This poor bobcat was an attempted pet in Oklahoma. She either escaped or was released into the wild to fend for herself.

Emaciated and starving, she had a collar that was so tightly embedded around her neck it had to be cut off.

She weighed half of what she should, and showed old injuries, scrapes and a broken toe.

Fortunately, the wildlife rehabilitation facility that rescued her knew she would need lifetime care at a true sanctuary. She would never be able to hunt or feed herself in the wild since she had been raised by people.

They reached out in search of a true sanctuary and found Forest Animal Rescue.

We will provide her with excellent care for the rest of her life…..This starts with giving her a name. Will you help?

With your gift to help with her care, you can suggest a name for this little girl!

Part of providing high quality care to the animals we rescue involves offering them interesting things to do with their time. See what happens when we give Tony & Roy a HUGE box to play with…

96.3FM – 1370AM Ocala, FL

Learn more about what you can do to get involved with the sanctuary and how to help with the upcoming rescue of two tigers and two bears!

To all of our friends and loyal volunteers,

It is with deepest sorrow, we said goodbye to Kovu today. He had been on a prescription diet for many years to prevent recurrence of Kidney stones that he suffered from many years ago. Until a few days ago, he remained in great health for a cat his age – but he developed stones again and his urinary tract became blocked and damaged. Given his advanced age and age-related kidney disease that was diagnosed last year, there is no way he would recover from this.

This morning Kovu greeted me with his excited ‘meow’ – and struggled to stand and greet me. I had hoped that we could pull him through this but my heart sank when I saw the pain he was in, and there was no solution that I could offer him that he was likely to survive.

It was time for me to blink away my tears, hold my head high and say goodbye. He has been my friend for almost 19 years and this is the kindest gift we could give him. He is in pain no longer.

Kovu has been my buddy since he was a kitten, found living feral when we first started the sanctuary. He was skinny and covered with ringworm and each time I would set him down after medication, he would run a few steps, come back, bite me and run away again. He won my heart with his ‘bad boy’ attitude in such a tiny package. He was always the first to greet people when they came around and always made a lasting impression. He was a little cat with a big cat attitude.

To Kovu, our final goodbye. You will always be fondly remembered. You were with us when we first started the sanctuary and showed us to always love everyone, even if they deserved an occasional bite. You are now reunited with your best friend Puff.

Over the years, volunteers visiting from all over the world have come to love Kovu and his outrageous personality. He will be sorely missed by everyone and will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Thank you to all of the hard-working volunteers who have helped care for the animals at the sanctuary over the years. You have made all of this possible, and Kovu and all of the animals have you to thank for our continued success.

#GivingTuesday will take place on December 1, 2015.

Over the years, an average of 500 animals a year are turned away by our sanctuary – We can’t afford to take all of them…and they have nowhere else to go.

With so many wild animals in inappropriate conditions all over the country, there is a dire need for true sanctuaries. As these animals are abandoned or confiscated, they need a place to call a permanent home.

In 2013 we successfully relocated the entire sanctuary to 80 acres of secluded land. Now, we have finally completed enough construction that we can once again begin rescuing more animals and providing the high quality lifetime care they deserve – in a true, peaceful, sanctuary setting.

In addition, we have begun our “Bear Freedom” project to rehabilitate and release native black bears in need and are the only private facility in Florida doing this!

Please consider the animals when thinking of your Holiday gift-giving. They have no other family to remember them and rely on us to provide for their needs.

Please support the animals and share this message with your friends!

Use hashtag: #GivingTuesday

Many people have been calling with this question.

Here are some answers that may make you feel a little bit better…

• YES, our facility is licensed to rehabilitate black bear cubs, but we can only take cubs brought to us by Wildlife Authorities
• YES, there were lactating females (sows) killed in the hunt
• Were there pregnant females killed in the hunt?
  • Technically NO
  • There were probably females killed that mated over the summer, however, bears have delayed implantation meaning that the blastocysts remain dormant and do not develop into embryos and implant in the uterus until November. This ensures that the young are born while in the den over the winter and emerge in the spring when food is abundant
  • If a female bear does not have sufficient body condition or the environment is not favorable to raise offspring, the blastocysts will be absorbed and no pregnancy will result
• Do the cubs left behind need our help or intervention….NO……why?
  • All black bear cubs are born in January & early February, making them about 9 months old at the time of the hunt
  • Although cubs will stay with their mother until their second summer, by 7 months of age they are typically weaned, although they may continue to nurse a little longer if Mom will allow it
  • By now, the cubs are eating an abundance of natural foods like acorns, palmetto berries and more, mother’s milk is not necessary for their proper development
  • They have already learned everything required for survival from Mom. Black bears do not hunt, they are opportunistic feeders with 85% of their diet consisting of plant matter.
  • Studies show that by their first winter, the yearlings know how to build a ‘nest’ with or without Mom, it is an instinctual behavior
  • They can climb a tree better than any of their natural predators in Florida and will do so immediately when threatened
• Should I go into the woods to try to find cubs orphaned by the hunt? NO!
  • Why? Out of all the female bears in the woods, only a small percentage were killed in the hunt.
  • Not only do the orphaned cubs not need our intervention, if you find a cub in the woods, Mom is probably right behind you!!
  • There are deer hunters in the woods right now – this is not a good time for people to be hiking around and inviting accidents when it truly serves no purpose
  • As stated above, the cubs are old enough to survive on their own. Bringing them into a captive situation simply to offer them food is unnecessary and increases their contact with humans. This puts them at higher risk of becoming nuisance bears and being killed after they are released
• When do bear cubs need our help?
  • Cubs that are orphaned in their first year often need professional intervention in order to survive if they weigh less than 30 pounds on or after August 1
    • In January & February – When they are first born they are tiny and helpless. They cannot thermoregulate and require Mom to take care of their every need. Any cubs orphaned at this age would certainly die without intervention, luckily Mom seldom leaves their side
    • As they begin to grow and Mom takes them out to forage for food in the spring and early summer, they still require mother’s milk and the family is moving. This increases the chances of being hit by a car or finding their way into people’s trash or attractants, learning to become nuisance bears. Nothing is more fatal to a bear than being ‘fed’ by humans. This will create more orphans than any other man-made threat
    • If the cubs are captured getting into garbage and are young enough to need intervention, they usually have a second chance. They can be rehabilitated and released into proper bear habitat for a second chance at growing up as a properly-behaving bears. As an adult, this won’t work for Mom – it is too late for her
• What can I do to help bears in Florida?
  • Share this page
  • Encourage your neighbors and everyone you speak with to contain their trash and attractants
  • Remember that “A fed bear is a dead bear” – and focus on preventing the largest preventable cause of orphaned cubs, nuisance bears created by people failing to secure their trash and bird feeders

Stand by for videos….

2014 Christmas for the Animals