The Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge

In 1967, Amanda Blake met PAWS founder, Pat Derby, in Hollywood on the set of "Gunsmoke". At the time Pat was working as an animal trainer on the "Gunsmoke" set. Pat and Amanda would go on to became close friends and in 1985, when PAWS was founded, Ms. Blake supported PAWS through business processes and financial assistance.

Throughout her life, Amanda made frequent trips to Africa where she fell in love with the natural beauty and wildness of the Maasai Mara Reserve and with national parks such as Amboseli and Serengeti. During her final years, Amanda lived at the PAWS Galt, California, sanctuary so she could be close to the animals she loved.

Although she died in 1989 at the age of 60, Amanda's spirit lives on at PAWS. In 1997, the Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge, located in Herald, California was established in Ms. Blake's memory and now provides refuge for emu, fallow deer, eland, and a herd of scimitar-horned oryx. Through this sanctuary, PAWS continues Amanda's commitment to the protection of animals in captivity as well as in the wild.

The most notable item of interest about the Amanda Blake Refuge is that it contains one of only a few herds of oryx, containing adults of both sexes, in the country. Adult male oryx do not typically get along, and zoos usually have only one adult male in an exhibit at any given time. This seems to be true for most, if not all, antelope species.

This creates an obvious problem for zoos with limited space. When males are born, the only alternative is to sell or trade these "surplus" males to another zoo or, more likely, an animal dealer.

According to the AZA S.S.P. for Scimitar-horned oryx, historically they have only had two "successful" bachelor herds; the LA Zoo and Fossil Rim Ranch in Texas. When PAWS contacted the L.A. zoo regarding their herd, a representative stated that the zoo's bachelor herd only lasted one year. Fossil Rim Ranch in Texas had more space, but even with many acres of land they were still forced to cut off the horns of the males in order to keep them together.

To date, we have not had to trim the horns of the males and have not encountered problems with aggression between the male and female oryx we have.

The Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge is located at the Rancho Seco Recreation Area operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. For more information on park hours and admission, click here.

The Amanda Blake Museum & Visitor Center
Open by special appointment only. Please call PAWS representative Kim Gardner at (916) 488-3991, or email kgardner@pawsweb.org for information.

Museum volunteers and animal docents needed. If you are interested and can commit to a regular volunteer schedule, please click here to review our volunteer web page.

Surplus Animal Issues
As recently as the 1960s, the problem of "surplus" wildlife was minimal. But today, this "cycle" of surplus animals is a multi-billion dollar industry that is burgeoning out of control and is responsible for the misery and death of hundreds of thousands of animals each year.

Surpluses of captive wild animals are created by irresponsible zoos, the pet novelty trade, the hunting ranch industry, the Hollywood industry, roadside exhibits, circuses and, increasingly, the drug trade. Experts estimate that in the United States alone, there are about 1,200 roadside zoos and menageries. Daily, there are thousands of unwanted, abused or abandoned animals in need of refuge in this country.

Wildlife Today
It is an unfortunate reality that much of the "free" wildlife of the world has also fallen prey to the greed of animal dealers, breeders and trainers. The enormous loss of wildlife habitat in Africa, Asia, Australia and elsewhere is becoming increasingly evident and the impact of this enormous loss is being felt by not only animals in the wild, but also their counterparts in captivity. Today, it seems there are few places where indigenous wildlife can or do exist without some sort of human intervention.