Wildlife Waystation Brink of Extinction for Sanctuary

Brink of Extinction

 

Wildlife Waystation foundering for lack of permits, financing

 

BY DANA BARTHOLOMEW, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 08/30/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

 

 

SYLMAR - The nation's largest exotic-wildlife sanctuary could close soon for lack of funds - and leave its 400 lions, tigers and other animals to the care of county animal control, its operators said Wednesday.

 

The 31-year-old Wildlife Waystation is asking for public help to save its 160-acre menagerie of abused and abandoned creatures.

 

"We're at a critical road: We are $1million in debt, and we have no funds left," Waystation founder and director Martine Colette said during a news conference in the former petting zoo. "Things as they are today will not continue for the next week, or two weeks, without help - financial help."

 

Without immediate donations, she added, Waystation animals are "going to become the county's problem, the state's problem."

 

The Wildlife Waystation, in rugged Little Tujunga Canyon in the Angeles National Forest, has long cared for abandoned, abused and injured wildlife with the help of hundreds of local volunteers.

 

But a succession of county, state and federal license and operating permit battles has drained its resources, officials said.

 

Last month, five of its eight board members quit, apparently burned out over troubles at the beleaguered agency.

 

This week, its $100,000-a-year manager was let go. On Wednesday, Collette laid off half her staff of 48 animal- and groundskeepers.

 

Southern California Edison threatened to shut off power unless the bill was paid Wednesday, Collette said. And an unpaid propane company is scheduled to cancel service next week.

 

Collette said she would try to prevent such animals as Montana the tiger and Bubba the baboon from being sent to roadside circuses with a reputation for mistreating animals.

 

Or worse, from being killed.

 

"There may be some that may have to be euthanized," she said, her eyes welling up with tears. "It's an unthinkable thought. I shall do whatever is in my power to prevent that from happening."

 

The Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control Department is scheduling an inspection this week of waystation animals. Recent inspections have found its various jaguars, lions, alligators and birds to be in excellent shape.

 

"It's not sounding good," said Michelle Roache, deputy director of county animal control. "Our main (concern) is the welfare of those animals."

 

Roache said that, in the event of a closure, the county would likely be forced to care for the animals on-site and request the state Department of Fish and Game to move or house them.

 

Wednesday's announcement followed news this month that the waystation hoped to move part of its collection to Palm Springs - a move that Colette said could take up to a year to sort out donor land and permit issues.

 

Other locations are being scouted outside Santa Barbara, Bakersfield or in Arizona or New Mexico.

 

A buyer has offered to pay between $2.5 million and $3 million for 120 acres owned by the waystation, Colette said.

 

Despite its current troubles, financial reports for the waystation show a nonprofit agency solidly in the black.

 

In 2005, it earned $3.2 million in donations and spent roughly the same amount - with nearly $1 million in net assets, according to tax filings.

 

Last year, the agency brought in $3 million and spent $2.7 million on operations, according to a Give.org charity rating report by the Better Business Bureau.

 

A waystation fundraiser was held last October at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles featuring a tiger kitten and such celebrities as Nicolette Sheridan.

 

Colette, who had turned over the financial operations to her board until this week, said she could not explain this year's loss other than to say the agency had spent $1 million on environmental studies for a county occupancy permit.

 

Waystation officials say fundraising came to a halt in 2001 after it was closed to visitors by the county and ordered to upgrade its sewage system, widen roads and install a water tank for fighting fires.

 

The next year, Colette admitted to nearly 300 violations of federal animal-welfare laws and agreed to a suspension of her license under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates animal exhibitors.

 

The waystation still needs a new land-use permit to reopen to the public.

 

A judge is expected to rule this winter on a complaint by the USDA alleging permit violations.

 

"I saw the books, I've listened to individual auditors. It's always been a hand-to-mouth organization, because the demands were always greater than the resources," said Scott Smith, a waystation supporter and former employee.

 

"There was never enough money to do anything. That's why I left."

