or close to it!

    By Brenda Fishbaugh______________________________________________________

You may have seen stories in the tanning trade magazines about Eye Pro’s interest in protecting endangered animals.  I’ve been interested in exotic animals for years, and my hobby has become part of Eye Pro and the direction our company has taken.

Two years ago, when I attended the Australian Beauty trade show for the first time, I took a chance and called one of the world’s foremost tiger handlers, Patrick Martin-Vegue, who runs a famous tiger sanctuary in Queensland called Tiger Island. Not only did Pat take my call, but he also spent a day showing me the work Tiger Island is doing to save tigers from extinction. On my trip to Australia last September, I was invited to spend three days at Pat’s home on the Gold Coast to learn a bit more about his work to protect the few remaining wild tigers. 

Another World

Tiger Island is not a zoo – it’s a commercial venture owned by Dreamworld, a theme park with rides like those at Universal Studios, and an Australian Adventure featuring a huge koala rescue effort.  Dreamworld has 80 koalas that they are protecting, as well as an entire farm of eucalyptus to feed the koalas. This is required in Australia, so that the natural eucalyptus forests aren’t arbitrarily cut down to feed captive koalas, thus eliminating any chance for wild koalas to survive.

On my VIP tour, I got to hold 2-year-old Bryon, a lovely koala!  Koalas are not soft; their hair is rough to protect them while they climb trees.  But I was surprised at how cuddly Byron was!  He slowly wrapped his long arms around my neck, and pulled himself as close to my body as he could get. Byron was very comfortable there, and his handler had to fight me for him!

Dream Job

For any animal lover, a visit to Tiger Island is a dream come true. The tigers have been raised by hand, so they are very manageable (you can never call a wild animal like a tiger “tame.”)  The trainers’ job is actually to spend all day lying around with the big cats and petting them to keep them friendly! 

During a typical day, several trainers “play” with a number of Bengal tigers on an island that is separated from spectators by a moat. People can ask questions of the handlers, who use microphones to answer and to inform the spectators about the endangered tigers.

My behind-the-scenes tour was spectacular.  I got to see where the tigers sleep and are fed, toured the offices and met all of the talented Tiger Island staff who spend ten hours each day working with these beautiful creatures.  I was also treated to a photo with Mohan, an eight-year-old, 400-pound white Bengal tiger!    

Hope for the Future

Tiger Island is an Australian leader in tiger breeding, and donates $60,000 a year to provide patrol cars in India and Bangladesh to keep poachers away from the few remaining wild Bengal tigers there.  Tigers are poached for their body parts— on the Asian market, a dead tiger is worth $400,000 for its believed medicinal qualities. 

Of course, meeting a koala and petting a tiger was incredible, but I have to say that the most amazing part was hearing about the work that Patrick Martin-Vegue and the Tiger Island team do to educate a million visitors a year on the plight of the tigers.  Hopefully, our world will soon be like Dreamworld—full of safe and happy animals that everyone can enjoy.