ttp://adg.nwanews.com/news/2009/nov/28/big-cat-interns-help-out-grow-20091128/
Big cat interns help out, grow
Work changes their perspective
By KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZET
Saturday, November 28, 2009
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LITTLE ROCK — Much to the surprise of intern Ashley Bulla, three months of 50-hour weeks scooping tiger dung and handling raw meat taught her something: self-reliance.
The 23-year-old New Yorker who used to let mom and dad carry her luggage and do her laundry now gets by on her weekly earnings of $50 for groceries.
“I can go out and live by myself and be an independent person,” said Bulla, who scored one of a dozen six-month internships at the Turpentine Creek WildlifeRefuge just outside of Eureka Springs.
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“I was beyond ecstatic. I was screaming when I got the call that I was accepted,” said Bulla of Monroe, N.Y., who is halfway through her internship.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned here. From weedwhacking to much more important thingslike feeding the cats correctly and reading their behavior,” said Bulla, who has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Manhattan College in the Bronx.
“It’s really exciting to educate people; big cats don’t make good pets,” Bulla said. She’s considering a career as a biology teacher.
Bulla has grown up during her internship. “I’m not even the same person I was when I arrived in August.”
Bulla has applied for a second internship at the refuge.
“I wake up every morning and I don’t have to work, I get to go to work.”
Bulla and her fellow interns start at 8 a.m. to clean the cages, which takes hours, then they break for lunch, and work on building habitats and preparing the food, donated by Tyson and Wal-Mart. The refuge uses between 800 and 1,200 pounds of meat a day.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/28/2009
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Bulla, Ashley [MC????]
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