 

Philanthropist and businessman Bob Lorsch, a former waystation executive director, stepped down from its board July 1.

 

"Martine wanted control over everything, and that has been problematic in the past," said Lorsch, a major contributor. "I can't speak for the others, but it got tiring."

 

On Wednesday, Colette meandered past scores of chain-link animal cages nestled under a lush canopy of trees planted by a legion of waystation volunteers.

 

She walked past the llamas lulled by 100-degree heat. Past Kiowa the mountain lion, purring at approaching visitors. Past chimps howling and spitting from their cages. And past Katunga, a male lion growling fiercely to defend his pride.

 

"Oh, honey, I know, I know," Colette cooed at Montana, a 12-year-old white tiger with a gimpy leg who craned his long whiskers for a hose bath. "You want a kiss, Montana? Come over here.

 

"You are such a good boy, such a good boy."

 

"My job now is to find a solution to this crisis and dilemma," she said. "And to save the animals at the waystation."

 

http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_6758913?source=most_emailed

 

Video:  http://lang.dailynews.com/socal/dnvideos/waystation.mov

 

Photos:  http://dailynews.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=322400

 

Wildlife Waystation Website:  http://www.wildlifewaystation.org/common/page.php?ref=home&MERCURYSID=875eaae7eed9a698102dd3f92dadb9c0

Climate change could be causing cougar attacks: expert

Climate change could be causing cougar attacks: expert

 

CanWest News Service

Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007

CANMORE, Alta. -- A combination of warm winters and Alberta's population boom is causing a recent jump in cougar attacks, says a spokesman for the government agency that collects cougar-related data.

 

The province's cougar population has jumped this year because recent warm winters have pushed up the population of deer, elk and moose -- the cougars' natural prey, said Darcy Whiteside with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

 

"These are natural fluctuations," Whiteside said on Wednesday.

 

"But they're compounded by the fact that municipalities are expanding into natural areas. A lot more people are living, camping and hiking in those areas, too."

 

Wildlife officials spent Tuesday tracking a hungry and possibly sick cougar that attacked a family dog in Canmore, Alta. While the cougar hasn't been found, the dog is recovering at a veterinary clinic with severe head injuries after it was attacked and carried away by the cat.

 

No humans have been mauled by cougars in Alberta since 2005, but the number of sightings has jumped: as of Aug. 2, 136 sightings were reported. That's already 17 more than the total sightings in 2006, and 19 more than in 2005, said Whiteside.

 

"Fish Creek Park, for example, is very close to the built-up area of Calgary," Whiteside said of natural areas where cougars were spotted this summer.

 

And because cougars don't hibernate over the winter, Albertans should expect encounters with the cats to continue, Whiteside said.

 

In British Columbia, a 12-year-old boy was camping with his family in the interior on Aug. 1, when he was mauled by a big cat. The attack left him with 200 stitches in his head.

 

The month before, a woman was forced to fend off an aggressive cougar that had been stalking her as she hiked alone on a popular trail in Kooney National Park, B.C.

 

More than 90% of all fatal North American cougar/human encounters since 1890 have taken place on Vancouver Island. Seven people have been killed by cougars between 1890 and 1990.

 

Most recently, 30-year-old Frances Frost was skiing on the Cascade Trail, 12 kilometres from Banff, when she was killed by a cougar in January 2001.

 

In 1996, Cindy Parolin was killed while defending her young son who had been knocked off a horse by a cougar in Princeton, 250 kilometres east of Vancouver.

 

A cougar also killed an eight-year-old boy in 1992 in a schoolyard in Kyoquot, B.C., on the northwest side of Vancouver Island.

 

 

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=c5e6120a-be10-4497-8f32-cd8585e5ca33&k=51234

 

For the cats,

 

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home

to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625

813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org    MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

 

Sign our petition to protect tigers here:

 

http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU

 

Get 7 Free Lessons from the Teachers of "The Secret" here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/TheSecret.htm 

 

This message contains information from Big Cat Rescue that may be confidential or privileged. The information contained herein is intended only for the eyes of the individual or entity named above.  You are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, disclosure, and/or copying of the information contained in this communication is strictly prohibited. The recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Big Cat Rescue accepts no liability for any damage or loss caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail.

