December 24 2017

Big Cat Updates

SUMMARY:  Last minute instant gifts,  Big cat calendar, Little Boo adopted, SAVE Award, Stars award, Gifts from the cats to YOU, Christmas Enrichment photos, Volunteer hours, & more.

Angie Gabor’s Coordinator Report for Saturday 12/23/17

Today was a fun filled day!!! Lots of great volunteers that helped with the cats and the tours.
We had a total of 268 guests visit our beautiful cats today. Could not do it without the hard work of our volunteers and interns!!!

Lots of little projects were done today, from watering grass seeds, fixing hoses, and getting rid of fire ants. It was a busy day.
Mac got his weekly bath and his den was cleaned out and freshened up.

 FREE Gifts For YOU

Carole marked these items down to ZERO for YOU to download for Christmas.   Feel free to give them to yourself or your friends as gifts.  Downnload them to enjoy yourself, and then re-gift them to your friends and family.

1. TJ’s Memorial Photo Book
2. Cooking Big Cat Style: BBQ & Grilling
3. Cooking Big Cat Style:  Breakfast
4. Cooking Big Cat Style: Cookies
5. Cooking Big Cat Style: Cakes, Cupcakes, & Brownies
6. Cooking Big Cat Style: Breads, Buns, & Muffins

 Do you have one of these?

If you bought one of these from us, would you mind posting a review on Amazon so others know what you think?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078KNKJ8T

 Need A Last Minute Instant Gift?

Check out these paw-some downloadable gifts, a purr-fect solution for every pro-cats-tinator.
Your support helps provide the very best care for all of the cats who call Big Cat Rescue home.

 Foster Kitten Program

Little Boo has Finally Been Adopted! She was able to lose the cone of shame, go out on the adoption floor and find a forever home just in time for Christmas!

 Facebook Live Video Replays

Enjoy some cute recorded LIVE video of Seth and Andy Tigers while Carole shouts out some thanks. Help feed big cats and kittens like these by making Big Cat Rescue your charity of choice at Smile.Amazon.com where Amazon makes a donation, at no cost to you, every time you shop.

 Scratch’s Award for Volunteer Excellence, the SAVE Award

For outstanding volunteer service, the December SAVE Award goes to Amanda Wright! She is a great volunteer and is always happy to help. Amanda also comes in especially to give Kids tours (which is a huge help) and is excellent tour guide!

A donation of $1000 has been made in your honor to SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool).

Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is the world’s fourth most lucrative criminal industry after drugs, human-trafficking and weapons and it is estimated to be worth over $10 billion dollars annually. In recent years illegal trade has grown to unprecedented levels and it is a serious threat to the survival of some of the world’s best loved big cats, including lions, tigers, leopards and cheetahs, amongst various other non-cat species.

Protected areas around the world depend on highly skilled and dedicated guards, rangers and managers to combat known threats. Poachers are using increasingly sophisticated ways to evade guards and rangers, often making use of high-tech expensive equipment. In order to stop wildlife crime and conserve irreplaceable species, conservation managers and rangers must utilise first-class skills and innovative technology to ensure they stay one step ahead. SMART (Spatial monitoring and reporting tool) is a conservation tool to support these staff, allowing them to monitor, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of conservation management.

SMART, enables pinpoint accuracy to record patrol routes, wildlife signs and illegal activities, such as discovering sick wildlife or a suspected poacher camp. It provides rapid access to accurate conservation information for managers. Data is standardised and can be used to create maps, analyse and produce reports to help managers decide on the appropriate actions to take, and how to prioritise limited financial or staffing resources, and track changes in activity over time. It is an open-source software, and free to obtain. It’s available in an ever-expanding number of languages, to allow more of the conservation community to take advantage of this innovative technology.

Globally, the SMART approach is being implemented at over 140 sites in 31 countries of which 8 countries have adopted SMART across their entire national protected area network. http://smartconservationtools.org

 The STARS Award

Stars Prize: Each month volunteers who dedicate 25% over their minimum hourly requirements are put into a pool from which one partner and one keeper is randomly selected to win a prize. The prize for this year will be a paw painting from one of the cats.

• Keeper – Devin Saari
• Partner – Holly Tifft

 2018 Big Cat Rescue Calendar

Love BEAUTIFUL photos of YOUR FAVORITE Big Cats? NEW Big Cat Calendar is NOW Available – LIMITED QUANTITY

13-month glossy color calendar features the big cats who call Big Cat Rescue home. Size Approx 8.5″ x 11″ when closed, 17″ x 11″ when fully open.

Fin it in our online gift shop at BigCatRescue.org/calendar or, it is now available on Amazon as well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078KNKJ8T/

 Volunteer HOURS

November = 3,406 volunteer hours contributed by 86 volunteers. That means volunteers collectively put in the same hours as more than 21 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

November = 2,437 intern hours contributed 11 interns. That means interns collectively put in the same hours as more than 15 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

If you look to any other animal sheltering type group you will find that they usually have dozens of paid staff if they have our level of income. Thanks to volunteers and interns we only have to pay about 14 staff members because volunteers and Interns are doing all of the cat care and most of the guest relations. That means more of the money earned and donated can go to the cats and to ending the abuses that cause so many big cats to be discarded.

 Christmas Past Photos

Here are some photos of Andy Tiger, Ares Cougar, and Apollo Siberian Lynx from Christmas 2016

 Turkeys For Tigers

Give YOUR FAVORITE big cat a turkey or game hen?  It is not too late to give your favorite cats a Christmas treat.  You can do that at BigCatRescue.org/turkey

  Your Purr-Fect Year-End Tax Deductible Donation Will be Doubled!!

In case you’re not on our email list, I thought you’d like to see the appeal email we sent out yesterday and take advantage of the matching funds if you’re planning on making a year-end donation.

Dear Friends,

We have 70 precious reasons to ask you to please consider making a year-end, tax-deductible donation to Big Cat Rescue. Their names circle the alphabet several times over: from Apollo (lynx) to Zeus (tiger). From Armani (leopard) to Zabu (white tiger). From Ariel (bobcat) to Zimba (serval). And from Ares (cougar) to Zucari (serval).

And this year the first $12,500 in donations will be matched dollar for dollar by Larry and Pam Trissel, so your gift will do twice as much good for our big cats!

As 2017 comes to a close, we are so grateful for everyone who has visited our sanctuary, followed our cats on social media, taken action to help us pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act and generously donated to our sanctuary. It is only because of your financial support that we can continue to rescue abused, neglected and abandoned exotic cats around the country and provide them with the best possible nutrition and medical care at our sanctuary.

This year we have rescued nine exotic cats, including three in December! Maya, an 18-year-old cougar from Ohio (pictured here), was rescued earlier this month after her owner surrendered her to the state of Ohio. And Manny the jaguar and Natalie the Amur leopard have just arrived from a zoo in Omaha. It’s been many years since Big Cat Rescue has been home to a jaguar and Manny has already stolen our hearts with his playful antics of storing all of his new toys inside his den at night. We’ve also never had an Amur leopard at the sanctuary before and are enjoying getting to know Natalie’s purr-sonality.

Thank YOU so much for your amazing support of our sanctuary and cats! We hope the cats can count on you one more time in 2017 as you consider making your year-end, tax-deductible charitable donations. Donate here:  BigCatRescue.org/tax

Best wishes from your Big Cat Rescue family for a purrfectly healthy and happy New Year!

If you prefer, you can mail a check by December 31st to Howard Baskin at Big Cat Rescue at 12802 Easy Street, Tampa, Florida 33625.