Belize ACES (American Crocodile Education Sanctuary) Burned and Operators Threatened

9/9/10 UPDATE: A time line of the tragic events that have taken place in Punta Gorda recently can be found at Examiner.com

The following story was posted on Sunday by Cherie;

ACES / American Crocodile Educational Sanctuary no longer exists
by Cherie Renee Chenot-Rose on Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 1:10pm

ACES no longer exists. While Vince and I were on Ambergris Caye rescuing three problematic crocodiles for the Belize Forest Department, two children went missing from a village near Punta Gorda. The local Maya villagers believed that Vince and I fed the missing children to the crocs.

We were not even there, as I stated, but were on Ambergris Caye. As a lynch mob, the villagers burnt ACES / American Crocodile Education Sanctuary to the ground.

The status of the crocodiles is unknown because the fire is so hot the Belize Defense Forces cannot get to the property.

None has been arrested. Vince and Cherie are now homeless and do not have anything to their name. Everything was lost. Our lives have been threatened if we return to Punta Gorda…

You can read the article as reported by Belize News 5 here , the press release here and Channel 7 here as well.

This is a horrible tragedy for all involved – the parent’s and family of the missing children and the operators of ACES (http://www.americancrocodilesanctuary.org/) who were doing a great service to Belize with their work.  I am trying to find information about the best way we can help Cherie and Vince at this time but it seems monetary donations are appropriate since they have lost everything.  I will update my post as soon as possible with information about where donations are being received. In the meantime I have a donation button on the top-left sidebar here if you feel the need to donate to Cherie and Vince – I will donate any amounts that come in directly to them.

The information you need to make a donation to Cherie and Vince is the following;

The deposits can also be made with the same information directly into the Belize Bank in Belize.

Donations can be made:
International wiring account number for donations
Belize Bank # 630-1-1-10130
Account# Vince & Cherie Rose Fire Victim Account

I am so sad to see this situation where people trying to do a service to Belize are being threatened in such a way – I will not deny that there are foreigners going into Belize with ill-intent but this is not the case here and people like Cherie should not be in a situation such as this.  I am unclear as to the situation with the US Embassy but am trying to find out details with that as well.  I will update as soon as I have current information.

Please comment if you have up to date information on this situation and know if donations are being taken at this point.