Carole's Letter to Reporter re: Stump Hill Farm

Dear Erin, (ERIN PUSTAY Erin.Pustay@IndeOnline.com)

Stump Hill Farm, The Real Story: Stump Hill Animal Farm has had trouble with USDA, and is protesting state laws that would regulate them ever further. From Wildlife Pimps website: “March 15, 2001: Jack Hanna featured baby animals from a poorly run menagerie in Ohio called Stump Hill Farm on Good Morning America. The USDA has cited Stump Hill Farm for failure to provide veterinary care, repeatedly failing to provide environment enrichment and minimum space to primates kept in solitary confinement and suffering from psychological distress, failure to provide shelter from inclement weather, having filthy and foul-smelling enclosures, failure to provide drinking water, failure to maintain enclosures, and improper waste disposal. Stump Hill Farm leases declawed tiger cubs to an Ohio high school football team to serve as “mascots.” These baby animals spend months at a time stored in a garage.”

No real sanctuary would take an 11 month old tiger into a classroom full of children. Here are just a few of the reasons why:

The following is a partial listing (800) of incidents involving captive big cats since 1990. These incidents have resulted in the killing or deaths of 234 big cats, 71 human deaths, more than 244 human maulings, 214 exotic cat escapes and 364 confiscations. https://bigcatrescue.org/big_cat_news.htm

To see a video of the mauling of a zoo keeper in 2006 go to https://bigcatrescue.org/animal_contact.htm

The Journal of Internal Medicine in 2006 estimated that 50 million people worldwide have been infected with zoonotic diseases since 2000 and as many as 78,000 have died. Read more about zoonotic diseases here:

To see the number of exotic cats abandoned each year go to https://bigcatrescue.org/animal_abuse.htm

To view a trend chart that shows the alarming escalation of big cat incidents here: https://bigcatrescue.org/Flash/BigCatBans/BigCatBanCharts.htm

The U.S. represents less than 5% of the entire global population, but 67% of ALL captive cat incidents occur in the U.S. Likewise, Florida represents less than 6% of the U.S. population while 13% of all U.S. incidents occur in Florida. California and Florida boast the most comprehensive sets of regulations allowing private ownership of exotic cats while ranking #3 and #1 respectively in the highest numbers of big cat killings, maulings and escapes. To view photos of fatal injuries from cases reported in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine click https://bigcatrescue.org/laws/AMJForensicFeline.pdf

This video shows facilities that are currently licensed and approved by the USDA and the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission that have been operating at this level or worse for more than 10 years and yet are still open to the public. These images are typical of those who allow cameras in but there are many worse ones who do not. This shows precisely why we need to ban private possession of exotic cats. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v2570412PGPYhmr

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 here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/344896451?ltl=1140270431

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