Leaping into Leap Year

 

It has sure been a roller coaster ride of emotions from the loss of Hallelujah the Mountain Lion to old age, to the fear of losing Andre the tiger during dental surgery, to the worrying about Cookie the tiger and her oral tumors, to the two week long battle for life that Bailey the bobcat has waged to fight her illness to the joy of meeting Rufus the baby bobcat kitten.

 

You can watch him live here: http://ustre.am/hCl8

 

All of this is going on while we are waging war on big cat abuse and winning battle after battle in our efforts to get people to stop and think about what happens to the cubs after the exploiters are finished using them as photo and petting props.

 

These efforts take time, but they are finally paying off. Everyone is asking, “Where did the tigers and leopard from Steve Sipek (Spanish Tarzan) go?”

 

We don’t know, but we know it probably isn’t good.

 

They are not in an accredited sanctuary and probably not in an accredited zoo.

 

We are following up with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to see why they still haven’t closed the generic tiger loophole, even though more than 15,000 people submitted comment asking them to do so back on Oct 21, 2011. Four months is plenty of time to figure out that it is the right thing to do and get it done.

 

We are also following up with USDA about closing the 4 week cub petting window. We met with them on Jan 26 and they said that they would probably need a month to decide. It has been more than a month, so we will be continuing to follow up on that issue.