"There are chimp sanctuaries, orangutan sanctuaries, gorilla sanctuaries, elephant sanctuaries, big-cat sanctuaries, bird sanctuaries," he says.
We walked up the central aisle to join the sparse congregation that ringed the sanctuary, the big Guadalupe mural looming beyond the altar.
The church's sanctuary is big enough for about 200 people, and its squat brick building is eclipsed by the towers of the Farragut Houses, which Mr. Walcott said were home to roughly 1,000 school-age children.
Naples is home to several major land reserves, including the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Picayune Strand State Forest.
"That's an indicator for stress," Susan Bass, public relations director for Big Cat Rescue, an animal sanctuary for big cats, told HuffPost.
Those intentions followed through, however: The Roar Foundation, a non-profit founded by Hedren that includes the Shambala Preserve sanctuary for big cats, has been open ever since.
A year later, Indonesia made international headlines by establishing a countrywide manta sanctuary – the biggest in the world.
Although sharks are better protected here than in some parts of the Pacific, enforcement of this protection can be hard in marine sanctuaries as big as the Galápagos.
Now, the government is establishing one of the world's largest sanctuaries for big cats in an effort to revive the subspecies.
Their spa will use only natural products, and their 'Landing Zone Bar' will be open for guests to sip G&Ts from the edge of the sanctuary's biggest waterfall.
But others said there was no better moment than Easter, when sanctuaries swelled with their biggest crowds of the year, and redemption was the dominant theme.
