Gloria Noble Johnson Cougar Ridge

Dear Gloria Noble Johnson, You asked me if I thought there was no reason to breed exotic cats and it sounded like your thoughts on that are evolving. I am early on in that process and thought that sharing how this belief has come to be may aid you in the unfolding of your path.

I always loved cats and knew I would do something for them someday but I left home at 15 and was a street urchin for two years before marrying an auto mechanic. The next decade was spent as most probably are: raising a family, earning a living and being too tired at the end of the day to do anything but collapse on the couch.

By the time I was 23 I was divorced and still raising my daughter (two of the children had been his from a previous marriage) and earning a living. I felt more and more that something really big and expensive was going to become my burden, but had no idea what it was, so I worked 7 days a week and reinvested every penny we didn’t have to have for food. Being caught up in the rat race I didn’t spend any time thinking about the big picture.

I remarried at 30 and started the sanctuary the next year. The evolution of the sanctuary was pretty average. We had a pet bobcat and when we went in search of another one discovered 56 that were going to be slaughtered at a fur farm and brought all of them home. Unable to give personal attention to 57 lynx we placed them in homes where possible. We bought out two more fur farms and began asking everyone who had cats about how to care for them.

We met all the people you usually meet at that stage: The breeders, the dealers, the users, the “educators” and the exploiters who all had very polished media sound bites that they had rehearsed for years to justify what they did. To newbies like us, who knew nothing of the facts, it all sounded very noble. We met Robert Baudy, Darrell Atkinson, Doc Antle, Peter Caron, Judy Watson and on and on I could go for pages. They seemed to be the experts and there was no one else to ask.

Zoos wouldn’t talk to “the private sector” and most of the places calling themselves sanctuaries explained that they had to breed and sell in order to support all the cats they already had bred and not sold. The “educators” quoted famous people by saying that “people will only save what they love” indicating that by taking animals to schools, flea markets and shopping centers we were teaching people to care about animals and that would ultimately save them. We fell for all of it.

Then one day we were at an exotic animal auction and I recognized a cat being sold. I knew he was a kitten I had raised and placed in what I thought would be his forever home. We bought him and brought him home and I began microchipping all of our cats. Never again was I going to wonder if a cat of ours had wound up on that downward spiral. People began asking me to take back cats we had placed and I always did. I began to realize, that unlike me, when people committed to an animal, it only meant that they were committed as long as it was fun or at least convenient. My husband was suffering from Alzheimer’s by now and was totally irrational. I couldn’t stop him from breeding and selling, but I started sneaking cats to the vet and having them neutered. He could pair up cats until the cows came home, but they weren’t having any kittens.

I lost him in 1997 when I was 36 and our assets were tied up in court (and obliterated I might add) over the next six years. The cats were costing me 400,000.00 a year, but the courts would only allow 150,000.00 of my business earnings to go to the cats each year for the six years. My daughter was 17 and graduated 2 years early so that she could help me care for the cats. All of my time was spent trying to figure out ways to keep the cats fed.

Finally in 2003 it was over and my new life had begun with Howie who I just married last November. He was a retired Harvard MBA and lived frugally enough that he wouldn’t have to work again. His life was all about spending time with his friends and playing golf and tennis. Now he works crazy hours like I do for no pay in order to lift some of the burden of the sanctuary off me. He has used his special talents with people skills to get a lot of media exposure for us. I always believed that if people knew what we were doing they would support us.

That was a long winded way to get to where I meant to start the letter. Because I now don’t have all of the burdens I have had in the past I have been able to sort of hover over the situation and take a good look at it. I am amazed at how simple things look from 30,000 feet up. I asked myself:

What is the problem? How can I fix it?

It has been my observation that there are hundreds of exotic cats each year that end up unwanted, which usually ends very badly for them. Even the people who do keep them for their whole life, usually keep them in conditions that we would equate to life in prison at best. So it got me wondering as to “Why?”

Too often, when I ask myself that, the answer is “because that is the way I always did it or always believed”. I discovered that no one outside of the Species Survival Plan was actually breeding for conservation back in 1999 when I became active on those committees in the AZA. My task was to define all of the cage space in zoos and the census of all exotic cats of known origin (pedigreed back to the wild) that would be viable in breeding for true genetic conservation. None of the back yard breeders in Florida were holding animals that could be traced back to their historical origins. The Baudy cats especially are known around the globe, not only in AZA but in WAZA and ICUN as being the most unhealthy, inbred, lame, “throw away” cats in the industry. Zoos were being encouraged to “get rid” of all of their un usable stock to free up cage space for the real conservation efforts.

Since there is no demand for the big cats after they aren’t cubs that draw in customers, these cats were culled or sent to brokers who then sell them at auctions to anyone with money in their pocket.

The last of the myths that I believed that finally couldn’t withstand the light of open questioning was on the issue of taking animals out for education. I haven’t done that since firing our education director in 1999 when she shoved a Jungle Cat into a carrier to go out to a school. Our policy had always been that if the cat didn’t want to go, you just went alone. Even though I abandoned the practice long ago, I still believed that bringing people face to face with the animals, even if not in a natural environment, was still doing some good for engaging people to save wild places for wild animals. I was wrong.

At the 2005 AZA Legislative Conference Todd Willens, the Senior Policy Advisor to Chairman Richard Pombo, on the House Resources Committee spoke to us. While everyone was patting themselves on the back about all of the success stories in endangered specie recovery brought about by captive raised and released endangered animals, Todd pointed out that less than 1% of endangered species have recovered or improved at all as a result of all the zoo efforts combined. “No matter how you cut it, that still means 99% of all endangered species continued to decline or went extinct since the Endangered Species Act was created in the 70’s.” he reported.

For 30 years we have been exhibiting cats in un natural situations and saying we are doing it to make people care and it hasn’t worked. Einstein’s definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome. So now the hard part, how do I fix it?

I can’t fix the problem of shrinking habitat caused by the explosion of the human population. I can’t do it in Florida and I can’t do it globally.

I can stop the suffering and abuse that exotic cats face as a result of being kept as pets, traded like used cars or used in entertainment. I believe that I can because I believe that the crisis of exotic cats escaping, killing and mauling people has reached an epidemic level that legislators are willing to respond to. I believe that the majority of people would agree that there is no reason that an animal should be purposely bred for life in a cage, just because we want to see one.

If it’s not for the good of the animal and it’s not for the good of the specie, then what other purpose is served in allowing the practice of using and abandoning exotic cats? Just my rambling thoughts on the matter. - Carole

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.