The different Rescue Centers in Ecuador all have one thing in common and that is that they are founded and run by people that love animals and who have seen how animals are suffering just to please somebody´s need for a trophy of an exotic pet. The government and the police look for and try to stop trafficking and when they find the animals they bring them to one of the centers but after that it is up to the center to feed and take care of the animals as the government doesn´t contribute with anything. This makes it heard as the centers needs to get money for food, material and equipment to keep the animals in a good environment and that's why they need to allow visitors that can pay a small entrance fee at the same time as they can learn about what happens to the animals, how they live, what they live of etc. Many of the centers also have Ecuadorian students that come for seminars to learn about animals and their environment as a part of their education but also younger children comes on visits to hopefully get more respect for taking care of our nature more than their parents.

The purposes of the centers are to take care of the animals that have been confiscated from trafficking or from people that had them as pets. In any case they often get seriously injured since they are tremendously abused by people. In the case of the monkeys for example they sometimes have broken their waist due to the chain they have around their waist while being pets.

As most animals that come to the centers can't be placed back to their natural environment again they are given food and shelter. The reason why they can't be placed out back in nature are different form animal to animal but amongst many problems they for example are

-tame after living with and around humans so they would go back humans and get caught again, killed or hurt someone.
-they have had their claws operated away and can no longer hunt.
-they were born in captivity and don't know how to hunt.
-they don't behave as wild animals and wound be rejected by their own kind.


The centres has animals like lions, monkeys, parrots, turtles, ocelots, sloth's, anacondas, Different species of rodents, tapirs etc but this can change from time to time and from center to center.

The centers are located in the Amazon and in the Andes in a couple of different cities and villages and its possible for both individuals and groups of 5 to 10 people to come at the same time.
Participants will normally work 8 hours a day Monday to Friday but this may vary depending on what needs to be done.

Duties will be assigned according to the volunteer's experience, stated preference and the needs in the center.
-According to this volunteers might:
-Feed the animals.
-Clean the cages.
-Help with the reforestation in the area.
-Help in the plant nursery.
-Improve the the parks paths and signs for visitors.
-Guide visitors in the center and talk to them about the animals.
-Collect food in the surroundings for the animals.
-Clean around in the park.
-Help giving ideas on how to improve the park for animals and visitors.
-Help the veterinarian if they come to check up on the animals.

The animal centers we work with are located in the Andes and the Amazon region.

Volunteers work Monday to Friday from 06:30 in the morning to maybe 17:00 with a break for lunch.

Most people can take part of this program as long as they can work physically and live under simpler conditions.

The ones that get disappointed sometimes are the ones that come and thinks that they will save several animals every day from dying and then after a couple of weeks they can release them into the wild again. This rarely happens and most animals stay in the centers for a long time or even for life due to lack of natural instincts, lack of rehabilitation, bad physical conditions etc.