Our Role
The Wildheart Trust is dedicated to providing forever homes for animals that have been rescued from horrendous conditions around Europe. We achieve this by offering them refuge and the chance to flourish in our wildlife sanctuary. This is our fundamental mission and we partner with our colleagues and friends AAP in Holland to give exotic animals a better life in their new forever home by the sea on the Isle of Wight.
In recent years we have provided forever homes to a number of rescued animals including two Lions found in a beast wagon in Spain; a group of five ex-circus Tigers found with mutilations in a squalid pen in Spain and two pet Servals who were found severely malnourished with deformed and broken bones inside a bathroom in France. We will soon be welcoming two more rescued Tigers, who were discovered in awful conditions in a horsebox on the Belarussian border.
Big Cats in the Illegal Trafficking Trade
Every month hundreds of wild animal body parts are smuggled from Russia into China to be used in Chinese medicine. Trade in wild animals is very profitable, it’s in third place after arms trade and drugs! As the wild population of tigers decreases rapidly, the trade of captive tigers is rapidly on the rise.
Two tigers that were rescued at the Belarussian border are strongly suspected to have been destined for the illegal Tiger bone trade in China.
We will be welcoming these two amazing animals to the Sanctuary in February to continue their rehabilitation and to live out their lives in peace.
Wild Animals for Entertainment
Circuses use entertainment and “traditional practices” as a cover up for blatant animal abuse. Our lions Kumba and Vigo were castrated before they were one-year-old meaning they didn’t grow manes and have grown to an abnormally large size. They also had their claws removed, an excruciatingly painful experience that is similar to the pain felt when breaking a bone, and this was done with the brutal intention of pacifying these beautiful animals so that they could be used in circus performances.
The Illegal Pet Trade
The illegal pet trade in Europe sees small mammals and primates being shipped around the continent and living in squalid, inappropriate conditions. The servals we have rescued were found in the bedroom of a lady in Brittany who had bought them from a breeder in the Czech Republic. Due to poor and inappropriate nutrition there was a serious lack of calcium, this resulted in creating deformed bones in their hind legs. It took them a long time to heal, get used to the right food and grow strong. Although they had an horrendous start in life they are now on their way back up – but it shouldn’t have come to that in the first place.