OH NO!! Tippi Hedren's Shambala Animal Preserve is in the path of the fire

http://www.shambala.org/


Big cat animal preserve in Acton readies for fire
August 31, 2009 | 9:41 am
Lions, tigers and fire -- oh my!

Flames are roaring across the street from the Shambala Preserve, an exotic animal center in Acton. But the 64 lions, tigers, leopards and other big cats that live here are staying put.

As firefighters beat back flames and helicopters fly overhead, a big male lion is sunning himself, said Chris Gallucci, vice president of operations.

The area around the preserve is under mandatory evacuation order, Gallucci said, but the crew at the preserve has decided to stay and fight the fire, if necessary.


"We have everything to fight fires on this property," Gallucci said. "Our plan is to hold in place. We have done this for 40 years. We are very good at what we do."

The preserve has dozens of steel evacuation crates ready to go in case the 64 big cats need to be moved. It also has equipment to beat back flames: A 22,000-gallon water tank, a lake and a complete fire road around the 80-acre site, Gallucci said.

more here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/shambala-preserve.html

http://www.animalacres.org/

Try evacuating a 1,000-pound pig during a wildfire

August 31, 2009 | 1:39 pm
It's not easy to move pigs around, especially 1,000-pound pigs, said Lorri Houston, president of Animal Acres.

So when flames started threatening the area around the Acton farm-animal sanctuary on Sunday, Houston and a group of volunteers packed up the 11 pigs and dozens of cattle, chickens, donkeys and more. Most of the sanctuary's 125 animals are resting at their animal evacuation center near Palmdale.

"It's not home sweet home, but it will certainly do for a couple days," Houston said.

After the fires in the area in 2007, Animal Acres officials realized that they needed to build an evacuation center for the farm animals, just in case, Houston said.

"With the type of animals we have, the number, you can't just pop into someone's backyard and say, 'Can you take care of my dog?' "

Several goats and sheep are still at the sanctuary, but volunteers are ready to load them into a trailer in case the fire moves toward the sanctuary. "We do have everybody out who is difficult to move or time-consuming," Houston said.

-- My-Thuan Tran

katrina has made people bow necked about leaving animals behind. the only good animal news to come out of Katrina is that.

The blaze victimizes all creatures great and small, and two-legged and four-legged. :(

I wish I had a billion dollars to give to places like that.

I hope they can get the big kitties to safety like they managed to before.

They are asking for help in evacuating the animals, they need large vehicles, etc, to do so. They have the cages for the animals, they need transportation now so if anyone can help or knows of someone can help, please let them know.

Here is the link where I heard about their evacuation, etc:

It is a live raw feed from NBC:

http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b4966.htm

and I wish them the best right now. I wish we had that tight of a community here up north.

for the evacuation. The spokesperson for the Wayside indicated they could see the fire but it was not dangerously near them yet, thank goodness.

and we fostered for about a year and a half. They taught me to give inoculations, liquids, how to irrigate wounds, how to hand feed, how to be on top of upper res infection symptoms, so many things. We had three vets working with us. Once, a couple brought me two cats whose owner had passed away and I fostered them until they found a permanent placement. They used to come and visit the two cats twice a week. The ethic is, we're all in it together. Very different from up here were rescue groups don't even take animals from individuals. In any case, it was a great experience to work with those good people. If anyone can manage this situation, they can. :hi:

Thank you, as well, for your generous 'fostering', what a wonderful thing for you to do!

:yourock:

shoving them into trailers & spray-painting where they picked them up..on their sides, so they would be asy to claim..

I've lost it now, but there was a picture of a teenager riding a horse with no saddle, as he held the reins of two other horses he was leading away..smoke everywhere and the fire coming over the hill behind them.. the caption said they were not even his horses.

My friend in Norco had goats, and every time there was a brush fire, people from all over would drop their goats off..sometimes she'd have "goat-guests" for weeks, as the people rebuilt their sheds..

They're jittery enough, can only imagine stirring in fire in the air. :(

Good to see that they have a failsafe option.

and to all the creatures there great and small.