It took three days of hitchhiking to Miami from Michigan in the early 1970s, but 16-year-old Mark McCarthy was determined to get his first job at the Miami Serpentarium.
He got it after the owner saw McCarthy’s love of animals — and the writhing bag of rattlesnakes he’d brought to the interview.
It kicked off a career working with animals, from collecting snake venom in Panama to big-cat photo shoots for Versace and myriad celebrities.
This year, McCarthy, 69, celebrates 35 years of his proudest achievement — the establishment of his own wildlife sanctuary. Now covering 8 acres off 61st Lane North in The Acreage, McCarthy Wildlife Sanctuary has become one of Palm Beach County’s most enduring attractions.
“ I always wanted my own place,” said McCarthy. “I started up here on an acre and a quarter and a little three-bedroom house and then I just kept expanding.”
Lion, cheetah, macaw give McCarthy Wildlife Sanctuary its personality
The animals at the sanctuary are as brilliant as McCarthy describes. To see the big cats, like Lia the tiger, Mufasa the lion and Duma the cheetah, gives a feel for how big they are compared to a human.
The small animals are impressive, too. It’s hard to tear yourself away from the startling gaze of their resident owl or the piercing glare of the sanctuary’s Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake.
And their scarlet macaw, Norma Jean, is just about as dazzling as the movie star she’s named after.
On his website, McCarthy boasts having performed over 6,000 wildlife programs for thousands of students across South Florida, as well as taking in over 4,000 injured native animals and saving hundreds of them.
“ It’d be a lonely planet if there wasn’t any wildlife around, as far as I’m concerned,” McCarthy said.
He loves teaching people about the animals and how to admire them. There’s no need to be afraid, but he says it’s usually best to leave animals alone and give them some respect.
“ Animals are a heck of a lot smarter than people think,” said McCarthy. “They read people really well.”
Scale of McCarthy Wildlife Sanctuary impressed founder’s father
When McCarthy got to Miami as a teenager, his parents thought he wasn’t going to make it taking care of animals, especially when he opened the sanctuary in 1990. His greatest moment was when his dad finally visited as a guest.
“ He was just walking around, just going, ‘I can’t believe you built this. This place is beautiful,’ ” said McCarthy. “When he passed away, in his will, he wanted to be buried with a McCarthy Wildlife Sanctuary shirt on.”
McCarthy said what keeps it all going is his passion for the animals. The other part of that success? His wife, Aneth, to whom he’s been married for 20 years.
“I fell head over heels for her,” he said. The two met when she was his safari guide in Tanzania and married in 2005. “This place would not be what it is today without her.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mark McCarthy knows the secret: Animals are ‘a heck of a lot smarter than people think’
Reporting by Elise Catrion Gregg / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
