United States Department of Agriculture Cracks Down on Abuse of Tiger Cubs by Roadside Menageries

In response to a 2012 legal petition filed by The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, Detroit Zoological Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free USA, Big Cat Rescue, Fund for Animals and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance making clear that exhibitors violate the Animal Welfare Act by allowing members of the public to handle or feed infant exotic cats like tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars or leopards.

 

“We applaud USDA for taking this first step to put roadside zoos and the public on notice that federal law prohibits using infant cubs for photographic opportunities and interactive experiences,” said Anna Frostic, senior attorney for wildlife & animal research at The Humane Society of the United States, “but it is imperative that the agency take additional action to prohibit public contact with big cats, bears and nonhuman primates of any age.”

 

As documented in the petition, dozens of facilities across the country routinely breed and acquire exotic feline species – all of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act – to produce an ample supply of cubs for profit. “Both animals and people are put in harm’s way when big cats are used for public contact exhibition – young cubs are particularly susceptible to disease, especially when deprived of necessary maternal care, and cubs quickly grow into dangerous predators that can cause serious injury to adults and children,” said Jeff Flocken, North America regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

 

In contrast to zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, “there are thousands of big cats in private menageries in the U.S., and these facilities do not have the resources or expertise to safely and responsibly care for dangerous wild animals,” said Ron Kagan, executive director and CEO of the Detroit Zoological Society. Conservation professionals agree that endangered and threatened species like tigers, lions, and apes should not be bred for commercial purposes.

 

“The insatiable demand for cubs and baby primates used at interactive exhibits fuels a vicious cycle of breeding and exploitation. It is standard in this horrific industry to separate babies from their mothers, and then discard them when they grow too big for handling,” explained Adam Roberts, CEO of Born Free USA.

 

The mass propagation of tigers in the U.S. has resulted in a captive population that is nearly twice the number of tigers that exist in the wild. “Cubs used for petting, if they survive, typically spend many years living in substandard facilities and the few who are lucky enough to eventually end up at good sanctuaries typically arrive with medical issues caused by deficient care,” said Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue.

 

In addition to these animal welfare, public safety and conservation concerns, “the surplus of exotic animals in roadside zoos and other substandard facilities puts an enormous financial burden on the accredited sanctuaries that provide lifetime care for abandoned and seized animals,” according to Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals.

 

Investigations have revealed that using tiger cubs for photo ops and play sessions can yield over $20,000 per month for a roadside zoo, fueling demand for more and more cubs – but once the cats mature, their future is uncertain. “There is just not enough space or resources at accredited sanctuaries to support the demand created by this irresponsible breeding,” said Kellie Heckman, executive director of Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.

 

Further, “the fate of captive tigers in the U.S. has serious implications for the conservation of tigers in the wild,” said Leigh Henry, senior policy advisor for Wildlife Conservation at World Wildlife Fund, “strengthened regulation of U.S. captive tigers wi

Sparta Bobcat Rescue

“I’ll pay you $500.00 if you will turn around and go back to help DNR rescue that bobcat!”  I was desperate, because I know how most of the staff, at Department of Natural Resources agencies across America, feel about bobcats.  They are just competitors to the hunters who want to shoot the “game” animals themselves.  They say things like, “The only good bobcat is a dead bobcat.”

 

Mike assured me that he didn’t care about the money and that he would go help, if the fish and game officer would allow him, but he really didn’t think that would happen.  I’ve kind of gotten ahead of myself though, as I am still pretty upset over the whole ordeal.

 

3:58 PM I got a call from a surveyor who was working the area of Fulsome Creek Road and Poole Road in Sparta, Georgia.  He said he’d come across a bobcat in a leg hold trap who was panting and panicked.  He couldn’t get close enough to the cat to free him (you know how bobcats are) but he didn’t want the bobcat to starve to death like the raccoon in the next trap over.

 

It’s illegal to trap animals, without a license, unless they are considered a nuisance.  Even under those circumstances, the law states that you have to check the traps every 24 hours.  The raccoon near the bobcat was badly decomposed, so we knew this was either an illegal trap or the trapper wasn’t abiding by the law.

