Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It is time now for our community connection. We have
Speaker 1: Cheryl King with us here with the Turpentine Wildlife Refuge,
Speaker 1: and my goodness sakes, we have a big day coming
Speaker 1: up here on Giving Tuesday, Cheryl. But we're going to
Speaker 1: get to that a little bit. For the folks who
Speaker 1: don't know a whole lot about Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge,
Speaker 1: give us a little synopsis here.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Good morning, Tom, and thank you. Yes. Turpentine Creek
Speaker 2: Wildlife Refuge, located just south of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, on
Speaker 2: Highway twenty three, has been rescuing large exotic cats. Our
Speaker 2: mission is to provide sank lifetime refuge specifically my apologies
Speaker 2: specifically for lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, but really we have
Speaker 2: all types of exotic cats here. We've got servs and bobcats,
Speaker 2: so we've got the smaller cats and then we've got
Speaker 2: the big guys too. We rescue them from abuse, neglect,
Speaker 2: or abandonment. Many are relinquished by owners that come to
Speaker 2: realize these are predators, not pets. You know, you start
Speaker 2: out with a cute, cuddly little tiger cub and two
Speaker 2: years later he's four hundred and fifty pounds and you're
Speaker 2: terrified of feeding. So what do you do? You reach
Speaker 2: out to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge and we provide a
Speaker 2: lifetime home for them.
Speaker 1: You've have some celebrity cats too.
Speaker 2: I understand, yes, we do. I suppose we've all heard
Speaker 2: of Tiger King. We have, we have, indeed, and we've
Speaker 2: got you know, we've traced history on a good many
Speaker 2: of our cats, and we took in twenty one total
Speaker 2: from Kim Stark, Jeff and Lauren Lowe. They were all
Speaker 2: players in that drama. But we have traced genesis of
Speaker 2: over sixty of our cats back to Joe Exotic and
Speaker 2: the Greater Winnwood Park and the cub petting that they
Speaker 2: were doing there.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, sakes, it's a it's an interesting that
Speaker 1: you come to the rescue of these these lovely creatures
Speaker 1: you just really need a place to be themselves exactly.
Speaker 2: You know how it all started, Tom was with that
Speaker 2: cub petting. After the cubs get to a certain size,
Speaker 2: and that's at about four months if they underfeed them
Speaker 2: usually typically it's a three month the cats become too
Speaker 2: big to work, you know, interact with the public. Even
Speaker 2: if you declall them, they still have those canines a
Speaker 2: powerful bite, so it's no longer safe. And then they
Speaker 2: just become something that you need to feed. There's very
Speaker 2: little value once they are pulled out of that cub
Speaker 2: petting well, the major money is raided.
Speaker 1: Wow, and this is what you do. You give them
Speaker 1: a great life and they get to at instead of
Speaker 1: just merely surviving. That's beautiful, exactly one.
Speaker 2: Of the joys. These cats often come in quite traumatized.
Speaker 2: They are very fearful of people. They tend to display
Speaker 2: some aggression or they may become withdrawn and you know,
Speaker 2: be seeking isolation. And over time we get to see
Speaker 2: them become what they were meant to be. They understand
Speaker 2: they're safe, they're not being forced into situations they're not
Speaker 2: comfortable in, and we just get to see them become
Speaker 2: the apex predators they should be. You know. Unfortunately they
Speaker 2: are in a cage. There is no way they can
Speaker 2: ever be rehabilitated into the wild. They would be a
Speaker 2: danger to people and they would likely not have the
Speaker 2: skills to survive anyway.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Cheryl Kingsy's with Turputine Greek Wildlife Refuge,
Speaker 1: and you know, when you have critters with that kind
Speaker 1: of appetit, that can't be.
Speaker 2: Cheap, No, sir, it certainly isn't. We're feeding something like
Speaker 2: five hundred to six hundred pounds of meat a week.
Speaker 2: You know what the cost of meat is these days.
Speaker 2: And this is a great time to say, we really
Speaker 2: want to send a shout out to Tyson. They donate
Speaker 2: a lot of the meat that we feed the cats.
Speaker 2: We get a lot of chicken donated from them.
Speaker 1: And of course, so when it comes to the upkeep
Speaker 1: and maintaining the refuge itself are those We do have
Speaker 1: a lot of people who come and visit the park
Speaker 1: and they make their donation and ticket purchases and everything
Speaker 1: else like that. But on top of that, they're just
Speaker 1: cost it just kind of kind of have a tendency
Speaker 1: to grow as time goes by. Nothing is cheap these days.
Speaker 1: We've got Giving Tuesday coming up. Is that something that
Speaker 1: folks could possibly use as a way to say, yep,
Speaker 1: I'm going to write a check.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's so critical to us. We're moving into the
Speaker 2: winter months and you talked about visitors, those tend to
Speaker 2: drop off over the winter months when it's so cold out.
Speaker 2: It's a great time to visit the refuge if you
Speaker 2: don't mind being a little cold. Tigers love the cold weather.
Speaker 2: They're going to be out more active. But we do
Speaker 2: see a decline in visitors during this period and it
Speaker 2: makes it tough to get through those winter months. And
Speaker 2: giving Tuesday is just a huge way for us to
Speaker 2: be able to plan and to make it through the
Speaker 2: spring and make sure that we're meeting all the needs
Speaker 2: of the animals.
