is not helping the situation,” Fulk said. “It puts a legitimate strain on the sanctuaries that are out there.”

And UNC students are getting involved.

Senior Allison Hargett, co-chairwoman of the undergraduate animal awareness group UNC Helping Paws, said her organization supports the work Carolina Tiger Rescue does.

“Our goal is to work with the animals that are currently in bad situations,” she said.

Hargett said members of the organization have volunteered with the Carolina Tiger Rescue, where they work on repairing and expanding the growing rescue center.

She added that North Carolina is one of the few states without regulations for wild animal ownership and the center receives a lot of animals from private owners who keep the animals as pets.

“Wild animals are just not the same sort of creatures,” she said.

Zach Ferguson, a student at the UNC School of Law, is the president of the UNC Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, an organization that discusses animal law and tries to promote legislation to students and faculty.

“Some counties have stricter regulations, others have none,” Ferguson said. “I would like to see a state law addressing the issue.”

Ferguson said he supports the mission of the Carolina Tiger Rescue.

“I really appreciate sanctuaries and the rescue for exotic animals, because usually we focus on pets,” he said. “We appreciate the work they’re doing.”

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