 

Wildlife imports out of control in Miami

A KOMODO DRAGON, A BLACK MAMBA AND A BIRD-EATING SPIDER?

 

ANOTHER DAY’S WORK AT MIAMI INTERNTIONAL AIRPORT

 

By Ken Burton

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

August 23, 2007

 

 

Wildlife Inspector Carlos Pages vividly remembers the times when he opened a crate of imported animals only to discover that not all of them were still in the cloth bags that serve as their shipping cages. Those are the moments when his speed trumps their speed.

 

“We managed to get them repackaged,” said Pages. Fortunately, those kinds of escapes are not common. And just as fortunately, neither Pages nor any of his five U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Inspector colleagues at Miami International Airport have ever been bitten.

 

And there is plenty to bite them. Miami International, which sprawls across more than 3,200 acres and is still growing, is big enough to be listed as one of the few civilian emergency backup landing sites for the space shuttle. It also ranks first in the United States in international freight shipments and in live animal traffic. That translates into about 3,000 live wildlife shipments every month, spot-checked by Service’s Office of Law Enforcement airport field office.

 

 

Eddie V. McKissick poses with a stuffed cheetah, seized at the Port of Miami. McKissick is the Resident Agent in Charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement office that oversees Southeast Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (USFWS Photo by Ken Burton) 

Authorities estimate that the wildlife trade in the United States is a billion-dollar business and the potential for illegal profits pushes it into the top three smuggling crimes, right alongside drugs and guns. Resident Agent in Charge Eddie McKissick guesses that, pound-for-pound, illicit profits in wildlife probably exceed those of cocaine.

 

“How much we stop is significant,” said McKissick, “but I still worry about what’s getting through.”

 

McKissick said the illegal trade in wildlife runs in fads. “For awhile, giant fruit bats were in vogue. Then it was poison arrow frogs, then marmosets. It’s a constantly changing market, driven in some measure simply by what wealthy people don’t have.” (Poison arrow frogs are so named because they supply the lethal liquid used by South American Indians on the tips of their arrows).

 

It’s a strange market indeed.

 

On this day, Pages and fellow Wildlife Inspector Sarita Valentin are to inspect a stack of crates, almost all of which contain at least 100 bird-eating spiders (the Goliath tarantula of South America, which commonly eats hatchlings but has been known to consume adult hummingbirds) or 500 giant African scorpions, or deadly puff adders, vipers or the legendary black mamba, a snake said to be capable of moving at 7 miles per hour and able to kill a human within minutes.

 

 

A Two-Horned Chameleon, found on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and in Kenya, perches on a glove worn by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Inspector Sarita Valentin at Miami International Airport. Thousands of animals pass through the Port of Miami every year, bound mostly for the pet trade. (USFWS Photo by Ken Burton) 

Inspections of shipments like these can be tricky (if one of the animals gets loose); they also require great care and skill, an expert knowledge of species descriptions (the animal inside the box must match the manifest), and be performed quick enough that the animals – provided all is in order – can continue on their way.

 

“These men and women in our law enforcement operation are really on the front line of the wildlife trade,” said Service Director H. Dale Hall. “The work they do in ports of entry across the country can be dangerous. It’s time-consuming. And it’s important. I’m very proud of all of them.”

 

Some inspections are easier than others – like the time a Komodo dragon came through, housed in a cage bigger than several airline baggage carts.

 

However, in today’s shipment, there are 10 black mambas, listed in the shipment paperwork as being worth $2,000. Some 150 poison arrow frogs are listed at $600 and 25 puff adders, $500. Those are the wholesale prices. The retailer will turn a profit that would take your breath away faster than a black mamba.

