• Support your Wildlife Sanctuaries – The Catty Shack Ranch

• 30 January 2012 by CaryTheLabelGuy 0 Comments

On January 22nd 2012 we had the opportunity to visit the Catty Shack Ranch, a wildlife sanctuary in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Catty Shack Ranch’s mission is to provide a safe environment and home for the world’s big cat species that are endangered or threatened due to loss of natural habitat. Their primary focus is in the rescue of cats from very serious situations. Once the animals are rescued by the Catty Shack Ranch, they have a permanent and safe home for the rest of their lives. This allows these majestic and beautiful animals to live their lives in a loving, comfortable, safe and happy environment.

As we spent time with the animals, you could easily see their amazing personalities; it was wonderful to watch these cats interact with the sanctuary staff. There were several instances where a mature Lion named Freddy rubbed up against a sanctuary staff member, through a chain-link fence, as if he were a house cat, loving on his owner. I’ve never seen a big cat exude this kind of affection towards a human being. It was clear to us that Freddy and the other cats yearned for attention from their human counterparts – which was confirmed by one of the staff members, which stated that Freddy, for instance, was a VERY sweet cat. We could easily see this in Freddy as well as the other amazing cats at the sanctuary. Curt LoGiudice, the sanctuary’s Curator, is famous for the special bond he creates with the cats at the sanctuary. It’s not hard to see how happy these animals really are and for good reason. Their quality of life at the sanctuary is very high, which can easily been seen in the cat’s attitudes and personalities.

On New Year’s Eve 2012, the Catty Shack Ranch adopted 5 Siberian Tiger cubs from a South Florida breeder in exchange for a promise from the breeder that they would stop breeding tigers. The 5 tiger cubs are from 2 different litters and range from 6 weeks to 8 weeks old.

There are wildlife sanctuaries like the Catty Shack Ranch all over the country and they need our support to help them keep the animals fed and safe as well as allow the ability to rescue and care-for more animals in need. As photographers, we often get to spend time photographing nature’s amazing animals, so this is a subject close to our hearts. We plan on going back to capture more images and video of these wonderful animals and the amazing staff that care for and love these majestic cats!

If you would like to view all of the images we captured on our visit to the Catty Shack Ranch, please click here to visit the portfolio entry. If you would like to visit the Catty Shack Ranch or would like to donate to their cause, please visit their website here.

 

 

506 days ago by CaryTheLabelGuy in Nature, Photography | You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site