Podcasts about Snow Leopard Trust

Hey there Nature Nerds! This week Megan talks Snow Leopards! Bundle up and enjoy! Organization to Support: Snow Leopard Trust https://snowleopard.org/ The Snow Leopard Trust aims to protect this endangered cat through community-based conservation projects that are based on an improved scientific understanding of snow leopard behavior, needs, habitats and threats. References: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/living-with-snow-leopards-tashis-story-a-nature-short-film-sneak-peek/16903/ https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/snow-leopards https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/snow-leopard https://snowleopard.org/snow-leopard-facts/ WIld Films India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRQXebUBZtI BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKWVvMaml_8 Real Wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GorzEZtv_Z0 https://snowleopardblog.com/stories-of-shape-shifting-snow-leopards/#:~:text=The%20story%2C%20based%20on%20ancient,one%20to%20take%20her%20place. https://snowleopardblog.com/about/snow-leopards-in-the-movies/ https://wildfor.life/guarding-the-ghosts-of-the-mountain#:~:text=It%20is%20the%20belief%20held,the%20guardians%20of%20the%20mountains. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41270646

Also known as the "Ghosts of the Mountains", the Snow Leopard is probably one of the most elusive cat in the world. They, however, are the apex predators of the high Himalayas, alongside the genetically unique Himalayan Wolf and the critically endangered Himalayan Brown Bear. Unfortunately, climate change is causing a significant loss of habitat across the Himalayas, which has a large cascading effect. With rising temperatures, there's been increased instances of human wildlife conflict in the Himalayas, which in fact, is driving the illegal wildlife trade of snow leopard!On Episode 7, I interview Koustubh Sharma, India's leading Snow Leopard ecologist. While  he did his PHD on the four horned antelope in central India, he has worked extensively on snow leopard research across the Himalayas and central Asia ever since.  He is currently the director of science and communication at the Snow Leopard Trust. In this interview, we talk about his work on snow leopards, threats faced by this elusive cat and conservation efforts.Think Wildlife Foundation is supporting the adoption and upscaling of alternative livelihood projects within communities living in and around India's protected areas. We hope that these projects will reduce the monetary incentives of poaching for these local communities by providing sustainable sources of income. You can support these programs by buying products directly from these communities.Support the Communities living with Wildlife: https://linktr.ee/thinkwildlifefoundation.com  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit anishbanerjee.substack.com

I Always Run Out Of Time I am almost never on time because I always think I can cram just one more thing into whatever I'm doing before I have to go and then I'm down a rabbit hole and miss appointments, deadlines, and of course holidays.  I've always despised Christmas.  Weirdly, as a kid, I felt bad that my parents would give me stuff because I didn't need or want for anything material.  As an adult I despise the commercialization and the expectation of gifts to the point where you have to buy stuff and give it to people even though you have no idea if they are even going to like it or have any use for it.   Maybe I'm just not terribly thoughtful and that's why I can't come up with time determined gift ideas.  I prefer to give gifts as I see something and think, “they are going to love this!”    I offered to give Jamie a $17,000 trip to study snow leopards in the wild with the Snow Leopard Trust and she says she's considering it.  I don't know if her reason for not jumping at the idea was because of the cost (so she said) or if she thinks that's a lot to spend to freeze your extremities off and never actually see a cat.  I bought a paper wallet for Howie a long while back, thinking, “he's going to love this!” and I don't think he's even opened it yet.  I was so sure it was going to be one of those technological break throughs in men's wear, that I bought a much fancier one to give him for Christmas...which is going to be a pretty stupid gift now, so I'll probably hang onto it.   I've been spending an inordinate amount of time editing this diary and exporting copies for security reasons.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

The snow leopard is native to Central Asia. Although wild snow leopards aren't endangered, they are at risk of becoming endangered. Snow leopards share a habitat with humans. Herder communities regularly get in contact with this beautiful creature. Unfortunately, they tend to attack herds and their animals. So herder communities find it difficult to coexist with snow leopards. Snow Leopard Trust works to preserve the snow leopard population and find a way for them to coexist with the people sharing their habitat. Want to support Snow Leopard Trust? https://www.snowleopard.org/ Find the episode on Great.com: https://great.com/great-talks-with/snow-leopard-trust-is/ 

The snow leopard is native to Central Asia. Although wild snow leopards aren't endangered, they are at risk of becoming endangered. Snow leopards share a habitat with humans. Herder communities regularly get in contact with this beautiful creature. Unfortunately, they tend to attack herds and their animals. So herder communities find it difficult to coexist with snow leopards. Snow Leopard Trust works to preserve the snow leopard population and find a way for them to coexist with the people sharing their habitat. Want to support Snow Leopard Trust? https://www.snowleopard.org/ Find the episode on Great.com: https://great.com/great-talks-with/sn..https://great.com/great-talks-with/snow-leopard-trust/ 

Blood Lions Blood Lions ran on MSNBC last night in our area at 10pm, which is after my bedtime, so I taped and watched it this morning.  I cried throughout, for the suffering of these lions, but by the end I was weeping.  I couldn't even speak without crying uncontrollably.  Howie had taken Jamie and Justin to the airport at 5:30 am for their trip to be honored at the Snow Leopard Trust's celebration event, so he came in to the last 10 minutes of the film.  He held me, not knowing what to say, and I was crying so hard that I had a hard time letting him know why I was so emotional.   Of course I was crying over the brutal way big cats are bred constantly, only to have their cubs ripped away at a few days of age, to be passed around as playthings to ignorant patrons, and then warehoused in abysmal conditions until it is their turn to be trotted out in front of an evil excuse for a human, to be used as a living target.  That would make anyone with a soul cry.   The weeping however was the kind of emotional release that you see in a nation that comes to the end of a long and bloody war.  It is the combination of grieving for those who's lives were lost, for those who's lives will be forever impaired and the relief that the suffering is winding down.   When Howie first came to help the sanctuary in 2003 he began working on ways for Big Cat Rescue to become financially self sustaining so that I, and later he, could work on the issues that will end the abuse.  This was the first year the sanctuary broke even, which meant I could divert some of the time I spent growing our real estate business to support the cats, into ending the abuse at its root.   In 2003 the root cause of so much abuse appeared to be breeding cubs to be used in canned hunts.  I'd seen such a situation in Texas 6 or 7 years prior, where a legal hunting ranch for discarded zoo hoof stock, also had rows of cages of big cats.  The cages were tiny jail cells where the cats paced and frothed at the mouth.  I asked the owner why he had them and he gave me a sinister smile and said, “They are my pets.”  Back in the 90's I'd never heard the term “canned hunt” and was only just learning that people all over the country kept big cats in back yard cages.  I didn't like what was being done to the zoo hoof stock, but had my own worries in making sure we had eliminated the use of wild cats on fur farms in the United States.   Feeling pretty sure that no bobcats or lynx were being bred on U.S. fur farms any more by 2003, I directed my attention to ending the use of exotic cats in the canned hunting industry.  Over the years I'd had people tell me similar stories to mine; where they or their husbands had been to a legal game farm, but had seen big cats in tiny cages too.  Some even were reported to have tags in their ears for easy identification by the proprietors and the “hunters” who would pick the cat they wanted to shoot in a fenced area or a cage.  Not knowing quite where to start, business people tend to do what they know.  In our case, Howie and I turned to the Chamber of Commerce.   They directed us to the National Chamber, who directed us to state agencies and state legislators, who directed us to congressional leaders.  Not only did NO ONE want to talk about this, but worse they insisted it wasn't their problem, but rather was that of the people higher up the food chain.  We've spent 12 years going up and down that chain, and bringing in everyone we could think of who might have influence.  It's been a grueling and frustrating experience and has been made nearly unbearable due to the apathy of most people who could do something about it, if they cared.  They have time to fret and fuss over each other's party issues, but can't spend 10 minutes to hear about something they could fix that would end so much misery and help protect our natural resources.   A turning point came when Cecil the lion was killed by a dentist from the U.S. on a hunting safari in South Africa.  When people learned that this easy going lion, who everyone knew by name, had been baited out of a protected area to be shot on private land, THEY CARED.   Within weeks, a documentary called Blood Lions, aired.  (It had been in the works since 1998) When I saw it today I was sure that anyone, with any sense of justice, who sees it will care.  I can see the light at the end of the dark and dreary tunnel.  I believe people will be outraged that our political representatives have allowed this to continue to this day, not only in foreign countries, but on our own soil.  The most pertinent question the film makers kept asking is, “Where are all of these cubs going?”   Here in the U.S., most notably in Florida and Texas, canned hunting ranches abound.  There is no excuse for that sort of cruelty, but the mere presence of big cats on those properties should be clear evidence that illegal hunting is happening there too.  The more easily exposed abuse is that of cubs being bred for pay to play schemes.  There is no legitimate place for those cubs to go as soon as they are 12 weeks old, and have teeth and jaw strength capable of biting to the bone.  The people who use them for photo ops, swimming with the tigers and pay to play booths, always insist that the older cubs go to wonderful sanctuaries in the end, but there are only a handful of wonderful sanctuaries, and they don't accept cast offs where the owners continue to breed and discard, so WHERE ARE ALL THOSE CUBS GOING?   In Blood Lions they discovered that all of the places in Africa, that say they send their cubs back to the wild, or to sanctuaries or non kill parks, were lying.  Is it any stretch of the imagination to think that people who are heartless enough to breed lions, tigers and ligers, only to pimp them out, would discard them to any place that would take them; regardless of how horrific that end use might be?  The breeders and dealers are the only ones proclaiming, even more loudly than our government, that where these big cats end up, isn't their problem.  I think our politicians and our federal and state agencies are about to find out that people DO care and they will be expected to turn their backs on the donations and kickbacks offered by hunters and exploiters.   Perhaps, one of the biggest forms of relief came from the exposure of the fact that NONE of the places that allow a person to have contact with an exotic cat, or their cubs, are part of the solution and rather that they are ALL part of the problem.  So many young men and women have been duped into supporting these canned hunts, by bottle feeding baby lions, tigers and ligers or by keeping them accustomed to people, so that they are later easy targets.  No one who really loves animals would ever be a part of these schemes.  I believe Blood Lions will drastically reduce the income generated by the public paying to have such experiences and will eliminate the free labor.  Would I be asking too much to hope that all of those people, who are now educated by Blood Lions, will become outspoken advocates to end the entire canned hunting industry?   We can end it in our country.  We can't be taken seriously by other countries until we clean up our own mess.  We can start by ending the private possession of wild cats.  There is a bill before Congress right now that will do that.  Ask your member of Congress to champion the Big Cat Public Safety Act   We make it easy at BigCatAct.com   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  

