Part
2
First off, thank you so much to those who have read
and left comments here, on Facebook, and in private. I appreciate the encouragement, and it’s what
will keep me writing. These are
difficult and a bit intimidating to write, especially when I am calling out
specific people or facilities. I am not
out to unfairly harm or discredit anyone, but I do think it’s important to acknowledge the issues.
What brought this part of the discussion about was a
member of a zookeeper forum asking about Black Jaguar White Tiger
Foundation. The question was simple
enough – Are they legitimate?
Well,
that’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it?
In my experience, rare and endangered big cat cubs,
bottle raised and well-adjusted to human interaction are not exactly easy to
come by. A sanctuary that seems to have
a constant influx of healthy bottle babies is suspect, to put it mildly. I will say the same thing about a sanctuary
that houses a broad range of especially desirable subspecies or color
variations. I believe that by definition, a sanctuary should not allow petting
and interaction by anyone not seeing directly to the care of the animal. (The
veterinarian is fine, but not the celebrity who paid for a new enclosure, or
just makes for good press.) Making a big media spectacle to raise funds for
far-flung rescue efforts… That’s great marketing, but it is also creating an
issue just so that you can solve it.
That’s quite different than responding to a need.
I have never visited BJWT. For all I know they ARE saving the old, the
ugly, and the common cats, too.
Hopefully they’re doing something about the source of all of those
pretty babies, but if they were, I’m pretty sure they’d be talking about it as
much as they do their luxury watch endorsement.
In my opinion, no, BJWT is NOT a legitimate
sanctuary.
Is my opinion biased? You’re damned right it is. I don’t like their double standards. They advocate the destruction of legal
breeders and other animal organizations while showing off how they and their
celebrity guests get to cuddle adorable baby predators. Oh, and they refuse to alter these animals in
case they’re needed in the future for breeding.
Do you see my issue?
Some guy who arbitrarily started a sanctuary three years ago proudly
takes endangered animals away from legal zoos and breeders with important connections,
access to studbooks, experience resulting in live births, and an understanding
of genetics… And someday he might breed them? That doesn’t make a damned bit of
sense on any level. And yet, according
to social media, this guy is a hero.
More and more, small zoos and private owners are
being wrongly victimized for nothing more than someone else’s marketing
scheme. Too many facilities or
organizations have decided that it’s not enough to just do good things, or even
jump around shouting about doing good things. They have to try to ruin the
reputation of anyone or anything they see as potential competition. They need someone to point out as the bad guy
so that the public can make a comparison to see why those good things deserve a
reward. Those newly minted bad guys
don’t have to do anything to deserve the negative attention. They’re just a
convenient patsy, mostly because they’re too small, too underfunded, and
frankly too busy caring for their animals to spare the time and money it would
take to fight back.
**Here is where someone being ‘helpful’ will tell me
that any truly quality business could just sue for slander/libel and heal their
reputation. You show me one case where
that actually worked.
Spoiler alert - it
hasn’t worked for anyone, yet. Hundreds
of hours and thousands of dollars have been lost in the attempt.
You’ll notice that a lot of sanctuaries and animal
rescues in recent years suddenly have a lot of circus rescues. I don’t deny that a circus, like any other
business, can go under. I also don’t
deny that some animals were declawed, defanged, or otherwise maimed by
circuses. But that many? Recently?
And these circus animal rescues never made the news. That’s odd.
Isn’t a circus going under and leaving dozens of animals facing an
uncertain future exactly the sort of horror story the media loves? And why is it the keepers of those dozens of
rescued lions and tigers and leopards can’t tell me the name of the former
circus? Much less how they managed to rescue
only babies, or what happened to the hoof stock. Hmm.
When the circus comes to town, I attend. I sit close to the action and get a good look
at those animals. I’m watching eyes,
ears, tails, and whiskers. I’m reading
body language. I’m looking for muscle
density, coat condition, and how they place their feet. I look for hesitation in movement, signs of
stiffness, crouching behaviors that may indicate harsh handling. I have experience. I know what I’m looking for. I do not think the majority circuses harm
their animals. Again, I am sure that
some have. The concerns started
somewhere, but that doesn’t make it right to condemn every traveling
menagerie. It really doesn’t make it
right for so many sanctuaries to base a portion of their fundraising on a
situation they can’t clearly define and are not directly helping.
The anti-circus campaign worked! Say goodbye.
Sanctuaries make a great platform for that “Nobody
should touch tigers but me” mentality. I
have not yet met a sanctuary owner or director that doesn’t handle and pet
their cats. It’s yet another great
example of the double standard helping to drive the wedge between zoos and
sanctuaries.
