| 
Around the Ranch: Big Cat RescueWith their soft fur and big eyes, they are so adorable; they just melt your heart. And so you bring one home to love, cuddle and play with. However, little Tigger* eats and grows at an alarming rate. He requires ten pounds of meat per day and Tigger still thinks he’s a little cub who wants to play, but realistically he’s 100 pound tiger whose one-swipe-of-paw play can knock a man flying. Poor Tigger, he just doesn’t know his own strength; it’s not his fault he injured the nice man. Tigger is a victim of the “pet trade.”
If lucky, Tigger will find his way to Big Cat Rescue, the world’s largest accredited exotic cat sanctuary that is devoted entirely to big cats -- lions, tigers, leopards, and cougars and more. Big cats that are abandoned, abused, retired from the circus and entertainment are rescued and rehabilitated here. Tigger could have been forced into performing at a roadside zoo, living in appalling conditions or he could have been forced to have his picture taken for money, but when no longer cute and cuddly, the cat is neglected or abandoned and unable to fend for itself.
We arrived at Big Cat Rescue (BCR) at 3:00PM ready for a tour. Carole Baskin, the founder of BCR, greets us in a long black flowing robe covering a zebra-patterned jumpsuit. With her long platinum hair and handsome features, she could have been a model. Instead, she has devoted her life to the immediate goal of rescuing cats and the long-term goal of educating the public so that her work is no longer necessary.
We met many of the 150 big cats in their cat-a-tats(cages as large as three acres) on the 42 acre premises. Some of our favorites were: Shere Khan, a male Bengal/Siberian Tiger born 12/20/94 stole our hearts on 3/12/95. His birth was a result of the demand for White Tigers by a public that is fascinated by oddities. A White Tiger is not an "endangered" species. It is a colour mutation that happens infrequently in the wild and usually is not passed along because white animals in a forest environment would not live long due to their inability to hide and sneak up on prey. Shere Khan had been sold as a cub, but because he was born "the wrong colour" the purchaser kept putting off his delivery date, until he finally canceled the sale at four months. The breeder's then had a four-month-old cub on their hands for which they had no other facilities than a small carrier that he was quickly outgrowing. He was up to his belly in feces and decaying food in a pet taxi that seemed to just bust at the seams with tiger fur.”
French director Jean-Jacques Annaud’s (The Bear) movie “Two Brothers” depicts the trials and tribulations of many big cats. It is the touching and dramatic story of two tiger brothers and I highly recommend it. There are only handful of rescue homes for big cats in the US, and so many times some big cats have to be turned away because of limited space. Only when people realize that big cats are wild and not good pets nor do big cats belong in a circus, will these magnificent animals live normal lives in the wild, when Big Cat Rescue can close its doors. *Tigger is a fictitious cat used as an example.
Award-winning journalist, Karen Hamlin has a travel column in Around the Ranch, a Florida publication, and is a regular contributor to The Sun. She has published in magazines and newspapers including The Sun, Travel World International, Big Apple Parent, Experience Travel, Senior Travel, and the Springfield Union and was travel editor of City & Suburban Magazine. Karen is a member of North American Travel Journalists Association , the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and Women Writers Association.
Michele Cooke has a long history of researching material for the Boston City Library and law research for a prominent legal firm in Boston. For travel, she discovers and researches the little known and unknown spots in a destination, sometimes even unknown by the local population. She is also a proficient photographer whose experience includes video taping and photographing weddings. Photos for this article were provide by Michele Cooke. © 2005
|
Auroara was born in Feb. 1996 and was said to be a descendant of the Exxon Tiger. She is a Siberian/Bengal hybrid. She was the runt to Bombay and Sunny and was cross-eyed and lame in the hips so she was not wanted for commercials. She loves to swim and has a one acre Cat-A-Tat where she can swim and play and talk to the big Tigers. She loves people and can really "work" a crowd from her vantage point along the main path.
OffbeatTravel