 

The caller said his name was Mike and that he’d called the Georgia Department of Natural Resources an hour earlier, but no one had called him back.  He just couldn’t get the haunting look of the bobcat, left trapped to suffer and die a cruel death, out of his mind.

 

He called Big Cat Rescue.

 

I suggested that he try a local vet, who might know a rescue group in the area, but he said Sparta was a “po-dunk town” that didn’t have any vet clinics.  I took his name, number, the street intersection (two dirt roads in the middle of nowhere) and said I’d try to track down a rehabber.

 

I went to the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division to see if I could find any local rehabbers in Hancock County.  Rehabbers are a wonderful kind of people, who will risk it all to save wild animals, and nurse them back to health, but I can count on one hand the ones that have any sort of marketing sense.  There are rehabber lists, but they are always outdated and just about useless.

 

There weren’t any wildlife rehabilitaters in Hancock County, so I pulled up a map of surrounding counties. Greene, Taliaferro, Warren, Glascock, Washington, Jefferson, Baldwin and Putnam Counties, and only one rehab facility amongst them.

 

That one place, the Mockingbird Hill Wildlife Rehab Center, was in the next county over; Washington County.

 

I called both numbers, left the info at both answering machines, and then turned my attention to local veterinarians.

 

I called Tim Gress, the person who had run a sanctuary in Georgia, where we had gotten Kali Tiger.  He said he was over an hour away and couldn’t leave work.  He said he didn’t have the tools to deal with a bobcat anyway.  I told him he could come visit Kali and he said he was saving up vacation time to do that.

 

The closest veterinarian I could find, was also in Washington County, so it would be a long shot, but I called them.

 

It would be an hour drive for them but it would be 6 and a half hours for me and I can’t take controlled drugs across state lines and couldn’t take the bobcat in any case as I am not licensed in Georgia.  By the time I could get there, it would be the middle of the night and no chance that I’d find the bobcat on my own.

 

I got a kindly woman, with a very southern accent named Amy, and she said she knew the Game Warden, Bryant Adams, in Glascock County.  She said that he was the one who covered Hancock County, since they don’t have their own Animal Control Services.  She said she would call him.  I asked her to call me back if she was not successful. I wasn’t going to let this bobcat chew off his own foot even though I hadn’t fi

I responded with:

 

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.  Things will probably get worse before they get better; but I'm counting on them all being just a bunch of loud mouth bullies who won't really take action.

 

Yesterday the judge in OK granted a receivership on Joe's place.  As usual, we aren't discussing this outside our ranks, but what it means is that the court has appointed someone to actually go into Joe's place, take over all of the bank accounts and they can (and hopefully will) put a person in his facility to man the cash register.  They can choose to keep this person or persons in there until our million dollar judgment is repaid, and Joe has to pay them all to be there.

 

The receiver makes all of the decisions about the money coming in and going out so Joe won't be able to steal cash, hide money, pay illegal aliens in cash, etc.  If Joe gives him any lip, he will have the authority to put Joe out, as Joe claims he's just a consultant and has no ownership.

 

When Joe finds out, which could be any time now, he's going to go stark, raving mad and really turn up the heat with the haters.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I bought my dad a pen made from a bullet shell.

“Vern likes his pen.  It is surprisingly comfortable to hold while you write.  The name is etched in military style which is unusual.  It brought back memories of shells he used to collect on the military firing site of Henderson Air Base where USF is located today.  Love,  Mom”

 

There isn’t much I can give my father.  He lives simply, but he does draw out diagrams a lot, for the cages that he builds, so it seemed like a good gift.

 

Today is day three of being on high alert for the crazies in town.  I’ve been shutting our blinds at night.  I’ve only done that on very rare occasions in the decades I lived here because you can’t see any neighbors from here.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Had to hire an off duty officer today 

because the crazy animal abusers have come to town for a conference called Take the Conversation Back.  It’s being run by the Calvary Group, who are considerably better organized and educated than our typical opponent.