 

And profits in the illegal trade are far greater. “We caught a guy with a suitcase full of bird-eating spiders,” said McKissick. “He also had 200 poison arrow frogs and some boa snakes. He bought all of that overseas for about $350. He could have sold the entire contents of the suitcase for about $45,000.”

 

As in the smuggling of guns and drugs, it is that kind of money that drives the illegal wildlife trade; it is those profits that push smugglers to view some wildlife deaths in illegal shipments as simply a cost of doing business. The markup is so high, smugglers can lose half their animals and still make a small fortune.

 

A few years ago, a wildlife dealer with a legal import business was apprehended because he had also veered off into the illegal market. Despite making $6 million a year with his legal business, he couldn’t resist making another $3 million, illegally. Why? “Because he could,” McKissick said.

 

Poisonous snakes, like a lot of animals, are shipped in cloth bags stapled to the sides of wooden crates. To be inspected, the open part of a bag is taped around the mouth of a clear, sealed cylinder. That enables the inspector to see what is in the bag without being exposed to any danger. It is not foolproof; there are some snakes that are able to bite through cloth, and require more careful handling.

 

 

Wildlife Inspector Carlos Pages, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement airport field office in Miami, opens a crate of giant fruit bats at Miami International Airport. The Miami Port of Entry services traffic from Africa, Europe and Latin America, making it among the busiest in the world. (USFWS Photo by Ken Burton) 

Eighty percent of live animal shipments to Miami are imports from Africa, South America or Europe, and between 70 and 75 percent of those go to the commercial pet trade. Wildlife trade is regulated by agreements under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the 172-member international organization of which the United States is a member. Virtually every wild animal that enters the U.S. must be accompanied by a correct CITES permit and supporting paperwork from the exporting nation. (Most of the shipments through the Port of Miami go through the airport; live animals are rarely, if ever, transported by sea).

 

There is almost no limit to what wildlife inspectors have found or seized in Miami. More than 300 dried seahorses smuggled from Peru. Packages of spiders from Brazil and Belize with illegal paperwork. Three endangered South American river turtles. And more unnerving than most – two brown tree snakes, which were promptly sent back to Indonesia. (Brown tree snakes have exterminated all the songbirds of Guam and have become a major threat to people. A major concern is that the snake might be introduced elsewhere, either accidentally or deliberately).

 

“This kind of operation is all about tactics,” said McKissick, “ours – and theirs. We can tell we’re gaining if there’s a dip in seizures. That means the other side is changing their tactics. And it means we have to change -- to keep up. They know we’re coming, and that we’ll always be coming, and we don’t give up.”

 

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0823-fws.html

Cross bred lions can never go free

Cross bred lions can never go free (same as all Bengal tigers in US)

 

Last refuge for the king of beasts

 

Ananth Krishnan

 

Lost pride: Two lions, rescued from circuses, at the Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur.

 

CHENNAI: Lakshmi and Jimmy have had it tough. They have never known their families and have spent much of their lives suffering intolerable cruelty at the hands of strangers. They have been forced to live their lives in public spotlight, performing in front of hundreds of strange eyes every night and have always been alone, outsiders, to even their own kin.

 

That they both happen to be 200-kg lions shouldn’t matter to the poignancy of their story. Rescued from the Rayman circus, they now live at a Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, set up on the edge of the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur.

 

The centre is home to 45 other lions, as well as seven tigers, all of whom share similar stories.

 

From hell

 

“When we first got these animals, they were skinny and bony, and very badly injured,” says Thirumurugan, a veterinary assistant at the centre. Mr. Thirumurugan says these animals have been subjected to extraordinary cruelty — branding iron rods have been used on them by circus trainers, many of them have been permanently maimed and some even blinded. The animals have been cruelly starved and savagely beaten.

