SusScrofa
Well-Known Member
I recently visited Tigers For Tomorrow (officially “Tigers For Tomorrow at Untamed Mountain"), a supposed rescue center for big cats and other animals located in the rural Attalla, Alabama. I haven’t posted any review or species list threads in a while, but I will try to get back to doing so and I felt compelled to write up one after visiting this facility.
I’ve been curious about this place due to my zoo interest and the fact that there’s almost no mention of it on ZooChat, but I have held off visiting for months due to what I perceived as pretty subpar quality from online pictures I saw. I live around 2 hours from this facility and they claim to hold African Civets, a species I’ve not seen and a real rarity in the US that is probably held at less than five zoos in the country currently (and none of those are well-known or AZA facilities), but it wasn’t enough to push me to go until I was near the Alabama-Georgia border one weekend and it was close enough to be able to add it to my itinerary. I figured at the very least I could document this place so other ZooChatters don’t need to.
There are some zoos that have a negative perception when you look at their online information but which come across in a somewhat better light once you visit in person and see the entire facility up-close at their current state – Tigers For Tomorrow is not one of those places. In fact, I would say it was worse than anything I could prepare for even with seeing those photos online.
The pictures I saw that made me expect my visit would be a poor one were those of a Grizzly Bear stuck in a concrete-floored, bare-as-a-desert cage. The bear (named Yonah) is still there and this was indeed its current setup, which somehow manages to come across as even worse when seeing it in the flesh. It has no privacy, barely any enrichment and was doing nothing but pacing around and pissing itself whenever I observed it. I was also surprised by how many Lions and Tigers TFT has and how so many of them are kept in rundown bare-floored cells smaller than a studio apartment in New York City. None of the enclosures have much more than a stoop and a small shelter box. These conditions are appalling and the facility doesn’t seem to care about the needs of their inhabitants as the enclosures for Servals and Bobcats are the same size as many of the ones keeping Lions and Tigers (and its definitely not like the small cats are in expansive settings either). The only exhibit I would consider to be good was one holding a few Lions that was just a gated-off chunk of woodland. At least it was natural and spacious compared to all the other exhibits, although the gate was pretty low and had no overhang and seemingly no protective wiring so I wonder if the cats could escape one day.
Signage was basic and sometimes missing and when present it lacked Latin names. On occasion it would have the name of the rescued individual(s), although it never gave any information as to where the animal came from or what conditions it suffered from. For example, Jay the Clouded Leopard had a severe limp and I would have liked to know where he has rescued from and if he was born with this handicap or abused from a previous owner but the only info about him was his name and date of birth; I certainly hope the limp didn’t come from his time in TFT. The only signage that was very much apparent throughout the grounds were ones telling visitors that video recordings and photos of the “holding areas” (smaller than a kitchen refrigerator) were forbidden and that “regular visitors” should report violators to staff. Certainly instructions any reputable rescue center with nothing to hide would post…….
The only highlight from my visit was seeing an African Civet. TFT lists two individuals present although I only saw one. This species is a true beauty and one that was surprisingly bigger than I expected and it was very active and inquisitive during my time here. The exhibit it was held in wasn’t very good, but at least nothing like some of the other horrors I saw. It’s a shame African Civets are so rare in the US zoo world as they’re a really interesting alternative “not-cat” that can diversify the holdings of many African-themed exhibit areas that are present in zoos throughout the country. While no other species held here were rare, they did have some surprises like the previously mentioned Clouded Leopard, Cheetah and Spotted Hyena.
Sadly as with other so-called rescue centers throughout the country the poor and questionable quality of the facility makes you wonder if the animals are actually rescues. I think the animals here need to be rescued personally. The “no videos” signs, the admission price of $20 and the even more expensive sale of private encounters and tiger feedings who’s profits translate to at best barely livable conditions and the lack of details on the rescued animals definitely give me the impression that this is a sham sanctuary.
TFT is currently rated at a 4.7 on Google Reviews, shockingly higher than fellow Alabama facilities like the AZA-accredited Birmingham Zoo, Montgomery Zoo, Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and Alabama Aquarium, all of which I’ve visited and are at the very least decent enough facilities worth checking out if you are near them in my opinion. This is why I feel its so important for zoo enthusiasts like ourselves who have seen more than just tigers in someone’s backyard in the backwoods to share our information with others. At least having visited I can now give an informed opinion on TFT to all fellow members. I would currently rank this facility as the worst I visited, somehow managing to be an even worse experience than the horrid conditions, political propaganda and self-righteous grandstanding I witnessed at Big Cat Habitat in Florida.
Here is the species list:
* = multiple exhibits in the area for the species
Predator area
Barnyard area
Gift shop
Photos of the facility will hopefully be posted tonight or at least later this week.
I’ve been curious about this place due to my zoo interest and the fact that there’s almost no mention of it on ZooChat, but I have held off visiting for months due to what I perceived as pretty subpar quality from online pictures I saw. I live around 2 hours from this facility and they claim to hold African Civets, a species I’ve not seen and a real rarity in the US that is probably held at less than five zoos in the country currently (and none of those are well-known or AZA facilities), but it wasn’t enough to push me to go until I was near the Alabama-Georgia border one weekend and it was close enough to be able to add it to my itinerary. I figured at the very least I could document this place so other ZooChatters don’t need to.