The “Us versus them” mentality is keeping different
members of the animal care community from working together at a time when our
livelihoods and the animals we love are very much living on borrowed time.
I do believe that there is a very real need for
sanctuaries. I believe that many of the
large, well-known sanctuaries have built their reputations through hard work
and dedication. I know for an
unfortunate fact that there are some facilities that have created a sanctuary
out of their own collection of pets and some creative storytelling.
In the eyes of the USDA and APHIS, zoos and
sanctuaries are held to the same standards of care. There is no difference. However, in the court of public opinion, a
private owner of a zoo that charges $5 for people to come and look is
exploiting the animals for money, whereas the sanctuary charging $5 for the
same privilege is just collecting a donation, and should be applauded for their
selfless efforts. How is that fair? Either way, the money will go toward food and
maintenance, insurance, advertising, equipment, staff, and everything it takes
to run a business.
Because at the end of the day a sanctuary is a business,
just like a zoo is a business. Private
zoos, public zoos, aquariums, and sanctuaries are in the business of caring for animals. Many zoos have taken in animals that another
facility or an individual could no longer care for. Many sanctuaries are now offering educational
information at their exhibits. Zoos and
sanctuaries may have different mission statements, but they sure have similar
day-to-day operations.
Every sanctuary I have ever visited, and most of the
zoos, have been non-profits that will solicit donations for animal care and
facility maintenance and expansion.
***Just for the record - If an insufferable asshole
files for not-for-profit status he does not suddenly become an angel of charitable
compassion. He has simply become a tax-exempt asshole who can legally hit you
up for a donation. To say that a different way, a 501C3 does not grant sainthood. It just changes how you file taxes.
Most zoos and sanctuaries will advocate against
exotic animals as pets, and animals being used for entertainment. (Except for their
own program, of course. Those are
‘ambassadors’ not ‘entertainers.’)
So what is the difference?
Well, sanctuaries are supposed to be a forever home
for abandoned, abused, unwanted, discarded animals. Some sanctuaries are not open to the public,
and others have regular hours.
Zoos are supposed to be educational institutions
where people can go to see and learn about animals. They go out of their way to encourage
attendance and interest in the exhibits.
Sanctuaries by definition do not propagate. Most zoos do.
Most zoos contribute in some part to global conservation
efforts, be it through public or private education, captive breeding programs, outreach
to wild habitat projects, or any combination of these things. Some sanctuaries are now at least lending a
nod toward the wild counterparts of their captive residents, but they are
generally more focused on the horrors of captivity gone wrong, owing to the
origin of their resident critters.
Where the differences between the two types of
business really shine is in their marketing.
A zoological institution or wildlife park will
publish cool facts about their animals, offer discounts for groups, change up
the exhibits to highlight different species, buy advertising in newspapers and
magazines and put ads on the radio or television if they can afford it. They will try to garner enthusiasm for weird
animal trivia and offer interactive or tactile experiences for children.
Sanctuaries on the other hand rely on the public’s
love of a sad tale with a happy ending.
They use emotive language to highlight the horrors of life in
captivity. One photograph of an emaciated
bear will quickly grab attention. An image of hybrid wolves chained in a rusted
cage will create outrage. The coup de
gras… a video of a crying baby anything, or an animal suffering physical abuse,
with JUST the right story, can go completely viral and generate thousands of
dollars for the organization that unlocked the proper combination. It doesn’t matter if the picture has nothing
to do with their sanctuary, is so old that there’s no possible way that subject
is still alive, or if nobody knows where the event happened. The text or
voiceover can be a complete work of fiction.
As long as the finished product makes someone feel like a hero when they
pledge to sponsor an animal it’s a winner! Money in the bank.
Okay, they’re not all that bad. Just a lot of them. Some are worse.
I’m okay with the idea of a sanctuary emphasizing
the story of a rescue to make it a bit more dramatic. It’s marketing. I get that.
I am not okay with flat out making stuff up, especially when the
fairytale they generate directly hurts another person or facility, or blatantly
discredits an entire branch of the animal industry.
Just like I argue that not all sanctuaries are good,
I must argue that not all private owners are bad. Not all zoos overbreed their collections and
kill the surplus. Not all roadside zoos are filthy death traps. Not all white
tigers are inbred for profit. Not all
elephants are beaten into submission. Not all exotic breeders feed the black market. Not all petting cubs are later killed in canned
hunts.
The manufactured information to the contrary – And I
do mean every bit of it – Was created for the sole purpose of making the
consumer feel like forking over a bit of cash is the least they could do to
make up for the atrocities perpetrated by other humans.
