I’m thankful that government agencies do anything, although it isn’t much.

 

I sent the following to USDA and the FWC on 6/25/16 along with screen shots of the conversation Gloria had on her Facebook wall to back it up:

 

 According to Gloria Johnson's Facebook page, she appears to have imported a 5 week old bobcat kitten from Lynn Culver across state lines.  https://www.facebook.com/gloria.johnson.167527?fref=nf

 

 Does she have a license and proper facilities to house a bobcat?

 

 Did she obtain a proper import permit?

 

 How can a bobcat kitten, who is too young for their shots, be transported into Florida?  

 

 It was my understanding that she lost her tigers due to being unable to provide proper care and housing.  A bobcat is smaller, but needs far more than the confines of her home.

 

 

They never seem to take any action on complaints, so I didn’t expect a call back, but I got one from xxx last week.  He said Gloria did not have a license to possess bobcats, that she did not obtain a legal import permit to bring the bobcat into the state and that the fact that the kitten has not gotten his shots yet wasn’t their problem but that USDA was looking into that.

 

“So, what are you going to do?” I asked.

 

“Gloria has the proper facilities, so she can apply for a Class II license to keep the bobcat.”

 

“Where will the bobcat go until that is done?” I pressed.

 

“It’s staying with her,” he said sheepishly and then tried to say it was the inspector’s discretion to do so.  I don’t want the bobcat, as that is another 20 year commitment for us, but I’m sure the kitten won’t live long with someone I believe to be a drug addict.

 

The USDA hasn’t, and won’t respond to me about the bobcat, but at least they are finally taking some action on a 70 page briefing we gave them in 2012 on why it is already a violation of the Animal Welfare Act to pull cubs and use them as pay to play props.  Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

 

I’m thankful that my parents are as sharp as they are and that they take so much of the day to day burdens off me so I can focus on ending the trade in exotic cats.  Sometimes, my mother’s flakiness worries me, but for the most part she’s sharp and both are extremely hard working.  I keep thinking that my father’s immobility will make it impossible for him to work, which would kill him, but every day I see him filling in different rolls that I would not expect.  He’s adaptive, like a cat.

 

I’m glad my brother was so well loved as a police officer.  In that role he met a highway planner named Gareth Klotz, who was tasked with lighting an intersection in Florida Panther territory at SR 29 @ I-75.  The Feds mandated that all intersections be lit, but the “state” was pushing back and saying that you can’t light the roads in FL panther habitat or it will kill the cats.  Klotz asked Chuck for a meeting with me, but this is really Jamie’s domain so I brought her.

 

Jamie was prepared for the meeting and brought a list of Florida panther deaths in 2016, along with where they happened.  As we were looking at the maps Jamie said, “It would be interesting to know if the locations where Florida panthers were killed by cars were lit or not.”  She and Garrett mused over whether or not the information, from the accident reports, and the access to google earth, would yield that information.  Garrett needed our final report by tomorrow, but Jamie got right on it last week and on Thursday we sent him our letter.

 

He tweaked it and submitted it as follows:

 

Cumber and Fair has added “Big Cat Rescue” CEO Carole Baskin and President Jamie Murdock to provide specific evaluation on the proposed lighting effects on the panthers and preserve area. Carole and Jamie bring to our team 38 years and 24 years’ experience, respectively, with the behavioral nature of exotic cat species, as well as the rehabilitation and release of native Florida bobcats as licensed wildlife rehabbers.

 

Jamie and Carole own and operate the Big C