2013 Annual Report   With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were “only” 37 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned. We were able to take in 9 wildcats plus 2 rehab bobcats. We offered to take 10 of the cats who were leopard size or smaller if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat.  The cats we did not take were those whose owners refused.   There is no point to our taking in cats just so an owner can go buy another cute cub and later discard it.   We did not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the ones we have.   Animal Care:  Rescued 9 exotic cats, including Nala the Serval, Skipper & Gilligan the Canada Lynx, Ginger the Serval, Mary Ann, Thurston & Lovey the Bobcats, JoJo the Caracal Serval hybrid and Reise the Cougar.   Rehabbed and released 4 native bobcat kittens;  Gator, Copter, Khaleesi and Fencer.   Newborn kittens who are brought to Animal Control are routinely killed because with their immature immune systems they do not survive in the shelter environment.  So we began a foster kitten program with our interns as the fosters.  We have saved more than 70 kittens from being killed.  We raise them until they are 2 pounds and healthy, then bring them to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to be fixed and adopted out.  See some very cute kitten video here:http://youtu.be/4yMMudueBow and see cute cats meeting the vet here:http://youtu.be/lfXyynkYmfc Bought 9 more acres for quarantine and native wildlife rehab.   Installed a new solar systemhttp://youtu.be/leiZPwsd1sA By the end of this year, 92 of our 111 exotic animals are over the age of 12; 76 of those are over the age of 15; and 19 of those are over the age of 20. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats. This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   2013 was a big year for expanding our big cat enclosures.  We built our largest ever enclosure and dubbed it the Vacation Rotation Enclosure.  This 2.5 acre cat-a-tat includes a pond, fountain, trees, forts and three safety areas for storms.  We had to construct a number of above ground tunnels to move cats to and from nearby enclosures so they could “rotate” through the new enclosure, and we had to make significant improvements to those nearby cages. Two of them being were torn down and rebuilt from scratch so that all of our tigers, no matter how frisky, could be cycled through the Vacation Rotation area safely.   Sadly we had to say “goodbye” to these great cats:  Willow the Siberian Lynx who was 18, Ty the Serval who was 20, SARMOTI the Tiger who was 20, Rose the Caracal who was 16, Shaniqua the Jungle Cat who was 19 and Bella the Tiger who was 17.   We never gave up on Precious the Bobcat after her strokehttp://youtu.be/ZY3IQuKAWwM Award Winning Sanctuary     • Top Rated Non Profit at Great Non Profits • We have received this award every year since they started awarding it in 2010 due to the many great reviews we get from visitors and donors each year. • We again received Charity Navigator's highest four star rating. • Dalton Agency Contest • We won a cash prize and pro bono professional video in this national online voting contest thanks to our dedicated supporters who voted daily. • WEDU Nonprofit of the Year awards • We are a finalist in the Best Use of Video category for this annual contest held by our PBS Station thanks again to our passionate supporters voting online.  The winner will be announced in late February.   Education:  Added audio story telling to the bio of every cat at the sanctuary and created a free virtual tour app in both iTunes and the Google Play Store.  This app is being integrated into our guided tours to insure that every tour is accurate and relevant.   Also new this year was the use of the Vox tour system, where guests can listen via a headset to the guide or recorded tour.  The benefit to the guest is that everyone can hear and can adjust their own volume.  The benefit to the cats is that when using the recorded tour the guests move silently through the sanctuary.   We were presenters at the Big Cat Workshop hosted by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and the International Fund for Animal Welfare where more than 20 big cat sanctuaries converged for a weekend of learning, networking and sharing.  http://bigcatrescue.org/2013workshop/   We were presenters at Animal Grant Makers in Austin, TX in November on the topic of sanctuaries that fail, and how not to.   BigCatRescue.org gets about 1.5 million unique visitors per year with 1,498,422 in 2013. Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 224,835 worldwide and 66,562 most visited website in the U.S. in 2013 which was a doubling of our site's popularity over 2012. We have 866 other sites linking to us.   Some of the pages that were the most popular each showed increases of 1,500% – 3,500% and these were: • #4 Why it's wrong to buy big cats had 119,418 visitors • #7 Why it's wrong to breed white tigers had 97,833 visitors • #8 Why it's wrong to breed ligers had 81,303 visitors • #11 Why it's wrong to breed domestic cat hybrids had 57,164 visitors • #12 Why it's wrong to breed Savannah Cat hybrids had 56,346 visitors (which should probably be combined with #11)   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 9,400 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S. The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction and helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded.  Those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.   We gave 195 field trip tours to the sanctuary and outreach visits this year.   We gave 8 free tours and 12 discounted school field trip tours this year to groups for whom the modest price of the visit was not manageable. Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their buses, so we maintain a fund where contributors can support big cat education by donating the bus fee.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to widespread abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 nine more states have passed some level of ban.   Internationally, El Salvador, Slovenia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses.  It is time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   Orchestrated our first Fly In to DC for 17 AdvoCats to talk to nearly 20 Legislators about supporting the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act HR1998/S1381:  images here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/dc-fly-2013/  International Fund for Animal Welfare revealed that 75 percent of polled voters across the country support the bill's passage.   The Library of Congress offers this guide to global laws regarding the private possession of exotic cats.  Late in the year after the bills were introduced we resumed inviting our on site guests to call their Senators and Representatives asking them to support the Big Cats and Public Safety Act this year.   Through our CatLaws.com site, powered by Voter Voice, 8,324 of our 88,877 supporters sent 143,918 messages to 1071 recipients.  While we wish that more than 10% of animal lovers on our mailing list would take the time to speak up for the animals, the ones who did were awesome.  The 3 most popular letters sent were these:   1. Letters in favor of the Big Cats and Public Safety Act, which would ban the private possession of big cats and ban cub handling. 2. Letters opposing the exhibition of exotic cats and their cubs at fairs. 3. Letters opposing a football player posting that he owned a tiger.   Some of the wins from these campaigns were:   1. 86 Senators and Representatives joined the 3 bill sponsors by co sponsoring the Big Cats and Public Safety Act (HR1998 & S1381) 2. Darnell Dockett turns out to not actually possess a tiger despite his claim that he was going to bring it to practice. 3. Hillsborough County, FL enacted an ordinance that allows them to seize assets in animal abuse cases and enacted another ordinance to protect feral cats and their caregivers.   Imagine what we could have accomplished if just 20% of our mailing list were to take action for the animals?  This is an easy, no cost way for us to have a huge impact collectively.  If you have not yet been active in taking action when we send alerts asking you to email a legislator, regulator or venue hosting an abusive animal exhibit, please make 2014 the year you join in.   You CAN make a difference – the many supporters who do send these emails have proven it!  The most vivid example is our having gotten owners of over 200 malls to agree not to allow cub petting exhibits, saving all those cubs from a miserable life on the road and being sleep deprived as they are handled or restrained for photo opportunities hour after hour.   You can make ending big cat abuse part of the legacy of your life with just a few emails each year.   Wins for the Big Cats in 2013:  Ft. Wayne, IN:  Bears, wolves, lions, tigers, alligators, and venomous snakes are prohibited within the city limits of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Unfortunately 2013 was noted by a Wall Street Journal poll to be the worst congress ever for a number of reasons, but most noticeably for animal lovers not one animal protection bill made it through the process.  This article published in the Vegan Health and Fitness magazine gives some great examples of how parents can guide their children to treat animals by avoiding “traditional” animal attractions that we've come to learn are usually abusive, such as circuses and zoos. www.VHFmag.com   Fundraising and Marketing:  Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 225 times in 2013.   Some of our national press has included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.  Big Cat Rescue has been in the press in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   YouTube and Revision 3 were the big news this year.  Revision 3, which is owned by Discovery, contacted us and asked us to be their first animal themed channel in 2012.  Thanks to this partnership and cross promotions with Animal Planet, we are experiencing more than 1.5 million views of our YouTube videos per MONTH!  By 2013 year end we had 405 videos with 130,011 subscribers and 71,633,898 views.   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 4,574 subscribers and 748,688 views.  Facebook:  We surpassed 109,444 fans on Face Book  Google +:  This is a new social site for us in 2013 and we have already reached 30,000 fans on this new venue.   Big Cat Rescue has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  Periodically the Community Foundation offers a matching program where the nonprofit sets a fundraising goal and when 75% of the goal is reached, the Community Foundation provides the remaining 25%, which effectively is a 33% match of the funds provided by donors.  We set our most ambitious goal ever, $400,000, which is the maximum allowed.  We had three years to reach the $300,000 that represents our 75% target, but thanks to our generous donors reached the goal in 9 months and received the $100,000 grant from the Community Foundation in 2013.  We continued to build our affinity credit card program with Capitol One under which you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases is donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   To build awareness of our federal bill we signed up to be the top level Diamond Sponsor for the Taking Action for Animals Conference in Washington, DC in June, 2014 where more than 1,000 animal activists converge to learn more about legislation to protect animals.   Selected by Body Shop for their Dragon Fruit Lip Butter campaign which resulted in representatives from popular beauty magazines visiting the sanctuary and writing about our work to stop big cat abuse.http://youtu.be/j3kD84iFPms Started the Cat Chat Show, a weekly podcast where we interview cat experts from around the world about all kinds of cats, from Tabbies to Tigers.   The Halloween “Haunted Trail” event was a lot of fun and a financial success!  See some of it here:http://youtu.be/BseKW0QzbAU Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats   In 2013 Big Cat Rescue donated $3,883.91 towards four conservation programs in the FL and in other countries on behalf of our volunteers.   1. $1533.91 to Panthera to save corridors for wild cats to travel safely 2. $1000.00 to the Florida Panther Refuge to help protect the Florida Panther. 3. $850.00 to the Snow Leopard Trust to cover the cost of camera traps and snow leopard monitoring. 4. $500.00 to the Tiger Trust to protect tigers in India by providing better legal assistance and training for game wardens.   Helping Others:     1. Big Cat Rescue was recruited to offer our expertise and guidance in the development of a rescue center in Spain that will be broadening their focus from primates to now include big cats.  