Now that some time has passed since the tragic death of Ms. Renee Radziwon-Chapman, lead animal caretaker at the Wildcat Haven Sanctuary, I'd like to share some insight into wild animal sanctuaries that you may not get anywhere else.
Back in February 2011, I wrote a blog post titled "Two Sides to the Same Story," which describes the close and personal relationship many sanctuary founders have with their own exotic animal pets. Would it surprise you to learn that the majority of wild animal sanctuaries were started with the founders' pets that were bred or acquired over the years and then later turned into the sanctuary's "rescues"?
For you see, just 25 years ago, there was not the same stigma to own and breed wild exotic animals in backyards. Sanctuary directors such as Carol Asvestas, Carol Baskins, Pat Craig, Tammy Theis, Tippi Hedren, Cheryl Tuller, Kari Bagnall, Vicky Keahey, and many others started out as private backyard exotic animal pet owners. As private pet owners, these people were expected to pay out of their own pockets food, shelter, and medical care for their exotic pets. However, as these exotic pet owners acquired more and more animals, the need for additional funds became crucial in order to care for their growing "family." Laws were slowly changing, making it more difficult to own private exotic pets within city limits, so at some point, these folks made the conscious decision to turn their pets into "rescued" animals and incorporate their backyard hobby into non-profit organizations. Instead of paying for the animals' care out of their own pockets, these folks were able to get YOU to pay for the life-long care of their animals, along with the perks of being a tax-exempt "business". Many of the founders' original exotic pets have since passed away, replaced with new arrivals from individuals who were either not able to care for their own pets and elected to rehome them, or they were seized by government agencies for various reasons. But make no mistake, all of these people were exotic pet owners at one time or another, they elected to keep their pets until they died, and then were able to legally "acquire" more exotic wild animals, under the guise of being a non-profit organization.
When I volunteered at the Wild Animal Orphanage, I was often asked if I knew the dangers of working around wild exotic animals. I have to admit, I had no idea the types of behaviors I should expect from captive tigers, lions, cougars, bears, wolves, etc when I first started. When I saw captive animals in zoos, they look so cute and harmless--especially the little monkeys and chimps who seemed to have so much fun entertaining the visitors. I truly had no idea what I was getting into--it just seemed like fascinating work--something I would always remember, knowing that very few people got an opportunity to get nose to nose with a tiger or a lion. I felt truly blessed to be caring for exotic animals--especially the big cats.
Large animals living in cages tend not to move around a lot. Let's face it, there's not a whole lot of things for the animals to do to keep busy. The most excitement the animals receive is at feeding time. That is when the calm and gentle looking animals seen on "display" changes into hungry eating machines. Most people never see this side of a wild animal and so it becomes quite a shock to first-time animal caretakers to see big cats fight for food or become food aggressive as they are being fed, tearing at the enclosure "wall" for their chicken or beef. There is no formal "school" for new animal caretakers; the students must learn from the more experienced caretakers--and the years of experience may vary greatly. With volunteers and paid workers coming and going it's a wonder something terrible hasn't happened to a paid or volunteer caretaker much sooner.
It is not unusual for caretakers to enter an exotic wild animal enclosure to clean out poop, bones and food debris. At the WAO, the workers rarely entered the animals' enclosures without locking out the large animals first. The animals at this sanctuary were very aggressive, no doubt from the poor food, lack of vet care, and no enrichment. I made the mistake of entering an enclosure to try an coral an angry bobcat into a pet carrier on behest of the two animal caretakers encouraging me from the outside of the cage. I made the worse mistake ever when I tried to exit the enclosure after I gave up trying to get the cat into the carrier--I turned my back on the bobcat. The result: one very angry bobcat attached to the back of my skull, with her claws digging into my head. There was a lot of blood and several little gashes along my scalp. I was very lucky. I was able to get the cat off my back and exit the cage before sustaining additional damage to my body.
I let my guard down because I thought the bobcat would never hurt me. I was very wrong. You can never let your guard down, ever, because it only takes a second for a bobcat to jump you from behind and take you down. Big exotic cats, little exotic cats--it doesn't matter--if they have teeth and claws and they can be very dangerous.
