March 2006

As part of my role as CEO of RSPCA ACT I was given the unique opportunity to visit America in 2006 and visit a number of animal shelters and welfare organisations.

We started in San Diego with a visit to the zoo and a learning experience associated with large animal welfare.

The setup of the zoo is fantastic, with well equipped veterinary facilities to handle animals a little larger than cats and dogs!

The education centre is designed for kids and adults a like and really showcases the work the zoo does in relation to endangered species, breeding programs and work with other zoos to maintain a diverse gene pool of some of the most at risk animals in the world.

We then enjoyed a private tour of the grounds. We saw the who is who of the animal kingdom, including the big five people often visit South Africa to see on safari.

We attended a Lynx (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx) enrichment session and learned a lot about cat behaviour, which would help with or cat enrichment programs back home.

We continued our tour witnesses elephants, rhinos, flamingos, lions, pandas, baboons, Giraffes, polar bears, eagles and a host of other species. It was a greta day.

The next day we visited the San Diego Humane Society and enjoyed a tour of their facility. We learned about adoption programs, rehabilitation programs, infant kitten fostering, dog behaviour and a host of enrichment programs for a range of species. Being relatively new to the RSPCA movement, I was soaking up the experience and noting down a host of things I could do to improve our shelter and the life of the 10,000 animal we cared for annually.

I also spent some time with the marketing and fund raising teams. I was keen to learn about fund raising efforts, although this $25m shelter and $40m annual budget were in a different league to the little old RSPCA in Canberra. Nonetheless, I still learned a lot from this group of folks and would be able to adapt a range of ideas into our programs.

We left after a great day and headed down to Los Angeles.

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MRL

MRL

We are Mardi and Michael Linke, and we are Australians who love to travel the world in comfort and style. From ultra-luxury cruise lines to mass market family ships, inside cabins to owner’s suites, economy to first class plane seats, you can experience our lifestyle and learn tips, tricks, secrets and hacks as a foundation for your lifestyle. We make it easy to plan and enjoy fantastic travel experiences. We have been blogging our travels since 2010 and in 2024 started this channel to inform and provide advice and entertainment to help you to travel like we do. www.linkelifestyle.com.
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