March 2 2019

Big Cat Updates

Alexa Flash Briefing

In case you have missed previous days’ news briefings you can find them all at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCPv8ivo6o4CZHFifkfRYDw

Coordinator Report – Becky Gagliardo

Great day today, nice and warm with lots of sunshine. We had a great workgroup from Stetson Law that made a lot of headway in the enclosure closest to food prep. Still more to be done on that one tomorrow. Bridget got her last sign-off for the Feeding Tour and we got some feeding sign-offs done for a couple of our yellow shirts. Interns were busy all day with tours and they also worked on food prep. Babs worked on restocking and arranging the cicles in the enrichment cabin.

Thanks to all the great keepers (BethAnn, Rich, Maureen, Sarah C, Babs, Andrew, Lacy, Kristen, Amanda, Barbara Ann, Bridget), all of our great gift shop people and our fabulous Partners and Interns for keeping all the tours running smoothly. The cats really appreciated it, Ares says that everyone should give him treats that stops to see him since he is so darn cute. Artemis got a big laugh at that one.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the following Big Cat Rescuers:

1999 Becky Gagliardo
2003 Gale Ingham
2008 Pam Rodriguez
2009 Chelsea Feeny
2011 Regina Turgeon
2013 Lauren Buckingham
2013 Mike Surdyk
2014 Sharon Henry
2014 Alyssa Weber
2015 Jennifer Leon
2015 Devin Saari
2016 Sarah Copel
2017 Karla Pinzon
2017 Rosel Polacelli
2018 Mary Jerome

Promotions

Please join us in congratulating Lisa Spencer-Novak who has been promoted to Yellow Level Partner

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 are randomly selected to win a prize. The prize for this year will be a paw painting from one of the cats. We will be making all of these paw paintings in big batches. So while you will not get to choose the cat who paints your paw painting, you will get to choose from the collection of completed paintings.

January Keeper – Mary Jerome
January Partner – Randy Groves

Merchandise of the Day

Support the cats with this semi-precious cat’s-eye and lava rock beaded bracelet from Big Cat Rescue! Available at BigCatRescue.biz and Amazon!

Bracelet – Tiger's eye and Lava beaded bracelet with jeweled leopard

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076Z2KDHX

Do you know what the Big Cat Public Safety Act is?

It is a federal bill which prohibits the private ownership of dangerous big cats and makes it illegal for exhibitors to allow public contact with cubs.

Across the country, thousands of big cats like tigers, lions, leopards, and pumas are kept in miserable, insecure, and unsafe conditions by irresponsible owners. The Big Cat Public Safety Act works to address this issue by barring the private ownership of these animals and prohibiting exhibitors from allowing public contact with cubs, which aims to help correct the mistreatment of wild animals and limit the danger posed to members of the public, including law enforcement officers who respond to escapes and attacks.

The bill has been introduced with a list of over fifty bipartisan cosponsors (HR 1380). Learn more at https://bigcatrescue.org/big-cat-act/