If you've ever wanted to be part of a wild animal's life, a handful of organizations in San Diego County allow just that via sponsorship and symbolic adoption programs.
From an animal’s habitat to its food, and especially to its veterinary procedures, the cost for local organizations to care for wildlife under their watch comes at a steep price. Donations are an immense help to these facilities but there are several organizations in the region that have measures to make the act of kindness more engaging.
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Animal lovers in San Diego County and beyond can help take care of wildlife and conservation efforts through sponsorship and adoption programs. Although these programs won’t let you keep a wild animal as a pet, they offer a personal touch to donations.
“You can’t really adopt a tiger or a lion and take them home, but you can sponsor one to help out,” said Bobbi Brink, Founder and Director of Lions, Tigers & Bears.
Lions, Tigers & Bears, an accredited sanctuary nestled within the mountains of Alpine, is home to more than 65 animals including its namesake, bobcats, horses, llamas and more. It’s among several organizations in San Diego County that offers a sponsorship or adoption program, including:
- San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance – there are 13 species from eight of the zoo’s conservation hubs that are available for symbolic adoption
- Japanese Friendship Garden – its Adopt a Koi program offers opportunities to name the garden’s fish
- San Diego Animal Sanctuary & Farm (formerly the Children's Nature Retreat) – this non-profit has several domestic animals in its symbolic adoption program
- California Wolf Center – resident Mexican Gray and Northwester Gray wolves can be sponsored or named
- Birch Aquarium – the aquarium is offering the public a chance to name their new little blue penguins.
“This is an opportunity for the public to get engaged and be those heroes that we love and appreciate …,” said Marco Wendt, a Wildlife Ambassador at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
I think it's engaging compared to just sending a check. It makes it more personal, it's deeper.
Agnès Barrelet, Founder of the San Diego Animal Sanctuary & Farm
"With this program, we ask for money but actually, people are getting something in exchange, and they are like part of the story for the animal," said Agnès Barrelet, Founder of the San Diego Animal Sanctuary & Farm. "I think it’s engaging compared to just sending a check. It makes it more personal, it’s deeper.”
Through sponsorship programs, organizations may offer tiered adoption packages that give donors more in return such as memberships, plushies of the animal that was symbolically adopted, opportunities to name resident animals and more.
"By giving (donors) the opportunity to symbolically adopt a species, it's a perfect way to really showcase the conservation work that we’re doing and give them a keepsake they can then take home," Jeff Spitko, Director of Membership at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, said.
The Cost of Kindness
Carrying for exotic animals is no easy feat, but local organizations do so with love and donations made by good Samaritans. More than 200 domestic livestock and other animals call the San Diego Animal Sanctuary & Farm their home, including bison, camels, pigs and more.
"Everything goes to the feed, to the care of the animals, the vet costs and wages, and then the maintenance of the place … we have to build all the new fences when we have new animals and then repair the old ones," Barrelet said.
According to Barrelet, it costs roughly $1,700 a day to run her non-profit. Those astronomical costs are felt by each entity dedicated to housing wildlife and making conservation efforts, including the farm's neighboring sanctuary, Lions, Tigers & Bears.
“It costs $15,000 to $20,000 a year to feed one tiger and about $20,000 to $25,000 to feed one bear," Brink told NBC 7. "So, every amount of a donation helps to accomplish this goal.”
The founders and representatives of the organizations that offer these programs say enriching the lives of the animals they care for make their efforts worth it.
For Brink, her endeavor to rescue big cats, bears and other exotic wildlife is a personal matter. Her non-profit takes in wild animals that were used for entertainment purposes in Hollywood and the circus, were kept illegally as pets and were trafficked into the U.S.
"A lot of people don’t know that these animals are bred and used and abused for nothing more than profit and they’re disposed of when they’re done with it," Brink said. "So, I think being their voice is really important, and having places like Lions, Tigers & Bears can educate people because people do want to help."
As for Spitko and Wendt, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance's mission in conservation is one they agree with.
"When I think of animal welfare, I think of what we've been doing of reintroducing endangered species back in the wild and sustaining populations in our conservation parks here in San Diego in our global programs," Wendt said.
Barrelet said the animals she cares for now were either pets before they arrived at her farm, retired from entertainment or were confiscated from their owners. Her adoration for animals is what inspires her to keep her non-profit going, she said.
"Animals are the only species on earth that don’t actually have a second agenda," Barrelet said. "They give you the true love. There is no hidden things and they give you what they have and they give it to you all.”
