Cat Chat Show 14

1.  The most exciting news is that our Senate bill S 1381 was introduced by Senator Blumental yesterday.  It  is the companion bill for the House version HR 1998 of the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act.

This bill would ban the private possession of big cats.

It would ban public contact with the big cats and their cubs.

It would grandfather in existing cat owners, but they can't buy or breed more.

  People can send a quick and easy letter to both the House and Senate here:  http://catlaws.com  2.  Darnell Dockett just bought a tiger cub and wants to take it to his games as an attention getter. 2003 Law says you can't sell or transport tigers across state lines to a non USDA facility, so does Darnell have a USDA license?

Who sold him the cub?

You aren't supposed to exhibit, like showing off at a game, without a USDA license.

We turned him in to both USDA and USFWS.

USFWS said they will be posting the final rule on generic tigers soon.

Sample letter to send to the Arizona Cardinals and USDA here: http://catlaws.com  3.  Bengali the Tiger cut the ribbon (ducked under it actually) for the grand opening of the Vacation Rotation enclosure.  The event was attended by some of the larger donors to the project and Fox 13, ABC News, Bay News 9 and the St. Pete Times.  They may have syndicated it out to other stations.

ABC also had a brief story, link below.

And CBS had a story online, link below. So all 5 news stations did something about the VR. :) http://www.wfla.com/video?clipId=9147963&autostart=true    http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_north_hillsborough/big-cat-rescue-near-citrus-park-mall-opens-new-space-for-exotic-animals   http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=327662

See more photos here: http://bigcatrescue.org/today-at-big-cat-rescue-july-25-2013-vacation-rotation/ https://www.dropbox.com/lightbox/home/Vacation%20Rotation http://bigcatrescue.org/today-at-big-cat-rescue-july-30-2013-grand-opening/

Flavio, the world's oldest tiger will go out in 2 weeks when his tunnel is done.

4.  Hamburger Mary's Drag Queen Bingo was last night and raised $2,157.00 in two hours.  Daphne was the Drag Queen and everyone had a great time.  The 50/50 raffle winner won $521.00, 10 Bingo winners won the great cat baskets, 4 raffle winners won plushy wildcats and Frontflip players won bandanas and tickets! Getting photos from Howie. Reminder that you can use the free FrontFlip app to play daily on both Facebook and Google + to win an iPad mini and other great prizes.

5.  Thank Sam Simon http://bigcatrescue.org/today-at-big-cat-rescue-july-27-2013-sam-simon/

6.  Angie the bobcat goes in for dental work  http://bigcatrescue.org/today-at-big-cat-rescue-july-29-2013/

7.  Technology Serving Cats.  Every day our vet staff are in constant contact via our iPhones and iPads.  Today Gale asked if this cat looks too fat and needs to be put on a diet.

Gale also keeps me posted as things are done around the sanctuary; like Interns installing a water bowl for a cat who was found to be drinking a lot more, due to camera traps that Jamie set around her enclosure.  Rose the Caracal is 16 and probably in renal failure.  She is going in to the vet's office today for blood work.

8.  Too late for last week's Cat Chat, but the Iberian Lynx is expected to die out in the next 50 years due to climate change.  http://bigcatrescue.org/cat-chat-show-notes-july-24-2013/

9.  These earrings I am wearing aren't available online yet, but you can email Honey@BigCatRescue.org to buy them.  They are $15.00 plus shipping and handling.  I am wearing Raindance the bobcat, but we also have Nirvana the ocelot, Joseph the lion and others.  They come in both silver and copper.

10.  Photos in oil paint filters on Facebook

11.  Just refer guests to this Forty eight minute video, starts out with Amanda the tiger being pretty scary: http://youtu.be/gjrwRtxJqaE Or, you could play the first few minutes to see that.  She had been locked up while we were building her and her brothers a platform and was not happy about being kept out of the action.

Too late for the show:

“THE CON IN CONSERVATION?”

Part Two

A SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT INVESTIGATION

This week’s episode of Special Assignment – focuses on the lion bone trade which has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years.  Many people know about how the rhino is being poached for its horn, which is used in traditional medicines in Asia, but few know that lion bones are also being used as a replacement for tiger bones in tiger bone wine in Asia, since the tiger numbers have plummeted so drastically.  There are concerns that the trade, which is now just a by-product of the hunt, will eventually spill over into wild lion populations.

This is a follow-up to Part One of this series in which we revealed that canned hunting is still taking place in South Africa, despite the perception by many South Africans, that it had been stopped years ago.  We also investigated the so-called "green con", where volunteers are paying exorbitant amounts to come to South Africa to hand raise lion cubs under the impression that they are doing it for conservation, showing that often it is just a money making scheme.  This episode showed lions that have been rescued from bad situations and analysed how being bred in captivity can impact on the welfare of these iconic African animals. Many conservationists feel that the captive bred and wild lion is not protected by the law and that there are many holes in the permitting system for the breeding and hunting of lion.  They say the country needs to have standardised regulations across all provinces. This series interrogates the regulatory framework as far as this industry is concerned.

Is the Lion in danger of becoming extinct?  Some experts say that in twenty years the wild lion population has dropped by 80-percent.  Today, only two-thousand-eight-hundred lions are left in the wild in South Africa.  However, the lion is only listed as vulnerable and not endangered, which affords them less protection.  We also ask, does the captive breeding of lions have any conservation value?

“THE CON IN CONSERVATION?” - Part Two, is produced by Richelle Seton-Rogers and will be aired on Thursday the 01st of AUGUST 2013 on Special Assignment – broadcast on SABC 3 at 21:30PM.

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