Your gift helps our life saving work. TWS provides a natural sanctuary to wild cats in need and inspires change to end the captive wildlife crisis.

Your gifts enable us to do so much for wild cats, it allows us to rescue many from starvation, suffering, and deplorable conditions. Your help turns their lives around. For many, it is their first time to choose a path to walk, a place to lie down, and the serenity to be as free as they can possibly be. They enjoy life, without the fear of exhibition or exploitation, in natural, wide-open, spacious habitats – thanks to your caring and compassion. Your gift to the Miracle Match Program will also:

• Help us complete the final habitat in Wild Woodlands.
• Provide enrichment for cats like Nikita, Tasha and all TWS residents.
• Break ground in Feline Meadows - a free-roaming area for bobcats and servals.
• Install a generator for back-up power to the Sanctuary.
• Help cover medical treatment for geriatric cats like tigress Layla.
• Provide food and enrichment for over 100 wild cat residents.
• Provide much needed funding for No More Wild Pets education programs and outreach.

Keep the wild in your heart, not your home.

Our Mission

Provide a natural sanctuary to wildcats in need and inspire change to end the captive wildlife crisis.

Our Vision

Help create a world where animal sanctuaries are no longer needed.

Who we are

The Wildcat Sanctuary (TWS) is a 501c3 non-profit, no-kill big cat rescue located in Sandstone, MN. TWS provides a natural sanctuary to wild cats in need and inspires change to end the captive wildlife crisis. TWS is funded solely on private donations. The Sanctuary is a home for animals, not a zoo for people and is not open to the public. Combining natural and spacious habitats with a life free of exhibition and exploitation, TWS allows all residents to live wild at heart.

At TWS, animals are never bought, sold, bred, traded, or mistreated in anyway. Each resident is given every opportunity to behave naturally in a wonderfully humane environment for life. The Sanctuary is accredited by the Amercian Sanctuary Association and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries which means it meets strict care and safety standards, and is the only accredited big cat sanctuary in the Upper Midwest. The vision and need for The Wildcat Sanctuary has garnered endorsements from the Minnesota Zoo and the University of Minnesota’s Veterinary Care Program.

TWS has earned a national reputation for excellence in rescuing and housing captive wildcats while providing a unique service to animal control officers, local sheriff departments, humane societies as well as the Department of Natural Resources and the US Fish & Wildlife Service.