 

The centre is a refuge for animals rescued from circuses across the region, including Raymon, Gemini, Kohinoor and Great Bombay circuses, according to the centre’s records.“In a circus, five to six of these big cats are forced to live in a tiny wooden box where they have to eat, sleep and even defecate, with hardly any room to breathe,” Thirumurugan says. Here, there are 40 cells for the lions, where they are fed, washed and given close medical attention.

 

All 47 lions here are hybrids — circuses often cross-breed African and Asiatic lions, believing for some reason that the hybrids are more impressive on the eye.

 

As a consequence of their origins, these lions can never be set loose in their natural habitat. They will not be accepted by wild lions and their groups, or prides.

 

Biologists say these animals should not reproduce, as they reckon that cross-breeding between the two varieties adversely affects the animals’ gene pool. Consequently, all 47 lions have been vasectomised.

 

Social relations are extremely important to a lion’s behavioural patterns, more so than for any of the other ‘big cats’. Tigers, by contrast, do not form social groups and often wander around alone.

 

“Lions are very gregarious animals,” says Mr. Thirumurugan. At the centre, the lions are let out into the paddock areas in groups; the groups are put together depending on how compatible a particular animal is with the others in the group. So in a sense, these lions, outsiders to their kin in the wild, have found their own prides here.

 

But the fact is that these lions will never be freed from the curse that is their circus upbringings. Their hybrid genes render them alien to their own species.

 

Many of these animals are also injured, and the circus environment in which they have been brought up has not allowed them to develop hunting skills that will allow them to survive in their natural habitat.

 

Sadly, all 47 lions will spend the rest of their days at the centre; they will never be free. The environment that the centre provides for them, while far from perfect, is in some ways the next best realistic option for the animals.

 

Besides the physical comfort and close medical attention the animals receive here, they finally have a sense of belonging.

 

Lakshmi and Jimmy will die in captivity. But not alone.

 

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/27/stories/2007082751160200.htm

 

 

How zoo's tigers were shot for the taxidermist

 

How zoo’s tigers were shot for the taxidermist

 

August 26, 2007

 

Lingering death of two caged animals killed so that they could be skinned and stuffedBy Daniel Foggo

 

See the videos: 1. Zoo tigers are shot for their skins. It is unclear whether they are being killed by Jean-Pierre Gerard, a Belgian taxidermist, or by one of his associates. Warning: shows prolonged sequences of animals suffering

 

http://del.interoute.com/?id=113ac231-2101-4da6-9417-34cee489c7c2&delivery=stream

 

2. One of the shot tigers is skinned by Gerard

 

http://del.interoute.com/?id=4e4730dd-6500-4cf3-9c20-98ea2216d426&delivery=stream

 

A TAXIDERMIST exposed for buying healthy exotic animals from zoos in order to stuff them has been filmed taking part in the brutal slaughter of two caged tigers for their skins.

 

Jean-Pierre Gerard, who last month offered undercover Sunday Times reporters the pelts of young zoo tigers for £3,000 each, was present while two further specimens from a German zoo were peppered with bullets.

 

Video footage shows the animals suffering a lingering death as they were repeatedly and inexpertly shot over more than 20 minutes. Afterwards Gerard is shown skinning the animals with a view to their being stuffed. He also confessed on camera to having shot the animals himself, although he subsequently insisted to The Sunday Times that his “friend”, who he would not identify, had actually pulled the trigger.

 

Gerard has fuelled his lucrative taxidermy business buying surplus animals from zoos across Europe. The footage now suggests that he has also been involved in the death of unwanted zoo animals as well as stuffing them.

 

Rare captive species are routinely being overbred by zoos, which use cubs to attract visitors in the peak summer season. Later in the year “excess” animals are killed and their skins sold to Gerard for no other reason than the fact that the zoos no longer have any room for them.

 

Belgian police said this weekend they would like to view the footage and Bart Staes, a Dutch MEP, said he would table questions in the European parliament this week.

 

The video raises new questions over the provenance of the tiger skins offered for sale to undercover reporters last month. When Gerard offered the skins of two young female tigers for £6,000, he altered official Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) certificates.

