Big Cat Updates

That adorable shot above, of Lovey and Thurston Bobcats, was taken by Afton.

We are still scrambling to clean up the mess that Irma left behind. I just posted all of the photos from before, during and after here: https://business.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154768881726957.1073741924.122174836956&type=1&l=0b93e4d67e along w/ captions.

Big Cats Elsewhere

Bobcats in Indiana are in trouble. Next week the Indiana Natural Resource Commission [NRC] will consider a proposal to allow bobcat hunting and trapping in the state. Big Cat Rescue residents, Thurston and Lovely Howell, are asking Indiana residents like you to attend the NRC meeting onSeptember 19th to oppose any harmful action against their kind.

Before being protected by the state in 1969, Indiana’s bobcats were nearly wiped out from over-hunting and trapping. These shy and elusive cats have since made a comeback. We cannot allow the successful recovery of the state’s only native wildcat to be undermined just so someone can shoot a decorative trophy or make money off a bobcat pelt!

If this proposal moves forward, hunters and trappers will be allowed to kill bobcats with crude mechanisms like steel-jawed leghold traps and snares, or by using archaic methods such as clubbing, strangling or drowning the cat to death.

The Howells and the twenty-four other bobcats that call Big Cat Rescue home need you to be their voice. Please attend the upcoming Indiana NRC meeting to show the commission how much opposition there is to a bobcat hunting and trapping season!

Indiana Natural Resources Commission Meeting
Tuesday, September 19
9 a.m. CDT / 10 a.m. EDT
Fort Harrison State Park, Garrison
6002 North Post Road
Indianapolis, IN 46216

Meeting Agenda

For more information about attending, please contact our Director of Outreach Jennifer Leon.

Cheetah Kittens in Peril

I still don’t have power at my home, but my phone holds a charge over night so first thing this morning; before I’ve been about to go out for coffee, I get a call from someone in distress. She’s in NJ and used to care for big cats 30 years ago, but she’s the only person that a South Sudanese couple knew to call. What happened in Sudan was that a cheetah mom was killed, leaving behind orphaned kittens. They couldn’t find any info on what to feed them or how, so they called their friend in NJ who called me. I gave them the info I had and told them to not try and make pets of them, as that never works out for the cat. I suggested finding a cheetah conservation center as quickly as possible.

Then I get an email from a couple who want to take their Toyger (it’s a Bengal cat hybrid) into Hawaii because they want to move there. This is what I sent to them:

Even though you, and others on the Internet are saying that Toygers are not hybrids, they are because they are the result of breeding Bengal cats with domestic cats. Bengal cats are hybrids, thus all of their offspring are hybrids too. They are just one more generation removed.

I am no expert in HI rules / laws re: hybrids, but they have been smart to ban them because they cause so much damage to local wildlife when they escape. No one should be breeding hybrid cats, or buying them, because it never turns out well for the cat. Most states take the stance that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck; it must be a duck. It sounds like your cat will certainly be viewed as a hybrid.

I believe you have an obligation to the cat for the rest of the cat’s natural life; thanks to your desire to “touch the wild” and participate in a trade that is so broadly known to be cruel.

For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

I’m sure I came across as rude, but I’m just sick of people being selfish and supporting the cruel industries that cause so much abuse and then wanting me to help them get away with evading laws that were enacted to protect animals.

Update: The hybrid’s owner emailed me just now and said they have decided NOT to move to Hawaii because of the uncertainty for their pet.

Where Did Ringling’s Tiger Act Go?

In case you wonder what happened to Ringling’s big cats: Ex-circus’s big cats escorted from rural Arkansas warehouse to airport: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/sep/13/ex-circus-s-big-cats-escorted-to-airpor-1/?f=news

Susan Mesna shared these once in a lifetime views of wild cats in the wild.

LaWanna got the first 100 TJ Tribute books off to be printed and shipped, so hopefully she will be done with that soon and can give you guys some proper Daily Updates.