 RAINDANCE Female Bobcat
DOB 5/8/93
Arrived at Big Cat Rescue 5/27/93
Raindance came to Big Cat Rescue from a fur farm in Minnesota. We had ordered
six Bobcat kittens by phone, but were told that we must pick them up in person.
We traveled to Minnesota, and when we arrived, we saw a sign out front that said "Fur Farm". We thought that the sign probably only applied to the mink and foxes
being raised there (although that is bad enough). We asked what they do with the
Bobcats, Canadian, and Siberian Lynx kittens that aren't sold to pet homes, and
we were told that they would be "harvested" at one year for their fur. We asked
how many more kittens were there and found out that the 50 left would be
slaughtered the next year. We came home with 56 kittens that Spring and life has
never been the same. They were all under four weeks of age and many had to be
fed every two hours. We employed family, friends, and anyone who could hold a
bottle to keep them all fed and clean. Raindance was one of those kittens.
We later rescued the adults. Photo by Daphne Butters, U.K.
You can help feed me HERE
Most
of our bobcats were rescues from fur farms. The
deal Our Co-Founder made with the three fur farms we discovered in the U.S.
was that he would pay top dollar for every cat and kitten they had as long
as the fur farmer would agree to never buy and breed cats again for slaughter. It
came at a time that the public outcry was against the fur industry. Many
of these animals were purchased at auctions where the uncaring owners were
dumping the cats with no concern about their welfare. There is much
controversy over whether we did the right thing by paying the ransom for
these cats. We
still accept many unwanted cats each year, but do not pay for them and typically
require that their owner surrender their license, in an attempt to keep people
from just trading in their cats each year for a newer, cuter model. We
have to turn away more than 100 cats each year due to a lack of space and
funds and the lack of regulation of the exotic pet trade. Read more about our Evolution of Thought HERE
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