There are some zoos that have a negative perception when you look at their online information but which come across in a somewhat better light once you visit in person and see the entire facility up-close at their current state – Tigers For Tomorrow is not one of those places. In fact, I would say it was worse than anything I could prepare for even with seeing those photos online.
The pictures I saw that made me expect my visit would be a poor one were those of a Grizzly Bear stuck in a concrete-floored, bare-as-a-desert cage. The bear (named Yonah) is still there and this was indeed its current setup, which somehow manages to come across as even worse when seeing it in the flesh. It has no privacy, barely any enrichment and was doing nothing but pacing around and pissing itself whenever I observed it. I was also surprised by how many Lions and Tigers TFT has and how so many of them are kept in rundown bare-floored cells smaller than a studio apartment in New York City. None of the enclosures have much more than a stoop and a small shelter box. These conditions are appalling and the facility doesn’t seem to care about the needs of their inhabitants as the enclosures for Servals and Bobcats are the same size as many of the ones keeping Lions and Tigers (and its definitely not like the small cats are in expansive settings either). The only exhibit I would consider to be good was one holding a few Lions that was just a gated-off chunk of woodland. At least it was natural and spacious compared to all the other exhibits, although the gate was pretty low and had no overhang and seemingly no protective wiring so I wonder if the cats could escape one day.
Signage was basic and sometimes missing and when present it lacked Latin names. On occasion it would have the name of the rescued individual(s), although it never gave any information as to where the animal came from or what conditions it suffered from. For example, Jay the Clouded Leopard had a severe limp and I would have liked to know where he has rescued from and if he was born with this handicap or abused from a previous owner but the only info about him was his name and date of birth; I certainly hope the limp didn’t come from his time in TFT. The only signage that was very much apparent throughout the grounds were ones telling visitors that video recordings and photos of the “holding areas” (smaller than a kitchen refrigerator) were forbidden and that “regular visitors” should report violators to staff. Certainly instructions any reputable rescue center with nothing to hide would post…….
The only highlight from my visit was seeing an African Civet. TFT lists two individuals present although I only saw one. This species is a true beauty and one that was surprisingly bigger than I expected and it was very active and inquisitive during my time here. The exhibit it was held in wasn’t very good, but at least nothing like some of the other horrors I saw. It’s a shame African Civets are so rare in the US zoo world as they’re a really interesting alternative “not-cat” that can diversify the holdings of many African-themed exhibit areas that are present in zoos throughout the country. While no other species held here were rare, they did have some surprises like the previously mentioned Clouded Leopard, Cheetah and Spotted Hyena.
Sadly as with other so-called rescue centers throughout the country the poor and questionable quality of the facility makes you wonder if the animals are actually rescues. I think the animals here need to be rescued personally. The “no videos” signs, the admission price of $20 and the even more expensive sale of private encounters and tiger feedings who’s profits translate to at best barely livable conditions and the lack of details on the rescued animals definitely give me the impression that this is a sham sanctuary.
TFT is currently rated at a 4.7 on Google Reviews, shockingly higher than fellow Alabama facilities like the AZA-accredited Birmingham Zoo, Montgomery Zoo, Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo and Alabama Aquarium, all of which I’ve visited and are at the very least decent enough facilities worth checking out if you are near them in my opinion. This is why I feel its so important for zoo enthusiasts like ourselves who have seen more than just tigers in someone’s backyard in the backwoods to share our information with others. At least having visited I can now give an informed opinion on TFT to all fellow members. I would currently rank this facility as the worst I visited, somehow managing to be an even worse experience than the horrid conditions, political propaganda and self-righteous grandstanding I witnessed at Big Cat Habitat in Florida.
Here is the species list:
* = multiple exhibits in the area for the species
Predator area
- Tiger* – includes “Bengal”, “Siberian”, white and golden tabby
- Lion*
- Liger
- Leopard/Jaguar?* – melanistic unsigned individuals, not sure which species I actually saw but the facility supposedly holds melanistics of both based on USDA reports and online posts.
- Clouded Leopard
- Cougar
- Cheetah
- Serval*
- Bobcat*
- Spotted Hyena
- African Civet
- Gray Wolf* – some probably pure but also includes domestic dog and Coyote hybrids
- Coyote
- Red Fox
- Arctic Fox
- Gray Fox
- American Black Bear*
- Grizzly Bear
- Cape Porcupine* – signed as African Crested Porcupine (no Latin name) but most certainly Hystrix africaeaustralis like every other roadside in the country.
Barnyard area
- Bobcat
- Great Horned Owl
- African Spurred Tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata)
- Capybara
- Emu
- Dromedary
- Domestic goats, chickens, ducks and equines
Gift shop
- African Pygmy Hedgehog
- Black-white Tegu (Salvator merianae)
Photos of the facility will hopefully be posted tonight or at least later this week.
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