EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. — Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge hosted a ribbon cutting for Freedom Field. The new area is 14 acres and can hold 44 new animals.
"Whenever we first started the sanctuary, we thought that maybe we'd have about 40 animals," said Tanya Smith, President of Turpentine Creek, who's been rescuing cats since 1992. "Once people realized that we were able to take in these types of animals, the calls just kept coming in."
The sanctuary recently acquired over thirty cats from Carole Baskin's Big Cat Rescue featured in the Netflix show Tiger King. The expansion has been in the works for eight years, but Smith said they sped up the process to make room for Baskin's animals.
Smith claims that Baskin chose Turpentine Creek for her cats because it's the best sanctuary.
"Whenever they approached us and asked us if we would take their 33 animals if they helped us build this project out, of course, it brought this up to priority for our team," Smith said. "This is such a proud moment for our team, everybody has worked extremely hard to make this happen in a short period of time."
They completed the project in just a little over a year. The rescue isn't stopping there, they have plans to break ground on a new education center and museum in early 2025.
"This facility is going to have a state-of-the-art museum right here on property," Smith said. "These animals need help, and [for people to know] how to recognize the problems you're faced with those out in your community. A lot of people don't even know that there's a lion living in a cage in their next-door neighbor's yard or the basement of a house that's in their neighborhood."
Smith said she's most proud of how much she's educated the community with her rescue.
"This is really important that we educate the people on how to learn when people are not taking care of their animals, or they're not registered their animals, how to report these things to the authorities so they can do their jobs. And then we can be here to help to protect all wild cats," Smith said.
If you'd like to support Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge or learn more about their sanctuary, visit their website.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.