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