Jumanji Male Leopard 2/23/96 – 10/17/16 Jumanji lost his battle with kidney disease and was euthanized. Since he is one of the first black leopards you see at the sanctuary, Jumanji is used to quite a bit of attention. Most days, he can be found in the shadiest part of his cat-a-tat lounging on his…
RESCUE of 7 exotic cats from South Dakota! The cats arrived at Big Cat Rescue at 6:45 am DONATE NOW TO HELP US OFFSET THE TRANSPORT COSTS! We haven’t been able to announce this until today (October 17, 2016) but we are in the process of rescuing 7 exotic cats from a troubled facility in Spearfish,…
Big Cat Rescue is frequently accused of “bashing other sanctuaries” and nothing could be further from the truth. Big Cat Rescue wants to end the private possession of exotic cats because no wild cat, who is hardwired to roam free, should ever be bred for life in a cage. The best way to accomplish our…
Big Cat Protection is a Family Tradition I remember that it was at church, many years ago, when my mother handed me a copy of National Geographic. She said it was a cousin of mine and commented on the strange coincidence that he and I both loved exotic cats so much. On the cover of…
Big Cat Care Big Cat Rescue has evolved since its inception in 1992. By 1997 we had seen enough of the abuse and abandonment caused by the pet trade that we had previously engaged in to know that there was no reason to breed exotic animals for lives in cages. As a result we…
Operant Conditioning at Big Cat Rescue Operant Conditioning: Big Cat Rescue’s Animal Training Program is based on operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which behaviors are altered by the consequences that follow them. The behaviors are not forced, but “caught”, reinforced and therefore trained. We train only natural behaviors, no entertainment types…
Who Else Can I Donate Too? We are asked this question several times a day, but don’t always have the time to give a completely in depth answer, so please forgive us for just sending you to this page. Our intent in doing so is to give you a much more complete answer than we…
Big Cats are Solitary by Nature Because we are primates, who are naturally social animals, we often impose our needs and desires on cats who are solitary by nature. I can’t tell you how many times people have bemoaned the fact that most of our cats are housed alone. People often insist the animal would…
Are Zoos as Bad as Circuses? That’s a question people usually ask me, or some variation on it, such as, “Aren’t zoos better than circuses?” I’m always surprised that some people who absolutely hate the circus will try to justify zoos. Gallup first asked Americans about the rights of animals in 2003 and repeated the…
Sassyfrass Male Cougar DOB 1/1/1998 – 9/27/2016 Rescued 11/17/2010 Sassyfrass Cougar had been in kidney failure for a while, but was being kept comfortable with pain killers for his arthritis and lots of water and frozen blood ‘cicles to keep him hydrated. I knew he was declining when he didn’t stalk my mother on Saturday. She’s…