 

Meanwhile, some good news.  Tim Van Norman, from the USFWS, set up a call with us and Christina Scaringe of Animal Defenders International to discuss the import of Hoover the tiger from Peru.  He wanted to grant it but didn’t want to base it on our meeting the requirements of the law, because he says it’s too easy for the bad guys to make the same claims.  He asked us to SAY that we would donate to tiger conservation in the future like we have done in the past.

 

We did him one better and donated $5000 when he said 1k would be fine.  Our import permit should be coming in the next 2 weeks if I got his drift.

 

Also USDA has a new lead person in APHIS who sent us all (the Big Cat Coalition) a letter saying they would educate the bad guys about why cub handling is bad, but were so vague that it seemed they were just trying to blow us off while being able to answer to Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Blumenthal.  Anna Frostic, atty for HSUS and Leigh Henry of WWF both seem to be more optimistic from their respective meetings, than what I feel from this letter.  We will see.

 

Last night we went to a fundraiser, at the Sena’s home on Davis Island, for Patrick Murphy, who is running for Congress.  On the way home we stopped at Sandy’s restaurant, Tampa Joe’s, to pick up my credit card that I left behind last Sunday when my mother and I went their for lunch.  Howie called my mother, putting her on speaker, to let her know that she could stop looking for it, and to tease me about being so forgetful.  Mom said I’ve always been this way.

 

I know I have been since the amnesia, but don’t know if I was always this way.

 

Later in the day:

 

Half way through Denny Mitchell’s tour a backup intern called for coordinator check.  Gale and I both went.  I stayed with the tour until they left the property.

 

Gale said they were asking the intern specifics about whether or not Teisha really belonged to us and about the other OH cats and taking photos of things that regular guests never do.

 

A small, thin, blonde, 20ish woman was the one asking all the questions and her friend, a larger woman, with a long blonde braid, was filming her asking and then filming the answers, but they seemed to be trying to act like they didn't know each other.  I glued myself to the thin blonde and she never asked another question, nor did she pull her camera back out, which I had been told she was using for video, but trying to make it look like she wasn't.  She was carrying it, awkwardly, and pointing at me initially, from what I saw, and then quit when I was right next to her for the rest of the tour.

 

She wasn't wearing the vox, but rather had it and the earbud, coiled up in her hand.  Everyone else at least had it around their necks, although a number of people weren't wearing the earbud.  Denny was talking loud enough that I could hear him in the back and he doesn't play the iPad stories.

 

I noticed there was one male, tall, bald, middle eastern looking who was engrossed in his cell phone, not wearing the vox, and who kept lingering behind.  He wasn't looking at cats when he lingered.  Just his phone.  A few times I had to leave the blonde just to let him know I was watching him too.  He was clearly with a young, dark haired woman of mid 20s and an elderly woman, who appeared to be her mother, who was riding the golf cart.  I was able to figure out that Cynthia F paid for the trio and the cart.  She also bought stuff at the end and was very polite and interested, according to Denny.  The decoy ;-)

 

At the Kitten Cabana the dark haired woman seemed put off by what we do with the kittens, which you don't see very often, and seemed to exchange glances with the thin blonde, who appeared to agree.  S

Shirley Schreibvogel is served! After getting wary of strangers coming to her door and getting served subpoenas in the bankruptcy lawsuits around her son, Joe “Exotic” Schreibvogel, I suggested that the process server approach her door carrying a pet taxi. She would surely think it was something to do with her animal exploiting kid, and would open the door. Today Joe posted this to Facebook: “My mother is 83 and now in a wheel chair. Carole Baskin filed another law suit against her yesterday. Be proud of sponsoring such an evil bitch to all of you who giver her money for animal care. She bullies old people with it instead. Come after me bitch. My mom never did anything to you. But don’t think your the queen just yet. I will ruin you in public that I promise you. People share this and show the world what carole is all about.” When Joe filed bankruptcy personally and for the zoo, to wipe out the 1.2 million dollar judgment to Big Cat Rescue, he transferred assets and subsequent income from the zoo to his mother. Our lawsuit is to get them back. Meanwhile, I slept in until almost 8:00am today after days of being up all night. First it was catching Poseidon and then trying to keep him alive. He died yesterday morning, between midnight and 4:00am, in his sleep and while I was sleeping. Yesterday he seemed to be turning the corner and ate about 3 oz of food, then in the early evening he crashed. We tried fluids, and different medications, but nothing helped. He became unresponsive and could not regulate his body temperature and so he was put on a heating pad. At least he passed away in a safe place comfortable and in his sleep. We will be sending him out to a specialist for a necropsy. We suspect several things including neurological disease, sepsis from his skin infection, and poisoning. Thank you to everyone who helped bring him in and provide him with such special care during his final days. I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/ I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Poseidon Bobcat Rescue

