By LOIS KINDLE
One of the best-kept secrets in southern Hillsborough County is Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary. If you and your family haven’t been there, now’s the perfect time to go.
The wild animal sanctuary is hosting Elmira’s World Wildlife Market & Fundraiser – a fun, educational event for folks of all ages – from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 3 at 13910 Seminole Trail, Wimauma.
Admission to the market is free and includes more than 20 vendors, food trucks, a plant sale, silent auction, gift basket raffle, 50/50 raffle and live music from noon to 3 p.m. by Devin Provenzano. While you’re there, if you’d like to see the wildlife, discounted tours will be available every 30 minutes, starting at 11:30 a.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. All tour proceeds and any donations go toward animal care.
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Lucy, an owner-surrendered, melanistic leopard that appears black due to a recessive gene was born to spotted parents.
Vendors will be selling everything from soaps, skin care products, candles and jewelry to treats and bow ties for dogs, silk flowers, garden gnomes and more. Sam’s Honey Bees will also be on hand with educational information and local honey.
The Wing Wagon and Flautas Express will sell food.
Tickets for the raffles, which will include a $100 Gift card to Xtreme H2O Watersports, themed gift baskets and more, are one for $2 or three for $5.
The silent auction will include a handmade, Elmiras-themed quilt; two Elmira’s embroidered jackets; cigar box electric guitar; and more.
A Tampa Bay Rays gift box will either be raffled off or included in the silent auction.
Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary is an all-volunteer, 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to providing continuing lifetime care and enrichment for wild animals in need of safe, forever homes. The animals come from shut-down facilities, private owner surrenders and other situations where their living conditions weren’t ideal, where many have suffered as a result.
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Like all of Elmira’s wild animals, Tiki, a black-and-white ruffed lemur who has glaucoma, will live out her life at the sanctuary. In the wild, lemurs are a critically endangered species due to habitat loss.
Elmira’s is currently home to five tigers, a grizzly bear, an Indian leopard, a South American red-footed tortoise, Sulcata (African-spurred) tortoise, bobcat, Savannah cat, three lemurs, three wolf hybrids and six large birds. About 30 active volunteers take care of them seven days a week, 365 days a year; maintain the yard and facilities; provide tours; and work events/fundraisers.
Robin Greenwood is the sanctuary’s president and CEO.
How Elmira’s began
An animal sanctuary was never on Greenwood’s goal list. Her interest was in information technology.
But as fate would have it, her late husband, Ted, and his friend, David Kitchen, started rescuing large animals and keeping them on Kitchen’s large property in Wimauma. The effort went from an unofficial rescue to becoming Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary Inc. in 2005, when Florida wildlife possession laws changed.
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Chanda, the oldest of five tigers currently living at Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary in Wimauma, is seen here relaxing in an on-site water feature. She came to Elmira’s from a shut-down facility.
Greenwood’s husband died in February 2006. After Kitchen died in July 2007, his family no longer wanted to provide Elmira’s use of the property. The following March, a 6.75-acre field was found where the Elmiras Wildlife Sanctuary is now located, and Pinellas County resident Veronika Silvani donated the funds to buy it. A couple of years later, a neighboring 7-acre piece of land went up for sale, and Silvani gave Elmira’s a low-interest mortgage to buy it.
In addition to the 25 animals Greenwood inherited, another 20 or so were added when a Polk County facility shut down. That menagerie included a dozen tigers, four bears, a cougar and a bunch of birds. At one time, Elmira’s cared for 50 wild animals.
Over the years as aging animals died, Elmira’s had to stop taking in more animals, due to dwindling donations and the rising costs of building or refurbishing enclosures, food and medical bills.
The wild animal sanctuary still gets requests from Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance, but it cannot accept any more animals until donations increase.
Even with its present reduced number of animals, Elmira’s annual operational costs are around $80,000. Its support comes solely from donations, its tours and occasional grants.
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Stanley, a 450-pound grizzly bear that was brought as a cub to Elmira’s by Florida Fish and Wildlife about 12 years ago, is in need of an expanded enclosure in which he can forage and have a more natural environment. A large donor is being sought to cover the cost.
If you’d like to help, visit https://www.elmiraswildlife.org/, send a check to Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary, P.O. Box 63, Wimauma, FL 33598, or call 813-634-4115. All major credit cards are accepted.
Driving directions
Elmira’s is located off U.S. 301, south of Sun City Center and north of the Manatee County line. Depending on the direction you’re coming from, turn on River Road (left if coming south, right if coming north). Take the second right onto Seminole Trail. Elmira’s is a bit more than a mile on the left.
*** Ignore your GPS if it tells you to turn off U.S. 301 onto Surona Road.
