Photos by Chris Meyer Cathrine Reck, clinical assistant professor of chemistry at IU Bloomington, visits with Raja the tiger at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center.

Begun in 1991 on 15 acres of land in Clay County, the facility is located on 110 acres that comprises home to more than 170 big cats—most of which have been abandoned or rescued from abusive living situations.

Joe Taft, founder and director of the EFRC, says that financial contributions from donors and the commitment of volunteers have been instrumental in the center’s success. "We have a small staff—seven full-time and four part-time employees—and couldn’t begin to meet the needs of the cats and ground maintenance without our volunteers," he said. Although the EFRC is not IU-affiliated, a large percentage of its volunteers are IU staff and students, added Taft.

Cathrine Reck, for one, is an assistant professor of chemistry at IU Bloomington and a three-year veteran volunteer at EFRC. She moved to Bloomington in 2001 and heard about the EFRC from a neighbor, calling to volunteer her first day in town. "It was Memorial Day weekend, and I hadn’t even started unpacking," Reck recalled.

While living in Iowa, Reck had been a volunteer at a raptor rehabilitation center that was affiliated with the University of Iowa, so she came to the EFRC with substantial experience in dealing with frightened, potentially dangerous animals. However, much of what Reck and the other volunteers do is physical labor, including building cages, feeding, cleaning and, occasionally, preparing meat to feed the animals. Serious carnivores, the cats consume more than 2,500 pounds of meat per day, and keep Reck and other volunteers busy carving up road kill or animals donated by local farmers to meet the dietary needs of the voracious tenants. "I’m a vegetarian. If someone had told me three years ago that I’d be capable of butchering a cow today, I would have thought they were crazy," said Reck.

James Ford, a research associate in the IUB Department of Biology, volunteers once a week at the EFRC. Ford is matter-of-fact about the nature of the work that needs to be done. "Everybody does it. This isn’t a zoo," he said. On rare occasions, the EFRC has loaned animals to accredited facilities, but its real mission is to give traumatized big cats, many of which might otherwise be euthanized, a permanent home. Ford emphasizes that visitors to their center must have their wits about them, because of the animals’ sizes, strengths and innate predatory natures.

In addition to IU staff, the center has attracted a number of intrepid student volunteers and staff from several IU campuses. Graeme McFarland, a junior from Birmingham, Ala., majoring in biology, is attending IU on a football scholarship. Introduced by a friend to the EFRC in July 2003, McFarland has been volunteering ever since. One of his first tasks was to build pens for eight newly-arrived leopards. "One of the mothers was in very bad shape, and several of her cubs didn’t make it. But there is one beautiful, black, happy male named Brumby who is now seven months old. He is a representative success story for the center," said McFarland, who plans to become either a veterinarian or a doctor.

Fyalon Gergely, a senior biology major at IUPUI, drives one and a half hours each way on weekends to her job at EFRC. "About five months ago, I was on an internship hunt when I stumbled upon the EFRC. I E-mailed them about volunteering and ended up getting hired as a part-time animal keeper. The work is hard—long hours, hot days and heavy lifting, but totally satisfying. I have always wanted to work with animals," she said.

Recent additions to the EFRC include an on-site clinic where basic medical procedures, such as spaying and neutering, can be performed by local veterinarians. For more complicated procedures, animals are taken to the University of Illinois’ School of Veterinary Medicine. "We want a zero possibility for reproduction among these cats, so it’s great that we can finally do the spaying and neutering here. We go to the University of Illinois only for more complicated cases, since it costs approximately $1,000 a day to transport the animal and ties up staff for two days," Joe Taft said.

The EFRC is located at 2221 E. Ashboro Road in Center Point, about 45 minutes west of Bloomington. The center is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Admission for adults is $20; $10 for children under 12. The facility is equipped for overnight stays and group tours. To learn more about the center and its majestic residents: http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/

Related story:
Go to today's IU Home Pages Photographer's corner to see an online photo gallery and audio/video clips.