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Sep 9th CO: Last refuge for big cats?

Colorado is becoming a “dumping ground” for the nation’s unwanted lions and tigers as other states ban private sanctuaries for the big cats.
 
Colorado has two large licensed sanctuaries that take in homeless tigers, lions and other big cats, including 35 that arrived this summer from out-of-state facilities that either ran out of money or were closed due to new laws.
 
Big Cats of Serenity Springs near Colorado Springs is home to 85 lions, tigers and leopards, including 25 large felines that arrived this year. They expect another nine.
 
Another 60 big cats live at the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center near Greeley, including 14 young tigers that were rescued this summer from a defunct California refuge and others that came from Texas.
 
“We get at least 75 more offered to us every month,” said Nick Sculac, who started Serenity Springs with his wife, Karen, on 160 acres in 1993. “We’re building as fast as we can and we’ll take more in as long as we can afford to.”
 
The Colorado Wildlife Commission votes today on a rule that would ban new nonprofit refuges in Colorado and would tighten safety regulations.
 
Serenity Springs and the Conservation Center could remain open under the rule, but the Division of Wildlife believes banning nonprofit facilities will stop new sanctuaries from opening to take in bears, wolves or the lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars and other exotic big cats pushed out of other states.Twelve states have banned private ownership of dangerous wild animals in the last few years. Many others have imposed rules, fees and requirements that have shut down many of the perennially money- short sanctuaries.
 
“I do worry we are becoming a dumping ground for other states who want to get out of the big cat business,” said Rick Enstrom, chairman of the wildlife commission.
 
“If California and Texas are getting out of it, why should we be the ‘last string’ team sitting around, waiting to go into the game?” he said.
 
Colorado’s two major exotic cat refuges are nationally known for their good care and humane facilities. So, Serenity Springs and the Conservation Center expand each year, despite periodic panics when contributions fall short.
 
But the influx of lions and tigers from other states concerns state wildlife officials.
 
“If it is allowed to continue, eventually there could be thousands of lions and tigers in Colorado saved from other states,” said Mike King, the wildlife division’s regulation coordinator.
 
In April, California authorities found 90 dead tigers, including 58 frozen cubs, at Tiger Rescue, east of Los Angeles. The refuge had run out of money.
 
Texas, second only to India in tiger population, passed a law this year restricting the ownership of tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars and other exotic cats. The Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center took in seven from there. Another eight went to Serenity Springs.
 
Even some of Colorado’s nonprofit facilities – where donors can deduct their contributions from taxes and volunteers take the place of paid staff – have run out of money, run into trouble and closed.
 
Colorado wildlife officers found 26 young tigers, lions and other exotic cats in rickety cages near Greeley in 2001. The owner, Kenneth Alvarez, had leased them for ads and other promotions. Alvarez was arrested in 2002 and 28 counts of inhumane treatment of animals are pending against him.
 
In 1993, Trey Chapman started rescuing cats and kept them at the Alamo Tiger Ranch near Alamosa. But a few years later, he ran out of money, rescuers sought homes for 27 large felines and he was charged with animal abuse. “We take cats even if we don’t have the money,” he said.
 
Such funding woes are common among refuges.
 
“We’ve been a nonprofit for 18 years and we’re on the edge every day,” said Pat Craig of the Conservation Center. “It’s hard enough being a nonprofit.”
 
The DOW’s proposed ban on new nonprofit sanctuaries may have already slowed the lines of lions and the traffic of tigers headed for Colorado.
 
“I get at least one call a month from someone saying they want to rescue wildlife and have a sugar daddy that will finance it,” said Kathy Konishi, who manages refuge licensing for the DOW. “When I tell them we don’t allow nonprofits, they are angry,” she said.
 
There are other problems as well. Every Colorado refuge has had a biting or mauling incident. There have been no fatalities here – unlike in other states – but a tiger at an Elbert County refuge ripped off a volunteer’s arm in 2000. A tiger attacked a worker at Serenity Springs this summer, but the man is back at work. In each case, the victim asked that the animal not be destroyed.
 
But nationally, the situation is so serious – nine people were killed by privately owned tigers in the last five years and many more were mauled – that Congress is considering a law to confine large cats to their state of birth.
 
Wayne Pacelle, vice president of the Humane Society of the U.S., said most of the attacks occurred when a big cat escaped, hadn’t been fed or handlers failed to secure the animals.
 
Worldwide there are about 7,000 tigers in the wild – about the same number that are privately owned in the U.S., said Pacelle.
 
About 3,000 lions, tigers and assorted other exotic large cats are in private ownership in the U.S., he said. That does not include cougars, bobcats, lynx or other U.S. natives in private ownership.
 
And there are more exotic cats in the nation’s future.
 
“There’s no law that prohibits breeding,” said Kim Haddad, a California veterinarian who monitors captive wild animals across the country.
 
None of the exotic big cats in Colorado were born here and there are no breeders here, but 3,750 federally licensed breeders in other states sell the exotic felines as pets, movie performers, breeding stock and to traveling zoos, said Haddad. Many of the sales are over the Internet.
 
Some will inevitably turn up on Colorado’s doorstep. And if you’ve got space, enclosures and a talent for fund raising, it’s hard to say no. That’s why the DOW wants to make it harder to say yes.
 
But there’s at least one other big cat advocate who hopes to get back into rescuing – Michael Jurich, owner of Prairie Wind Animal Refuge near Kiowa.
 
He has 16 tigers and four African lions, plus more than 40 bobcats, bears, wolves and other native species. Until 2000, when a volunteer at Prairie Wind lost her arm, Jurich supported the venture with funds from tours and photographer and artist fees.
 
But in 2000 he lost his exhibitors license. Then the meat packing plant in Greeley he relied on for cat food more than doubled the price. He stopped taking in new lions and tigers.
 
Now, Jurich is fighting a $15,000 fine from federal inspectors for exhibiting exotic cats without a license. He hopes to get a new license and rescue big cats from states that are closing refuges.
 
Refuge operators fear that without new nonprofit sanctuaries more big cats will be put to death.
 
“Where are the tens of hundreds of these animals supposed to go?” Jurich said. “Who wants to be responsible for a 10,000-cat euthanasia party?”