I promise that there really are decent and well
educated private owners, beautiful small stand-alone zoos, private breeders
that carefully track bloodlines, perfectly healthy and genetically diverse
white tigers, happy elephants that enjoy their work and their trainers, leopards
that were petted as babies and went on to live full lives, and for-profit entities
with an eye on the future survival of endangered species AND who put every dime right back into the animals.
I have personally encountered all of these things.
Actually, most of the animal people I’ve met are
responsible and conscientious, and treat their animals better than many people
treat their children.
That may be hard to digest. In fact I know more than a few readers at
this point have denounced me as a fool or a liar. Either I spent my years living in a wildlife
park completely blind, or being brainwashed, right?
Well, brace yourself because there’s more.
Not all of those animals at the sanctuary were
rescued.
Some of them were purchased. Some were traded. Some were requested by the sanctuary and
given to them as gifts. Some were born
and bred there.
In one case that I can prove, cubs were bred with
the intention of making a profit. These
bottle baby white tigers were listed for sale in the Animal Finder’s
Guide. When they failed to sell, they
were rebranded as an averted tragedy.
You can still donate to feed that lie to this very day. We’ll hear more about this particular
‘sanctuary’ in another post.
I wish, with all my heart, I could remember which
sanctuary randomly sent my mother a calendar of their cats a few years
ago. It was an advertisement of
course. Twelve very pretty pictures of
cats telling their stories, hoping that sympathetic souls would pledge to
donate. Do you know what I loved about
that? It was nice. It was positive. It didn’t point fingers, it simply stated who
they were and what they wanted. My
favorite part was their white tiger’s story.
That cat was in a sanctuary because the people running the facility
wanted her, and so she was received as a gift.
That’s beautiful. No made up
drama. No caveat regarding questionable
bloodlines.
One story I have never heard, because it hasn’t
happened, is about that time that a small zoo was about to go under because the
regulations changed. New statutes requiring them to raise the height of their
fences two feet were beyond the limits of their budget, so a big-name animal
rescue used their awesome powers of fundraising and helped that little zoo to
meet the new guidelines. The animals
didn’t have to move or face euthanasia, the keepers got to keep their jobs, and
the locals still had a place to go and learn about their natural world.
Why haven’t I ever heard a story like that? Why can’t a rescue ever be about facilities
supporting each other? Wouldn’t it be
more economical and more humane in many cases to help the animals where they
are?
I guess the AZA zoos share resources, but they’ve
come to exclude any non-AZA facilities wherever possible. To be a member of their organization you have
to pay hefty annual dues and agree to play by their politics.
ZAA is smaller and not so expensive to join. They do have rules, but they’re more lenient,
and apparently you can be a member and still be nice to those that refuse
accreditation.
The non-accredited zoos support and help each other
by sharing bloodlines and resources and vendors. They keep each other informed of changes in
legislation. They talk about the USDA and discoveries in biology and veterinary
medicine. They don’t mind if other facilities
are accredited or not as long as their animals are healthy and well managed.
I don’t know anything about the sanctuary
networks. I know they exist. I know that there is cooperation, but I can’t
speak to their hierarchy. I have seen
some of the horror story marketing used by some sanctuaries targeted at other
sanctuaries, calling them out for substandard care, breeding, selling, buying,
and poor management.
But if any facilities, be they sanctuary, zoo,
aquarium, menagerie, breeding compound, ranch, or otherwise are actually
actively helping and supporting each other, then they are certainly being quiet
about it.
Last year, Great Cats World Park made a very nice
gesture to a sanctuary and got kicked in the face for it.
I left Great Cats, and I’m still pretty damned mad
about the way I was treated there, but that little privately owned zoo has the
healthiest collection of cats I have ever seen.
The owner has a pretty nasty reputation on the animal activist websites,
but having shared an address with the man for four years, I can attest that
everything he is, everything he does, has to do with the comfort and wellbeing
of those cats.
Like most zoos, Great Cats takes surplus from other
zoos, has a breeding program, has cats on loan to and from other facilities,
has purchased animals, and has taken on several rescues. Last spring it was decided that the
collection was a bit out of balance.
Over the course of about three years, the Park had lost a leopard, a
cougar, two snow leopards and a lioness, all to complications stemming from old
age. Their exhibits had been taken over
by tigers. Not a huge deal, as they were
all healthy, happy, and loved. But the Park’s primary purpose is to teach the
public about a wide variety of cat species, so the “Look, another tiger!” game
was getting less funny.
