Help Save 3 Tigers!



Where the Tigers lived in 2003, before the shelter they are
living  in now took them in.



Right now in Texas, a wildlife shelter is about to be seized after filing for bankruptcy. In this shelter are 7 tigers that need our help. Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Fl, is willing to take 3 of these tigers but need help with funding. Now the lion's share of the money needed has been provided by an anonymous donor, but they still need $5000 to complete the enclosure space and pay for the transportation fee. The other 4 tigers are going to a shelter in North Carolina called Carolina Tiger Rescue, who still need to raise $10,000 to be able to take the tigers. These 7 tigers have spent the last 7 years in the care of a nice shelter that has fallen upon hard times and was unable to keep its doors open. Before that they were living in small, muddy cages, and in need of some serious TLC. Let's try to help these beautiful cats find a forever home with these loving shelters by donating to their cause! An amount as small as $10 can make all the difference! That's just 2 days without that Starbucks coffee! To donate to Big Cat Rescue go to: http://www.razoo.com/story/Helpsave3tigers  Where I am personally holding a fundraiser, and for Carolina Tiger Rescue go to: http://www.carolinatigerrescue.org/

And if you can't afford to donate, please pass along this message so that others can read and donate!

Thank you!!!!!!

Tony Will Be Free!

So the judgement is in. Today it was ruled that Michael Sandlin's permit to keep Tony the Truckstop Tiger, will not be renewed in December. Nor will Mr. Sandlin be able to get another permit for any other exotic wildlife to be kept at the truckstop. So Tony will only have to hang in there a little while longer before he will be relocated to an accredited sanctuary who will provide a good and loving home for him. No more fumes and noise! Thank you ADLF and all of the people who made this possible! It was a lot of hard work but your efforts were not in vain!

Leo DiCaprio Speaks Out for Tony!

Recently, Mr. Leo DiCaprio, a long time wildlife advocate, spoke out in response to the continued neglect and abuse of Tony the Tiger. Mr. DiCaprio commented on his Facebook page and via Twitter that this has to stop now and that we all need to join in the fight to help free Tony. He, along with many others have signed the ALDF's petition to have Michael Sandlin's permit revoked and have Tony placed in a good home. If Mr. DiCaprio, who is so busy, has the time to sign this petition and write a little something about Tony, then don't we all have just a little time for Tony? Speak out now! Let the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries know that we want Mr. Sandlin's permit revoked and Tony moved to a good home, NOW!

And thank you Mr. DiCaprio for your loving support of Tigers and wildlife everywhere!

Sign the petition at:  http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5154/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6207

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of you! Check out some big cat Easter fun courtesy of Big Cat Rescue:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvw7cjlk8Q4

Don't forget that our big cat friends need our help year round. Donate to a reputable organization or just spread the word about the plight of these beautiful creatures. You can find some good organizations to donate to at the bottom of this page. Remember, don't visit the mall exhibits that feature tiger and lion cubs this Easter! They are strictly for profit, not conservation.

Be safe this Easter!

Petition for Tony

So the Animal Legal Defense Fund has another petition going asking the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to revoke Michael Sandlin's permit to keep Tony the Tiger. Go to http://aldf.org/article.php?id=1675 to sign the petition. Let's help Tony to be free of the fumes and noise that come with living at a truck stop. Let's try to give him a good home for the rest of his life. Sign the petition and help us free Tony.

Free Tony the Tiger!

Tony is a 10 year old Siberian/Bengal tiger used as a roadside attraction at Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete Louisiana. Tony is another example of how serious the problem is of private ownership of tigers in the United States where there are more privately owned tigers then there are left in the wild.

Tony’s owner, Michael Sandlin, has bought, sold, bred, and exhibited tigers for over 20 years. In 2003, because of violations and fines, Mr. Sandlin and the USDA made an agreement where 3 of the 4 tigers he owned, Toby, Khan and Rainbow, were sent to Tiger Haven in Kingston TN. The USDA reduced the fines and allowed Mr. Sandlin to keep one tiger, Tony. This poor tiger is kept in a small cage, near the highway where he paces back and forth wishing for freedom. Tony is terribly thin and obviously distressed. He needs our help. Mr. Sandlin has been begged to allow Big Cat Rescue to take Tony and give him a good home, but Mr. Sandlin insists on keeping him. The only reason this man keeps Tony is for pure profit. Let's let the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries know that we don't want Mr. Sandlin's license to be renewed this year. You can go to http://freetonythetiger.wordpress.com/take-action/ and let them know that we don't want Tony in this cage any longer.

