ALPINE, Calif. — San Diego County Sanctuary Lions Tigers & Bears has been helping animals for more than two decades and now they are asking for the community’s help to get a recently rescued tiger healthy again.

“Kallie has probably never been without pain,” said sanctuary founder and director Bobbi Brink.

Kallie suffers from arthritis in her feet because she was painfully declawed and she also has a fracture in a front leg.

“They are going to try to put steel plates into her leg and the bone. It will either take it or it will not, but she’s obviously to the point where she’s in a lot of pain now and she really can’t keep going on how she’s going on right now,” Brink said.

Kallie was found caged in a field in Oklahoma that was previously a roadside zoo. Brink says Kallie and other animals found on the property were used as babies for photo opportunities, then abandoned.

“She was pretty under nourished and very scared and not used to people,” Brink said.

She explains Kallie’s saving grace was someone purchasing the property, who was kind enough to want the animals to go to the right place.

Now that Kallie has been in Brink’s care for almost a year, this surgery is a risk, but a glimmer of hope to help her quality of life.

That surgery is happening this Saturday and it will cost $15,000. The sanctuary is asking for donations, but its large annual fundraiser is also coming up on May 20.

“It’s a 50-50 chance that the surgery could be successful which would mean she’ll be able to live out the rest of her life without pain,” Brink said.