Another fantastic article by our local newspaper. They researched the entire article and even have a quote from Bob Barker himself!

http://www.ocala.com/news/20170901/price-is-right-for-new-animal-building

We are so excited to start construction – everything has been waiting on this permit – but we had ‘stalled’ in our fundraising due to the uncertain timing of the project. Now the contractor is moving ahead quickly and we don’t want to stop construction while we raise money!

Will you join Mr Barker in supporting the sanctuary and help complete the project?

We need to keep the donations coming in as fast as our contractor can build! 

Donate Now

If you prefer, your tax-deductible gift can be mailed to:

Forest Animal Rescue
640 NE 170th Ct.
Silver Springs, FL 34488

Forest Animal Rescue (FAR) is an accredited wild animal sanctuary. Founded in 1998, FAR has a strong history of rescuing wild animals from inappropriate captive situations and educating others about the plight these animals face in captivity. Their mission of providing lifetime care to nonreleasable wild animals has recently expanded to include rehabilitation and release of wild black bear cubs.

Forest Animal Rescue has almost 100 animals at their 80-acre sanctuary in the Ocala National Forest in Marion County. This wooded sanctuary provides forever homes to animals ranging from big cats to wolves, bears, primates and more that were born into captivity and had nowhere else to go.

On September 21, Two organizations, Tigers in America (TIA) and Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR), purchased the property and equipment of a Colorado based animal facility, whose owner was in ill health and wanted to ensure the well-being of the 110 wild animals on the property. He donated the animals to TCWR with the understanding that they would put the welfare of the animals first.

Many of the animals from Colorado are in need of veterinary care and an enormous amount of work needs to be done before winter sets in at the property in Colorado.

So far, TCWR has moved 27 big cats to their facility in Arkansas and TIA has committed to placing and transporting the remainder of the animals who need new forever homes to the best big cat sanctuaries in the U.S.; some of them will be making the trip to Florida before the Holidays.

Forest Animal Rescue is part of that combined effort. FAR is planning to accept two tigers and two black bears in desperate need of forever homes, and will be quickly building acreage habitats to give them the space and comfort they deserve right here in Marion County.

This project is an enormous undertaking and the cooperation and generosity of the animal sanctuary community cannot be overstated. This is an unprecedented showing of sanctuaries working together to make sure no big cat or exotic animal will be left behind.

Thanks to all of your outstanding reviews, we are a Top-Rated Nonprofit again this year on GreatNonProfits.org

We couldn’t have done it without you!

Keep the reviews coming and help spread the word about the sanctuary to help us continue our expansion.

The hard-working Alternative Break students take a pledge to perform community service instead of joining their partying classmates during spring break. They are a remarkable group of volunteers and have always accomplished amazing things for the animals

First to arrive were 10 students from the UCF for a week. The following week 15 hard workers from OSU and 10 more from UK joined forces to pick up where UCF left off.

They planted trees and thick landscaping to provide shade and visual barriers for the animals at the sanctuary. Then they dug holes 4-5 feet deep and helped to install some new 8′ tall fencing around the building site for our new Bob Barker Animal Care Building.

Stay tuned, more volunteers and photos coming this week!

Kisa, a Siberian lynx, was one of the lucky ones. She was among the very first animals we rescued when we started in 1998. She was very young…and was born at a fur farm in Canada, where she would have eventually been killed for her beautiful fur, but instead she moved to Florida.

She and her sister Sasha came together, joining Misha, another Siberian lynx that we had rescued not long before.

The three lived their lives happily at the sanctuary, thriving in the most natural sanctuary setting we could provide. They moved up to the Ocala National Forest with us two years ago (along with all of the other animals)

Sadly, last year we lost Misha and Sasha and now we have lost Kisa….

She was 17 years old and had a great life with her buddies at the sanctuary….but it still hurts to say goodbye. Kisa was the last of the original animals from when the sanctuary first started. It is a comfort to know that she was in excellent health right up to the end, but it till never gets any easier, these animals feel like part of our family.

These first few years after the move have been difficult. Since so many of our animals came to us when we first opened our doors, they have all grown old at one time. True sanctuaries always fill up quickly; we continued to rescue animals but were forced to slow the pace because we must ensure that we have the budget and ability to properly care for animals before we can accept them.

Our animal residents are continuing to age. We temporarily stopped rescuing animals during our ‘big move’ and have been in a bit of a holding pattern on that front until we finish the habitat expansions for the animals already in our care.

Although we are able to take in a few more rescues now we must be careful not to take our attention away from building the infrastructure and habitat expansions for over 100 animals already in our care. We will make careful decisions on a case by case basis, but I’m sure you will be seeing news of new rescues this year!

Last but certainly not least!

The University of Delaware Alternative Break group consisted of 40 students who worked extremely hard. They tried to complete the bear habitat and came very close…but we ran out of time. The completion of the project is finally within our grasp – thanks to the hard working volunteers from Delaware!

Thank you to all of our amazing Alternative Break volunteers – we couldn’t do it without you!

We will be organizing groups of local volunteers to work on specific days to finish the project – contact us about volunteering if you would like to help!

Of course, we can still use everyone’s help to pay for the materials that we need to complete the project, all donations are tax deductible!

They are all such impressive people, giving of themselves to help the animals and working so hard in the heat to help us complete this massive project. Thank you guys for making such amazing progress for the bears!

42 students arrived on Monday to spend 4 days of hard work during their spring break. They are working on the construction of our 4-acre bear habitat and making great progress!

This same group was here last year and constructed the fencing around our horse pasture – we were lucky enough to have them join us again.

Below is a video that they made during their visit last year…we will see if they make another one from this year’s visit.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/HRa1cVvpJD0[/youtube]