All eyes may be on Paris for the Summer Games, as the world’s greatest athletes gather to compete for the most prestigious honors. Some of us, however, are also attuned to Texas, where our animal sanctuary residents at Black Beauty Ranch are always engaged in feats of strength—strength and resilience.
The animals at the sanctuary don’t come from easy backgrounds. Some were saved from neglect situations, others from animal testing laboratories or the exotic pet trade.
When I saw footage our sanctuary team shot of Elsa, one of our rescued tigers, dribbling a watermelon, I was filled with joy seeing how far she’d come. Just a few years ago, Elsa, a victim of the exotic pet trade, came to the sanctuary as a terrified 6-month-old cub after being discovered wearing a dog harness and crying in San Antonio during a Texas winter freeze.
It’s profoundly important that animals displaced from their wild habitats because of cruelty, exploitation or neglect have some place to go—and that’s what’s so moving about Black Beauty Ranch and the community of more than 600 rescued animals there, spanning over 40 species. Black Beauty Ranch is one of America’s largest and most diverse animal sanctuaries, with 1,400 acres that provide permanent haven to domestic and exotic animals rescued from research laboratories, circuses, the pet trade, roadside zoos and other circumstances involving abuse, neglect and cruelty.
We’re not the only ones paying attention—the animals’ summer game antics have caught the attention of press across the U.S., too, because the joyful antics of Black Beauty’s residents seem to resonate with audiences. From images of the goats practicing some combination of a balance beam routine and the high jump, leaping up effortlessly onto their platforms, to footage of 10 lemurs saved from a shuttered zoo sticking their landing every time from branch to branch, to mother-son black bear duo Jackie and Russell playfully wrestling each other beneath a canopy of leaves, each visual is a testament to the resilience of these animals.
I’ve mentioned before that media outlets are an essential partner in our work. Feel-good stories like this keep animals on people’s minds and show that happy endings are possible even for animals who have experienced seemingly hopeless situations.
That’s what our work is about—bringing hope to situations that may seem hopeless, solving problems facing animals that seem unsolvable. It’s a herculean effort, and I think I speak for all our staff when I say it is an honor to participate in that feat of strength of making the world a better place for animals of all kinds.
Follow Kitty Block @HSUSKittyBlock.
