Where the Sand Cats Came From

Photo is Jamie with me at WildNet Conference. These Bird of Paradise flowers were out front of a cafe along the street)

Dear Lynn, During Desert Storm the Saudi government sent some Sand Cats to my friend, Pat Quillen at S.O.S. Care in CA. Pat travels the world, working with in situ programs and governments in places where no white woman would have the courage to go. She has been shot at by poachers, exposed to all sorts of challenges, and has done wonderful things to get people in power to see the financial prospects of protecting their wildlife, rather than allowing people to kill the small cats for food or sport. Up until 9/11 I was supporting her breeding facility so that she could afford to travel the world and set up these important alliances. She introduced me to contacts in Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama and to Dr. Jim Sanderson with the hopes that I could take over for her when she is gone. She is aged and ailing. I rely on tourism to support Big Cat Rescue and after 9/11 things have not been the same. I had to stop providing all of her income and she felt abandoned. She is civil to me, but I have lost the closeness with her that I once enjoyed.

The Saudi government had sent the cats to her because of her great reputation and asked that she protect them until after the war. The soldiers were using them for target practice and they had been wiped out of every other country in the region, except for Saudi Arabia. After the war she offered to send them and all of their offspring back. The Saudi government said they had never been able to breed these cats in captivity and requested that she keep them here, build their numbers, put them into the Species Survival Plan (SSP) that is the only real conservation breeding plan and is administered only in AZA zoos. They did this in case they are ever fully wiped out in the wild, so that they can once again populate areas once they are safer.

Almost all of the Sand Cats in U.S. zoos are from this group that Pat brought in. She sent five of them to us in case anything ever happened to her place. Last year wildfires burned her facility to the ground. Fortunately she was able to get all of the cats to safety and last I heard from her she had rebuilt all of her cages and was looking for a RV to live in next to them. She only breeds small cats and she only breeds cats that are recommended by the Felid Taxon Advisory Group. (Felid TAG).

The Felid TAG looks at the pedigree of the cat to see if it can be traced back to the wild. They look at how many specimens are available in the U.S. or participating zoos around the world to see if there are a viable number to be able to successfully breed the cat in captivity without causing too much inbreeding. I worked with the Felid TAG to help them determine just how many of each cat specie there are in captivity that is viable for breeding and how much cage space is available in the accredited zoos and sanctuaries to allow for the optimum breeding.

Horseshoe Creek claims to have bred 72 Asian leopards for conservation purposes, but the Felid TAG only recommends the breeding of Amur Leopards that can be traced back to the wild by their pedigrees. There is no Asian Leopard conservation breeding program and no SSP for Asian or African Leopards. Leopards are bred and sold for only five reasons: Pets, Circus Acts, Roadside Zoos, Photo Ops/Parties as cubs and Canned Hunts. The bottom line is that they are bred into a miserable life in captivity because people will pay money for them. We had to turn away 49 leopards last year and that number doubles every year.

Tabby Tigers and Ligers are not pure bred cats, and in the case of the Tabbies are highly inbred. It is because the zoos caved into pressure by the public to see white tigers that they were ever bred or displayed in zoos and the result was that there is not one pure bred Bengal tiger in the U.S. left for real conservation purposes. More here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/white_tigers.htm The only reason these tigers are bred is the same as for all of the big cats. We had to turn away 166 tigers (many of them white) last year and that number doubles every year.

Three of the Sand Cat offspring from Pat have been returned to the wild, but it is rare that returning a top level carnivore to the wild is successful. Pat never had rears kittens. The only chance they have in the wild is to be raised by their mothers on a diet of live prey, which is what she does and what we are currently doing with Faith the bobcat. http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cat_tales_Mar04.htm To succeed in the wild a cat cannot associate humans with food or it will ultimately mean the death of the cat.

My favourite person in the field is Dr. Jim Sanderson and you can see him on most of our pages about saving small cats, such as the Pampas Cat, the Golden Cats and the Andean Mountain Cat. He was the first person to photograph the Andean Mountain Cat which had been thought to have gone extinct many, many years ago. We met up with him and Jane Goodall, Ron and Darla, Laurie Marker and all of our heroes who are really doing things in the wild, like Pat did, to help the small cats, the snow leopards, the Amur Leopards and cheetahs. Jamie and I attended their benefit last year in CA that was hosted by wildnet.org You can read about all of the conservation programs there. We solicit money for these people as well and 100% of what comes in ear marked for each project goes directly to the person in the field for camera traps, and such things as materials for the locals to build pens and corrals that keep their livestock safe from predation and the cats safe from retribution. It is very difficult to raise money for these efforts because people want the warm fuzzy of being able to say they sponsored a particular cat and don’t care about one they haven’t met in a jungle far away. I’d like to do far more in this arena and will someday, but for right now my mission is clear.