Ringling Brothers Atrocities

This cannot go unnoticed. Ringling Brothers beating elephants. The link below will take you to a website where you can see video of a PETA undercover investigation on how Ringling Brothers staff abuse their elephants and tigers. The video is there on the main page. Please watch it. Beware, this is disturbing and there is some explicit language. There is no reason for the beating and abuse of animals. These images disturbed me and I know I personally will never attend the circus again. Let's try to change the law about circus animals. I would like to see either more strict regulations on animal care, or better still, the removal of animals from the circus. Please speak out now. Let the USDA and the circus know you want this stopped.

http://www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com/

Another Mall Exhibit

So it's happening again. Another mall is allowing a pay for play session. We have to get the word out that this is not good for the cats. It doesn't conserve the species and it isn't good for the cubs or the mothers. These cubs are ripped from their mothers before their eyes are open so that they can get used to being handled by people. This causes undue stress to the cubs and the mother. Then they are kept in tiny cages in the back of trailers and are carted around from one mall to another just to be used like a side show act, and all in the name of conservation. Please speak out and let the Lincoln Mall know that you don't want them to allow this exhibit. Go to http://www.catlaws.com/ to let the mall managers know how you feel. The form is pre-written, all you have to do is put in your name and they will do all the e-mailing for you.

Tiger Information

• Wild tigers are being directly hunted to meet the demands of the illegal wildlife trade market. Tiger parts are consumed for traditional medicinal purposes across Asia, with a heavy demand in China. The international illegal trade in wildlife products is a booming business, and is estimated to yield more than $6 billion a year.
• Not only are tigers hunted, but their wild prey, like deer and wild pigs, have been overhunted by people either for subsistence or for sale.  A depleted prey base means that tigers will often attack livestock to feed themselves and their cubs, thus fueling human-tiger conflict.
• Due to an increasing human population, humans and tigers are living in close proximity in many places across their range, which far too often results in human-tiger conflict situations. Wild tigers are frequently persecuted when villagers take retaliatory measures to protect their livestock.
• Tigers need intact habitat in order to survive but their habitat is increasingly under threat and either being destroyed or fragmented from agricultural developments, especially large monocultures like palm oil plantations.

I found this information from an organization that is doing great work by trying to preserve the Tiger's natural habitat and encouraging humans to stop the poaching of Tigers and destruction of their habitat. Go to http://www.panthera.org/ to help support their efforts.

Helping the Tiger

"Of all the big cats, the Tiger is the closest to extinction. Today, more Tigers exist in the state of Texas than do in the wild in Asia." (sited from Panthera.org) This is the truth folks. Sadly, far too many of these great cats are locked in cages right here in my home state! The source of the atrocity is the breeder of tigers. The people who breed tigers actually try to claim that they are doing so for conservation efforts. This is not true. Conservation starts in the wild. Breeding tigers in cages only creates tigers that must be kept in cages their whole lives. If you have read my previous blog you will know about the "generic" tiger loophole. This allows breeders to keep breeding tigers despite the fact that they are not actually providing any conservation of the species because they are not breeding purebred tigers. One way to help the tiger survive is to begin with preserving their natural habitat. Panthera and Wildlife Conservation Society are trying to do just that. They have created a program called Tigers Forever, which is being carried out in six countries. Its mission is to mitigate and eliminate the human threats to the tiger and its prey and to monitor the tiger population. If you would like to help in their efforts please go to http://www.panthera.org/. And remember, spread the word about what you read here because when one person changes it begins a domino effect.... then we can all begin to change the way we think and feel about saving our big cats.

