SAVING LARGE ANIMALS
When Pat Craig was 19 years old, he heard that there were lions, tigers, and other large animals living in terrible conditions in a zoo near his home. He wanted to save them. So he decided to build a safe place for these animals. He put a huge fence around his family's farm in Colorado in the U.S.A. and brought some of the animals there. The family's farm became Craig's first animal shelter*.(lines 1–8)
Today, Craig works as the head of an organization that has a big animal shelter in the U.S.A. The organization has volunteers who help save large animals living in terrible conditions. For example, many of the animals in the shelter used to live in circuses or zoos. In those places they were locked up in cages all the time. Their cages were often dirty and there was very little food. As a result, many of the animals were sick when they came to the shelter.(lines 9–14)
The organization's activities cost a lot of money so it cannot save as many animals as it would like to. For example, the volunteers heard once about many bears living in terrible conditions in a zoo in Korea. Unfortunately, the organization could hire only one small plane. As a result, the volunteers could take only some of those bears to the U.S.A. But at least the bears that they did manage to save are now safe, and they aren't living in cages anymore. They can go swimming, climb trees, or sleep all day in the shade.(lines 15–20)
Another time, the organization saved 25 lions from a circus in South America and brought them to Craig's shelter. In the circus, these lions lived only in cages, so they did not know how to live in nature. Now they walk around the shelter and enjoy the lakes and the fresh air.(lines 21–23)
Craig's organization has successfully saved hundreds of large animals from zoos and circuses in the past 40 years. He believes that animals have the right to feel the green grass under their feet and to enjoy nature around them. Therefore, he plans to create many more animal shelters in the future.(lines 24–26)