 

He added his name to the certificates, to reassure would-be buyers that he was entitled to sell them. Gerard had bought them from a Belgian safari park, Monde Sauvage.

 

A Cites document for one of the tigers states that it was actually sold to Gerard when it was still alive, although he insisted yesterday that the animal was dead when he received it. He said he had not examined its certificate properly and therefore did not notice the discrepancy.

 

The true fate of that tiger is unclear, however. Joseph Renson, the director of Monde Sauvage, at first said the 18-month-old animal had died of old age. He later claimed it had died of natural causes.

 

The International Species Information System database records that it was “euthanased” in February 2007. Yet in April, Monde Sauvage was issued with the Cites permit stating that it was still alive.

 

The footage of tigers being shot, which was filmed in 1994 by German television, did not show Gerard’s face or use his name.

 

But last night he admitted being present when the animals were shot at an address near Antwerp. He described the botched killings as a “catastrophe” that had upset him. Gerard said “a friend” had shot the zoo tigers. The taxidermist admitted he had skinned them but insisted he had been “set up” by the German journalists.

 

“I thought the tigers were going to be dead already when they were delivered,” he said. Gerard added that he had believed he was going to be given one of the pelts in return for skinning both tigers.

 

Following the shooting, Gerard admitted on camera that he had shot them himself, but he retracted this in speaking to The Sunday Times, saying that he had been pressured into confessing. “I have never killed any animal for my business,” he said.

 

However, the producer of the programme, Stefan Eckart, insisted Gerard had indeed shot the tigers himself.

 

Questions have also been raised about Gerard’s inadvertent role in the fate of a chimpanzee bearing the name of one of the most popular and high-profile residents of a British zoo.

 

Documents show that Gerard received a chimpanzee with the details of “Rodney”, a long-standing resident of Windsor Safari Park, and offered its skin and skeleton for sale in 2002.

 

In fact the animal was probably caught in Africa and given Rodney’s details in order to make its purchase appear legal.

 

The real Rodney lived out his later life at the Monkey World primate rescue centre in Dorset, where he was a featured chimp in the long-running television series Monkey Business. He died in 2005 at the age of 37.

 

Alison Cronin, who runs Monkey World, said: “This is exactly how wild animals are smuggled, by using the real details of existing captive animals to get them ‘into the system’. It is absolutely appalling that any chimpanzee has ended its days as a trophy for someone who wants a stuffed animal. It shows how low some people can sink.”

 

Additional reporting: Nicola Smith

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2327856.ece

Bobcat Rescue- Big CAt TV

Big Cat Rescue recently got the call to help a wild Florida bobcat in need. Recent construction near the airport had forced a bobcat out of its own territory and into a business complex. This sadly is happening to all kinds of wildlife all around the world.
People move in, wildlife gets pushed out.
The bobcat will be treated as a candidate for rehab and release and kept away from people until he stabilizes enough to re evaluate his condition.
Please stay tuned…

*Big Cat Rescue released “Faith” in the wild back in 2005 and track and monitor her still to this day. We also provide a permanent home to several bobcats that could not be returned to the wild.
(Special Thanks to Rodney for the production of this video)
www.bigcatrescue.org

Big Cat Cougar Cubs "All Grown Up"

The current situations with cougars (mountain lions etc…) are interesting. You could be a Florida Panther, which are protected and slowly heading towards extinction (as many are hit by vehicles each year due to a huge population growth in Florida), or you could be a western puma and legally hunted in states like Oregon for a $10.00 fee.
The cougars we mostly hear about are those that are people’s former pets. We get calls all the time where people went out and bought a cute fluffy cougar cub only to realize that like all animals, they grew up.
Our “cubs” were sent here around 2 years ago after their mother was shot in the wilderness. A lot of you have been asking how they are doing, and this video taken at feeding time on whole prey night, will give you the chance to see that they have grown up.
Thank you for watching.
www.bigcatrescue.org

Big Cat Rescue on TV today and tomorrow

See us on Current TV today! Our Sand Cat Species Spotlight will also be playing on Tuesday 8/21/07 at approximately 8:19A, 12:31P, 9:19P, and 5:32a Eastern Time. They tend to re-run popular news, so we may be recurring there regularly for a while. Check http://www.current.tv/watch/23239819 for TV times in your area.