There are other wild animal sanctuaries that allow their workers and volunteers into bobcat and cougar cages to clean and tend to the animals. Exotic Feline Rescue Center was recently written up by OSHA for numerous safety violations, to include employees entering bobcat, serval, cougar, and lynx cages without locking out the cats first. No doubt these employees felt it was "OK" to enter the enclosures with the cats still inside because it was done by others without any major incident.
At another sanctuary I've seen volunteers and workers inside the enclosure with cougars and the other small exotic cats with only small bottles of vinegar in hand or attached to their clothing for protection. Do these folks truly know the risk they pose to themselves as well as the cats? Often if a cat hurts or kills a person, the animal is destroyed.
It is not unusual for a sanctuary to have written guidelines for its employees on file, but sadly no one reads them and management does not enforce them until something goes wrong. What may be policy is often not procedure. I have cleaned tiger and lion cages without a second person to help me, even though there was a WAO verbal policy that no one may clean the cages without a partner. When I helped out on Sundays at the Leslie Road property, there was often only myself and one other person to clean cages, feed the animals, and give visitor tours. So yes, we were forced to clean cages and feed animals alone.
If the sanctuary has limited staff, like at the Wildcat Haven, it is not unusual for one person to provide care for the animals. Often good sense goes right out the door when the animals need to have their cages cleaned and later fed that night. Routine sets in and so does complacency. That is when disaster strikes.
In Ms. Radziwon-Chapman's case, the ones to blame for this disaster were the animal caretaker herself, the board of directors, and Mr. and Ms. Tuller. The long-time employee knew it was dangerous to work alone and yet she continued to do so. The founders knew they were placing their worker at risk, and they didn't care enough to hire additional help. The board never bothered to asked important questions like "Do we have enough trained staff to care for all these dangerous animals? or "Should we be taking in additional animals when we don't have enough trained staff right now?"
Routine+Complacency+ Ignorance = Disaster.
What appalled me was how GFAS blamed private pet ownership for Ms. Radziwon-Chapman's death. Please read the following "Press Release" from GFAS to the very end:
Www.sanctuaryfederation.org Gfas Wp-content Uploads 2013 11 Wildcat-Haven-Press-Release
Www.sanctuaryfederation.org Gfas Wp-content Uploads 2013 11 Wildcat-Haven-Press-Release
How irresponsible for GFAS to make this inflammatory statement to the public:
Ultimately it is the breeding of these cats into a life of captivity that is to blame for this tragic death. Sanctuaries, relying on public donations, end up paying the price for this needless breeding. Tragically, Renee Radziwon-Chapman paid the ultimate price.
Ex-pet owners, who have now seen the "light", operating a non-profit exotic wild animal organization, taking in more re-homed or rescued exotic animals than capable to care for, loses the life of a valued employee to a cougar--and it's the "private owners" fault that Ms. Radziwon-Chapman died? Ridiculous!
Later:
http://www.oregonlive.com/sherwood/index.ssf/2014/05/wildcat_haven_sanctuary_to_dis.html
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on May 09, 2014 at 5:15 PM, updated May 10, 2014 at 6:58 AM
A Sherwood-area wildcat rescue is appealing penalties assessed by a state agency in March linked to a fatal cougar attack on an employee.
Representatives from WildCat Haven Sanctuary are scheduled to have an informal hearing with the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division on Wednesday to dispute the agency's investigation findings and $5,600 in fine assessments, said Melanie Mesaros, an Oregon OSHA spokeswoman. If an agreement cannot be reached during the informal conference, a formal hearing with an administrative law judge would be the next step.
Renee Radziwon-Chapman, 36, an animal care technician and WildCat's head keeper for eight years, was killed Nov. 9 when she was attacked while cleaning a cougar enclosure alone. She apparently tried to lock out three cougars in the enclosure but was unable to do so before at least one attacked her, authorities said.
The sanctuary was issued a $2,800 fine for the safety procedural violations and another $2,800 fine for the unsafe cougar enclosure design features.
Michael and Cheryl Tuller founded WildCat Haven Sanctuary in 2001. The organization rescues cougars, tigers, bobcats and other wildcats and sits on about 8 acres of land near Sherwood. The Tullers still run the nonprofit with Michael as its president and Cheryl as its executive director. The sanctuary is closed to the public.
