Volunteer and help Exotic Cats in Texas!!!

I had blogged about Insync Exotics, a non-profit organization based out of Wylie, Tx which is working towards providing safe, decent, and healthy homes to abandoned, ill treated and diseased exotic cats. I volunteered at this place on two occasions and though I would like to do more the paucity of time has prevented me from spending more time working with these regal cats. I do hope that sometime soon I will be able to make the time to volunteer at the shelter.

Anyway yesterday I got an e-mail from the volunteer coordinator which I would like to append for all my readers so if any of you are free you could help out.

VOLUNTEERS WANTED!

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!!

In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Educational Center is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue and care of abused and neglected exotic cats. We are building three new enclosures for several of our cats and need people willing to help with construction. All materials and equipment are supplied; you only need to bring yourself - and any willing friends! This is a great opportunity for service groups or individuals looking to meet community service requirements or simply wanting to be involved in something great!

For more information about volunteering or to make a donation, feel free to “take a tab” and give us a call or visit our website at http://www.insyncexotics.com or call on 972–442-6888

Visiting a Wild Cat Rescue Facility

Yesterday I finally was able to make it to In-Sync Exotics a facility which cares for exotic cats. "Exotic cats" are those Tigers, Lions, Cougars, Leopards and similar wild animals that have been bred in captivity to satisfy the whims, fancies and satiate an individual's pride. Some of them have even been subjected to cruel treatment such as getting de-clawed, de-toothed etc and they obviously don't have the capacity to get back and live in the wild.

Recently I heard a statistic which made my jaw drop... "There are more Royal Bengal Tigers in captivity in Texas, than there are in the wild". After visiting In-Sync and listening to the stories of these large, adorable cats I am more than convinced that this statistic is quite true. Apparently there are several Petting Zoos and amusement parks in Texas where they bring in 2-week old tiger cubs and have visiting children take pictures with these cubs. Once these cubs reach an age of 3-3½ months, they are too large to be carried by children and too dangerous too. At this point in time they are just discarded, and this is when In-Sync and other similar shelters come into play.

These shelters are permanent residence for these cats till their death. Committed volunteers help the non-profit take care of the animals. Funding is completely by private donations. Looks like I will be spending a substantial amount of my weekend time at In-Sync soon....

Houston Zoo - Fantastic Collection of Exotic Animals

I thought I had finished with my Houston trip, but I was going through some of my pictures and I realized that I had completely bypassed some exotic locations such as the Museum of Art, the Zoo and other places we visited in Houston. The Houston zoo was the first I visited in the US and I am pretty impressed with the collection of animals and the number of people visiting the place. Kids, parents and young people everyone yelling, squealing and happy to see the animals... I saw some really rare and exotic species of animals here... some of which I had never seen in my life. The Giraffe with its long neck, the large and regal grizzly bear, numerous exotic varieties of animals from Africa, South America etc.

One thing left me a little dazed... shelters for large mammals like the Leopard, Tiger, Lion etc were so small that these cats hardly had any space to move around and stretch their legs. In a continent-sized nation like America and particularly in Texas where everything is Texas Sized,... I wonder why these enclosures were so pitiably small... I hope this will be rectified soon... The sea lion demonstration was too good...