March 8 2017

Big Cat Updates

Josie Cougar is not doing well. Dr. Justin Boorstein came in to see her yesterday because she didn’t eat for two mornings and was staying in her den. Her blood work shows that she has advanced kidney disease. It’s probably chronic, and if so, there isn’t anything we can do to restore kidney function in a 17+ year old cat. (That’s like being 102 if she were a person) It could be the result of an infection from bad teeth, so she’s getting lots of fluids and antibiotics, to see if she rebounds any. If so, we can pull the teeth and maybe give her a couple more years. If she doesn’t respond, then we know it isn’t the teeth and she will have to be humanely euthanized. We are keeping her inside the West Boensch Cat Hospital for observation. There is a nest cam on her, but it isn’t public due to her critical condition. We have staff monitoring her closely. http://bigcatrescue.org/josie/

Projects

Reise Cougar’s cage got a makeover while she was in the hospital. She’s enjoying lots of new greenery now.

Jamie has been working on re installing the remote feeding systems for Nova and Wyeth the rehab bobcats.

See videos below to see who got new cat trees.

Facebook Live Video Replays

Carole’s Corner

You can’t make this stuff up. Sometimes, I hesitate to say what our opponents are doing, because it sounds so crazy, I wonder if people would even believe it. Today I’m telling it like it is but it’s so weird and awful that you may not believe it and I’ll probably get sued. Read more: http://bigcatrescue.org/hetrick/

People Often Ask

#BeBoldForChange is this year’s theme celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8. IWD was started in the early 1900’s in conjunction with women’s participation in the labor movement. The intention of IWD is to honor, appreciate and hold up for public notice women around the world as well as those in our community – their achievements, their challenges, their contributions, their current status and their dreams. Unlike Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day where only certain women get recognized, IWD acknowledges all women from every walk of life everywhere. Read more http://keyassociatesinc.com/celebrating-international-womens-day-makes-good-business-sense/

Can you think of ways that you can #BeBoldForChange in the animal world today? Let us hear it in the comments. Guys can be bold too.

Big Cat Challenge

UPDATE!! 5-Hour Energy heard all of your voices and has agreed to change their television commercial to remove the tiger cub and never use big cats or cubs again in their advertising! THANK YOU everyone who politely spoke out for Hercules!

ACTION ALERT! SPEAK OUT FOR HERCULES!

Energy drink 5-Hour Energy recently used a young tiger cub named Hercules from pseudo-sanctuary Tiger World in a television commercial to sell their product. A video about the making of the commercial states the cub was bred at Tiger World. NO reputable rescue facility breeds tigers or uses them in commercials.

Big Cat Rescue emailed the Founder and Advertising Director of 5-Hour Energy twice to make them aware that the owner of Tiger World has received numerous citations from USDA for serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act dating back at least a decade. We also explained Tiger World is not an accredited sanctuary and that true rescues do not breed tigers and do not exploit cubs by renting them out for commercials and photo props. We received no response from 5-Hour Energy.

The video about the making of the commercial with the tiger cub is very alarming. The cub’s handler falsely claims “Tiger World was honored this year to be asked to breed Bengal tigers…to repopulate the genetics of the zoos around the United States.” Asked by whom? The only purebred tigers in the U.S. being bred to conserve the species are at AZA zoos and part of the Species Survival Plan. Tiger World is not an AZA-accredited zoo, none of their tigers are purebred Bengal tigers, and no AZA zoo would take cubs from Tiger World.

Watch the video:
http://5hourenergy.com/2017/03/bengal-tiger-stars-upgrade-awesome-commercial/

Please email 5-Hour Energy and politely let them know that tiger cubs should not be exploited to sell their products. Tigers belong in the wild, not in unnatural environments and bred for lifetimes in cages. Ask 5-Hour Energy to stop airing the commercial and to never use a wild cat again.

Founder Manoj Bhargava manoj@fivehour.com

Director of Advertising Lynn Petersmarck lynn@fivehour.com