Zoos versus Sanctuaries

Part 1

This is a series of posts discussing a rift between what I believe should be two parts of the same entity.  Anyone who gets involved in animal care does it with the absolute belief that they are helping and doing good things, no matter what flavor of facility they call home.

I am going to touch on some hot-button issues, so long before discussion commences, let’s remember – These posts are NOT about hand-rearing, or free-contact, or white tiger husbandry, or animals in entertainment.  Those topics will be discussed, but in future posts.  Save your ammunition.

It should also be stated that what is written here is based solely on my opinion, developed from what I have seen and experienced in person, hands-on.  So who am I?

Prior to the year 2011 my understanding was that wild animal sanctuaries existed to accept and house exotic animals that had been seized from illegal or irresponsible owners, displaced by the closure of zoos and circuses, or discarded as surplus from zoos still in operation.  I did no research, and it never occurred to me to question where the animals had come from. Social media is infested with advertising, videos, articles, and photographs showing the need for sanctuaries to exist, and for backyard owners to be relieved of their pets.  Like 99.9% of the population, that had nothing to do with me.

My first couple of years working with cats, I was largely sheltered from the animal activists and the bad press generated by any sort of live exhibition.  It wasn’t until I took over the office duties for the Park and assumed public relations that I realized that there were people who believe that the only way to create the kind of show that we have is to rip babies from their mothers, and then to beat them, deprive them of food, confine them, and sometimes even drug them. 

I. Was. Stunned. 

How could anyone think that?  How could anyone believe that such methods would even work?  Had these people only heard of cats by rough description?

As it happens, all of those horrible videos on the internet have a much broader reach than do the subjects of their smear campaign.  What’s worse is that people really do believe them.

And who is producing such sweeping and effective marketing materials?  It seems the loudest, most colorful, and farthest reaching examples are courtesy of PETA and the Humane Society of the United Sates.  Two organizations that would like to see all forms of captive animal activity stop, and those with the budget to get on television.  However, the prize for quantity over quality goes to the Sanctuaries.  Starting with Big Cat Rescue and trickling on down to the other fine people who discovered filing for a 501C3 allows them to sucker the public into paying for their hobby, sanctuaries are creating articles, advertisements, petitions, fund raisers, and news stories with one basic goal: Generate money by discrediting everyone else.

Sadly, it’s working.

I will never forget the day that I was first called out as an evil beast that deserved to be beaten to death.  We had our Great Cats of the World Show at the Colorado Renaissance festival when, via a message on a public forum, I was told that I should be put down, and my cats should all be rescued and sent to the Wild Animal Sanctuary, where they would be cared for properly.

My heart fell, and I was instantly sick at the thought of my tiger, my Moxie, being taken from everything she knew and loved and thrown into general population among strange cats and strange people, fed a substandard diet of frozen mystery meat and made to endure such a harsh, barren climate.

Without any effort to discover what our cats’ home life looked like, how they were cared for, or what their futures would hold, every last one of them was condemned to banishment in an unfamiliar facility, all in the name of “Rescue.”

And what were they being rescued from?  Well according to the latest internet intelligence, ALL cats that you EVER see live on stage are horribly abused. They are kept confined in tiny crates, never get any vet care, and are only let out to get beaten and perform for slack-jawed idiots that don’t even realize they’re being duped into perpetrating a cycle of abuse.

And what was the source of this intelligence?  The supporters of the rescue facility!  Why do they want you, the public, to believe that? So that you will give them money to take care of the animals they rescued from horrible people like me.  It’s quite a downward spiral.

But let’s take a step back.  Is the sanctuary really a better place, just because it has an emotive business name and a pretty mission statement? 

With apologies to Pat Craig, I am going to use his facility, from the perspective of my one visit, to compare and contrast with Great Cats World Park.  I am using The Wild Animal Sanctuary, because that is where many of the people who hate us performing in Colorado think our animals should go.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) in Keenesburg, Colorado occupies 720 acres and houses more than 450 animals.  An adult visitor is charged $30 plus an “unspecified animal care donation” for admission which includes access to an audio tour.  Visitors move along an elevated walkway, looking down into the animals’ enclosures.  The animals are fed a mixture of meat which is frozen into blocks and pitched over the fences by volunteers.  I asked one of the keepers about the content of the blocks, and was told it was usually mostly chicken, but that it could depend as the food was largely made up of donations from grocery stores getting rid of old stock.  The animals are kept in large communal enclosures.

