Independence Day for Cooper:

Watch Cooper Hit Warp Speed

Florida law says bobcats have to be released as close to possible as where they were found, on at least 40 acres, with written permission of the land owner.  Cooper is being released onto a 3000+ ac tree farm where the owners are happy to have him.  Some people say we shouldn't release bobcats because someone might shoot them, but captivity can feel like a fate worse than death to a wild cat.  If you give the bobcat a choice between eating every day and a nice safe den in a cage, or taking their chances in the wild; they always choose to go free.  No bobcat ever came here and asked to be held captive "for their own good."

Only cats who were born in the wild can go free.  Those who were born in cages cannot.  Find out why at BigCatRescue.org/gofree

Ways to help bobcats like Cooper (and Teuci and Noel who are still in rehab) are to donate or buy Cooper gear or Bobcat Rehab gear.

Watch our LIVE broadcasts throughout the day to follow Cooper Bobcat's journey back to freedom:

Another question people always ask is if we track them.  We don't hang collars on them, but we do take extensive photos of their spot patterns from different angles and we do impressions of their paws so that we can track them later and ID them in camera trap photos.  We have seen some of our cats show up on the camera traps, years after release, so we know our methods work.

There was no cell signal, way out there in the woods, so our LIVE broadcast failed, but here is some footage from one of the attendees phones:

Run free Cooper!

See Cooper's Complete Timeline of milestone photos and videos

Learn more about our wild Bobcat Rehab & Release program at: http://bigcatrescue.org/bobcat-rehab/

You can help us rehab and release wild bobcats and care for the rest of the cats at  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate/