Two men, David Kitchen and Ted Greenwood established the sanctuary back in 1998. David owned a fish farm and they had heard about someone who was no longer able to care for a lion and a tiger. They looked at each other and said “why not?” It seemed like the right thing to do and David had the space. He already owned two bears, so what started as an act of kindness towards two soon to be homeless “cats”, became a lifestyle for these two wonderful guys. Together they formed a mission statement for their sanctuary: Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary exists “To provide continuing care, life management and enrichment to exotic and wild animals in need of a home (and) to provide educational opportunities and programs to increase community awareness of the needs of these animals.”

Both are sadly gone now, but their legacy lives on in Wimauma, FL. Ted’s wife, Robin, took over and she, along with a core of volunteers, has brought the sanctuary to what it is today.

Their mission in still very much in place as you will see.

Moving up to the year 2007 – just in time for a not very merry Christmas – the surviving owner of the land the sanctuary was built on informed the organization they would have to relocate. As she explained it, she did not want to have to deal with liability issues nor any other issues that could arise. Everyone worked together to formulate a relocation plan, expecting to have almost a year to complete the move. An even bigger shock came on February 25th, when the landlord set a move-out deadline of March 15th!

Talk about having an overloaded list of Things to Do:
1. Find new land to house lions, tigers, wolves, servals, caracal, lynx, leopards, and more. And of course Elmira, the bear.
2. In two weeks find enough people to help take down the numerous cages and housing the animals were accustomed to.
3. Pack up and move box upon box of records and office supplies – not to mention, the office itself.
4. In less than two weeks find enough people to load and move the building materials that were once home to the animals.

And then what? How do you pack up wildlife and shuffle them off to temporary shelters, not really even knowing for how long? Where will they go? Who will take them in?

Everyone joined together and kicked things into high gear. Within weeks a new piece of property was found. All the members worked tirelessly to pull off the move in a VERY brief period of time. The new tract had none of the comforts available at the current location – no lakes for the big cats to roam about and romp in, no infrastructure (water and electricity to every enclosure, solid buildings – any buildings, period), no perimeter fencing.

Then, just to add a little more tension to the story, they found out another animal sanctuary was forced to close by the state of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission because the owner continued to pile violation after violation: allowing animals to mate, allowing incompatible animals to share living space, and in general a poor example of someone who was supposed to protect these animals’ lives. He was given a reasonable time to close operations and he tried to place some animals but when he could not do so he started killing them. He euthanized several tigers before they could be placed.

In spite of all the hard work they were doing already, the wonderful people of Elmira’s called an emergency meeting and agreed to do whatever it took to bring these animals into their fold. They could not stand by and let him continue killing what he could not place! They found enough funding amongst themselves to fund the construction of a double enclosure to house 4 tigers, and enough extra materials to bring in the rest of the animals.

The hard work and endless dedication to the animals continues on a daily basis. And how do the animals feel about this?

Take a look at me now!

Find out more about Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary.