Animal sanctuary hosts hayride

PITTSBORO - Twenty miles from Chapel Hill, a 23-year-old jaguar named Elwood is being treated for arthritis.

Elwood is one of the 112 animals that make their home at Pittsboro's Carnivore Preservation Trust, a nonprofit organization that will hold its first annual fall festival Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The festival will feature hayride tours of the compound, a silent auction and a variety of activities for children.

Tucked away in a rural 55-acre enclave, CPT is home to 11 endangered or threatened species, including tigers, ocelots and a snow leopard.

Started by UNC geneticist Michael Bleyman in 1981 as a breeding site for small, endangered animals, CPT now functions as a rescue sanctuary and a conservation education site.

Most of the large cats in the sanctuary were rescued from people trying to keep the animals as pets.

"They are deluded into thinking a social animal is a tame animal," said Pam Fulk, CPT's executive director.

She said that most of the animals are not stressed by human presence but that they are by no means benign. "We don't have a no-hands policy, but we don't play with them either."

The animal's keepers stick to this policy, only handling many of the large cats when the creatures are under sedation.

Christine Hodgdon, a keeper who started at the trust in April, compared CPT to an animal nursing home. Many resident animals are past their biological prime.

"It's not a zoo. They are here because they had no other shot at living," said Hodgdon, who has a zoology degree from N.C. State University.

But not all the animals are geriatric - Romeo the tiger is a prime example.

The 600- to 800-pound tiger ended up in the compound after his former owner failed to show the necessary paperwork to authorities.

Shalimar the tiger, described by Fulk as Romeo's girlfriend, was rejected from the circus because her markings were too indistinct.

Three small female tigers, now living in the sanctuary, were found in cattle cars in Virginia, and one male tiger was found chained to a post in a parking lot in Texas.

"They're a prime example of why we need places like this," Fulk said.

It is illegal to own an imported endangered animal, though not one born in the country. As a result, Fulk said, the exotic animal trade in the United States is to blame for most of these occurrences.

CPT receives no government funding and is supported almost entirely by individual gifts, tour fees, school field trips and birthday parties.

Individuals can also adopt an animal in the sanctuary. Adoption costs between $600 and $1,200, and adoptive parents are given unlimited visitation and the opportunity to learn feeding procedures.

Fulk said animal rescue efforts, currently on hold, will resume once CPT gets rid of some lingering debt incurred by improvement projects.

The sanctuary has been open to the public for weekend tours since 2002, but the hourlong tours were never part of CPT's original plan.

"We don't believe in using these animals for entertainment only," Fulk said. "We're inviting you to see these animals because we're going to teach you about them. You can't just wander around here."

She said if there was one thing a visitor could get out of this weekend's festival, it would be the message of conservation.

"We need to quit being so human-centric," said Fulk. "If they go down, we will too."

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