I would have thought that time had stood still because Jamie was poised, net in the air, leaning impossibly into the space between us on one foot, and she had stopped moving.  Interns, Martin and Devin had also stopped mid step with her.  You could hear a pin drop into the high grass that was up past our knees, and the freezing cold water that was up over our ankles.  It was like how a live feed just freezes, but you aren’t sure if the connection has died, or if all has just gone very, very still.

 

My racing heart told me that time hadn’t stopped, but everything around the center attraction had.

 

At the center of this bizarre scene was a bobcat who had been seen vomiting on the side of the road.

 

A cat vomiting is hardly an emergency situation and certainly not one you would drive two hours to witness, but this one seemed to have extenuating circumstances.  Around 6PM a call came in from a Port Charlotte woman named Sandy, who said she had been on her way to the ER regarding her mother, and had seen a bobcat vomiting on the side of the road.  When asked to identify what the cat looked like, as most people don’t have any idea what a bobcat looks like, she said, “Well…it looks like a bobcat.”

 

Jamie asked what a bobcat looked like to Sandy and she said it had a six inch long tail and was half the size of a German Shepherd dog.  Before driving 4 hours, round trip, Jamie asked for a cell phone photo, but the woman was too busy with her mother and the hospital.  She said her husband had taken some video, but Jamie wasn’t sure they would be willing to pay the data transfer rate to send it.  I queried our database and found 103 people in Port Charlotte.  I emailed and asked if any of them would drive to the approximated address of Ogden Street, and tell me if there was really a bobcat there.

 

Over the next few hours, 11 people responded, and several drove to the scene.  All but two said there was no bobcat to be seen.  Meanwhile the caller did get a photo and did send the video, but we were already on our way.  Two of the people we emailed said they saw the bobcat and that they were certain they could wrestle him into a carrier, but Jamie convinced them not to try as the bobcat could hurt them or run off and be impossible for us to find and help.

 

Two hours seemed like two days, but Jamie used the time to prepare our interns for what was to come.  I’m always surprised that after dealing with bobcats, and knowing how mean they can be, that when we say we need volunteers to help rescue one in the wild, they are so eager and fearless to help.  Even when answering the question, “what’s the worst you’ve ever been hurt rescuing a bobcat” by saying, “I haven’t had to peel one off my face yet,” they are still keen to give it a shot.

 

As we pulled up on the scene, Sandy’s husband was dutifully keeping an eye on the bobcat.  He brought us up to speed with important facts like how long the cat had been sitting there (5 hours by this time) how close he had been able to get without the cat running (about 10 feet) and he gave us the low down on bobcats in the area, and how they get along with the domestic cats.  He and I both held flashlights on the bobcat’s face, so that Jamie, Martin and Devin could circle around behind him and on the side that was open to the road.

 

The last thing you ever want to do in a bobcat rescue is chase the wounded cat into the path of another car.

 

The bobcat was on a dry patch of ground, surrounded by the cold water and knee high saw grass.  Jamie asked me to make little sounds with my feet, each time he tensed as if he was going to bolt, to divert his attention away from the approaching captors.

 

He looked pretty washed up; like he had given up and was just waiting to die.  He smelled like he had been dead for three days.  It was gaggingly wretched to breathe the air surrounding him.  Despite that though, you could tell that if he could make a break for it, he was going to

What do the spaceships and alligators have in common?

The dream was set farther into the future than I expect humanity to survive, and yet Jamie was a child of grade school age.