AAP Primadomus is located on more than 400 acres in Villena and currently houses a variety of primates that have been rescued from private ownership, circuses, and laboratories. They are now expanding their focus to also rescue countless lions and tigers that are in need across their country.  In an effort to prepare for this project nearly a dozen experts were invited to a symposium that focused on sharing information regarding the proper care of big cats in captivity, emergency protocol development, and enclosure design. Big Cat Rescue President Jamie Veronica and volunteer veterinarian Justin Boorstein travelled to Spain and joined experts from Italy, South Africa, France, Austria, the Netherlands and all across the United Kingdom.   Over the course of three days the team worked tirelessly to provide as much information as possible to the members of not only AAP Primadomus, but its origin center Stitching AAP. Stitching AAP is a rescue center for apes, monkeys and small exotic animals in the Netherlands that was founded more than 35 years ago.  The symposium was a huge success. Big Cat Rescue will continue to work with AAP remotely throughout the development process. We are so pleased to provide assistance to organizations that are saving big cats across the globe! See a digital rendition they did from the plans submitted:   2. Created 8 Intranet sites, which are sort of a sanctuary-in-a-box site, for other sanctuaries to use.  These came complete with every training video, training manual, chart and idea that we use to run Big Cat Rescue.  We do this for free for sanctuaries that do not breed, buy, sell, trade nor allow contact w/ wild animals. 3. Loaned one of our Green Level Keepers (Kathryn Quaas) to Wildcat Sanctuary for 5 weeks of brutal winter weather to help while they were hiring & training new staff. 4. Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on the subject of TNR.  Trap, Neuter and Return.  We similarly supported Be The Way Home effort in Hillsborough County that protects feral cats from being rounded up and killed.  The Board of County Commissioners responded with ordinances to protect feral cats and their caregivers.http://youtu.be/o1ve94nYbP4 5. Presented at Tigers 4 Tigers which is a coalition of all colleges that have tiger mascots who are working to save the tiger.  It was also the last place for the good friend and world famous and much beloved tiger expert Ron Tilson to make a presentation before his untimely death this year.   6. Hosted 2nd annual SkipAHolics reunion tour to thank the many people who help us keep an eye on our cats via the webcams.http://youtu.be/IuKXK4r7PEo 7. We were a sponsor for Animal Coalition of Tampa's Stride for Strays, as we are every year.   Then and Now:  Below are the audited financial statements of Revenue and Expense for the past five years. We pride ourselves in keeping our fundraising and administrative total expenses below 20%. Because our tour revenue exceeds our fundraising and administrative costs, 100% of donations go to Program Expense.   The majority of the increase in Program Expense in 2012-2013 was the cost of lawsuits we filed in furtherance of our mission against what we believe to be one of the most notorious exploiters of tiger cubs.  We won a million dollar judgment against this breeder/exhibitor for violations of our copyright and trademark in 2013.  He filed bankruptcy personally and on behalf of his zoo.   However, by consent agreement his personal debt to us is not to be dismissed in bankruptcy, and the zoo bankruptcy has been dismissed.  So currently we are working through the process of seeking to recover our judgment against whatever assets we can.  Without the generous support of our donors we could not have sustained this successful effort. Thank you!   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2013 and meetings (2/23, 7/9, 9/24 & 12/17): • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR for her role as Director) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) • Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) • VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) • Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) • Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR) • Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR) • Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR) • Kim Mahoney (not compensated by BCR) These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 4 times in 2013.   Paid Staff and Contractors: 1. CEO and Staff Manager:  Carole Baskin 2. President, Editor & Creative Director: Jamie Veronica 3. Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator: Gale Ingham 4. Videographer and Social Networking: Chris Poole 5. Director of Donor Appreciation:  Jeff Kremer 6. Gift Shop Manager:  Honey Wayton 7. Project Manager: Chelsea Feeny 8. Education Director:  Willow Hecht 9. Cage Builder and Maintenance:  Vernon Stairs 10. Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance:  Scott Haller 11. Grounds Keeper, part time: Jarred Smalley 12. Bookkeeper:  Barbara Stairs 13. Assistant Bookkeeper:  Katie Nikic 14. Guest Services, part time:  Valerie Stockton 15. CFO:  Howard Baskin 16. Public Relations:  Susan Bass 17. Web and Social Media: LaWanna Mitchell   All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 89 volunteers at the end of 2013 who clocked in 40,547 man-power hours, in addition to 54 interns who clocked 32,400 man-power hours, plus 4,793 Volunteer Committee member hours. In total this amounted to 77,740 man-power hours provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 37 more full time staff.  Between paid staff, part time staff, contractors and volunteers we averaged the equivalent of 52 full time staff.  Interesting breakdown of volunteers: We have 89 volunteers; 69 women and 20 men. The youngest 18 years old, the oldest 76 years old.  Between January 1, 2011 and September 10, 2013 Big Cat Rescue had 99 interns from 10 countries and 21 states.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  Several of our staff attended the Safe Capture Course, as we do any time they are in Florida.  Began turning our volunteer training classes into video classes.   Get our Financial Reports:  See our IRS 990 and audited financial statement for Big Cat Rescue at http://bigcatrescue.org/finances/   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  

2011 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 54,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.  We are Caring for Cats and Ending the Trade   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled every other year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were only 15 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned and we were able to take in 10. We offered to take all of the cats who were cougar size or smaller, if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat, but the rest refused.  We just do not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the three we took this year.   Volgistics became our new time tracking service on Jan 1, 2012 and has replaced our use of Freshbooks.  Everyone seems to like the big buttons and easy check in and check out process.   Animal Care:   By the end of this year, 106 of our 119 animals are over the age of 12 and 89 are over the age of 15. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats.  This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   Rescues:  With the help of some very special donors we were able to rescue Amanda, Arthur and Andre; 3 tigers who had been rescued in 2003 from NJ and sent to Wild Animal Orphanage in TX, which collapsed in 2010.  Max the baby bobcat came to us after the RI DNR seized him from an illegal owner.  5 servals, Zoul, Zouletta, Zimba, Santino and Doodles, who had been kept in a NY basement for 14 years were rescued.  Another serval named Kricket was also brought in from VA when her owner could no longer keep her.  We were also able to help with the placement of another serval, a bobcat and did a lot of rehab consultation work via phone and email.   One of those bobcats was Rufus who came in to a Rehabber on Dec 5 weighing 4 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.  They figured he had been hit by a car, but at 4 lbs couldn't believe that he survived.  After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.  They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine. He is now about 7 lbs, is eating solids on his own and doing much better but appears to be blind.  He was having bad and frequent seizures, but those have almost subsided.  They have asked if we can give him a forever home if his eyesight does not return and we stand ready to help.  On 12/21/11 we had another perfect USDA inspection.   Education:  Our website, BigCatRescue.org underwent a painful renovation from a static html site to a WordPress CMS site during 2010 and 2011.  All of the page names had to be changed to fit the new system which meant a huge drop in traffic and initially a huge drop in inbound links, although, by the end of the year we had gained more than a thousand more inbound links than we had before, so it is going to prove a worth while move.  The site was completely down in the Spring and Summer, but has been stable since August 2011 now.   Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 464,891 worldwide and 128,777 most visited website in the U.S.  We have 1,104 other sites linking to us.   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 8,347 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. From 1/1/2011 until 12/31/2011 the site was visited 338,715 times, resulting in 764,943 page views.  In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S. as you can see from this breakdown:  United States 279,011, Canada 17,495, Poland 7,679, United Kingdom 7,610, Australia 2,848, India 2,123, Germany 1,578, France 984, and the Philippines 858 to name a few.   The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction, helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded and those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.  For search engine optimization reasons we launched BobcatRehab.com  to make it easier for bobcats in trouble to find us.   We offer about 200 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have given 18 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department has been writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Big Cat Rescue has been in the press 326 times, in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   Award Winning Sanctuary:  PC Magazine Names Big Cat Rescue in Top 12 Favorite Charities 2011.  “Big Cat Rescue, which takes in retired circus lions and tigers, also rescues other big cats from people who tried to keep them as pets, and otherwise offers sanctuary to large cats that are not eligible for release into the wild. It's focused on educating people about the unsuitability of the animals as pets, working toward passing laws against roadside zoos, and shutting down breeding programs like the exotic pet trade. They also take in injured wild cats and rehabilitate them for release. The group has a video cam set up in the sanctuary, and they regularly post videos of the big cats. The cats eat a massive amount every day, naturally, so Big Cat Rescue relies on donations and paid tour groups to support them.”—Arielle Rochette  PC Magazine   • 2011 Winner in Toyota's 100 Cars for Good  Big Cat Rescue was given a beautiful Toyota Tundra for being the top voted charity during their competition week. • 9/2/2011  The Tampa Bay Business Journal awarded Big Cat Rescue in 3 categories:  Best Black Tie Event  Favorite Retreat and Team Building Venue and Second Best Fundraiser • The Tampabay Business Journal selected Big Cat Rescue as a semi-finalist for Non Profit of the Year for 2011.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to massive abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 eight more states have passed some level of ban. Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses-it's time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   14,539 new subscribers joined as an AdvoCat to speak out for the cats at CatLaws.com in 2011 bringing our total number of AdvoCats to  54,447 who sent 134,431 letters to lawmakers and decision makers to protect big cats.   Animal Abusers Exposed, Shut Down and / or Fined:  Big Cat Rescue enabled several under cover operations to gather evidence of exotic cats being abused, bred without regard for where they may end up, violations of the Animal Welfare Act that pertains to the cruel treatment of big cats and endangering the public.  This information was presented to the authorities along with affidavits and supporting evidence that we hope will bring an end to much of the suffering in the facilities we selected as being the worst abusers.   • Inside Edition exposed Joe Schreibvogel of GW Park and the fact that at least 23 tiger cubs died at his facility. • The BBC's Show called America's Most Dangerous Pets with  Louis Theroux suggested their show should have been named, America's Most Dangerous Pet Owners. • Animal Planet's Fatal Attractions interviewed Carole Baskin in Tigers Unleashed about dangerous exotic animal owners including Savage Kingdom's Robert Baudy and Lost Creek where Haley Hilderbrand was killed by a tiger while posing with the cat for her high school yearbook photo. Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down between 2008 and 2010 but it appears that USDA did not pursue any of the exotic animal abuse cases in 2011.     Fundraising and Marketing:  We overhauled (OK, Jamie overhauled) our online stores at http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ and on eBay and greatly increased our sales by doing so.  We currently operate 300+ social networking sites.   Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 326 times in 2011 which in a 19% increase over 2010.   Some of the national press included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   Google awarded Big Cat Rescue a grant of $40,000 per month in free AdWords. People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  In 2008 Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community.   Members can post their own blogs, or join in our forums and contests. It is a YouTube/ MySpace styled community made up entirely of animal lovers. By year end there were 2,847 members and 34,359,740,539  videos, songs, photos and blogs posted to the site.  (blows my mind too!)  Get in on the action free at http://www.chatbigcats.com   Best Viral Video Award:  YouTube.  We ended the year with 35,442 subscribers and 37,492,151 views.   By year end we had 323 videos posted on YouTube and other popular sites like google, Blip, MetaCafe, Revver and others.  http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 2,563 subscribers and 166,724 views.   Our MySpace account now has 7,551 friends. myspace.com/1BigCatRescue We surpassed 54,000 fans on Face Book .  We also enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We now have 500+ contacts in our LinkedIn presence here:  linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  We initiated a program with Capitol One so that you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases will be donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  Big Cat Rescue funded a $5,000 GPS tracking collar program that will be monitored by researchers with the Snow Leopard Trust. Founded in 1981, the Snow Leopard Trust is the world's leading authority on the study and protection of the endangered snow leopards. This collar will allow researchers to track a wild snow leopard in order to study its habits and territory needs.  A GPS tracking collar has been placed on one of the cubs of Khashaa, a female and mother snow leopard, within the study area. The cub, a male, is already pretty big at one and a half years old. We find this so exciting because it will help us begin to answer some of the unanswered questions about snow leopards, including information about dispersal patterns.   Big Cat Rescue has been working with WildTracks this year to provide images of our tigers' paw prints for entry into their computer program which can determine who a cat is by their tracks when there are enough tracks submitted to use for comparison.  Learn more and see photos of the print collection at http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/today-at-big-cat-rescue-sept-22   Big Cat Rescue offered to sponsor the first ever Florida Panther Festival if they agreed not to use any live cats at their exhibits.  They did not take us up on the offer to sponsor the event, but did assure us that they would not exploit cats this way.  Our camera traps have been set in various locations to monitor wildlife populations and poachers in the area.   Helping Others: After delivering a couple of free webinars for the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), Patty asked if we would host their first in person 2 day Workshop. Howard Baskin presented on our fundraising streams and the history of Big Cat Rescue, Jeff Kremer presented on donor recognition while giving the group of 20+ attendees a tour, Chris Poole spoke on social marketing and networking, Patty Ragan shared the value of hiring a coach, Kari Bagnall illustrated how to get the most out of a tabling event, Patty Finch taught grant writing, teaching your board how to be helpful and how to avoid “founder's syndrome” and I shared how we use google Apps, how we manage over 100 top notch volunteers, why it is important to have a plan and stick to it.   Big Cat Rescue later hosted HSUS Sanctuary CEO's for their annual retreat and gave them an inside look at how we operate.  In both the GFAS and HSUS workshops we shared our Intranet site along with all of our training documents and all of the assets to create a “sanctuary in a box.”  All of these tools are included on our website behind a $1.00 pay wall so that anyone who wishes to improve their facility has access to everything we do.   Big Cat Rescue also helped the Humane Society Legislative Fund in their work to end puppy mills because the same laws would protect cats and kittens from use in kitten mills as well.   Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on two subjects.  1. Was to fund the voucher program for spaying and neutering dogs and cats for low income owners.  2. Was to ban the cruel practice of chaining dogs.   As with every year we supplied Free Passes, Certificates for Feeding Tours and Keeper Tours, and Two For One Passes to many other animal causes to use in their fundraising efforts.  We donate primarily to those organizations that are providing services to cats of all sizes.  We do donate to some human related fundraisers as well, but animal causes make up 3% of all charities and yet compete for less than 1% of all donated dollars.   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2011 and meetings: CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR), Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR), Vincent Pavese (not compensated by BCR), and Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR).  These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 5 times in 2011.   Paid Staff:  Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Gale Ingham Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton Intern Recruiter & Data Management Chelsea Feeny Education Director Dr. Beth Kamhi and her assistant Willow Hecht Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance Scott Haller Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance Videographer and Social Networking Chris Poole Director of Donor Appreciation  Jeff Kremer Assistant to Operations Manager and Staff Relief Person Jennifer Flatt, CFO Howard Baskin, PR Susan Bass and  LaWanna Mitchell is an independent contractor who works remotely on web issues. All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 96 volunteers at the end of 2011 who clocked in 37,556.09 man-power hours in addition to staff, 25 interns (12,700 hours) and Volunteer Committee member hours. Our interns came from 9 states and 6 countries. Volunteers and interns provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 24 more full time staff.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats.   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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

2007 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 74,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate.htm   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  To provide the best home we can for the animals in our care and to reduce the number of cats that suffer the fate of abuse, abandonment or extinction by teaching people about the plight of the cats, both in the wild and in captivity, and how they can help through their behavior and support of better laws to protect the cats.   Advances:  Combined Federal Campaign Best of the CFCIn late November we conquered the web site issues that have made our site inaccessible to all browsers other than Internet Explorer resulting in a 33% increase in the number of pages viewed by the 2,510,255 visitors to our bigcatrescue.org site in 2007 and 1,147,174 visitors to our www.CatLaws.com site for a total of 3,657,429 online visitors in 2007.  Big Cat Rescue is increasingly listed in world wide publications as a “must see” in Tampa.  Began the permitting process for the wall we have been raising money to build for the past 4 years.   Big Cat Rescue has been accepted into the federal version of the Combined Federal Campaign. Where we could only be in the local books in years past, we will be in every book that goes out to government employees as a choice for their auto deduction giving. Not only were we accepted, but we were also awarded with the Best of the CFC seal. In the local market we receive upwards of $7,500.00 in donations, so we are hopeful that we will do even better by going national. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity and thank those of you who are participating   For the first time in our history, Big Cat Rescue offered a reward for information. When a tiger was found shot to death along side an apartment complex and busy highway in Dallas, TX on Christmas day, we announced a $5,000.00 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of the people involved. The police and animal control authorities told us that they cannot offer such bounties and that our doing so greatly enhanced their ability to pursue the case. See the video plea http://bigcatrescue.org/video/b42008/5000reward.htm   Animal Care:  Rescued four tigers left to die at the now defunct Savage Kingdom.  (TJ, Bella, Modnic & Trucha) Watch this dramatic rescue here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/b42008/savagekingdom.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued two lions (Joseph & Sasha) and two tigers (Nikita & Simba) from the now defunct Siberian Tiger Foundation which was nothing more than a thin guise for Pay to Play with tigers.  Read about that rescue and see the video here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/rescuelionsandtigers.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued four native bobcats in four weeks.  (Ace, Chance, Kennedy & Will)  Read about their rescue and what is being done to send them back to the wild here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/rehabbobcats2007.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued a Savannah cat (Diablo) who was abandoned and living in an animal shelter that was not designed for long term care of exotic cats.  Assisted in the rescue of another Serval and Bobcat and another two Tigers, finding them permanent homes in facilities that meet the guidelines set out at  http://www.sanctuarystandards.com/   Vernon Stairs finished all of the new safety entrances to cages.  He built tunnels on the lions cages, Precious Bobcat and The Great Pretender Bobcat, and others to enable easy shifting and introductions.  Vern doubled the size of Jumanji the leopard's cage and added a cave and mountain.  He joined a number of cages to each other to provide more room for the cats to roam.  Catera Bobcat got to move in next to his mom and dad in a huge double sided enclosure.   Began renovations to Auroara the tiger's 1 acre, lakefront home to provide better drainage and a hurricane room.  Began work on a hurricane shelter for Nyla leopard after moving her next to her brother, Simba after years of them being separated.   Moved Bailey Bobcat in with Anasazi and Moses the Bobcats.   Moved Rose Caracal to a double cage and introduced her to Cachanga Caracal.  Moved the African Civets to Bailey's old cage after it was civet-ized.  Reintroduced Dances with Wolves and Shatia the Canada Lynxes.  Our cats are altered so that no accidental births will occur from these groupings.  Spayed Zabu the white tigress and Bella the tigress.  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00143.htm   Raked the entire park before freezing weather to try and kill fleas and eggs and may switch products again as efficacy is fading.  Refurbished all 18 pools and one of them twice thanks to TJ the tiger being an absolute maniac when it comes to chasing fish.   Every year the cats get pumpkins to smash after Halloween  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00062.htm, but this year they also got Christmas trees  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00162.htm.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  In addition to our monthly, on site volunteer training courses, Tiffany Deavor took several online training courses, Scott Lope and Dr. Liz Wynn are scheduled for Safe Capture course, Sharyn Beach, Howard & Carole Baskin and Susan Mitchell attended D.C. conference on effective grass roots efforts.  Carole continues to take online courses and audio seminars to enhance her efficacy in legislation and leadership.  Fine tuned some of our training methods and tracking.   Education:  Joined the International Tiger Coalition with the mission of preserving 10,000 tigers in the wild in the next ten years.  More about that here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/internationaltigercoalition.htm   Assisted WNET and SeaStudios.org in ascertaining the number of big cats in the U.S. for their film about a world without humans.  