Great Cats World Park (GCWP) in Cave Junction, Oregon occupies 14 acres and houses 45 cats, about half of which are big cats.  An adult visitor is charged $15 for a fully guided tour.  Guests walk with a keeper in small groups learning about the cats, their behaviors, and their role in the wild, and have the opportunity to ask questions.  The cats are fed beef, equine, fish, rabbit, and chicken supplemented with a feline carnivore diet and specialized vitamin supplements.  Food is thawed, inspected, and portioned before being fed to the cats.  The cats are exhibited singly unless paired with a sibling or mate. 

Both facilities follow the same guidelines for housing and veterinary care.  Both facilities are regularly inspected by the USDA to assure compliance with laws regarding captive animal management.

The animals at TWAS were completely indifferent to the people on the catwalks.  Some of them got up and showed some interest when the meat blocks were thrown over the fences.  Others didn’t care. 

The Cats at GCWP are active and interested in the visitors.  They interact daily with familiar keepers, and are often given treats by the tour guides.

Overall, I found TWAS to be depressing.  Flat fields of brown grass with a few structures thrown around for shade, and a lot, and I mean A LOT of very dull, lifeless, and severely overweight lions and tigers.  If every one of them was rescued from a horribly abusive situation, then kudos to their keepers, but to try and condemn the cats of GCWP to that kind of life is completely contrary to the mission of every sanctuary I have ever heard of, even if some of those cats happen to be educational ambassador animals.

As far as the life those cats would theoretically be rescued from, let’s break it down:

*A vibrantly healthy cat walks calmly out on a stage to capture the attention of a crowd who then learns all about its life and habits. 

*The cat may interact with its handlers, show affection, climb a log or leap up to a platform.  Maybe even all of these things.

*That cat may be on stage from five to seven minutes before retiring to its quiet, private space for an hour or more.  

*This may happen three or four times in a day, and sometimes up to three days in a row. 

*Sometimes one cat may be introduced, but another cat walks out on stage.  This happens when a cat indicates that it would rather not participate.

*For the record – This show has been going on for 35 years, and never once was a cat harmed, and never has any member of the audience been harmed. 

So… Yeah.  Completely horrifying, right? 

In my opinion, when comparing life in that sanctuary to life with the show and back home in the park, the people screaming at me that I am abusing those cats are dead wrong.  Tigers are not meant to be on stage, and I get that.  They aren’t meant to lay around in groups waiting for chicken-flavored icicles to fall from the sky, either.  At least the ones that get interaction, that get stimulation, that have interesting habitats to explore, and get wholesome fresh food would appear to have a better quality of life. 

So again, why target my animals for “Rescue?”  They don’t need to be rescued.  Why do the sanctuaries need to point fingers and falsely vilify a situation that is not harming the animals? Do they need to discredit one business in order to make money for their own?  Is making someone out as the bad guy the only way they get to be a good guy?  Would it really kill them, or harm their mission to admit, just once, that maybe, just maybe, there IS a right and beneficial way to exhibit a tiger?  Or if that’s too crazy, maybe they could just ignore a show that is educational, fun, and not stepping on others to elevate itself.

PS. The, um, person, who initially started the ruckus which lead to me personally being called out as an evil animal abuser has openly admitted that she has never seen the show, or visited Great Cats World Park.  She has managed to stir up hundreds of arm-chair activists without ever pursuing a bit of evidence to back up her claims.  I don’t know if you call that talent or dedication.  I call it being an epic asshat, and now that I have quit the Park and the Show, I can say that out loud.

Coming up – Part Two.

I want to talk about where sanctuaries get their animals, how they are funded, and a bit more about that “Us vs Them” mentality.