The Captive Wildlife Crisis Needs Our Help
Jacquie Vaux is proud to announce that she will be the featured artist at a benefit to be held to support the Wild Animal Sanctuary in nearby Keensburg, Colorado. This event will be held at The Art and Frame Company, 119 West Oak St., in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado on Friday, May 3, 2013 from 6 until 9 PM.
[Fort Collins ], [CO], [May 2, 2013 ] – What do you do when that cuddly little tiger or lion cub grows up and outweighs you by 2 or 3 or more times? Or what do you do when that adorable bear cub develops claws that could tear through any wall? Many owners of captive wildlife are unable to deal with the consequences of adopting these animals as pets. As a result, the overwhelming majority of these magnificent creatures are left to live in terrible conditions.When she realize this, Pat Craig started working on a solution. She created the Wild Animal Sanctuary by first adopting large carnivores on her family farm outside of Boulder Colorado, but soon outgrew that facility and moved to a large ranch outside of Lyons, Colorado where they remained for 8 years until a quarry was established nearby. They then moved to their current location outside Keensburg, CO, where they have 720 acres. This has enabled them to set up large individual habitats ranging from 10 to 25 acres specifically designed for each species that they accommodate.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a wonderful organization dedicated to adopting and caring for large wild carnivores that have been neglected abandoned and often mistreated. They are the only animal rescue group that provides large natural habitats for their animals. This is no easy task since they currently house over 290 large carnivores including lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, and bears.
Although they frequently are called by local state and even federal authorities to rescue these animals, they receive no monetary support from any governmental agency. They operate solely through donations which they are able to generate. Fortunately, they have been able to find generous donors who have supplied them with their time, talents, expertise and materials to build and maintain their most beneficial program.
Pat frequently states “At The Wild Animal Sanctuary the animals always come first!” Their mission is threefold: 1 – to rescue large carnivores and prevent their further mistreatment; 2 – to care for these animals and provide them with the best possible habitat, enabling them to enjoy the rest of their lives; 3 – to educate the public regarding the Captive Wild Animal Crisis.
Pat stresses, “Educating the public to prevent further escalation of this problem is essential to creating a long term solution.” The sanctuary also contains an educational facility, and a speakers bureau has been created to extend this information out into the community. “Did you realize that there are over 4000 privately owned tigers in the state of Texas alone? And did you know these are more than currently exist in the wild?”
Jacquie Vaux states “I feel very strongly about supporting this most deserving organization, I’m asking everyone I know to support them in their most worthy cause.” As a result she is donating her time effort and animal art to this fund raising benefit. This event will be hosted by The Fine Art and Frame Company, 119 West Oak St., Downtown, Fort Collins, Colorado, on May 3, 2013 from 6 PM to 9 PM.
You can see more of Jacquie’s artwork at:jacquievauxart.com or learn more by reading this blog.