There is no excuse for animals languishing in back yard cages and basements, road side zoos and pseudo sanctuaries and I can do something to stop that. Working with The Association of Sanctuaries and the Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition we were able to get a law passed last December that makes it illegal to sell big cats across state lines as pets. I think this is why there are so many cougar sightings all over the country now in places that haven’t had wild populations in 100 years. Now that people cannot profit off the cats by breeding and selling they are just turning them loose. The sanctuaries are full and under funded. There is no other option but euthanasia and that is expensive to people who never cared about the cats in the first place. The law passed in December and since the first of the year there has been at lease one wild cat sighting every day in the news across the country.

After my experience with Sarabi, I cannot morally breed any cat for conservation purposes, because the cat I breed is not going to be the one to benefit and who am I to bring a spirit into being for a life of confinement. The chances are very slim that we will be able to conserve land for the cats’ return (except deserts) and even if we could there are plenty of cats frozen for test tube reincarnation if we ever do. I believe, with current technology, that even the SSP’s are only to insure that zoos have animals to display to paying patrons and I just can’t justify that. Some of our rescues are SSP rejects, such as the Clouded Leopards, Snow Leopards and Pallas Cats. When faced with more than 300 cats each year who need to be rescued, I have opted to take in these more rare cats who were no longer needed in SSP programs over more common cats. This is always a tough decision because it can’t be based on need. They all need a safe place and there are very few out there that won’t make matters worse by breeding and selling.

The Captive Wild Animal Safety Act that was passed into law was just the first step. The way the breeders are getting around it is to have the pet buyers get a USDA license and call themselves a sanctuary and then they sell the big cats across state lines. This year we are working to close some of those gaps. Carole

Dear Carole, Thanks again for all the wonderful info, which I have briefly scanned, will print, re-read and ingest later. (I've got a binder running that contains copies of all of our emails.) I became aware of SSP & SSC during my brief class time at the zoo.

Now is the appropriate time to tell you this. Last week was a very tough week for me, mind/body/spirit. You are aware of the zoo decision I made, the other tough decision I made was making my exit from logging volunteer time at Horseshoe Creek. Darryl is a major offender of so many things. The welfare of his animals in NOT his #1 priority, but you knew this already. I'm in mourning. My heart is breaking leaving all of the animals I spent many hours befriending. I'm terribly missing the love & nurturance they gave me. Dale does not support his brother on several levels. He's an emotional captive to HC; i.e., he worries so about the animals, he helps Darryl knowing that he is enabling him to continue his ill practices. Dale is in a very tough position. - Lynn

Dear Lynn, I sort of expected that you had left or were leaving HC based upon some of your letters. I wasn’t entirely sure how you would take what I had to say, but thought I should let you know before you drove all the way here.

I can see that this would have been a very tough week for you on many levels. So many people stay and help in these places because they love the animals. It is hard to seemingly turn your back on them in order to take a stand against the abuse. I can assure you that you will have ample opportunity here to right the wrongs that have been done to them and others like them without helping the abuse to continue. Your spirit connection to those animals will let them know that you are working for their liberation even though you are separated by time and space.

I am sure you are no stranger to remote viewing and it is how I connect to my sick cats when I am away. You will always be close to the animals you loved there and they, being much better at this time and space travel than we are, will have the comfort of your love and in knowing what you are doing for them and all who would come after them. - Carole

Dear Carole, Thank you. Through tears, I find comfort in your words. - Lynn

Pat Quillen had invited me to the Felid TAG in the late 90s as she was a member. They wanted to do a survey of all AZA zoos to find out how many cats were at each, what kind, and what cat cage space was available. No one wanted to take on that nightmare of a task. Eager to make myself useful, I volunteered. This is how I got my first peek behind the curtain as to where all these cats were, what kind of cages they were in, and what was being done to breed them via the Species Survival Plans.

I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.