As there is no government agency responsible for tracking these animals, it falls to anecdotal evidence that we have been compiling for many years.   The illegal portion of the 15 billion dollar trade in exotic pets is second only to the market for illegal drugs. In 2005, some 210 million wild animals were brought legally into the U.S. and many more were smuggled, because there are just 120 USFWS inspectors to cover 39 International airports and all of the border crossings. In just the legal importations, that means each inspector must view and approve the health of almost 15,000 animals per day, every day of the year.  Big Cat Rescue provided the photos and resources for an eBay guide to let buyers and sellers know that it is illegal to trade in many exotic cat furs.     We also provided this information to the World Wildlife Fund in Poland to enable them to train their border guards to recognize endangered cat species that are frequently smuggled through customs. Provided bobcat and Canada lynx photos and info for a scientific training / educational presentation on wildlife awareness for Environment Canada.   Cambridge University Press selected Carole Baskin's article on Cause Related Marketing for their Professional English in Use Series textbooks called Professional English in Use – Marketing.  It is a new addition to the Profession English in Use Series that is a self study reference book that will be used for classroom work and tutoring. Cambridge included Baskin in their 2008 Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women “Honors Edition.” as well.   We implemented our first Artificial Intelligence V-host on a page called Ask the Cat where you can type in any question and the virtual cat will answer you in an intelligent way:  http://bigcatrescue.org/askthecat.htm  All of our species information pages were recorded and now each page offers the visitor the opportunity to read and/or listen to the information.  This can be downloaded onto mP3 players as well.   Jamie Veronica's photos of cougars were requested by wildlife biologist Anna Huckabee Smith, AWB for use in her 5 year status report for USFWS and Wildlife Trends which will be covering the topic of captive cougars being turned loose when they are no longer wanted as pets.   We harnessed the powerful mapping technology available with google maps and posted online, interactive maps that show the accredited and non accredited facilities (mostly back yard pet owners) who keep dangerous big cats.  It took four maps to hold all of the information, but they can all be accessed online here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/map.htm  This was offered to the FWC as they had stated they would be releasing this data online soon, several months ago, and this saved them the time and effort.  It will be helpful to the media when tracking maulings, killings and escapes and to emergency response personnel in the event of natural disasters.  Until now, this information has not been immediately accessible to fire fighters, the police or animal services.   Visitors:  In 2007 Big Cat Rescue had 26,497 visitors for guided tours.  16,424 were adult tours that generated $409,587.03 which is up 2.62% from last year.  Our biggest leap was in our kids tours for families with children under the age of 10 and with 3,271 participants that was up 44.31% and generated $54,668.60.  All of our tours are guided and are educational.  Our Education Program also convenes camps, special field trips and such and those were attended by 4,969 and generated $66,309.71 which is an increase of 15.37%.  In keeping with our desire to give back to the community we provided 27 free field trips for Title One schools and others on a needs-based application.   Prices:  Because we were nearing  capacity at the end of 2006 we raised our prices considerably in 2007.  This slowed our growth sufficiently to keep the sanctuary a serene home for the cats but increased our bottom line.  Prices were raised from $20 to $25 for adults and from $12 to $15 for children under ten.  All of our specialty tours were raised to $50 from $25.  Our supporters understand that as word spreads about Big Cat Rescue being such a magical experience people have been flocking here, and that we had to raise the prices in order to keep the number of guests down to a reasonable roar.  The added benefit is that people who visit really are committed to the animals and we are not just another tourist attraction.   Legislation/Education:  Presented testimony, statistics and charts to the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commissioners in Destin, Key Largo and St. Petersburg, asking to ban contact with big cats and their babies and to allow counties to enact more restrictive rules to protect the animals and the public.  Presented testimony, statistics and charts many times to their staff at planning sessions before and after the Commission meetings.  Provided the same to the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking.   Testified at a Congressional briefing about the need for Haley's Act, a bill to ban contact with big cats.  The International Fund for Animal Welfare liked the presentation materials so much that they asked permission to reproduce them for their own legislative use, which was, of course, granted.  Presented a slide show on using the secret, the law of attraction, to assist in lobbying efforts in the exhibit hall at the Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, DC.  There were 950 registrants and many more visitors throughout the two day exhibit.   Through our online video marketing we are educating more people in a week than we have visit the sanctuary in a year!  We are changing the way people think about animals and as a result they are acting more compassionately.  The recent outcry at Michael Vick's involvement in dog fighting shows that people care about animals more than ever before.  As wonderful as that is, however, it isn't enough.   Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Legislation can't change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”  Knowing this to be the case, we are using our online marketing to change legislation too.   In December 2003 we had to turn away more than 300 unwanted big cats and every other year that number was doubling.  That same year a new law, that we helped pass, banned the sale of big cats as pets across state lines. The following year, for the first time ever, the number of abandoned big cats dropped to 160.  We decided, then and there, the only way to stop the suffering and abuse was through the creation of better laws that would ban the private ownership of lions, tigers and cougars as pets.  Thanks to the laws enacted below, the number of abandoned big cats in 2007 has dropped to 72.   By December of 2004 we launched a new section of our website www.CatLaws.com that would enable people to learn about pending bills and enable them to connect to their lawmakers to ask for laws that would protect our communities while ending the suffering and abuse of big cats.  We believed that if people knew what was happening and knew how to help that they would.   Directing the traffic to the legislative sections had to be more creative however, because by and large, people don't want to think about politics.  The cat's stories and their photographs had to be compelling enough to overcome this typical aversion to legal matters and we feel that we have had considerable success in doing that since we have been able to track 1,147,174 visitors to our legislative pages in 2007.  The combined number of visitors, between our main web site bigcatrescue.org and our legislative website, is now 10,020 visitors per day with an average of 4 pages viewed by each visitor or roughly 40,000 page views per day.  Our peak day in 2007 was March 15 with 55,184 page views.   The next step was to get a person to take action by composing a letter to their congressman and that is even harder yet, but we believe the numbers speak for themselves:  33,596 letters were successfully sent from the legislative site asking for better laws to protect the community and to end the suffering and abuse of big cats kept in backyards and basements.  The Legislative Action Center report shows a steady, quarterly increase.   The results are measurable in more than just statistics however.  In the past 2 years seven states banned the private possession and barter in big cats and the numbers we have to turn away continue to drop. The USDA has issued policy statements against the private ownership of big cats and against heretofore accepted practices such as walking a 500 pound cat on a leash in public and allowing people to pet big cats at fairs, malls, parking lots and schools.  Details on these here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/lawsbigcatbans.htm   USDI issued their new rules that went into effect in September 2007 that ban the transportation of big cats across state lines by non USDA entities.  They also defined a sanctuary as a place that provides a permanent home and does not breed, sell, trade nor allow public contact with the big cats.  Before now there was no definition of a sanctuary and many places that were adding to the problem were doing so under the guise of being sanctuaries.  The language used by USDI is practically verbatim from our web sites at bigcatrescue.org and SanctuaryStandards.com.  http://bigcatrescue.org/laws/lawscaptivewildanimalsafetyact.htm   In 2007 the Florida legislature unanimously agreed to impose a $10,000 bond on anyone in the state who exhibits big cats.  This bond is used as a surety in the case of injury to the public and can be used by the FWC to care for dangerous wild animals when they have been abandoned.  Big Cat Rescue had been a strong proponent of this bond and our supporters, via our CatLaws.com site had made their wishes known to their legislators.  On July 2 Governor Charlie Crist signed the bond requirement into law and the FWC drafted the rules to enforce the new law in 2007.   The Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission put together a task force to review their policies that still allow the breeding and selling of big cats in the state with only the addition of a $40.00 USDA permit.  Public opinion polls on our web site indicate that  76% of those polled would support a ban on all exotic animals as pets.  That same percentage also agrees that hunting should be outlawed.  Florida's Wildlife Conservation Commission is funded almost entirely by issuing hunting permits and permits to people to own exotic animals so the fact that they are reviewing their own policies in view of changing public opinion is certainly measurable  evidence of Big Cat Rescue's impact on this very serious situation.   The FWC staff announced that they are making recommendations to the Commissioners that include proposed rules:   1. Raise the classification of a cougar from a Class II pet to a Class I animal that may not be kept as a pet. 2. Prohibit contact between big cats and their babies in accordance with the new federal bill that is pending which would ban the practice. 3. Prohibit transport of big cats to flea markets, parking lots, etc. 4. Require that exhibitors have all of their animals on exhibit as there is a current issue of meeting the letter of the law by exhibiting one animal while warehousing dozens more in minimum size cages that would appall the public. 5. Require Class II owners to secure a $10,000.00 bond as is now required for Class I.   As mentioned above, there is a federal bill called Haley's Act HR 1947 that is gaining momentum in the U.S. House and is expected to pass this session.  This bill is being broadly marketed by Big Cat Rescue because it will ban contact between the public and big cats, including their babies.  Baby tigers and baby lions are bred to be used as photo props and for petting sessions and then are discarded when they get too big.  This bill would stop the unscrupulous breeding for this industry and ultimately would end the biggest cause of the over abundance of big cats in captivity.   Using the email targeting feature of the CatLaws.com site we were able to convince the Medieval Fair to not allow a shabby traveling circus to set up shop by having our supporters write Hunsader Farms, the owner of the property, and telling them how they feel about such abuse.  3,236 of our online supporters sent letters to the Chinese government urging them to ban the farming of captive tigers for their fur, bones and organs.  All of these advances have been made possible by getting our message out to the people who can make a difference.  See below how we got the message out.   Fundraising and Marketing:  We were in the press 85 times.  Howard Baskin was featured in the Nov. 5th issue of U.S. News & World Report for his charitable work with Big Cat Rescue. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/aboutbcr/usnewsandworldreport.htm   Scott Lope was quoted in Newsweek about the escape of Tatiana the tiger from a zoo where she mauled three young men and killed a teenage boy. http://www.newsweek.com/id/82067/page/1   Awards:  In January of 2007 Big Cat Rescue was awarded the People's Choice Award by WEDU, our local PBS affiliate. We won again in Jan. 2008.  More than 80 charities competed in a 16 county radius for this award, but Big Cat Rescue took 31% of the vote.  Next year the contest is going national.  Won Parenting Magazine's Best of Tampa Bay Award.  In August Big Cat Rescue was Change.org's Pick of the Month.   TV:  Animal Planet show called Ms. Adventure aired our episode in March and Real Strange aired in Europe.  The first episode of “Big Cat Rescuers” ever aired on: April 11, 2007 cable channel 19 7:00 PM and April 15, 2007 cable channel 20 6:30 PM.  This one hour episode was created by our own Jamie Veronica, Brian Czarnik and Honey Wayton, and features several of our keepers, partners and of course, Scott Lope our manager. Our big cat expert Scott Lope was interviewed on the History Channel's MonsterQuest‘s search for the elusive big black cats that are frequently reported roaming wild all across the U.S.   Roar and Rolling:  Lindy Melendez with EGS Printing has generously donated a van “wrap” that is valued at $5000.  See the stunning artwork here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/images/EasySt/van/index.htm  The wrap was done with a lot of love from everyone at ESG Printing.   Memory Lane:  Our cemetery was transformed from a pitiful little hodgepodge of cage placards to a wall of memories created in stone and inlaid with marble headstones that feature a laser inscribed image of the cat, his or her date of birth and death and the sponsor of the plaque.  This was done as a fund raiser for the living cats and in its first year generated enough money to support a tiger for a year.  Thanks to Babs Riddle the grounds were luxuriously sculpted to include gardens, a shell path and benches where our volunteers can rest and reflect on the lives they have known who continue to inspire them.  Great marble lions that were donated to us now flank either side of the impressive entrance.  http://bigcatrescue.org/foreverremembered.htm   Google:  In today's fast paced environment we have to stay quick as a cat and be as entertaining as a basket full of kittens.  We have found mini videos, or podcasting, to be our most effective way of marketing our message.  On July 8, 2006 we launched our first video on google.  We now have 195 live videos playing and have had 183,514 viewers.  Our most popular video is an hour long film about all of the plights faced by exotic cats in the wild and in captivity and it has been played 51,357 times.  None of our tracking can tell how many times people play our videos on their iPods after downloading them.   YouTube:   (the fastest growing web site in the world) In August of 2006 we launched our YouTube account and have 72 of our videos playing that have been viewed 1,752,846 times.  We have 881 subscribers to our videos with more joining all the time and are the #2 Most Viewed (All Time) – Non Profit and #9 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Non Profit.  In late December we launched two additional sites dedicated to our Educational Department and our Animal Communicator.   MySpace: myspace.com/1BigCatRescue In August of 2006 we launched our MySpace account and are one of the top ranked sites as we have 221,617,683 in our network who have visited our profile page 22,928 times and we have 4,276 subscribers to our videos there. MySpace has become such a popular portal that it now ranks in the top 10 list of referring sites that send visitors to our main website at bigcatrescue.org.  That ranks our own MySpace account just behind such powerful referrers as the google, yahoo and aol search engines.   VEOH:  In 2007 we began posting our videos to Veoh.com   We have 143 videos playing and these videos are getting thousands of plays each.  Veoh is the next generation in T. V. viewing.  Videos can be watched in low resolution for free, or for a fee can be downloaded in high resolution and watched on a television set or computer.  We post most of our videos as a free download, but post PSA's in high resolution so that the media can get b-roll from us instantly for less than the cost of mailing a disk.   We now film, edit and post 1-2 videos each week.  Our videos have been so popular that they have been picked up for use on Current TV and many online content providers.  In addition to our online video marketing we have been in the press 427 times and if you haven't heard of the Fur Ball, you don't watch TV, listen to the radio or read the papers.  We have been blessed with complimentary ads from all of the biggest media outlets such as Cox Radio, The Tampa Tribune, The Tampabay Business Journal, the Maddux Report and the St. Pete Times to market our biggest annual fundraiser each year.  We also have Public Service Announcements running on Brighthouse cable TV and nationally on Animal Planet.   Search Engine Ranking:  Our goal was to increase the number of web visitors by increasing our web site's visibility on the Internet.  The most dramatic breakthrough was in revamping the underlying html so that browsers other than IE could view the site.  The second more important feature was implementing navigation that enabled visitors to see every level of our 12,000+ file site.  Even though this was not accomplished until November the pages viewed increased 33% in 2007 when the even though the number of new visitors only increased by 12%.  For the first time in history we have risen to the top page of google's search page for the keyword “tigers” and are number 18 of more than 43,000,000 competing sites.  To see the ranking on our most important key words visit:  http://bigcatrescue.org/get_more_hits.htm   Party of the Year:  That's what a lot of people in the know call it.  The Fur Ball netted more than $120,000.00 with a sell out crowd of 700 people.  That's up $80,000.00 over last year!  See the entire recap including photos of Bo Derek and our colorful, cat themed guests here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000archives/2007FurBall.htm   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  The Jaguar Trust.  Trapping is the furthest thing from our mission, except when it comes to camera traps for tracking and aiding wildlife. Our own Big Cat Rescue president Jamie Veronica went to Guyana, South America with a fellow volunteer on a mission for the sanctuary. Jamie and Justin Boorstein were in Guyana for ten days setting new digital camera traps with video to track Jaguars, Ocelots and Pumas. Our partner, Foster Parrots, tells us that with the recent import ban of all birds into Europe, Guyana now finds herself in a position to change the long practiced wildlife export industry there. Many trappers are finding that there are no markets for their “products”! Many of these trappers now find themselves unemployed and the government may start to look at the potential revenues of eco-tourism to fill the gap. If we can make a concerted effort with our conservation project we hope to serve as an example and to garner the support of Guyana to create the world's premier rainforest destination. Our plans include the promotion of our project here in the US and a marketing strategy to heighten the visibility of this important move in Guyana.   Visitors to Guyana will have a choice of tour itineraries ranging from an ambitious 3 and 4-day Kanuku Mountains hike that will bring them to the realm of the Harpy Eagle, to more leisurely tours that will encompass sightings of Red Bellied, Scarlet, Red and Green, Blue and Yellow Macaws, Giant Anteaters and a wide variety of primates.   Horseback and canoe excursions will let tour groups experience the wilds of Guyana at an intimate level.  Visitors can also travel to Kaeiteur Falls to witness one of the world's tallest single-drop waterfalls of 741 feet.   Construction on the first of two planned lodge complexes, located in Nappi Village, has been completed by the local tribes with funds from Foster Parrots and Big Cat Rescue. Contact SaveTheCats@bigcatrescue.org to spend your vacation dollars saving the wildcats in the rainforest.   Africa:  President Jamie Veronica and volunteer Barbara Stairs also toured Africa to see the issues first hand that have resulted in game parks being virtually the only lands left that house wild cats.  She will work with relatives there to check out sources for offering handmade products in our gift shop that could help preserve wildlife there as we currently do in the Jaguar Trust.  (Barbara Stairs funded this excursion)   Since 2005 Big Cat Rescue has provided both funds and volunteers to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya .  Lewa relocates problematic wildlife to protected areas and provides education to children in the area who would not otherwise be able to read or write.  In addition to the funds that Big Cat Rescue donates, we also provide a U.S. market for Kenya ‘s craftsmen and send clothing with our volunteers to distribute when they visit.  Our volunteers take their skills and attitudes of compassion for all life into these barren regions and share a message of hope.   China, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Pakistan:  Every year since 1997 Big Cat Rescue has donated to the countries that are home to the Himalayan mountain range where the elusive snow leopard is found.  One whole corner of the gift shop explains how the sale of items made by the villagers helps save the snow leopard in the wild.  In 2006, Dr. Tom McCarthy, the Conservation Director for the Snow Leopard Trust, came to Big Cat Rescue to explain just how crucial each sale was to protect these exquisite cats.   The snow leopard lives in regions where the average person makes the equivalent of $1.00 per day.  Most of the people who share the same highlands with the snow leopard are herders and to them, the loss of one sheep or goat can mean the difference in their survival.  Most of the snow leopards that are killed are retribution killings; meaning that the cat has been blamed for killing one of the herd and the herdsman has killed the next snow leopard he saw.  The herdsman can eat the cat and sell the hide for 25.00 which for them is a month's wage.  There are many other middle men along the way who are anxious to get their hands on a snow leopard pelt or penis for the Asian medicinal trade or for the black market.   The pelt dramatically becomes more valuable as it goes down the line and can cost $5,000.00 or more to the final buyer.   The Snow Leopard Trust members in China, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Pakistan work closely with the local people to find out what they need.  In some cases, they can create handicrafts like those we sell and make five times what they can make from herding.   The programs are structured with reducing reliance on Snow Leopard Trust funds for each consecutive year and to remain in the program the community must ensure that no snow leopards are killed.  If anyone in the community kills a snow leopard, the entire community risks losing their right to participate in the program for a year and that is enough to keep everyone watching out for the snow leopard.  Their claims of protection must verified by the game wardens and governmental agencies who actually have incentives to discover poaching because they are often paid a portion of the confiscation if they can catch a poacher.     Big Cat Rescue is the second largest retailer for Snow Leopard Enterprises.   We collected fecal samples from our captive snow leopards for the Snow Leopard Trust to use in training dogs to be able to tell one wild snow leopard from another just by sniffing the scat left behind.  This will greatly enhance conservation efforts and is a cost effective method as well.  The video we produced is being aired on our sites, and also being used as a marketing tool for the new program and the Snow Leopard Trust.   The U.S. State Department enlisted our help in saving the critically endangered Amur Leopard because of our ability to reach so many people who care about wild cats and their habitat.  You can learn all about what is happening with the Amur Leopard & Tiger here:   http://bigcatrescue.org/cats/wild/leopard_save.htm. For more details on our International work visit:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000archives/2007AttachmentAInternational.htm   Other:  Big cat breeders, dealers, collectors and exploiters hate us because as we educate the public about the truth behind their abusive practices such as breeding white tigers, ligers or babies for photo booths their profiteering opportunities are drying up.  There is no justification for their activities so their only recourse has been to file a plethora of false complaints with authorities who regulate us and to make false accusations to anyone who will listen.  The only gain they could expect was to keep us busy proving ourselves so that we would be diverted from our mission of ending the abuses that result in so many unwanted big cats.  