Craig called up
an old buddy of his, a Mr. Rick Glasey, to see if he knew anyone who was
looking for tigers. (This is what happens
with Great Cats surplus animals. The
Park finds out if another facility wants to house them responsibly and see to
their care. If not, those animals stay
put, and continue to be loved and cared for at the Park. This will sometimes
determine how and where the next exhibit is built.) As it happens, Rick did
know a facility nearby that was looking for tigers.
The Oregon Tiger Sanctuary.
Uh, okay… I
think that caught us a bit off guard. We
sort of knew them, had shared food source information, shared cold storage
space, and had coordinated evacuation plans using each other’s facilities as
places to take cats in case of wildfire.
But being as they are a rescue, I don’t think it had ever occurred to us
to ask if they were having a tiger shortage.
As it happens, they were.
Apparently the United States Illegal Pet Tiger
Crisis doesn’t extend to the Pacific Northwest.
Who knew?
Now to back up just a bit, I met some really nice
people at a USDA symposium a couple of years back. They had a sanctuary in Texas and REALLY
wanted a tiger. I liked them, liked
their vets, liked the pictures they sent of the enclosure, liked their feeding
protocol, safety plans, everything. What
I didn’t like was their website that swore ALL of their animals were rescued
from horrifically abusive situations. I asked them for a promise that they tell
the truth about where they got that tiger.
They wouldn’t do it, so I kept the tiger. (That story will be relevant, I swear.)
We decided to at least meet with and talk to the OTS staff. Rick came to the park and brought Rob the vet director, and I think
one or two of their keepers. We took
them on a tour of the whole park, and introduced them to our staff and all of
the cats. Oregon Tiger Sanctuary was
looking for several tigers, and they really wanted a white tiger to replace a recent loss and they really wanted cubs that they could handle
and grow up with. We had what they were looking for.
Moxie and Brutus are
young adult siblings. Moxie had been an
ambassador cat and would easily acclimate to a new facility, and her brother is
an easygoing cat with a sweet disposition.
We also had two cubs, one white, one orange. They were leash trained sweethearts
that were growing up together.
Now keep in mind there are several other tigers that
live at Great Cats, but when it’s time to discuss sending out a cat, a lot of
thought is put into making a successful transfer. Relocation can be extremely traumatic for an
adult cat. They are territorial and
don’t like change. Moxie, as an ambassador,
had grown up seeing new places and riding in a trailer. She had been at both outdoor and indoor
venues, and wasn’t bothered by an occasional change of scenery. Out of all of our adults, she would have the
smoothest transition. Brutus had stayed home while his sister was off
adventuring, but he always missed her when she was gone, so we wanted to send
him along. Also, he loved meeting new people, so we knew he would take to new
keepers right away. As a bonus, Moxie and Brutus are white tigers.
The OTS staff was of course super excited about the
cubs. Keep in mind that well acclimated
bottle babies in perfect condition don’t come up for rescue, so this sort of
facility won’t see them often, if ever.
We allowed them to walk the cubs with us and ask any questions they
could think of. They met the parents,
talked about their vaccines, their diet, their habits, their preferences, and
so on. At that point we were treating
them like any other big cat facility, which is why we also went to visit
their home.
What a nice place!
It’s closed to the public, so the only people their animals see are their
keepers, and on occasion former owners come to visit relinquished pets. As advertised they had several
vacancies. The enclosures are large, and
some have access to pools. The cats have
platforms and toys. OTS has a dedicated
staff, great safety procedures, and a really nice onsite vet facility.
I talked at length to the staff about my concerns giving
our babies to a sanctuary. I told them
the story about refusing to send out a tiger, because I couldn’t stand the idea
of someone using an animal I loved, one that I had raised, to tell lies and
dupe people out of money. Especially my
Moxie. I know you’re not supposed to
have favorites with your ‘kids’, but Moxie was always my special girl. I met her when she was two months old, and it
was love at first bite. (She’s a tiger,
not a puppy. Little tigers are jerks.)
She helped me teach thousands of people about endangered species and habitat
loss, genetic research, evolution, feline behavior, and more. She was a star. She was retired at two. She was happy and healthy, and okay fine
she’s a little cross-eyed, but it’s not like she was ever going to be breeding
stock anyway. I was willing to send her
out, to share her if someone would love her, and care for her, because her
background meant she could be easily relocated.
She and Brutus and the cubs were a gift. I requested that the sanctuary
to admit to the origins and circumstances of these not-rescued tigers, and they
promised they would.
An understanding was reached, and we agreed to
deliver the cats to their new home. We
used our truck and trailer, because they didn’t have the equipment to haul big
cats. The facility’s director herself
was delighted to walk one of the cubs into their new enclosure.
