TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. – An unusual rescue call landed almost two dozen exotic animals at a sanctuary outside Tampa.
The backstory:
The Sanctuary at Solid Rock got a call a few weeks ago about a major rescue from an undisclosed location in Central Florida. The sanctuary operates in conjunction with the Solid Rock Community School, a K-12 school in Tarpon Springs.
“All of our animals here, 100% are rescues,” said Michele Fasnacht, the founder and director of the Solid Rock Community School. “And so, we do not breed here.” Fasnacht said they only had a few days to prepare for this recent rescue. The Sanctuary at Solid Rock said the rescue costed around $150,000, including costs for transport, housing and medical care. The sanctuary said other organizations also assisted in this rescue.The sanctuary is raising money to help cover the care of these new animals that were brought in.”We’re licensed for certain animals,” Fasnacht said. “So, there’s only certain animals that we can take, but that doesn’t mean that we can take any animal and every animal because, obviously, we only have so much size and so much space.”
She said this was the biggest rescue call they’ve ever received.”We had several different types of tamarins, several different types of lemurs, so those are all primates,” Fasnacht said. “We had monk jack deer, which come from Asia. Wallabies, which are smaller versions of kangaroos. Marmosets.”Dig deeper:Fasnacht said breeding of certain exotic animals can be done legally with proper permitting, but she said sometimes, it’s done illegally.”These are not animals that should be living in captivity,” she said. “They’re not animals that should be living in people’s homes.”
The students at the K-12 school help out at the sanctuary.
“We take care of the animals, and we clean their cages, we feed them, and then we do enrichment with them,” Yvonne Cohen, a student at the school, said.
The sanctuary provides medical care and rehabilitation to the rescue animals. It also serves to educate the students and train them in different professions working with animals.
“This is where our high schoolers come who are interested in careers with animals,” Fasnacht said. “And so, that might be students who are interested in being veterinarians, vet techs, vet assistants, wildlife rehabbers, animal attorneys.”
Some of the animals roam freely throughout the property, while others stay in their designated enclosures. They all live alongside each other in the sanctuary though. The exotic animals now join some traditional rescue animals like chickens, roosters, pigs and turkeys.
“We’re building enclosures inside and outside, building new habitats,” Fasnacht said. “We have to change everything on the property around.”
She said this rescue about doubled their capacity at the sanctuary.
“Once they come to us, they stay with us forever,” she said. “So, this is their forever home.”
What you can do:
Fasnacht said they’re working to raise money right now to expand the sanctuary and help care for the growing number of rescue animals. You can find more information about The Sanctuary at Solid Rock and Solid Rock Community School here.
You can find more information about helping the rescue efforts here.