Now the regulators are on to them as we have proven time and again our integrity which is illustrated in our perfect inspection reports and our continued accreditation by The Global Federation of Sanctuaries and the Better Business Bureau.  Only one media outlet in 2007 repeated their slanderous accusations, but the article went on for many pages explaining that the reason such libelous statements are made is likely due to our success in exposing the activities that result in Florida having the highest incidents of maulings, killings and escapes by big cats.   Created pages devoted to the cats who have live and died in cages here with tributes from the keepers who loved them and who work ceaselessly for their freedom:  https://sites.google.com/site/bigcattributes/home  Thanks to the work of our AdvoCat LaWanna Jones we added hundreds of new e-Cards here:  http://www.bigcatfun.com/ecards/  and added hundreds of new online puzzles, new bookmarks and hundreds of new free online games here: http://bigcatrescue.org/game/games.htm.    Then and Now  Our CFO, Howard Baskin, compiled a ten year snapshot of the sanctuary and its growth.  This is just a comparison between 1996 and 2007.   Wildlife on Easy Street to Big Cat Rescue   1996            2006 Visitors                                                                              85                26,497 Total Expenses                                             $1,686,386           *$708,607.00 Total Income                                                                     $0           $1,236,237.00 Total Net Assets                                       $148,455.00           $2,419,227.00 Spent on Program Services                               100%            91% ** *funded by Founder        **4% spent on Management and 5% spent on Fundraising   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2007 and meetings: • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica • Vice President & BOD Cathy Neumann (not compensated by BCR) • Secretary Jen Ruszczyk (not compensated by BCR) • Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • Director Dr. Liz Wynn, DVM  (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director)   Paid Staff:  We went from 3 paid staff to 7 and now provide worker's comp insurance.  We still can offer no other benefits than the peace of mind in knowing their work is changing the world. • Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Scott Lope $35,000.00 incl. bonuses • Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica $24,700.00 (compensated but not for her work as a member of the board) • Social Science Director Brian Czarnik $18,400.00 (leaving for Chicago early 2008) • Gift Shop & Guest Services Bridget Czarnik $18,400.00 (leaving for Chicago early 2008) • Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton $22,800.00 • Intern Director & Lead AdvoCat Tiffany Deavor $25,000.00 • Education Directors Dr. Beth Kamhi & Coleen Kremer $14,000.00 combined • Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance $35,600.00 All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 107 volunteers in 2007 who clocked in 57,302 man-power hours in addition to staff and Volunteer Committee member hours.  Roughly the equivalent workforce of 27 more full time staff.  Created the S.A.V.E. award for Scratch's Award 4 Volunteer Excellence.  The recipients were January – Julie Hanan, February – Cathy Monroe, March – Tiffany Deavor, April – Glen Yancey, May – Kym Marszal, June – Merrill Kramer, July – Barbara Frank, August – Marie Schoubert, September – Edith Parker, October – Babs Riddle, November – Anne Canterbury and December – Angie Gabor (the first Red Shirt to ever win)  Winners of the S.A.V.E. award are allowed to direct $500.00 to the cat project of their choice.  Created pages devoted to our dedicated volunteers at:  http://bigcatrescue.org/hero/000hero.htm and our 2007 Volunteer of the Year is Barbara Frank.   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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

2006 Annual Report   (Bo Derek was at the 2007 Fur Ball so this image is out of sequence. )   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.   Advances:  Big Cat Rescue qualified for the Combined Federal Campaign's National book and was certified by Independent Charities of America as one of the Best in America.  This means that any government employee in the country can choose Big Cat Rescue from their 2007 gift guide next year to receive auto-deducted donations from their paychecks.  We have been longstanding members in the local campaign but this will expand our exposure from the sun-coast area of Florida to the entire United States.   In January Ringling Bros. Circus announced in the Tampa Tribune that they had dropped tigers from their new show and that if the format was successful they intend to drop the big cats from their other acts as well.  The UK announced the end to tigers and other big cats in traveling shows. Jamie traveled to Guyana, South America to help set up an eco-tourism lodge to save jaguars, ocelots, jaguarundi, margay and others in their native habitat.  She began camera trapping and instructed local Amerindians in how to change the film and mail the results to us.  She has been camera trapping in the U.S. as well and has participated with wildlife offices to help catch poachers.  Read more about what we are doing to save cats in the wild at http://bigcatrescue.org/conservation.htm   Big Cat Rescue was welcomed into the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) bolstering its global Member Society network. WSPA now has 692 affiliated organizations in 142 countries and there are only 50 US members and most are Humane Societies. The WSPA is the world's largest federation of humane societies and animal protection organizations. Through direct field work, campaigning, legislative work, education and training programs, WSPA strives to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends. We are proud to be inducted into this membership.   Animal Care:  Thanks to oversight by our Operations Manager, Scott Lope, and the devotion of more than 100 well trained volunteers, the cats continue to thrive.  Our enrichment program has advanced from once a week per cat to twice to three times per week per cat. Thanks to Jen Ruszczyk coming in before work, after work and on weekends, 57 of our 142 cats are now in the operant conditioning program with expertly trained volunteers. Thanks to Dr. Wynn, DVM and Dr. Wadsworth, DVM, our cats have been healthy and Cheetaro the leopard was neutered and Zabu the white tigress was spayed.   We rescued a Jungle Cat hybrid and reunited him with his owner.  Scott Lope and some volunteers rescued a local neighborhood from a marauding python and found a home for him as well.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  Sharon Marszal went to eBay school and then trained Bridget Bolger as her replacement. The intern and volunteer programs continue to evolve and this year included interns from Canada, Wales, CA, MA, NY, OR, PA, & VA.   We hosted Tom McCarthy of the Snow Leopard Trust as he shared breathtaking photos of snow leopards that he has been studying in the wild for more than 15 years.  We support the Snow Leopard Trust through our gift shop sales of items made by the local villagers.  Big Cat Rescue is the second largest retailer for Snow Leopard Enterprises, despite the fact that many huge zoos are also retailers.  We hosted Snow Leopard Trust's CEO Brad Rutherford subsequently and entered into a co-branding campaign where we sell, and allow the Snow Leopard Trust to sell, our Snow Leopard Screensavers with all of the proceeds going to snow leopard conservation. We shipped 100 of the screensavers to them as our donation and we continue to offer them in our gift shop and online.  Read more about snow leopard conservation at http://bigcatrescue.org/snow_leopard_save.htm   Several of our staff and volunteers attended the Carnivore Conference hosted by Defenders of Wildlife and were happy to get to spend some time with Jeff Corwin and Dr. Alan Rabinowitz.  The volunteers staffed a booth there to expose others in the animal world to the work Big Cat Rescue is doing for both captive and free roaming wildcats.  Three of our volunteers, including Susan Mitchell, attended a course in effective, mainstream lobbying sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.   Education:  We brought in two new Educators: Beth Kamhi and Coleen Kremer who work as a tag team to cover all of our educational outreach and field trip activities.  They provided 171 field trip tours for 5,263 students and hosted 60 summer campers on site.  Beth and Coleen were able to add mini camps during holidays to our already popular summer camp. They did outreach presentations to 60 schools and other educational venues reaching tens of thousands more people.  With help from our donors we were able to offer 43 of these outreach programs for free.   Our new zoning from 2004 allows for a Natural History Museum so we took the remains of cats that have died over the years to be taxidermied so that these rare cats will still be able to educate future generations.  We filmed portions for an expose on the small cat and hybrid cat trade.  We created a new Education brochure and inserts with the help of some donors who specifically asked to help with our Education Programs.  With the help of AdvoCat, Robin Kitzmiller, we were able to put the Cat in FCAT by offering a complete online resource of K-12 study guides that teach the necessary skills for kids to pass the FCAT in Florida.  Pass it on to your favorite teacher here http://bigcatrescue.org/teachersresource.htm   Shere Khan was the cover cat for Big Cats the USBorne Discovery Internet Linked book by Jonathan Sheikh-Miller and Stephanie Turnbull.  This book was discovered in the Dead Zoo in Dublin, Ireland by Jamie Veronica while she was visiting there and is available world wide. Click on the photo to order your copy. AdvoCat, Lawanna Jones, created and we began distributing the Child Safety ID Kit at the Fur Ball and to the principals of all of the area's schools.  We have approached a number of child protection organizations to achieve a cooperative marketing program of this important tool.   Laura Lluellyn-Lassiter joined our volunteer force and is known as an animal communicator.  She has helped give insight as to the true nature of the cats and produces her own blog called Cat Heart Whispers on our blog page.  She works with our cinematographer, Brian Czarnik, to produce regular episodes of Animal Talk that can be seen here http://bigcatrescue.org/podcats.htm  If people knew who these cats really are inside, they would not support industries that use them as props.   With the professional voice talent of supporter, Bonnie-Jean Creais we were able to add audio options to our educational pages about the different species of cats. There are a number of reasons why this is helpful.  Children learning to read, can play the audio while reading the text to learn more difficult words.  The visually impaired can click on the large image link and listed to the information without struggling to read.  The audio can also be downloaded via subscription to our RSS feed at http://savethecats.hipcast.com/rss/animaltalk.xml that enables a person to listen to the information on their iPod or other portable player.   Our White Tiger page continues to be the most popular page on our site (after our main page) accounting for 7% of all of the visits to our 17,000 page site.  We believe that this has had a tremendous impact on the white tiger situation because the price of white tiger cubs (which can only be produced through severe inbreeding) has dropped from $30,000 to $3,000 and the American Zoological Association has come out publicly against the practice of breeding and exhibiting white tigers. Breeders are giving away adult white tigers because the public now knows the dirty little secret behind white tiger breeding.  If you don't know it yet, check out http://bigcatrescue.org/white_tigers.htm   Legislation:   • Ban big cat contact to save human & big cat lives • While escaped big cats are being shot in Ohio • Those who are responsible for breeding so many excess lion and tiger cubs are pimping them out at an OH mall  • AdvoCat News for October 2011 • Meet 3 new tigers, see a purrsonal tribute to Steve Jobs, vote for us to win $25k and more  • Cubs Dragged From Mall to Mall. • Ask these mall owners to consider the lives these poor cubs endure and end big cat displays at their properties.  • YOU can be a part of the most thrilling rescue of the year!  • Most Important Comment Period Ever to End the Trade in Generic Tigers! • Ask USFWS to Rescind the Generic Tiger Exemption. You only have until Oct. 21 to Comment.    With the help of our supporters sending 30,765 letters we promoted state bills to ban the exploitation of exotic animals and several federal issues to curb the breeding, buying, selling across state lines as well.  In 2006 sixty state bills were passed to protect animals and 11 were defeated that would have endangered animals.  