Viral Video Award for Do Big Cats Purr

by Big Cat Rescue

No More “Florida Panther Cub” Exploitation at Florida Panther Games

One of our AdvoCats named Denise contacted us last week because she was distressed that some back yard breeder type was taking a cougar cub (trying to pass it off as a Florida Panther) to a Florida Panther hockey game.  The people with the cougar cub were treating her as if she were a pet and letting some people pet her at their booth.  That is only legal between the ages of 8-12 weeks, but it is nearly impossible for inspectors to determine the ages of cubs and we often see the same cubs, week after week after week, who are being presented as being the same age each week.

In addition to this kind of exposure being dangerous to the health of the cub, who doesn’t get all of their shots until 12 weeks and dangerous to the public because they can’t get their rabies vaccination until 16 weeks, it sends the worst possible message.  No matter what the person holding the cub or leash is telling people; if they see a big cat being handled as if it were a pet, they get the message that cougars make cool pets.  Thankfully enough people complained to the Florida Panthers Hockey team that they said they, “aren’t working with them anymore, and there will be no more discussion about it!”   So apparently they got considerable flack for this lapse in judgment because not only do they not want to work with the cougar exploiters, they don’t even want to talk about it!

Battle of the Barristers

The Stetson Law Students who are interested in Animal Law came to Big Cat Rescue and helped us paint barricades and helped us tear down an old cage that we will turn into new barricades.  Just the wire that we are able to recycle will save us $600. and we will use it to bring the tour path down between Cameron the Lion and Zabu the White Tiger and the two Leopard sisters, Jade and Armani.