Get the Story Right

One of my pet peeves is folks using former WAO animals to further a person or non-profit's agenda; failing to tell the truth about the WAO animals' history.  Look, I get it--BCR is now against breeding, private ownership, and taking pictures of cats with people for money.  If you look into BCR's on "Easy Street" history you'll see that at one time this non-profit organization had no problems with breeding, owning exotics, or having souvenir pictures taken with the cats.  Now that they have "seen the light" they intend to use their animals in any way they see fit to further the organization's political agenda (after all that's where the money is...).  It's very disturbing.

I just wish they'd leave the WAO animals out of their political "campaigns."  It's just not right.  Editing the tigers' story does an immense disservice after what the animals went through at the WAO.  History should NOT be erased, else how will others learn from past mistakes?

Big Cat Rescue

September 24·

Born 1/1/96 Rescued 9/28/11 (Arthur Tiger)

Arthur, Andre and Amanda were born in 1996 in New Jersey to be used as pay-to-play photo props. It never makes sense to breed more cubs to raise money to feed last year’s cats, and the New Jersey facility fell into disrepair and then was shut down after USDA revoked their license following a tiger escape.

Arthur loves his brother Andre dearly and the ...two are often found cuddled up in the same den or lounging together in one of their pools.

Arthur is the dominant tiger in the group and shows off his fierce attitude at dinner time.

Learn More: http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/advocat-news-2011-10

See Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkUJKcNntqw See More

Top Comments

• Glenn Gauci and 10,452 others like this.
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  Mark Hernandez You missed the rest of the story -- On November 13, 2003, the three NJ tigers were relocated to the Wild Animal Orphanage, a non-profit exotic animal sanctuary located in San Antonio Texas, where they live in substandard enclosures with no enrichment, poor diet, and no medical care. The WAO eventually closed its doors and the USDA revoked its license due to numerous violations of the AWA. The WAO residents were relocated throughout the United States. Sadly, many of the WAO big cats have since passed away due to a variety of health care issues they contracted before they left the WAO). It's good to see three former WAO tigers enjoying life at BCR.

  Like · Reply · 2 · 10 hrs

God Bless You Kovu...

I just saw this posting on Facebook today...  needless to say, this posting came as a complete surprise as I have not seen any other past postings that Kovu was doing so poorly at "Safe Haven."

Safe Haven Rescue Zoo

September 9, 2014

 

We are very saddened by the loss of our beloved African lion Kovu Over the past eight months, Kovu had exhibited weakness in his back legs and was less active. He had difficulty jumping up on his platform and into his lockout. His legs would buckle and then he would gain control of them, but his condition continued to worsen.
Dr. Lesli Hewitt, Safe Haven’s facility veterinarian, sedated and examined Kovu, took Xrays of his spine and back legs and ran blood work. His spine... showed significant degeneration and unfortunately, our only option was to put him on Prednisone. The Prednisone had worked for several months but whenever we tried to reduce his dosage with the hope of weaning him off, he would again, lose control of his back legs and he would have to go back to his higher dose for him to have any quality of life. Long-term use of Prednisone has many negative effects including liver and kidney damage.

He stopped eating over the weekend and became listless to the point where he was no longer moving about his enclosure. We felt the most humane option was euthanasia. He was sedated and passed peacefully.
An unfortunate aspect of rescuing exotics is that many come in with previous health issues. Kovu had arrived at Safe Haven in 2010 with signs of ataxia (shaky, wobbling gait) in his front legs that was believed to have been caused from an inappropriate diet as a juvenile.
My favorite memories of Kovu will be his sprinting after Ifaw to tackle him and start grooming him. Sadly, he had stopped doing that for some time now. This is a terrible loss for us and he will be very much missed at Safe Haven.
We will keep our doors open in the event another lion needs a new home and hopefully Ifaw will someday have a new friend.

 

 

 

Right now I am feeling very sad that another beautiful WAO animal has passed away.

 

WAO believed Kovu was born on or about July 14, 2000 and relocated to the WAO on December 4, 2001 along with 22 tigers and lions from the so-called Gate Keepers Animal Sanctuary formerly run by Ken Alvarez near Rapid City, South Dakota.   Kovu was such a handsome young cub when I first saw him so many years ago.  He spent the majority of his years at the WAO and yes, I agree that he received a horrible diet during his juvenile development years, to include most of his adult life. 

 

An animal sanctuary, yep you read that right, an animal sanctuary was directly responsible for Kovu's poor health care and not a private animal owner.  Now you know why animal sanctuaries should be under the same, if not greater, scrutiny as private animal owners.  Too many animals died a horrible death at the WAO and no one, I repeat no one, in the government did a darn thing to help save those animals. 

 

I don't think I will ever overcome the sadness I feel when of I think of animals, such as Kovu, who should have lived a long and happy life, had his life cut short because of the poor care he received from an exotic animal sanctuary.

Poor IFAW...he will miss his brother very, very much.  He must be so lonely now--he is all alone.

 

God Bless you Kovu...may the Lord walk with you in Heaven forever and ever...Amen.

 

Kovu - August 5, 2014



Kovu - April 10, 2014