Josh was suppose to surprise me and take me to the Omaha zoo for my birthday. But it decided to snow up there that weekend. SO he took off the weekend in my spring break and we went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We stayed at Turpentine Creek, Wildlife Refuge. It is a non-profit org and takes care of exotic animals, mostly big cats when someone can't anymore. Most of the animals they have, they got from someone thinking they would make a nice pet, then they get to be 600 lbs and can no longer control them. Others have been harmed by their owners, some had their teeth ripped out, or raised in tiny cages.
It was so amazing seeing them so close up. Several of them had sad stories, but it was nice to see how well they were taking care of there. They had over 100 big cats. Since we stayed there, we had our own entrance to the park, and heard the cats roar at night while lying in bed. Our room we stayed, we had to sign a waiver saying no children was staying in it because it had over $1000 worth of artwork. But When looking at the price tags on all of them, it was around $6k. Some of the cats had smaller homes than others, we asked why. They said that a ideal habitat for them cost $22,000. So they pretty much just rely on donations and have to save enough to build more homes. It was a surprise to see that Wal-Mart and Tyson donate all of their meat and chicken. They go through 300,000lbs of it annually.
It was a great place and recommend it to anyone. It was a nice place to get away, even though I had to study on the car ride there. = /
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