This happened in April, 2016.
The following is the text of a letter sent to Great
Cats World Park from Penny Torres-Spinnler of Oregon Tiger Sanctuary.
“Hi Craig,
Traveler and Farrah. I really have
enjoyed meeting you three, and Craig, as we've partnered in getting Big Cat
Food delivered and stored over the years, I'm happy to have met you finally!
You do such a great job at exposing the Public to the Natural Behaviors of
Great Cats, and educating those who come to visit with all of you about the
importance of Exotic Animal Conservation. Thank you for the tour for us at your
facility, and thank you for visiting with us! ...and Thank You for helping the
Exotics born in captivity to live long, happy, healthy lives allowing those
with Conservation in their soul, to be exposed to the 'Beings' behind their
Amazing Eyes, so they too may be moved to work with those of us who work to
raise awareness and encourage Conservation for All Exotic and Wild Animals on
our Planet. ...and like us, thank you for always encouraging those seeking pets
to help us help Domestics find Wonderful Homes. This is a Beautiful Facebook
Page, to go along with such Extraordinary Big Cats as well as you, Craig and
your Awesome Crew! I look forward to seeing you all again. - The Oregon Tiger
Sanctuary - Founder/Director ***For Anyone Looking to have a genuinely Caring
and Exceptional Experience for the Purpose of Supporting and Enjoying Exotic
Animals who, without Craig, his staff and the Great Cats World Park, would
never have an opportunity to experience a close up and fun adventure while
learning for the purpose of Conservation, I recommend this well trained staff,
this Highly Experienced Trainer and these Amazing and Well Cared for and Loved
Big Cats! One of my favorite experiences with Craig, his staff and the Big Cats
of GCWP is how Very Loved, Well Cared for and Happy all the Cats are! Thank You
Team for being on the Front Line of Allowing Everyone to Experience and Learn
about the Behaviors and the Importance of Exotic Animal Conservation and
Natural Habitat Preservation.”
Isn’t that
nice? Then on their Facebook page was
this:
The last
thing I did before leaving Oregon to begin my new life was to drive up to the
Sanctuary to visit my tigers. I was
touched by Moxie’s reaction when she saw me.
Brutus is always happy to see everyone.
Dublin was indifferent, and little Kronos about
turned himself inside out. It was great
to see them and spend some time talking with them and Rob who had become their
primary keeper.
Overall I
was happy with what I saw. They all had new names and they were all
fat, but that’s common with sanctuaries.
I do think Moxie was too fat for her health, so we discussed their feeding habits and
ideas for backing her off her food a bit.
I was surprised to see the cubs being fed bottles through the fence. They’d been weaned for months before leaving
the park, but again, just because a practice is different, that doesn’t make it
wrong. The cats were happy. They were calm and playful and interested in
what was happening around them. I did
correct Rob twice. He would refer to
rescuing the cubs, and I would refer to giving them the cubs. I figured it was a slip, because usually that’s
what they did, but I didn’t let it worry me.
I also mentioned having emailed whoever keeps up their Facebook
page. That person keeps posting
anti-white tiger rhetoric that has been soundly disproven, and they had specifically come to us wanting white tigers, so why bash them? I was told he’d look into it.
That was
November of 2016.
I was
instantly sick. I feel so betrayed. They LIED!
The USDA never had any involvement with the placement of these cats. That is a complete fabrication.
It doesn’t matter that I’m not with the park
anymore. They lied to me. They looked me in the eye, made me a promise, took my tigers, then did exactly what they told me they wouldn’t do, and then added some
made-up crap to make it seem like they rode to the rescue when the feds called
them.
And the part about cubs being taken from their mothers? Uh, THEY are the ones that wanted hand raised
cubs. (Yes there will be a post on hand raised babies.) I’m guessing that means they don’t
interact with them anymore? That right there is EXACTLY what I was talking
about before. Double standard, lying,
and making another facility look bad to elicit sympathy, bolster your
fundraising, and paint yourself as a hero.
As soon as
I saw that, I called the sanctuary and left a message for Robert to call me.
I am STILL waiting.
I have no
idea how things went down at the Park when the boss-man heard about this, but I
imagine they too feel betrayed. In fact I bet it got a bit loud over there.
I wonder
if they’ll try to get those tigers back?
I mean, if
they’re such a burden to OTS… I’d donate
to that cause for sure.
#Tiger #BigCats #GreatCatsWorldPark #OregonTigerSanctuary #News #Sanctuary #Wildlife #Zoo #Relocation #Rescue #Conservation