
It’s Spring in South Africa and our sanctuary residents have been busy, busy, busy – enjoying themselves and watching the humans working hard to keep them safe.
Continue readingIt’s Spring in South Africa and our sanctuary residents have been busy, busy, busy – enjoying themselves and watching the humans working hard to keep them safe.
Continue readingThis week Zeus was taken to hospital after having difficulty getting up and being unsteady when he walked. Our veterinarian, Peter, decided Zeus needed to come into hospital.
Continue readingHalloween is around the corner and that means special treats and fun for the 42 lions and tigers at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary!
Continue readingThere have always been wildfires but climate change is making them worse, and human lack of care for our planetary systems is the cause.
Since 1998, we have had the ten hottest years on record, and nine of those have been since 2005. Overall our planet is getting hotter. Record breaking temperatures and drought have preceded many of the worst fires – fuelled by dried out land and plants, the fires have grown larger and faster.
In a region where wildfires are a seasonal part of life, to protect the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary it is surrounded by a 70ft firebreak, and there are firebreaks around every animal habitat. Thanks to a generous, anonymous founder we now have four firefighters – portable water tanks with motors and high-pressure hoses. Our new truck, sponsored by the Robert R Sprague Foundation, and the trailer our supporters helped purchase, have improved the speed of our response. We can be at all points of the sanctuary very quickly, and have added overhead water stations to top up the firefighters at speed.
We are part of a community working together to put out fires in the area. Hadio, who patiently gives our animals their medications, has also put out a local blaze spotted by the ADIWS team. Last year, when a car crashed nearby, exploded and sent flames racing towards the sanctuary, our team scrambled and the fire was stopped dead in its tracks at our perimeter firebreak.
To stop the human-caused warming of our planet, we must cut greenhouse gases by replacing fossil fuels with renewable clean energy, as we are doing with solar power at the ADIWS. We understand it is not yet possible for everything – air travel with renewable energy is years away, but people are working on it.
We are setting up a scheme to enable people who must travel by air, to offset it with a donation to plant trees at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary! This will be based on existing carbon pollution offset schemes – and you will be able to see tangible results, your trees growing and our sanctuary transforming. Until this is available, you can support tree-planting at the ADIWS here.
When we first announced we would be building a sanctuary, we said we would make it a green sanctuary. We have planted trees and begun returning land to nature that had been degraded by farming and chemicals. Our fences, motorised gates, heated floors for senior animals, security lights and CCTV cameras are all solar powered. Recently we began converting the hot water in our accommodation to solar. We are self-sufficient in water from our springs and taking steps to preserve this precious resource. We plan to install our own eco-friendly waste disposal and water re-cycling and filtration system.
Our friends at sanctuary Big Cat Rescue in Florida (where ADI took ex-circus tigers Hoover, Max, Simba, and Kimba) realized how important this project is, and understand the financial challenges for a new sanctuary. BCR has kindly offered ADI a matching grant of $50,000 towards our green waste recycling system. If we can raise $50,000 in the coming months we will have sustainable, planet-friendly waste disposal and clean water security forever. Can you help?
Education – governments and next generations: To bring about change, we need to educate and increase awareness of the damage we do, without thinking. We must make governments pay attention and accelerate the shift to renewable energy that is kind to our planet and other earthlings. End government subsidies for industries that damage the planet, and transfer assistance to earthling-kind industries. With your help, our Jean Warner Sprague Education Center will be taking this message to South African school children.
South Africa’s winter months are over, temperatures are rising, and the lions and tigers are enjoying the changing seasons; getting up earlier to stretch out in the sunshine, hunkering down in the shade in the hottest part of the day, livelier in late afternoon and after dusk.
Continue readingAfter a stay in hospital, Shakira has returned home. Now 14 years old, Shakira was rescued from a circus in Colombia and lives at the sanctuary with Easy, the two lionesses almost inseparable.
Our care team had noticed Shakira looked uncomfortable and did not want her food. We consulted with our veterinarian Dr Peter Caldwell and, after encouraging her into her night house and then travel crate – a great show of trust in her carers and avoiding any need for sedatives – Shakira was soon on her way to the hospital.
Following antibiotic treatment, Shakira initially recovered and started to eat again but then regressed. Dr Caldwell took x-rays, several different ultrasounds and blood tests. It is an unusual condition – there is a problem with her chest lining around her lungs and other organs – requiring consultation with specialists.
After spending a few days in the hospital and responding well to treatment, which she will continue to receive, she was able to come home to the sanctuary.
The need to get Shakira quickly to the hospital emphasized our next MOST URGENT NEED: A TRAILER FOR THE SANCTUARY.
At present, for hospital trips, rescues and emergencies, we have to hire a trailer – as we did, and at very short notice, for Shakira. With your help, we can be ready to take our animals to the hospital, as needed, go to the aid of animals like horses and donkeys in need of help, and collect grass and hay bedding for our rescued big cats.
If you can sponsor the entire trailer, we can put your name on the side, “sponsored by….” And any additional funds raised will go to other essential work at our young sanctuary.
We’ve launched a new range of t-shirts, tanks and sweatshirts (available only until August 18th) in a range of colors, featuring tiger Kumal rescued from a circus cage in Guatemala and lion David saved from a circus in Peru. Both are now loving life at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary.
Continue readingThanks to the Robert R Sprague Foundation, we have a great new pick-up truck (bakkie in South Africa), as part of a grant to help the sanctuary through the COVID-19 crisis. This really is an essential addition to the ADIWS – it has been a real struggle with just one rather battered truck up to now. Almost every lion and tiger came out to see the new bakkie as it toured and we think they gave it the paws up!
Two years ago, we did not even own the land on which this sanctuary is built. Today we have enclosures for 42 rescued lions and tigers covering 68 acres (almost 3 million square feet of animal habitats), so a vehicle to get around them is really useful!
With our fundraising efforts focused on survival at present, this was a huge boost.
We’d like to add a special personal thanks to Dr Lo Sprague without whom we could not have got the Guatemala tigers and lions home (she was part of our crew flying with them too!) and whose personal support has been essential to creating our sanctuary.
Thank you to everyone who is helping us through the ongoing global financial crisis. You really are making a difference to these animals’ lives. Everything helps, and if you are able to give today, please do so here:
We are heartbroken to have to say farewell to our dear Junior. Hundreds of you sent messages of support after Junior was diagnosed with cancer and we all rooted for him but it was not to be.
Continue readingAs South Africa moves into winter, there is a lot of preparation going on at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary so that our lions and tigers will be cozy and warm.
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