For the cats,

 

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home

to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625

813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org    MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

 

Sign our petition to protect tigers here:

 

http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU

 

Get 7 Free Lessons from the Teachers of "The Secret" here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/TheSecret.htm 

 

This message contains information from Big Cat Rescue that may be confidential or privileged. The information contained herein is intended only for the eyes of the individual or entity named above.  You are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, disclosure, and/or copying of the information contained in this communication is strictly prohibited. The recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Big Cat Rescue accepts no liability for any damage or loss caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail.

 

Cattle Call in Washington Post

Cattle Call in Washington Post

 

Carole’s Note:  I usually discourage postings on the BCR group of non cat issues, but I think this one does apply because it further illustrates the 100^th monkey effect or the notion of critical mass.  When enough of us begin to believe that it is not right to cage wild animals then others take note and before long there is a paradigm shift.  As we continue to present the science and the evidence that wild animals have their own purpose and agenda that does not include amusing us, we will see that shift take place more rapidly.  Keep talking to your friends, writing letters to your legislators and education those in the media who can reach the most people.  It’s working!

Cattle Call

By Gene Weingarten
Sunday, August 19, 2007; Page W60

Everyone knows that America has an obesity problem. But when I read about a recent medical study suggesting that getting fat is socially contagious -- that if your friends gain weight, you become much more likely to -- I was skeptical. It seemed an illogical form of bandwagon behavior:

Warren: Hi, George. Long time no see!

George: Yes. I notice you've become the size of a bathysphere.

Warren: You're darn tootin'! My buttocks are larger than your wife.

George: [looks crestfallen]

Warren: Aw, chin up, fella. If you follow my pulled pork, pasta and parfait diet, you, too, can become a thunderous, waddling leviathan!

So, as I said, I was skeptical. However, I soon came to understand that the study is probably right. I came to understand this because, on the very day that the report was issued, I learned something interesting about human nature from my friend Bruce Friedrich. Bruce was planning to spend a morning leafleting, and he suggested that if I accompanied him I'd get more than enough material for a column.

"Leafleting" is not a typical way that friends get together, unless your friend happens to be Bruce, who is always working, and whose work consists of informing most everyone in the world, often via leaflet, that they are bloodthirsty monsters. Bruce is a national spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the in-your-face animal rights organization that believes it is immoral to consign fully sentient beings to nightmarish lives of immobility, fear and pain just because we like to eat them instead of eggplant.

I know you probably have a problem with the previous sentence. Many people do. If you are like me, your problem is that you think it is

(1) personally insulting and obnoxious; and

(2) true.

This, however, is not a column about animal rights. It is a column about human behavior, specifically about whether we will tend to get fat if people around us get fat.

Bruce and I were outside the Takoma Park Metro station, handing out what has proved to be PETA's most effective leaflet, promoting vegetarianism through the testimonials of famously vegetarian celebrities, including Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, Kim Basinger and Mr. T.

This fact alone illustrates two principles of human behavior: The first is that for completely illogical reasons, humans are impressed by the endorsement of celebrities, even if those celebrities are, say, Pamela Anderson, who, according to her Wikipedia entry, is primarily known "for her large breast implants." The second principle this illustrates is that we are gullible, willing to believe almost anything we are told, such as the way you accepted my ridiculous assertion that Mr. T is on that leaflet, promoting vegetarianism. Mr. T resembles the butterflied carcass of a Brahman bull; his veins bulge with smaller veins. He sweats animal blood. His armpit hairs are made of beef. He is a vegetarian like I am Pamela Anderson. He is not on the leaflet, okay?