Speaker 1: Now, folks who are interested in making that gift, that donation,
Speaker 1: A lot of people look at the year end is
Speaker 1: a time where they make decisions. Some actually look for
Speaker 1: new places in order to donate. How do they get
Speaker 1: a hold of the Wildlife Refuge, the Tern Creek folks,
Speaker 1: and how do they get the ball rolling?
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, so, a couple of exciting things to begin with.
Speaker 2: The huck Family has stepped up this year to initiate
Speaker 2: a sixty thousand dollars Family Match Challenge, So for every
Speaker 2: dollar that donors are able to contribute, so first of all,
Speaker 2: they're all tax deductible as a nonprofit. Year donation to
Speaker 2: the Refuge can be claimed on your taxes as a
Speaker 2: donation as a deduction, and we will be able to
Speaker 2: double dollar for dollar up to sixty thousand. Our goal
Speaker 2: this year is one hundred and twenty thousand, So you know,
Speaker 2: follow us on Facebook, come out and you'll be able
Speaker 2: to find the link to give b which is where
Speaker 2: you can do your online donation and it will be
Speaker 2: tracked across all Giving Tuesday donations and so you can
Speaker 2: go there and you can register. And we're also going
Speaker 2: to have an evening event that night tom at seven
Speaker 2: pm Central. We're going to be premiering a legacy, Robbie's Legacy,
Speaker 2: a documentary film about one of our tigers and the
Speaker 2: cause that we're raising money for this year.
Speaker 1: Well, that is going to be great and folks, you
Speaker 1: don't want to miss that either. And you know, when
Speaker 1: you talk about the work that you're doing there and
Speaker 1: the work you have with your staff and with your volunteers,
Speaker 1: you know, just on behalf of animal lovers everywhere, we
Speaker 1: say thank you because you know, you see what folks
Speaker 1: kind of get into. They really don't know what they
Speaker 1: have until it grows on them a little bit. And
Speaker 1: now you know, you got these great big cats and
Speaker 1: they need a safe place to go. And thank you
Speaker 1: very much for providing at the Safety at the Sanctuary,
Speaker 1: if you will, that refuge for these big cats, so
Speaker 1: that they can enjoy a good, long, safe life.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, Tom. We are just thrilled to be
Speaker 2: doing the evening event. You know, our goal this year
Speaker 2: is we lost our tiger Robbie to a tickborn illness.
Speaker 2: You know, we're all familiar with that here in Oklahoma, Arkansas.
Speaker 2: Ticks are just a bane of our life in the
Speaker 2: country here, and unfortunately they can be carriers of bobcat fever,
Speaker 2: and so for those of you at home that have
Speaker 2: domestic cats, you'll be very interested in this There. We're
Speaker 2: going to be talking about Provecto, which is a tick
Speaker 2: prevention medication, and we'll be going through Robbie's legacy. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: he did contract zytoxinosis, which is bobcat fever, and he
Speaker 2: did pass away. So our goal this year is to
Speaker 2: treat every animal here at the Refuge with tick preventative medicine.
Speaker 2: It's quite expensive and you'll be able to learn all
Speaker 2: about that at the event on Tuesday, December third at
Speaker 2: seven pm.
Speaker 1: All Right, folks, make sure you tune in for that.
Speaker 1: You don't want to miss it. And you know it's
Speaker 1: kind of bittersweet. You got the beautiful cat and you
Speaker 1: know what happens. But moving forward, we know how to
Speaker 1: preserve our cats going ahead. But the exactly this is
Speaker 1: going to be one, it's going to tug at you
Speaker 1: a little bit, but it's going to be okay, And
Speaker 1: I want you folks to tune in and get yourself
Speaker 1: a little bit of an education on that. Now you
Speaker 1: have a Facebook and you do have your website that's available,
Speaker 1: and I got to tell you, once you get on
Speaker 1: the website, it's pretty easy to navigate. So if you're
Speaker 1: not too good with a computer like yours, truly here,
Speaker 1: you can still get around on there point clicking, it'll
Speaker 1: take you where you need to go. You're not going
Speaker 1: to get lost. You're not going to go down a hole.
Speaker 1: It's where am I. So hats off to your folks
Speaker 1: who took care of that.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And you know what, it's pretty exciting. If
Speaker 2: you donate, you're going to be entered into drawings. Throughout
Speaker 2: the day. We're going to be giving away some behind
Speaker 2: the scenes tours our Carnivore caravan tour very popular, along
Speaker 2: with maybe some pall print paintings, some big cat call
Speaker 2: out vouchers. So every donation you're entered for an opportunity
Speaker 2: to win a fun.
Speaker 1: Prize, Well you're just pulling out all the stops, miss Cheryl.
Speaker 2: Well we want to give back when you give to us,
Speaker 2: in whatever capacity we can.
Speaker 1: All right, Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, Thank you very much
Speaker 1: one of Oh do we miss anything, Cheryl? Is there
Speaker 1: something we need to add before we go?
Speaker 2: I don't think so, but I do want to share
Speaker 2: our website at www dot Turpentinecreek dot org. Head on
Speaker 2: over there and check out our Facebook page.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Cheryl,