White tigers join state refuge after 18-hour travels

Cats sent from Florida rescue

Two white tigers who made an 18-hour road trip from Florida to the hills of Northwest Arkansas are adjusting to their new lives in a wildlife refuge, the facility said Wednesday.

The tigers, Luna and Remington, began their journey to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs on Jan. 15, according to Emily McCormack, animal curator at the refuge. The tigers were previously held at the Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary in Citra, Fla.

“They’re going to get to live a peaceful life residing in a beautiful, natural habitat,” McCormack said.

The tigers came to the refuge as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2016 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals against a family-run Florida zoo, Dade City’s Wild Things. The suit accused the zoo of violating the Endangered Species Act, according to court documents.

During the litigation of the lawsuit, a magistrate judge ordered Wild Things to keep its 22 tigers on the property, but the tigers were nevertheless taken to other facilities, an order by U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell states. Luna and Remington, as well as two other tigers, Rory and Rajah, were transported to the Citra sanctuary, and PETA moved for the court to transfer the four to Turpentine Creek in Arkansas.

During that period, Rory and Rajah escaped from their enclosures and were shot and killed by sanctuary staff, according to the documents.

The magistrate judge issued an order to transfer the surviving tigers, Luna and Remington, to Arkansas. On Jan. 8, Honeywell affirmed the magistrate’s ruling, and the tigers began their trip to the Ozarks a week later.

According to the facility, Luna and Remington now live in large, grass- and treefilled habitats on the side of an Ozark mountain. Though the tigers don’t share an enclosure, they live next to one another.

Perhaps the biggest adjustment for them is the terrain, McCormack said.

“It is the Ozarks, so there’s a lot of rocks here,” she said, comparing the ground to Florida’s sands.

Despite the change, the curator said Luna “doesn’t really have a care in the world.” She spends her day running around her habitat, scratching logs and playing with toys, McCormack said. Remington was “a little nervous at first,” according to the curator, but in the time since their arrival has been doing much better.

“The first part of their life was not that great,” McCormack said. “We hope that we can rectify that by just giving them a great life here.”