Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) The widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

The annual #GivingTuesday will take place on November 30, 2021.

Here are the top 5 reasons to give to Forest Animal Rescue:

1. The animals we rescue come from situations of abuse, neglect, confiscation and have nowhere else to go
2. The animals we rescue receive high-quality, lifetime care at a true sanctuary for the rest of their lives
3. The animals we rescue will never be exploited, bred, or sold 
4. You can support our sanctuary, knowing that your gift will be used responsibly, by a charity with a solid track record of rescuing animals for 23 years – we are their last stop, their last hope.
5. You can make a real difference

Meanwhile…Today is Cyber Monday!

Please remember that when you are shopping online, you can help the rescued animals at Forest Animal Rescue at no extra cost to you!

Here are the best ways to help:

Amazon Smile – When doing regular shopping on Amazon, simply start out at http://smile.amazon.com On your first visit, you can select a charity to support, and that charity will be saved in your profile. As long as you start out your shopping at the AmazonSmile link, Amazon will donate .5% of everything you buy to your selected charity. You can select Forest Animal Rescue and Amazon will donate to us!

While shopping online at other places, you can also raise money for us at no cost to you…simply visit Goodshop and sign up to select Forest Animal Rescue as the charity you support. As you shop all of your favorite stores online, all you need to do is start out at the Goodshop page and then follow the links to your favorite online stores, and a percentage of everything you purchase will be donated to us to help the animals!

How easy is that?! It doesn’t cost you a penny and it helps the animals while you shop online!

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

Use hashtag: #GivingTuesday

For the first time sine 1918, a solar eclipse will shadow the United States

Eclipse, one of Forest Animal Rescue’s rescued wolf hybrids is convinced that this day is named after HIM!

This eclipse is special – it is a coast-to-coast solar eclipse, nicknamed the “Great American Eclipse” and will be the first of its kind seen in 99 years.

Now is your chance, if you miss this one, the next total solar eclipse in North American will be on April 8, 2024 and there will be fewer states in the path of totality.

Enjoy this amazing sight, but be safe – remember to avoid looking directly at the sun or you may damage your eyesight.

How can you see it safely? Use Eclipse glasses – if they are sold out in your area (as they have been in our area for weeks), you can try welding goggles – here is a link with more information

The article is called “On the Wild Side” and can be read online or in their April issue at Ocala area businesses.

The article focuses on three animal facilities in Marion County – read all the way to the end to see what she says about Forest Animal Rescue.

Thank you JoAnn Guidry for writing such a nice article!

Since their arrival at Forest Animal Rescue just before Christmas, Cody and Oatmeal have been playing nonstop. They are incredibly happy with their new home in sunny Florida…and they haven’t even experienced the best part yet!

They are loving their pool, climbing platform and the ball that we gave them, but they will soon be out of their quarantine habitat and into a wooded 4-acre compound with three other black bears, Dolly, Elizabeth Rose and B-Bear!

Would you like to volunteer with us to help finish the last few habitat adjustments so they can go out and play in the woods? Here is how you can GET INVOLVED

Would you like to help us to BUY MORE TOYS so they can each have their very own long-lasting ball? We have raised much of the money already, but need your help to pay for everything.

The new tigers and bears behaved as if this is the first time they had seen enrichment like this- they were a real joy to watch. Since they never had access to live trees in Colorado, some of them were more interested in the Christmas trees than their gifts!

All of the animals had fresh Christmas trees to play with, the primates had stockings, the carnivores had gift-wrapped presents and everyone had a blast!

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.

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!