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2013-12-31 Carole Diary
2013 Annual Report
With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were “only” 37 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned. We were able to take in 9 wildcats plus 2 rehab bobcats. We offered to take 10 of the cats who were leopard size or smaller if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat. The cats we did not take were those whose owners refused.
There is no point to our taking in cats just so an owner can go buy another cute cub and later discard it. We did not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the ones we have.
Animal Care: Rescued 9 exotic cats, including Nala the Serval, Skipper & Gilligan the Canada Lynx, Ginger the Serval, Mary Ann, Thurston & Lovey the Bobcats, JoJo the Caracal Serval hybrid and Reise the Cougar.
Rehabbed and released 4 native bobcat kittens; Gator, Copter, Khaleesi and Fencer.
Newborn kittens who are brought to Animal Control are routinely killed because with their immature immune systems they do not survive in the shelter environment. So we began a foster kitten program with our interns as the fosters. We have saved more than 70 kittens from being killed. We raise them until they are 2 pounds and healthy, then bring them to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to be fixed and adopted out. See some very cute kitten video here:http://youtu.be/4yMMudueBow
and see cute cats meeting the vet here:http://youtu.be/lfXyynkYmfc
Bought 9 more acres for quarantine and native wildlife rehab.
Installed a new solar systemhttp://youtu.be/leiZPwsd1sA
By the end of this year, 92 of our 111 exotic animals are over the age of 12; 76 of those are over the age of 15; and 19 of those are over the age of 20. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats. This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.
2013 was a big year for expanding our big cat enclosures. We built our largest ever enclosure and dubbed it the Vacation Rotation Enclosure. This 2.5 acre cat-a-tat includes a pond, fountain, trees, forts and three safety areas for storms. We had to construct a number of above ground tunnels to move cats to and from nearby enclosures so they could “rotate” through the new enclosure, and we had to make significant improvements to those nearby cages. Two of them being were torn down and rebuilt from scratch so that all of our tigers, no matter how frisky, could be cycled through the Vacation Rotation area safely.
Sadly we had to say “goodbye” to these great cats: Willow the Siberian Lynx who was 18, Ty the Serval who was 20, SARMOTI the Tiger who was 20, Rose the Caracal who was 16, Shaniqua the Jungle Cat who was 19 and Bella the Tiger who was 17.
We never gave up on Precious the Bobcat after her strokehttp://youtu.be/ZY3IQuKAWwM
Award Winning Sanctuary
• Top Rated Non Profit at Great Non Profits
• We have received this award every year since they started awarding it in 2010 due to the many great reviews we get from visitors and donors each year.
• We again received Charity Navigator’s highest four star rating.
• Dalton Agency Contest
• We won a cash prize and pro bono professional video in this national online voting contest thanks to our dedicated supporters who voted daily.
• WEDU Nonprofit of the Year awards
• We are a finalist in the Best Use of Video category for this annual contest held by our PBS Station thanks again to our passionate supporters voting online.
View all episodes
By Carole Baskin2013 Annual Report
With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were “only” 37 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned. We were able to take in 9 wildcats plus 2 rehab bobcats. We offered to take 10 of the cats who were leopard size or smaller if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat. The cats we did not take were those whose owners refused.
There is no point to our taking in cats just so an owner can go buy another cute cub and later discard it. We did not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the ones we have.
Animal Care: Rescued 9 exotic cats, including Nala the Serval, Skipper & Gilligan the Canada Lynx, Ginger the Serval, Mary Ann, Thurston & Lovey the Bobcats, JoJo the Caracal Serval hybrid and Reise the Cougar.
Rehabbed and released 4 native bobcat kittens; Gator, Copter, Khaleesi and Fencer.
Newborn kittens who are brought to Animal Control are routinely killed because with their immature immune systems they do not survive in the shelter environment. So we began a foster kitten program with our interns as the fosters. We have saved more than 70 kittens from being killed. We raise them until they are 2 pounds and healthy, then bring them to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to be fixed and adopted out. See some very cute kitten video here:http://youtu.be/4yMMudueBow
and see cute cats meeting the vet here:http://youtu.be/lfXyynkYmfc
Bought 9 more acres for quarantine and native wildlife rehab.
Installed a new solar systemhttp://youtu.be/leiZPwsd1sA
By the end of this year, 92 of our 111 exotic animals are over the age of 12; 76 of those are over the age of 15; and 19 of those are over the age of 20. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats. This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.
2013 was a big year for expanding our big cat enclosures. We built our largest ever enclosure and dubbed it the Vacation Rotation Enclosure. This 2.5 acre cat-a-tat includes a pond, fountain, trees, forts and three safety areas for storms. We had to construct a number of above ground tunnels to move cats to and from nearby enclosures so they could “rotate” through the new enclosure, and we had to make significant improvements to those nearby cages. Two of them being were torn down and rebuilt from scratch so that all of our tigers, no matter how frisky, could be cycled through the Vacation Rotation area safely.
Sadly we had to say “goodbye” to these great cats: Willow the Siberian Lynx who was 18, Ty the Serval who was 20, SARMOTI the Tiger who was 20, Rose the Caracal who was 16, Shaniqua the Jungle Cat who was 19 and Bella the Tiger who was 17.
We never gave up on Precious the Bobcat after her strokehttp://youtu.be/ZY3IQuKAWwM
Award Winning Sanctuary
• Top Rated Non Profit at Great Non Profits
• We have received this award every year since they started awarding it in 2010 due to the many great reviews we get from visitors and donors each year.
• We again received Charity Navigator’s highest four star rating.
• Dalton Agency Contest
• We won a cash prize and pro bono professional video in this national online voting contest thanks to our dedicated supporters who voted daily.
• WEDU Nonprofit of the Year awards
• We are a finalist in the Best Use of Video category for this annual contest held by our PBS Station thanks again to our passionate supporters voting online.