So, Bruce and I were handing out the leaflets, and I began to notice something. He was getting far fewer turndowns than I was. Part of it was that I had never done this before and was approaching it like a total idiot. One man I unsuccessfully tried to give a leaflet to was, at the time, actively attempting to control a nosebleed.

But the more interesting reason was that Bruce seemed to have a system. If there was a line of people approaching the Metro, and the first person in line didn't take his leaflet, Bruce walked away and tried a different line. I asked him about this.

"If the first person takes a leaflet," he said, "everyone else will want to see what that guy got. No one wants to miss out. But if they see that the first person rejects it, everyone behind him becomes too good for it."

I experimented a little. It proved true close to 100 percent of the time. No one had any idea what was in that leaflet; there was no empirical way to judge its value except by the actions of an equally ignorant person in front of you. And yet, everyone blindly followed.

All of which brings us back to the illogical contagion of obesity and, indirectly, to PETA. We are becoming a nation of cows: moving slowly forward, following the tail in front of us, eating ourselves fat.

Gene Weingarten's e-mail address is weingarten@washpost.com.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081501369.html

Baby cougars grow up

This podcast shows what baby cougars grow up to act like.  Even though they are cute and cuddly as kittens, they quickly grow up to be the predators that nature intended.  This has some disturbing scenes of the cougars eating whole rabbits, so please don’t watch if that will upset you.  We buy the rabbits frozen, because cats need the whole prey in their diets. 

 

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v976485A3cEXR7b

 

Big Cat Rescuers rescue starving bobcat

Big Cat Rescuers rescue starving bobcat from construction site and industrial park

 

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=8C0B6BEDF9A9CFC01DCC9D18647342C4?contentId=4091648&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

 

Be sure you copy the entire URL to see the video

 

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=4090971&version=1&locale=EN-US

 

Development drove cat into office park, rescuers say 

 

Last Edited: Thursday, 16 Aug 2007, 11:09 PM EDT 

Created: Thursday, 16 Aug 2007, 11:09 PM EDT 

 

Rescuers found a bobcat wandering in the middle of an office park in Tampa near the airport. We've got you covered

 

 

TAMPA - When Scott Lope got a call from Center Point Business Park about a bobcat being spotted there, he feared the worst.

 

"I assumed that since this animal isn't running away, since its in the vicinity of people, that it's been hit by a car, severely injured -- not an animal that's going to make it," he said.

 

He got there and found the bobcat, and to his surprise, the cat was very much alive. Lope also found dozens of people watching it, in amazement.

 

"As we approached it did perk up a little bit -- it made efforts to get away from us, but it was very emaciated and very and very weak condition, you can tell it hadn't eaten in quite a while," Lope said.

 

Lope is the director of Big Cat Rescue, and has been working to save cats like this one for ten years now.

 

Lope says the reason the bobcat ended up at that business park: more development. In this case, rescuers say new construction of the interchange near Tampa International Airport moved the bobcat out of its habitat.

 

"There are still a few pockets of wood, there's a few parks probably living there and as every square inch gets developed, every bit of greenery gets plowed under for parking lots and new buildings -- these guys just don't have anywhere to go," Lope said.

 

Lope followed up on reports in the Bay Area of bobcats being hit by cars and dying. But this one could be called his miracle cat -- it's their first rescue of a bobcat that wasn't injured.

 

"There's the instant gratification feeling that we did rescue this animal from certain death. It had no where to go it was surrounded by traffic, but then there's a bit of a sadness," Lope said.  Sadness that the place he once called home is gone. Big Cat Rescue plans to nurse the bobcat back to health and release it into the wild.

 

 

 

For the cats,

 

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

an Educational Sanctuary home

to more than 100 big cats

12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625

813.493.4564 fax 885.4457

http://www.BigCatRescue.org    MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org

 

Sign our petition to protect tigers here:

 

http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU

 

Get 7 Free Lessons from the Teachers of "The Secret" here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/TheSecret.htm 

 

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