- November 07, 2022
RJ – Hurricane Ian Rescue
Meet RJ – DOB 1/31/2015
On September 28th, 2022 Hurricane Ian rampaged through Central Florida. The facility that RJ and Roy was at took on a lot of flood waters due to being near the Peace River. This not only felled trees, but compromised their enclosures. The owners were faced with the dilemma of trying to get food and water to all their residents.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers came in to help. They quickly evaluated the needs of the animals and placed a phone call to Mystic Jungle Educational Facility. We were ready with food and water, but then they found that RJ’s enclosure was compromised as well as they had no steady source of clean water and food. We were then asked if we had availability to take on another tiger. It was a no brainer. We had just suffered the loss of both Lepa and Bo and had that enclosure on standby to serve as one big one for Zar until Phase II went back into full swing.
Then we got the second phone call within a few hours. Now can we take TWO tigers. Again, this was a no brainer as these cats had not had clean water and steady food in over a week. We threw up the petition again that had once separated Bo and Lepa and told FFWC we would be there Saturday October 8th 2022 with our Veterinarian on board with us.
RJ was sedated on site, blood taken and B12 injection given as well as he was de-wormed upon arrival. Part of his rehabilitation process is that he is fed twice a day and at the time of this writing he is eating #16 pounds a day split into two meals.
Welcome RJ!