Menace to Society



Joe Schreibvogel



While researching for this blog, I found a site that reports on abusive animal keepers. This site is entirely focused on exposing facilities and owners of animals who are not compliant with USDA regulations, who in fact completely flaunt those regulations. I have found reports of one such man that are unbelievably disturbing. His name is Joe Schreibvogel. You may have actually seen one of his many pay for play sessions at your local mall. His organization claims to be helping to preserve the tiger species but is in fact using these poor cubs to finance his "sanctuary", which is anything but. Sadly, these baby tigers and lions are kept in deplorable conditions, being carted around from place to place while sick and dying. Schreibvogel's organization has been recorded allowing cubs with diarrhea to be displayed. Instead of keeping them out of the display and nursing them back to health his crew just wipes up the diarrhea with a towel and then wipes the bottoms of these poor screaming cubs. In 2010, 23 cubs died from lack of proper care. Schreibvogel has been investigated by PETA and the USDA in regards to his practices and has been cited and put on probation in 2006. Hopefully conditions have improved somewhat since then, but the fact remains that this man is still breeding these animals for his own benefit. A true sanctuary does not breed animals. It's goal is to save animals that have been abused or misused and to educate the public not to own or breed these animals since it actually does nothing for conservation (see my article below on tiger breeding). The goal of a good sanctuary is to give a good quality of life to animals who have been removed from abusive conditions and to help preserve the species in its natural habitat. This man, and others like him must be stopped. Allowing someone like him, who claims to be doing good for the animals, to continue to run a breeding facility is criminal. I urge you to look at this link: http://www.911animalabuse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94:schreibvogel-joe-exotic&catid=31:browse-by-name&Itemid=41

and decide for yourself. Are pay for play sessions really educational tools? Does this sort of thing teach you not to own and breed these precious animals? Does it make you want help preserve the species in the wild? At what cost do we want our entertainment? Think about what these cubs have to look forward to when they are too old to be held (which is at 12 weeks of age). They will spend the rest of their lives in a cage no bigger than a parking space. How is that good for the species? Let's stop these pay for play sessions now! Check out my links at the bottom of this page to find your local representative and tell them how you feel, or go to catlaws.com to send prewritten forms to legislators letting them know this has to stop.

Just A Little Happiness

So, here is a little happiness for your day. I love this video! And I love this non-profit sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue. They are the greatest champion for big cats here in the U.S. I hope you enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlN8a25NXiI

The Zoo

Thinking about the circus has gotten me to thinking about the zoo. What does the zoo do to help conserve and preserve our wildlife? Especially the big cats. I would love to hear from people about their zoo's program for conservation, preservation, or education. I know the zoo in my hometown isn't up to par. I would much rather see more natural and larger enclosures for the big cats. I have never had an experience at our local zoo when there has been a guided tour educating people about the animals. Does your zoo do that? I would like to see more zoos educating the public with tour groups. There are far too many zoos that keep their animals in tiny enclosures, which provides no benefit to the animal and gives the public the impression that it is okay to keep these wild animals in such small homes. We want to change the way the public views these animals, not as pets that can be locked in tiny cages, but as wild animals that should be respected. The only way that we can convince the public that it is not okay to keep these animals in such inhumane conditions is to change the way they see the accredited zoos and sanctuaries treating them. Let's start by asking our local representative to make stricter laws about the way accredited zoos and sanctuaries keep their animals. Check out my link at the bottom of the page to find your local representative and start making a difference today!

Circus Fun?

Going to the circus can be one of the biggest events in a child’s life, and one of the worst for the big cats and other animals used in the circus. Do you ever think about the animals in the circus? What kind of conditions are they subjected to? How are they trained? I know I never thought about it, until now. Tigers and lions and the other animals of the circus are often trained with inhumane methods. Often the animals are beaten, starved and confined for long periods of time in order to get them to cooperate with what the trainers want. And life on the road means most of the animal’s life is spent in a circus wagon in the back of a semi-truck or in a crowded, stinking box car on a train or barge. The cages the big cats are kept in are often only 4 feet by 6 feet by 5 feet. These animals deserve better. Let’s educate our children about saving these animals, not exploiting them for our entertainment. I know we aren't going to be able to ban the circus, and we don't want to, but what we need to do is to have the animals removed from circus acts. There are many successful circus acts that do not use animals, for example: Cirque du Soliel, Hawaii's Volcano Circus, and The Mexican International Circus, just to name a few. Let's work together to change the way the circus operates. By voicing our concerns to our local lawmakers we can begin to enact laws that prohibit the use of animals in circus acts. In the meantime, we can do our part by simply boycotting the circus acts that do include animals and spread the word to others about what really goes on behind the scenes.
I think this video may say it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y6WKI8eKI4