 

We were lost, trying to find our way to something similar to today’s Disney world, when I noticed an American Airlines “jet” take a hard turn toward the airport.  (Funny that I was lost, but knew which direction to the airport) At first it was trailing smoke and looked like a balloon version of a jet.  It has all of the right features, but was just pillowy in shape, and many times larger than today’s ships.  In the dream I recognized it as a high volume transport of that time, in both this and its later form.

 

It morphed into a much more ark shaped transport as it spun and wobbled slowly.  At first we were just stunned, watching it go down, and then fearing the crash might throw debris as far as where we stood, I grabbed Jamie up and began trying to cross the road to an open field on the other side.  There was some drama with cars nearly hitting us, because everyone’s eyes were on the dirigible looking, steel space craft that clearly was going to crash.

 

As we got to the field and were running; running like I’ve never run in a dream; running until my lungs were burning, I didn’t want to break momentum by looking back, until I heard my brother say that our dad was not able to run.  Dad has been barely able to walk since 2011 when he had his triple bypass heart surgery.  They had used veins from his legs in the procedure and he’s been slowed to a shuffle since then.

 

Now I didn’t know what to do.  The dirigible had used whatever magnetic power that sustained them, as the jets were now gone and it seemed to just hover without any visible propulsion, to direct the ship to the vacant field.  Presumably the pilot was doing everything possible to preserve as much life as they could, and we were just four people in a field compared to the busy shopping area on the other side of the highway.

 

It was in the moment of not knowing if I should continue to carry Jamie to safety, or if I could trust her little legs and will to live enough, that I could put her down and go back for my father; that I woke up.

 

You would think that waking from such a dream would immediately bring to my conscious mind the question of the meaning between saving my daughter or saving my father, but instead I was first struck by the notion of the flying ark, and how it worked.  Later, I thought about the obvious.  So, I did what everyone does these days, and googled it.

 

“To see a spaceship in your dream symbolizes your creative mind. It denotes a spiritual journey into the unknown and signals self-development and self-awareness. Alternatively, the dream suggests that you need to take on a different perspective, no matter how bizarre or unusual it may be.

 

Dreaming that spaceships are falling out of the sky and crashing into earth implies that your ideas may be too outlandish and far-fetched. Perhaps you have set unrealistic goals for yourself and you are just setting yourself up for failure.”

 

Finding that to be particularly true of the goals I set, i.e. a world where all wild cats live free, I queried the same website, dreammoods.com about the other recurring element in my dreams; being surrounded by alligators.

 

“To see an alligator in your dream symbolizes treachery, deceit, and hidden instincts. It may be a signal for you to take on a new perspective on a situation. It may also represent your ability to move between the physical, material world of waking life and the emotional, repressed world of the subconscious. Alternatively, the alligator represents healing powers and qualities. An alligator also suggests that you are thick-skinned or insensitive.”

 

As to being nearly hit by cars dreammoods states; To dream that you are almost hit or were ran over by a car suggests that your lifestyle, beliefs or goals may be in conflict with another's.  (No Kidding!) As for

HSUS Language suggested for the state level: A properly-maintained zoological park or circus that obtained a Class C exhibitor license prior to July 1, 2016 and that holds a Class C exhibitor license in good standing, provided that such entity: 1. Shall not have been, or employ any person who has been, convicted of or fined for an offense involving the abuse or neglect of any animal pursuant to any state, local, or federal law; 2. Shall not have had a license or permit regarding the care, possession, exhibition, propagation, or sale of animals revoked or suspended by any state, local, or federal agency, and shall not have received any official notices of warnings, or entered into any stipulations, consent decrees, or settlements with the U.S. Department of Agriculture within the last 3 years and must disclose any known pending investigations that are being conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; 3. Shall not have been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Animal Welfare Act for any noncompliant item within the past 3 years in which a dangerous wild animal’s health and well-being was jeopardized by: (i) inappropriate veterinary care; (ii) inappropriate handling of dangerous wild animals causing stress or trauma to the animal or a threat to public safety; (iii) inappropriate provisions of food, water, shelter, or space; or (iv) any infraction cited as a direct noncompliant item; 4. Shall not allow direct contact between the public and dangerous wild animals; 5. Shall maintain liability insurance in an amount of not less than two hundred fifty thousand dollars, with a deductible of not more than two hundred fifty dollars, for each occurrence of property damage, bodily injury, or death caused by any dangerous wild animal possessed by the person; 6. Shall have a written plan, filed with the local animal control authority for the quick and safe recapture or destruction of dangerous wild animals in the event a dangerous wild animal escapes, including, but not limited to, written protocols for training staff on methods of safe recapture of the escaped dangerous wild animal; and 7. Shall file with the local animal control authority an annual report of all dangerous wild animals acquired and disposed of during the calendar year. I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/ I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

