| Dusk was settling in; cold and drizzly damp, the | | | | that the cub was to be left to die, the Fish and |
| kind of cold that just makes your bones ache. A | | | | Game Department decided to pick up the kitten |
| single mom was bathing her toddlers before | | | | and place him and his two siblings, that had come |
| tucking them into bed for the night. Their bellies | | | | in from the hunter's family, with Mady Rothchild, a |
| were full and their eyelids beginning to feel heavy | | | | licensed wildlife rehabilitator working with the |
| as she hurried to dry them so that they wouldn't | | | | Animals In Distress Association. Now they were |
| chill while she was gone. She had to go to work | | | | her problem and to make matters worse she |
| and there was no one she could call on to keep | | | | was instructed to find a zoo that would take |
| her babies safe while she made a living for the | | | | them or they would have to be killed because big |
| four of them.It didn't used to be so bad. The | | | | cats are not allowed to go back to the wild in |
| neighborhood was a safe place when she was | | | | Idaho once they have been handled by humans. It |
| born here but now, three kids later, a lot more | | | | might make hunting a dangerous sport if the |
| people had moved in and they weren't good | | | | hunted were not afraid of the hunter.With twenty |
| neighbors. Some of them were downright evil and | | | | years experience in rescuing wildlife and returning |
| she made a point to try and make herself invisible | | | | them to their rightful home, Mady did not like the |
| when she saw one of them coming.Usually the | | | | alternatives presented to her. She knew the dirty |
| bad ones were pretty easy to spot. They were | | | | little secrets the zoos hid from the public and |
| bawdy, smelled of alcohol and cigarettes and | | | | knew that if these siblings went to a zoo they |
| drove noisy trucks with beds full of howling, | | | | would be used, split up and bred for more babies |
| chained dogs. As long as she kept to the shadows | | | | who would live out their lives in prison cells. When |
| they were usually too drunk to notice her. As she | | | | they didn't attract a paying crowd anymore they |
| quietly sang her babies a lullaby she shuddered at | | | | would be sold out the back door to brokers who |
| the thought of what would happen if one of | | | | would sell them at auction to back yard breeders |
| these barbarians found her children alone.she | | | | and canned hunts.It is legal to kill a cougar in a |
| couldn't think about that; she had work to do and | | | | cage in the U.S. and call it sport hunting. It is the |
| she had to keep her mind on the job. The family | | | | only way most hunters would ever be able to |
| was counting on her.When the last of the little | | | | hang a big cat head on their walls and they have |
| ones had drifted off to sleep she stepped out into | | | | viciously fought to protect their right to do so in |
| the moonlit chill. She was still trying to shake off | | | | the name of freedom. They don't get much |
| the awful scenes that her imagination had just | | | | opposition from the public, because in most states |
| conjured up when she stepped on a twig, | | | | the Fish and Game departments are staffed by |
| snapping her attention into the moment. As she | | | | hunters so there is a code of silence that is hard |
| looked up she found that she had caught | | | | to penetrate. The zoos, an industry that proclaims |
| someone else's attention as well. She froze, hope | | | | to be the ark of the future, doesn't want to talk |
| against hope that she had not been noticed, but | | | | about it either. No one would support a zoo if |
| he was close enough she could see in his eyes | | | | they knew what happened to last year's babies |
| that she had made a fatal mistake.Her mind raced | | | | and babies are what pay for all of the |
| as she assessed the severity of the situation: He | | | | salaries.Mady went online to see if there were any |
| was big. He towered over her and she could smell | | | | alternatives to zoos or death for these little ones. |
| the beer on his breath. She didn't have to see the | | | | She found Big Cat Rescue online and played a |
| gun pointed at her to sense his lack of respect | | | | slideshow that contrasted the legacy these |
| for life. She knew his kind and had witnessed the | | | | magnificent animals were born to inherit and the |
| cavalier way they extinguished lives in their lust | | | | pitiful prisons they are confined to when man |
| for blood. They killed the innocent and the | | | | intervenes. She concluded that there are some |
| unarmed to prove that they were men. He was | | | | things worse than death and sending these cougar |
| too close. If she ran he would find the kids. Her | | | | cubs to a zoo was one of them. But how could |
| love, a mother's love, would not even think of | | | | she snuff out the life from these newborns when |
| saving herself and leaving her young ones in the | | | | they had already endured so much? She called |
| hands of such a perverted mind.But what could | | | | and emailed the sanctuary with her story.Scott |
| she do? Perhaps she could bluff her way out of | | | | Lope is the operations manager for Big Cat |
| this. She had learned enough about this kind of | | | | Rescue and knows that providing for the 150 big |
| man to know that they are all cowards at heart. | | | | cats at the sanctuary is the primary task. He |
| If she could make herself look fierce enough | | | | knows that hundreds of big cats are turned away |
| perhaps he would run. If he did, she resolved that | | | | every year because there just isn't enough room |
| home or no home, she would pack up her brood | | | | and not enough resources to commit to a lifetime |
| and leave town in the very next instant.With all of | | | | of care. He knows that the only way to stop the |
| the courage she could muster she raised her | | | | flood of unwanted exotic cats is to change the |
| slender, 100 lb frame to look as commanding as | | | | laws so that the breeding and dealing stops. He |
| she could and shrieked, with a sound that would | | | | knows that every cat who is turned away was a |