WildCat Haven Sanctuary said in a statement after the citations were announced that it has addressed safety concerns highlighted by Oregon OSHA.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
Later:
http://www.oregonlive.com/sherwood/index.ssf/2014/05/wildcat_haven_sanctuary_to_dis.html
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on May 09, 2014 at 5:15 PM, updated May 10, 2014 at 6:58 AM
A Sherwood-area wildcat rescue is appealing penalties assessed by a state agency in March linked to a fatal cougar attack on an employee.Representatives from WildCat Haven Sanctuary are scheduled to have an informal hearing with the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division on Wednesday to dispute the agency's investigation findings and $5,600 in fine assessments, said Melanie Mesaros, an Oregon OSHA spokeswoman. If an agreement cannot be reached during the informal conference, a formal hearing with an administrative law judge would be the next step.
Renee Radziwon-Chapman, 36, an animal care technician and WildCat's head keeper for eight years, was killed Nov. 9 when she was attacked while cleaning a cougar enclosure alone. She apparently tried to lock out three cougars in the enclosure but was unable to do so before at least one attacked her, authorities said.
The sanctuary was issued a $2,800 fine for the safety procedural violations and another $2,800 fine for the unsafe cougar enclosure design features.
Michael and Cheryl Tuller founded WildCat Haven Sanctuary in 2001. The organization rescues cougars, tigers, bobcats and other wildcats and sits on about 8 acres of land near Sherwood. The Tullers still run the nonprofit with Michael as its president and Cheryl as its executive director. The sanctuary is closed to the public.
WildCat Haven Sanctuary said in a statement after the citations were announced that it has addressed safety concerns highlighted by Oregon OSHA.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
Much later:
Okay, how much did the loss of the sanctuary's employee cost WildCat Haven? According to the USDA, the fine was only...
Inadequate communication of the sanctuary's policy? What a crock. It was a willful violation of the policy--plain and simple in my opinion. I've seen workers in two other sanctuaries that cleaned animal cages alone (without a partner) while the animals were still in the enclosure. It's a choice. And because the workers believe the cats would NEVER hurt them, they are willing to enter a bobcat, cougar, or serval enclosure with the cat in the cage, without a partner. Sanctuaries that allows a workers or volunteers to enter enclosures with the animals inside are asking for major problems because they are underestimating the cats.
By Everton Bailey Jr. | ebailey@oregonian.com
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on June 04, 2014 at 11:55 AM, updated June 04, 2014 at 3:05 PM
· WildCat Haven Sanctuary drops appeal of fines related to fatal cougar attack on employeeWILDCAT HAVEN SANCTUARY
WildCat Haven Sanctuary drops appeal of fines related to fatal cougar attack on employee
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on June 04, 2014 at 11:55 AM, updated June 04, 2014 at 3:05 PM
· WildCat Haven Sanctuary drops appeal of fines related to fatal cougar attack on employeeWILDCAT HAVEN SANCTUARY
A Sherwood-area wildcat rescue has withdrawn an appeal of fines assessed by a state agency and has agreed to pay penalties related to a fatal cougar attack on its head keeper.
A settlement agreement between WildCat Haven Sanctuary and Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division says the nonprofit sanctuary will drop its dispute of $5,600 in citations that were initially assessed in March.
The sanctuary was issued a $2,800 fine for safety procedural violations and another $2,800 fine for unsafe cougar enclosure design features. The fines were the maximum amounts allowed.
Renee Radziwon-Chapman, 36, of Portland, an animal care technician and WildCat's head keeper for eight years, was killed Nov. 9 when she was attacked while cleaning a cougar enclosure alone. She apparently tried to lock out three cougars in the enclosure but was unable to do so before at least one attacked her, authorities said.
Michael and Cheryl Tuller founded WildCat Haven Sanctuary in 2001. The sanctuary is closed to the public.
WildCat Haven Sanctuary said in a statement after the citations were announced that it has addressed safety concerns highlighted by Oregon OSHA.
Melanie Mesaros, an Oregon OSHA spokeswoman, said WildCat Haven Sanctuary will be making monthly payments for 10 months. The payments begin in June.
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
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