Big Cat Rescue

Here's a link to a video made by one of my favorite organizations. They are doing so much good for so many big cats! This video will help to teach you a little bit about what is going on in the U.S. I just have to say BRAVO to Carole Baskin for helping to save hundreds of big cats! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n80OuEA2f3w

Banning Ownership of Big Cats

The only way to stop the abuse of big cats in captivity is to ban private ownership. Trying to “regulate” the conditions under which the cats are kept by private owners is simply impossible. There are only about 80-100  inspectors to monitor more than 10,000 facilities. So, while it sounds good to have regulations governing how big cats are kept and treated, the degree to which the regulations can be enforced is severely limited by the cost of manpower needed for enforcement. The simple fact is that trying to regulate conditions under which big cats are kept is totally impossible. Overwhelming evidence shows that despite the regulations there are thousands of animals kept in inhumane conditions such as, chain link enclosures no bigger than a parking space with only concrete under their feet. Banning of private ownership is just the right thing to do.

To find out what laws your state currently has on owning big cats please go to: http://bornfreeusa.org/b4a2_exotic_animals_map.php

You can change the law. All you have to do is speak out.

 

Save the Tigers

What am I talking about when I say, let's save the big cats? I am talking about finding a way to stop atrocities that are going on in our back yard and finding a way to preserve the wild habitat these animals come from.

Let's Start with the Tiger:

It starts with breeders who breed “generic” tigers (inbred, crossbred, or otherwise not purebred). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created a “generic” tiger loophole which essentially states that unless you are a legitimate AZA   accredited zoo, which must adhere to conservation breeding laws, then you can breed, exploit, and discard tigers at will and with virtually no oversight. These “generic” tigers are used for pay for play sessions where the public pays to pet or pose with a baby tiger or lion cub. Once they are too big to play with they are discarded into the pet trade, warehoused in tiny ,barren cells or worse; ending up on a dinner menu, skinned or stuffed or disappearing into the black market trade. No money the public spends to pet or take photos with tiger or lion cubs goes to conservation. In fact, the opposite is true. There is a huge and growing market for tiger parts. A dead tiger is worth up to $50,000 for its parts. Breeding what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls “generic” tigers like the ones in the mall exhibits is not tracked. So there is no way to know how many U.S. born tigers are killed to have their parts illegally sold into this trade. The more that trade expands, the more incentive the poachers in China have to kill tigers in the wild, citing that “if the U.S. can kill tigers, why can’t we?” We must lead by example. 

Some of these pay for play tigers end up in “canned hunts” that are designed to give a person a chance to kill an exotic animal for a trophy. A “canned hunt” is basically an animal in a cage being shot.These operations claim to offer only non endangered animals but provide a smokescreen to enable illegal activities such as hunting endangered animals. Today, sadly, there are more tigers in captivity than exist in the wild. There are thought to be 12,000 tigers in U.S. cages, 4,000 of which are in Texas. 90% of Tigers in the U.S. are in miserable roadside zoos, backyard breeder facilities, circus wagons, and pet homes. According to statistics released in 2009 there are 1,200 to 1,500 tigers left in the wild. Let’s stop supporting the tiger trade. Get the word out that pay for play sessions are NOT good for the animals and are NOT for conservation. Let’s make sure these beautiful creatures are around for our children’s children. It’s not too late. 

So, what can you do? Go to one of my links at the bottom of the page to help these big cats. Talk to your local Representative. There is also a link at the bottom of the page that will help you find your local Representative. Help change the laws by visiting catlaws.com. Go out and tell everyone you know about this blog. And most importantly: SPREAD THE WORD about what you have learned here!