Meet Dirk
Dirk with Digger the Cockatoo
Dirk Neugebohrn was born in the 1942 in Hamburg Germany. His father was a game warden which sparked Dirks love for animals. Dirk worked as an auto mechanic in Germany, Africa and the United States. He stared out as a Mercedes Benz mechanic and eventually owned his own repair shop. Dirk spend 15 years in Africa where he saw many animals getting abused and shot by poachers. He started to take these animals into his house to help them. Often he rescued exotic animals like cheetahs, baby elephants and lion cubs that were injured or left motherless from the poachers. Sickened by what he saw he started spending more and more time trying to protect these beautiful animals.
Eventually Dirk moved to the United States and opened a Mercedes repair shop and spent some time as a animal control officer in Dade County and Homestead Florida. In 1981 Dirk started SFWRC. In an article from the Miami Herald Dirk is quoted "I don't think any animal is happy in a cage, I think it is cruel, I think it is wrong" he says. "But if weren't for places like mine these animals would be put to death." There are no State facilities for exotic animals that are confiscated or injured or surrendered.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is quoted in the Miami Herald article that "we are fortunate to have individuals that are property permitted to take in these animals." The agency brings animals to Dirk and the Southern Florida Wildlife Rehab Center.
Dirk says the ideal option is to locate to a larger site to give these beautiful animals more room to roam. "I need your help. I am proud of what we do. These animals are living proof of the benefits of loving care. I need your help. These beautiful animals need your help. Please give generously."
The South Florida Wildlife Rehab Center does NOT receive any funding from local, State or Federal Governmental agencies.
WE SURVIVE BY PRIVATE DONATIONS. The average cost to feed the animals at the center is $4,000 a month. We need your help. Please give generously. Help save these beautiful animals.
Federal Nonprofit License 65-045-0750Florida Nonprofit N-93000005156