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Is there a cure for reporter's 'Cat Scratch Fever'?
By Lynn Culver, April 2007
Reporter and Feline Conservation Federation (FCF) member
Sari Gordon's investigation into the hidden world of
exotics just made me all the more motivated to write my own
article. While I am certainly biased, I believe I have the honesty to
approach this subject broadly and bring light to aspects that get repeatedly
ignored, or worse yet, repeated as truth, when careful scrutiny of the
sources being quoted and potential resources available to determine numbers
of captive populations and their demographics do exist and are not being
utilized by any investigative reporter.
This reporter's look at the cat world revealed a fatal tragedy, the
sanctuary industry spokesperson who wishes to see captive populations
managed to extinction, a totally unrealistic fantasy-driven desire to own
tigers, a USDA licensed owner using foul language and making statements that
sound uncaring and cold-hearted, the 'its my right' argument, and concluded
with a pet lynx owner who has not been proven by the test of time, and who's
exterior enclosure size and description of housekeeping does not do any of
us justice.
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The FCF and its convention is mentioned is a more positive light, as well as
information I shared with Sari about myself, my husband and our devotion to
our cats, captive breeding and conservation. I chose to work with Sari
because I believe in what I do and defend my efforts on behalf of the FCF.
Fortunately another FCF member provided her a positive look at the good
owners and shared her observations of what we all know, this generation of
kids is too far removed from nature, and it will only get worse if animal
rights (AR) movement has its way.
Everyone needs to remember that talking to a reporter is an opportunity to
educate. We have much to teach, and judging from this latest article, a few
lessons to learn . . . There will be another opportunity that knocks on our
door again, because the fact is, we are unique, and we are newsworthy and
until the day the last of us is driven to extinction, there will be interest
in our ability to co-exist with the great cats.
The article was driven by an magazine editor's interest in our world after a
tiger killed its owner. Its not all bad, but it certainly did not gain entry
to the amazing world of the private conservationists, and who we are and why
we are so devoted.
I don't think it is fair to mention Animal Finders Guide (AFG) without
covering its highly specialized readership - private zoos, USDA educators,
the licensed wildlife breeders, outreach programs, even sanctuaries, - they
all subscribe. Finding captive wildlife is much like finding a needle in a
haystack. While it seemed to Sari, an outsider, to be pornographically
abundant it is in reality, a tiny amount of animals for sale when you
consider it covers 50 states and every species not domesticated. The
readership is loyal and involved in the industry and AFG has no competition
- so a couple of hundred ads for potentially many hundreds of species is
really not that many at all and we are really rather few and far between and
getting more rare every day.
When will America learn of the real dangers of a world devoid of our private
sector populations? When will the media wake up to the serious problems
going on with Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and their member zoos?
. . The metropolitan zoo economic struggles, the incompatibility of
combining breeding programs with intensive daily exhibiting, the failure for
species managers to interest enough zoos into housing species to properly
run an Species Survival Program (SSP), not to mention the serious health
problems endemic in some of the species chosen for management.
When will America learn just how serious the destruction of available
captive habitat is? Or hear about the number of states that have passed
regulations or legislation to outlaw all captive husbandry or ownership. AR
keeps pounding that "11 states have not passed legislation" - what that
really means is that 39 states have made it nearly impossible to provide any
captive habitat and AR is not done yet. Species populations are going to be
so completely de-stabilized in the next decade that they will disappear from
our society and there will be no bringing them back. This generations'
grandchildren will not have the opportunity to see these species, let alone
ever touch them. They say that we only love what we know. . . I see a future
world full of different breeds of cars and computers and not much else.
None of this was necessary. America and legislators are listening to those
who offer no educational programs, no science, no encouragement. AR is a
religion that believes that they must take these life forms from us and
sever human contact with them forever.
The Feline Conservation Federation is to be commended for developing and
teaching its husbandry courses, for our members who mentor new owners, for
all the knowledgeable and sharing articles submitted to the Journal, for our
willingness to raise funds and support conservation through research grants,
for each of our efforts to build habitat for threatened and endangered cats,
for sheltering these noble creatures from danger and providing them medical
care, and for educating everyone we meet about these great felines, and for
volunteering our time and knowledge to help other owners and support
conservation of the wild.
Lynn Culver is the president of the
Feline
Conservation Federation. She and her husband Bart are
owner/operators of
Natural Order Animal Husbandry Feline Conservation
Center. Lynn has over two decades of experience in the husbandry
of cougars, and currently breeds smaller species of cats and houses one of
the largest colonies of Geoffrey's cat in the US. Lynn has served in the
Feline Conservation Federation as Legislation Director, giving FCF input on
state and federal laws and USDA regulations pertaining to exotic felines.
Copyright 2007 © Lynn Culver & REXANO
www.REXANO.org