The Center for Animal Research and Education's mission is to provide for a safe, permanent and loving home to exotic animals in need. CARE focuses on excellence in physical and emotional care, advocating animal welfare through education, and conducting minimally-invasive research that will improve living conditions for captive animal populations world-wide. The Center for Animal Research and Education is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to education, research, rescue, and long-term care for exotic animals. Established in Bridgeport, TX in 2003, CARE currently provides a permanent home to over 50 animals including snow leopards, mountain lions, African lions, tigers, black and spotted leopards, ring-tail lemurs and a coati. The animals of CARE come from a wide variety of places. Some of the animals were abused, abandoned, or bred to be the pets of private collectors before they came to the facility. Others were retired from performance acts, acquired from zoos which encountered financial difficulty, or taken in from other sanctuaries that reached their capacity. Regardless of an animal’s origins, they are all given tremendous love and world class husbandry when they find a home at CARE.