Two news stories this spring led me to an Arkansas wildlife rescue site online:
- Big Cat Rescue, in Florida, is closing.
Turpentine Creek confirmed on its Facebook page Thursday that Big Cat Rescue is downsizing and has started building new habitats for the big cats that came from Florida. Some cats are expected to arrive as early as July.
Big Cat Rescue is funding the construction of the new enclosures at Turpentine Creek at an estimated cost of $1.8 million, much of the money coming from donations.
— Source
- In the US, ownership of big cats and some wild cats that aren’t pantherines will soon be illegal, unless owners have already signed up on the registry.
- Here is a video made for Arkansas library folks about the place that Big Cat Rescue is sending most of its cats to:
- I always have doubts about any legislation that is passed in a wave of emotion (in this case, the Baskin/”Tiger King” thing).Too, what happens to the animals if their owners decline to register?
And these days, one wonders how effective any law is, if a real majority of the people (i.e., 51+% not the usual special interests, partisans, haters, nutters, etc., using a media bullhorn) isn’t solidly behind it — for instance, have wildlife trade laws and draconian measures really emptied the fur/rug racks and traditional medicine shelves in parts of Eurasia or closed down all exotic pet markets?
All that said, there are some real horrors out there, and until H. sapiens can universally develop reason, empathy, and good will (an ongoing struggle for us all) some legislation is needed.
Meanwhile, in Missouri this winter…
…a farming family in rural Missouri began to notice bones and feathers between their stacks of hay bales. Occasionally, they’d catch a glimpse of the possible culprit: an animal one family member described as a “crazy-looking cat.”
Eventually, they decided to put an end to the mystery and set a live trap. Within 12 hours, they’d caught the four-legged perpetrator—an out-of-place wild cat known as a serval, which would’ve been much more at home in the grasslands of Africa than in the Ozark Mountains near Ava, Missouri…
Yes, there’s video:
More information:
- Wikipedia page.
- TCWR official history.
- PETA — not an organization I subscribe to — has a good page on how to find real tiger sanctuaries (TCWR is on that list).
Of note, an online “rescuing+big+cats+in+US” search brought up several sanctuaries, including this one in my own state:
That is a real fishing cat, ole Prionailurus itself, in that plastic pool.
Lagniappe: In some other settings, one does not collect cats, but one can learn to live with them:
Video was uploaded in 2020.
Featured image: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Flight To Wonder 