Brandon Bobcat Call

This morning, at 1:15 AM Jamie and Carole responded to a call in Brandon about a bobcat being hit by a car. Dr Justin Boorstein came in and they did Xrays to see what could be done.

 

Jamie recalls the event:

 

I got a call at 1:15 AM and it’s a man saying that his wife has found an injured bobcat in the middle of the highway in Brandon.  Most people have no idea what a bobcat looks like, so I ask him to have his wife text me a photo.  Dang!  It’s a bobcat!  Now I’m awake.

 

I call my mom to ask if she has a net and carrier at her house next door, so that I can save time getting to the scene, but she doesn’t.  She gets out of bed and says she’ll go with me.  As I hop into her truck she says, “Do you have a coat?”  It’s in the 50’s, which is freezing to us Floridians, and I say, “I’m in my pajamas!  No, I didn’t bring a coat!”  Turns out she’s barely dressed and forgot hers too.  Thankfully there are blankets in the truck.

 

The good news about early morning bobcat calls is that there is no one on the streets so we get to the sanctuary (4 miles away) in record time and exchange her pickup truck for the Tundra with a topper that we won in a Facebook contest a few years ago.  (Thank you everyone who voted for us!)  We had just released Rain and Dancer the 9 month old rehab bobcats the day before, so there are still nets and gloves in the back.  We grab a big carrier out of the Emergency Response Center and are on our way.

 

Meanwhile the Good Samaritan who had called in the accident is frantic because the police have shown up on the scene and told her she can’t stay in the middle of the highway.  She puts the officer in charge, in touch with me by phone and he’s saying he doesn’t think the bobcat is going to make it and maybe should be put out of his misery.  I tell him that a bobcat in shock can look quite dead, but can regain consciousness very quickly and that they have an amazing ability to heal.  I don’t want him to shoot the cat in the head, so I tell him that my husband is a veterinarian and standing by to humanely euthanize him, if that is what has to be done.  He asks how long before we will be there, and by now we are about 20 minutes away.

 

More calls and texts back and forth and the woman who originally called us seems sure the police sent her away so they could dispose of the cat.  We are driving as fast as we can, but it’s a long way from Citrus Park to the Brandon mall and we aren’t allowed to use flashing lights and sirens in order to save wildlife.  Maybe we need a law that would allow rehabbers the same use as ambulance drivers.

 

The policeman contact me again and he sounds like he’s ready to call it quits because the bobcat looks so bad.  He says that he doesn’t think the cat is going to make it, and that he’s bleeding from the nose and his eyes look bad, and even thinks he can be picked up by hand.  By now we are 5 minutes out and ask him to wait.  He agrees.

 

Carole recalls what happened next:

 

As WAZE is telling us that we are arriving at the location, I see the flashing lights of a patrol car and start to pull up behind it, but then notice there are patrol cars, lights flashing, at every corner of the huge intersection.  My first concern is which one should I pull up next to, in order to have our tools closest to the cat, but then my heart leaps with joy to realize that the agency has cordoned off the entire road to insure that no one runs over the bobcat who is crouched in the middle of the road.  I’ve never seen the police be so concerned about an injured animal before and it makes me grateful beyond belief.

 

In the center of all the chaos, I can see him and he looks HUGE.  He’s in pain, so he’s all puffed up, but the lights from angle, highlight a halo in his fur tips that make him seem enormous.  I wonder to myself if I brought a big enough carrier.  Jamie and the officer she had been speaking with grab the nets and I grab the carrier out of the back of the Tundra an