ALPINE, Calif. — With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we humans aren’t the only ones with turkey feasts on our minds.
The big cats at Lions, Tigers, and Bears like to chow down on turkey too.
CBS 8’s Brian White paid a visit to the animal sanctuary in Alpine to find out what they have planned for their holiday meals.
“There you go. Good boy,” said a volunteer as she fed Hank, a 20-year-old white tiger rescued from an Ohio breeding facility shut down years ago.
“Yup, here comes Moka,” exclaimed a tour guide while directing the crowd’s attention to an orange tiger approaching his meal. Moka was confiscated at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in August 2017 when Customs and Border Protection officers found the tiger cub, at the time, on the floorboard of a car. The 18-year-old driver was sentenced to 6 months in jail for attempting to smuggle Moka into the United States from Mexico.
“So you want to put it down to her face? That’s perfect,” said a volunteer to the crowd of about a dozen people while feeding Conga, a leopard rescued from a roadside breeder in Texas in 2003.
“She’s got a lot of personalities. She’s full of life,” said Bobbi Brink, founder, and director of Lions, Tigers, and Bears. “She doesn’t miss a beat. She’s right in the center of everything. She’s very energetic.”
65 animals live at the sanctuary and have 19 different species, each of which has its own story.
“Every animal here is a rescue, and you know, wild animals belong in the wild, but these animals, they can’t go back in the wild, or they wouldn’t be here,” said Brink. “They’re either abandoned, abused, confiscated. Many of them have many medical issues before they come here.”
The Alpine sanctuary has been around for 20 years and survives solely on donations.
“It costs about $15,000 to $17,000 a year just to feed one tiger,” said Brink. “And that doesn’t include their habitat, insurance, electricity, you know, your basic medical care.”
To help raise money this holiday season, the staff is throwing a Thanksgiving Turkey Bash on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 25 and 26, at 10:00 a.m.
“Of course, humans aren’t the only ones to get turkeys,” said Brink. “We give all our big cat's turkeys and our bear's pumpkins filled with all kinds of goodies.”
And if you play your cards right, the staff may even let you feed the animals, from a distance, of course.
“It’s very enjoyable, and they’re taking good care of them and rescued them from terrible situations,” said Gail Reynolds, who toured the sanctuary Wednesday. “It’s wonderful. I want to come back.”
If you’d like to register for the Thanksgiving Turkey Bash, you can go here, or if you’d like to support their mission, you can find more information here.
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