CENTER POINT — A tiger paces a worn footpath.
Its white fur contrasts brilliantly with the surrounding green foliage.
A growl rumbles in the animal’s throat as four colossal paws kick up puffs of dirt in the dry summer heat.
This is an 500-pound apex predator named Charlie Brown, adapted to stalk the rainforests of Southeast Asia. This is an animal so rare it’s feared they will disappear completely in the next decade.
This tiger doesn’t belong here.
Charlie Brown is in a cage in Indiana.
The white tiger is an abandoned prop from a magic show. It's just one of more than 200 rescued tigers, lions, panthers, leopards and other abused or surrendered cats housed at the 108-acre Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point.
Joe Taft, director of the EFRC, said the facility is one of the largest of its kind and receives big cats from all across the U.S.
And recently, Taft's center received an unusually tiny addition — a 10-ounce addition to be exact — in the form of two Bengal kittens found in a Gaston garage last April. One died shortly after arrival, but center officials are optimistic that the remaining one will survive.
With thousands of abused, privately owned exotic animals, the need for the sprawling refuge hasn’t diminished in its 25 years of operation.
“A lot of people see having these animals as some kind of fantasy,” Taft said. “They don’t relate to the realities of the situation whatsoever until it's far too late.”