| make your blood run cold, her threats of what | | | | victim and deserving of shelter and he knows |
| she would do if he came one step closer.Laughing | | | | that the fate that awaits them outside our gates |
| at her pathetic attempt to deter him, he fired the | | | | will be tragic, so he approaches the Founder, |
| gun point blank into her. The impact at such close | | | | Carole Baskin and President, Jamie Veronica and |
| range spun her around and he fired again, | | | | asks them to consider the situation.It would |
| dropping her dead on the spot. He didn't see a | | | | appear that agreeing to take them would be an |
| single mom doing her best to raise a family in a | | | | easy choice; they're cute, they're small and no |
| hostile world.All he saw was what a trophy her | | | | one wants to be the one to say, "Go ahead and |
| head would be hanging on his wall.Pulling out his | | | | kill them." But it is never that simple. How do you |
| knife to sever her golden haired head from her | | | | choose these over any other? When your main |
| shattered, bleeding corpse, he barely heard the | | | | goal is to stop the flood of cats in the front gate |
| mewing through his gleeful stupor.The gun blasts | | | | how do you divert time and resources to building |
| had awakened her three sleeping kittens. Their | | | | them an enclosure fit for three adult mountain |
| eyes weren't quite open yet, because they were | | | | lions? When the plan is to stop the breeding and |
| less than two weeks old, and they could barely | | | | selling of big cats so that twenty years from now |
| focus on the scene. What a horrible sight to be | | | | there is no need for a place like Big Cat Rescue, |
| one of the first that these young innocents would | | | | how do you commit to provide lifetime care to |
| ever see! Any right thinking person would be | | | | cats who could live as long as Scratch, our 28 |
| appalled to consider the horror that these little | | | | year old cougar?And what about the quality of life |
| ones must have been experiencing, but the | | | | for the kittens? While life at Big Cat Rescue would |
| hunter didn't think anything of it.In fact, he was | | | | far exceed the quality of life in any zoo, it is still |
| even happier at the thought of being able to raid | | | | life in a cage for animals who have been |
| this nest. His Neanderthal, pea sized brain was | | | | selectively bred, through survival of the fittest, |
| musing over how cool it was going to be to have | | | | for life in the wild. They would be paying the |
| three mountain lions on leashes. He would raise | | | | ultimate price for this choice and Mady and Carole |
| them with the dogs; maybe drown some of the | | | | wrestled with this aspect because both of them |
| bitches' puppies so she could feed his little prizes | | | | wanted what would be best for the individual cats |
| for him. Then wouldn't he be the center of | | | | and best for the species, when these are usually |
| attention? Women would probably do anything for | | | | mutually exclusive propositions.During the emailed |
| him just to get a chance to pet his new cougar | | | | conversations between Mady and Carole their |
| cubs. He would be the envy of his drinking buddies | | | | lives were continuing down the same paths as |
| when he had the biggest, baddest pets in town.He | | | | usual. Mady was pulling pets and wildlife from steel |
| would have been singing all the way home with his | | | | jawed traps and treating their mangled bodies. |
| new little pets in a bag and their mother's head in | | | | Carole was dealing with a hurricane demolished |
| the back seat if it weren't for one of the babies | | | | collection of 38 cats in Miami , and an owner who |
| who was crying hysterically. He pulled over, and in | | | | had ended up with a collapsed lung from trying to |
| the drizzling, icy rain tossed out the crybaby by | | | | do all the clean up alone. His cats hadn't eaten in a |
| the side of the road near a farm house.By the | | | | week, all the food was gone, no one knew if he |
| next day he had sobered up enough to see that | | | | was going to survive, or if there was power to |
| raising two mountain lion cubs was not as easy as | | | | run a freezers or wells, or if the cats had broken |
| raising a couple of hunting dogs. The babies cried | | | | free when the trees all crashed down on their |
| incessantly for their mother. They refused to eat. | | | | cages. .Life as usual for those left to clean up the |
| They were sick with grief and fear and wanted | | | | messes caused by the irresponsible.The cubs' fate |
| no part of this man and the lifestyle he had | | | | was decided for them and while that isn't the way |
| envisioned. Being the coward their mother had | | | | it should have been, it was a decision that had to |
| thought him to be, he had a relative turn the cubs | | | | be made for them due to the actions of others. |
| in to the Idaho Fish and Game Department. He | | | | Mady and Carole believed that if these adorable, |
| claimed that he had killed the nursing mother in | | | | blue eyed orphans could cause enough people to |
| self defense and no charges were pressed.Just | | | | stop for a minute and THINK then perhaps the |
| the night before the officers had gotten a call | | | | kittens would have chosen this path to save their |
| from a man who found a screaming baby puma | | | | cousins from a similar destiny. Their story would |
| on his front porch. When he asked what he should | | | | be told and their mother's death would not have |
| do for the kitten, the officers told him to leave it | | | | been in vain.For the cats,Carole Baskin, CEO of Big |
| outside to die. Unwilling to treat any living creature | | | | Cat Rescue |
| so heartlessly, the man took the baby in and tried | | | | an Educational Sanctuary home |
| to offer food and comfort to no avail.To spare | | | | to more than 150 big cats |
| the infant's life the kindly farmer contacted the | | | | 12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625 |
| press with the story and once the news was out | | | | 813.920.4130 fax 885.4457 cell 493. |