Our Story
In 1986 one of the top lion and tiger act trainers in the world had a hard decision ahead of him. It was time for his most beloved lion Zamba to retire, but there was nowhere for this wonderful cat to go. He set out to build a home for this cat, and all of the lions and tigers that would need a quiet and peaceful retirement.
After 13 years as a retirement home, the park where these great cats worked closed down many of their animal programs. With nowhere to go, over 30 tigers suddenly found themselves homeless. It was at that time we knew that we had to move to the next phase of the life of our facility, and Wildlife Companions became an independent nonprofit dedicated to the care of the lions and tigers that would call this their forever home.
In the last 20 years we have cared for over 30 retired lions and tigers. We are now entering our next phase, rebuilding, remodeling, and retasking the facility to provide an even better home for retired lions and tigers, as well as those who simply need a home for life.
We invite you to participate! We need volunteers year round, and we need to fund the ambitious expansion of our programs to add pools, bigger natural exercise areas, and to fund the retirements and rescues that we want to do. Can you help? Send us your questions here or via email to info@wildlifecompanions.org.
Our PayPal donations address is contributions@wildlifecompanions.org
Our Services
Wildlife Companions operates a retirement facility to provide a home for performing big cats to live out their older years. The facility is specifically focused on tigers, but equipped to handle most species of non-domestic felines. We plan our lives in preparation for retirement. Wildlife Companions is that retirement plan for performing animals. Taking the mystery out of retirement planning offers a simplified, bottom-line approach to figuring out just how to support your animals. Our solution allows our clients to take a proactive approach to budget and plan for the inevitable.
In addition to our mission to provide a den and roaming space for every member of our feline family, retired or rescued, Wildlife Companions has a number of goals in regards to education. As stated in our formal documents, these objectives are:
To provide educational programs where children and young adults can learn about wildlife either through visits to the refuge or by bringing the educational programs to the schools.
To establish educational programs that can be transported to schools, city or county recreational centers, or or other locations where such wildlife education is needed or wanted.
To sponsor public events and publish educational materials with the intent of increasing the public awareness of the needs of wildlife in the wild and in captivity.
We hope you'll join and help us on our journey to spread the word about these majestic animals in need.