Horrible News Story - Big Cats

They found almost 100 dead tigers and leopards at a "rescue". It's just sickening, and I hope they prosecutes those responsible to the fullest extent possible. These magnificent beasts deserve so much better.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/04/2...eut/index.html

How tragic and horrible. May Durga, the Hindu tiger goddess, get him good for this!

Who wasn't checking up on this place! Don't officials have to visit these places and make sure things are OK? Aren't there licenses that have to be renewed and reviewed? Maybe there will be some new laws passed to keep this from ever happening again!

Grrrrr, that makes me so piissed! I love all animals, but I am most partial to the big cats.
It's bad enough this happened, but with Tigers who are practically extint and Lepoards might as well be!
Think of all those wonderful Tiiger lives that could have been used to repopulate the world, but then again, most of them were probably hideously inbred.

Oh no... thats terrible news... I too, have a soft spot for the big cats. I think they are miss-understood...

I hope these thing will never happen again. They are in danger of being extint as it is!

Human being got this wonderful planet, and all we do is damage it. that's just frustrating.

Heidi, That story is too terrible to describe. The English language doesn't contain the necessary words. It's horrible to think of the suffering and hunger! And to leave a small child in the vicinity of hungry tigers is unthinkable. I hope these people get the punishment they deserve, one that will prevent anyone else from committing such cruel acts.

I work with a group that rescues "exotic" cats, including tigers. They are magnificant creatures, but also expensive to house, feed and care for, and very, very dangerous. We have a tiger rescued from another rescue. She was half starved, had severe frostbite, and had painful and expensive to treat dental problems from previous poor care.

All to often these animals are aquired because either:

1. It's "cool"
2. It's "dangerous" (which makes me "cool")
3. I can make money from the animal

When people realize how dangerous this animal really is they are in a hurry to get rid of it. Rescues, many good, many not so good, try to step in when possible.

In this situation there is a "not so good rescue" where the people appear to be more interested in trying to make money than in actual rescue (valid rescues rarely breed, and then only in controlled circumstances.) There is also a "personality" which has gotten involved with this situation. This person has a long history of rushing in when there is a problem, grabbing any media attention (and available funds offered by well meaning donors), taking only the healthy and highly markatable animals (white tigers as a prime example) then leaving the animals in real need for someone else to worry about. It's a tragic situation to start with, this just makes it so much worse.

George

i wonder how i missed this posting??!!??

Oh dear:

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Jon Weinhart saw himself as a big cat lover who for over 35 years provided a sanctuary in Southern California, under the name of Tiger Rescue, for retired animal actors whose performing days were long gone,

But California authorities Thursday held a starkly different view of Weinhart's activities after discovering nearly 90 dead tigers and leopards at his home -- including 58 dead cubs stuffed into three freezers -- and piles of big cat pelts stacked in a storage barn.


i just CANNOT understand how people can be cruel to animals??? It is so terribly unacceptable!!!

George, That is atrocious! Money grubbing, attention seeking animal abusers!

We've been trying to rescue another tiger from a guy that had her at a roadside petting zoo. Now that she's grown he's not so keen on the big cat any more. We quickly built a temporary cage for her, but then the guy put up lots of road blocks. He even built a shed which blocks access to her pen, now we can't get the roll cage down to her. The only way to get her out is to sedate her and carry her out, this is VERY dangerous. We're still hoping to rescue her, though it's now been a couple of months.

Yes, cruelty abounds. And the people in the circles which have these large cats are certainly not all in it to save them.

George

CharmsDad: Check your Private Messages

What's so upsetting to me is the fact that tigers are an endangered species! George, where do the tigers and other big cats live out their lives after they're rescued?

Oh, no! That's awful! I feel so bad for those poor cats . . .

They live out their lives at the rescue, sanctuary or zoo that takes them in. Unfortunately, many tigers that are bred in captivity are not done so with regards to subspecies, so these animals are not considered viable members of species preservation programs. Reintroduction programs are very rare, since the biggest issue with tiger conservation is actually habitat reduction. Captive born and raised tigers would not usually be candidates for reintroduction anyway since they haven't learned to hide, hunt or stay clear of people. Their best hope is a good facility with good care to live out their lives.

There have been programs to reintroduce other cats. In the Everglades cougar populations have been on the uprise after conservation efforts have been in place. The subspecies from that area had their numbers so reduced it was decided to introduce another closely related subspecies to enlarge the gene pool. This was a rather controversial decision, but seems to have finally met some widespread (though not universal) approval. The program is fairly new but seems to be doing well.

George

It's so sad, but seems inevitable that someday soon the only place big cats can be found will be the zoo. I know there is very little room in India for the government to set aside as a sanctuary. Other than Siberia, I don't know where else tigers could be relocated. And the Siberian tiger is a sub-species, isn't it?

We, as a species, are so shortsighted. We can't seem to foresee the consequences of some land development and poaching. We almost lost the Everglades, the only sub-tropical land in the U.S., for potential farmland. Alligators and some wading birds were in danger of extinction in the eighties. I worry about the delicate balance of nature.

My friend Nikki rescues the wild ones George, perhaps you can contact her? She has a lot of friends with connections. Here is her website:


Wildtalk

I took a quick look, very sad someone apparently poisoned their cheetahs. I'll have to take a longer look later.

George