Thanks to all of our supporters who sent 2,282 letters asking for it, the USDA enacted rules to prohibit declawing big cats, barred walking big cats on leashes, banned using expired medicines on exotic cats and prevents shooting cats as a form of acceptable euthanasia.  The USDA also stepped up their enforcement by shutting down 9 facilities this year as compared to only 3 in the prior two years.  Three more states banned private possession of exotics in 2006 and seven countries enacted laws to protect the big cats including the banning of circus acts, barring possession of big cats as pets and closing down canned hunts.   The API did an excellent under cover investigation into the private possession that is espoused by Phoenix Exotics and the Feline Conservation Federation. Carole Baskin presented HB 1459 and SB 990 to Committees in Tallahassee on April 17th and 18th and she attended a luncheon with Senator Robert Byrd in Washington, D.C. She spoke at Capitol Advantage's conference in D.C. on smart strategies for building advocacy influence.  As a result of the speech, the President of the American League of Lobbyist, Paul Miller, has joined our Advisory Committee and has agreed to donate his time to helping us end the abusive trade in big cats.  Attorney Jowita Wysocka has also agreed to donate her time to researching cases to help us promote Haley's Act, a bill to ban contact with big cats.  She and Paul have both joined Big Cat Rescue and IFAW in starting the Big Cat Caucus.   Patricia Massard took over the daily posting to the Big Cat Rescue Yahoo group, which now has 157 members and to all of our blogs at http://bigcatrescue.org/blog.htm   Fundraising and Marketing:  Thanks to a couple of HUGE cat lovers, Big Cat Rescue got its first donation of $30,000.00 from a single family foundation.  Many other large donors stepped up this year as well with $10,000.00 donations each.  Through our participation in the Chrysler Birdies Championship we were able to get a matching grant in the amount of $10,000.00 and were one of the top performing charities in the league thanks to all of you who earmarked your donations to this program.  Thanks to Cynthia Montayre, the gift shop on-site and online grew exponentially.   WEDU awarded Big Cat Rescue as second runner up in to the Top Charity in their 16 county viewing area at their first annual Be More Awards.  We were originally selected because of our excellence in Marketing but were included in the overall Top 5 based upon the scope of what we do and the way we do it.  We have been chosen for inclusion again for 2007.   Howard Baskin joined the Downtown Tampa Rotary and has been a speaker at the Center Club.  We are attending a lot more Chamber meetings and joined the Governmental Affairs Committees in two of the Chambers.  We were featured in A Kid's Guide to Giving (ISBN 1-58476-489-9) by Freddie Zeiler as one of 100 kid approved charities.  The Fur Ball had more than 500 attendees and netted more than $52,000.00.  As always it was THE party of the year!   TV Stars:  Our most exciting innovations have been in the movie realm.  Big Cat Rescue was granted its own weekly, half hour, regular series on cable T.V. and will air its first episode soon.  Jamie Veronica, Brian Czarnik and Honey Wayton took the courses necessary to bring top quality nature films to T.V.  You can already see mini clips online at http://bigcatrescue.org/podcats.htm.  These mini movies, that run from 2 minutes to 1 hour in length, are available online at Google Videos, My Space, You Tube and VEOH.  Just type in “Big Cat Rescue” and you will find us in all of these hot social networking sites.  Brian Czarnik has been cranking out at least two episodes each week to keep the content fresh and has been responsible for the upkeep of these sites and several more behind the scenes.  All of these are available through iTunes now too.  People just can't get enough of seeing their favorite cats!   Big Cat Rescue was specifically mentioned in the press 117 times (that we know of) in 2006.  This included such media as, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, Associated Press, Geraldo At Large, Der Spiegel and Glamour Magazine.  Big Cat Rescue was also pivotal in supplying background information on the number of people killed and mauled by captive cats to reporters from ABC's Prime Time 20/20.  Read all of the headlines here: http://bigcatrescue.org/news.htm   Thanks to coordination efforts of Julie Hanan and more than 50 volunteers, Big Cat Rescue provided a gift wrapping station at Borders Book Store for the weeks leading up to Christmas.  They raised over $5,000.00 for the cats and handed out thousands of brochures and newsletters.  This good-will effort cost our volunteers valuable family time during the holidays, but they did it to spread the word about the plight of the big cats.  Barbara Frank has become our Wedding planner and has hosted 12+ weddings at Big Cat Rescue, raising $8,000.00 for the cats this year.   Charity Guide:  Big Cat Rescue is now featured in Charity Guide's Directory of volunteer opportunities. Our organization appears in the “How to Make a Difference” section of Charity Guide's article titled Big Cat Rescue: Save Exotic Felines. Charity Guide publishes an editorially reviewed directory of opportunities to make a difference – which influences the volunteering decisions of over half a million “would-be volunteers” per year. Inclusion in their directory is based on research and extensive evaluation.   Our database of visitors and supporters has grown to a little over 45,000 and Catherine Monroe has been crucial in keeping that list up to date.  Our Ezine recipient list has grown to more than 26,000 and AdvoCat, Christy Anderson, keeps them posted monthly on the happenings at Big Cat Rescue.  We were the recipient of a Google grant that gave us $1,187,258.63 in free advertising that resulted in over 200 million impressions and 2,800,000 click throughs to our website. At the peak of this grant period our website was receiving more than 1,000,000 hits per DAY.  We are now averaging about 30,000 page views per day, according to Google Analytics, and have a continuing grant for $15,000.00 a month in Google advertising.   Grounds Improvement:  Our entire Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of Big Cat Rescue's rezoning of 3 acres to allow for more onsite intern housing, overflow parking and access to a paved road.  This access allows us to move forward on the major zoning that we had approved two years ago because much of the actual building was contingent upon us securing alternative access.  This year we added room for four more interns and an indoor area where we can offer air conditioned facilities for parties and weddings at the sanctuary.  This indoor area is also used for our monthly meetings in inclement weather, and as an area where we can offer video showings, slideshow presentations and meeting space.  It augments our small E-Center so that we can accommodate larger school groups.  Before now, if children come for a field trip and it is raining, they have to stay on the bus, but now they can come inside, see a video about the sanctuary and then as soon as the rain lets up go out and meet the cats. This area is a 2800 square foot mobile home with a 1500 sf covered patio and decks.   We built a new Cat-a-tats for Alachua Bob and Nairobi the Serval. With the help of a lot of donors we completed the new Cat-a-tats for the orphaned cougar cubs.  Shatia and Dances With Wolves, the Canada Lynx, both got new cage additions and a gateway to each other with the hopes that these two old females can one day live together.  Flavio's pool had to be rebuilt and the waterfalls for both he and SARMOTI had to be rebuilt.  Hurricane shelters that double as safety cages were started for Banjo, Bean, Mocha and Thing, the bearcats.  Many of the cages were painted to prevent rust and lots and lots of flowering bushes were planted around the cages to attract butterflies and to provide shade as they grow up and over the tops of the enclosures.   We built up the paths and dug out and landscaped retention ponds to alleviate muddy paths for next rainy season.  We shored up our sinking wall along the lake side and improved the road so that we can drive entirely around the property for better patrolling purposes. We began construction on a wall of memories for the cemetery.  The stone wall has marble plaques that are laser engraved with the names and photos of cats who have passed on.  These also bear the name of the Forever Sponsor who donates 500.00 two the purchase of the plaque.  See how you can be forever remembered here at http://bigcatrescue.org/foreverremembered.htm   Helping Others:  We provided offsite housing for Humane Alliance members who have come here to help ACT set up a low cost spay and neuter center and offered to transport animals to and from the clinic once a week for the rescue groups.  We hosted team building events for the Emergency Animal Response Service group and gave them 150 free passes to give to all of the volunteers who help in times of disaster nationwide.  We donated to all of our favorite animal causes (too many to list) giving them Expeditions and Free Passes to auction off to help them raise money to provide services for domestic pets.  The Humane USA PAC (the nation's largest political action committee for animals) hosted its Kids, Cats & Candidates day at the sanctuary.  We donated an Expedition to raise money for our long time supporters Mario & Lenore Infanti who are facing health issues.   When our beloved tiger, Nini, died Brian Czarnik wanted her to live on and so we sponsored a tiger in the wild in Way Kambas Park.  The money donated will help protect the tigers in this critical reserve.  We worked with the Smithsonian Institution in a project to examine the population biology of small carnivores in Gabon, West Africa and Borneo.  We hosted a party and raised more than $1000.00 to aid the campaign that would require the government to provide emergency plans for people who won't leave their pets. This bill became law in 2006 and will protect America's pets in times of disaster.  We also sent proceeds from our Fur Ball to Lewa Conservancy in S. Africa and invested in creating eco-tourism in Guyana, South America to protect the wild cats in that area.  At the request of the World Wildlife Fund in Poland we have provided photographs for them to use in creating a handbook for border guards to prevent the illegal trade in exotic cats and their pelts.   Other:  Merrill Kramer took over our ink recycling program and reports income of roughly $2,000.00 per month now.  You can learn how your old ink cartridges can save cats here http://bigcatrescue.org/ink   Jim Haaf, art director of the Jaycees showed his support for our mission without even asking as is evidenced by this wonderful park bench that we discovered alongside the road.  When Howie called to find out who to thank, he discovered that they have donated two of these lovely benches to us.  We are so grateful to all of our supporters who look for unique ways to express their devotion to our mission.   Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Chris Simms brought a group of children from the Children's Home to visit Big Cat Rescue.   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2006 and meetings: • Founder, CEO, and Board Chairperson   Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • President and Director Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR) • Vice President & Director Cathy Mayeski (not compensated by BCR) • Secty and Director   Jen Ruszczyk (not compensated by BCR) • Director Brian Czarnik (not compensated by BCR) These members met for monthly board meetings.   Paid Staff: • Operations Manager  Scott Lope (compensated but not a member of the board) • Gift Shop Manager Cynthia Montayre (compensated but not a member of the board) • Administrative Bridget Bolger (compensated but not a member of the board)   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 107 volunteers in 2006 who clocked in 32,000 man-power hours in addition to staff and Volunteer Committee member hours.  Roughly the equivalent workforce of 16 full time staff.   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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

In this episode, we talk about one of the most elusive animals on the planet: The Ghost Of The Mountains AKA Snow Leopards!!!! I sit-down with Koustubh Sharma, a senior regional ecologist from the Snow Leopard Trust. He has been studying snow leopards for 14 years. We discuss their elusive habits, conflicts with local farmers, their genetic relationship with tigers, and Koustubh shares a thrilling story about his WILD encounter with a Snow Leopard! Donate To Help Save The Snow LeopardLearn more about the Snow Leopard TrustListen To The BONUS PATRON-ONLY After Show!!!Follow Corbin MaxeyWebsite: https://corbinmaxey.com YouTube: https://goo.gl/ZbuBnRInstagram: https://goo.gl/NDYWFF Twitter: https://goo.gl/F4zVfNFacebook: https://goo.gl/ZsE1SP TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/prvYxR/

Prasenjeet Yadav is a molecular biologist/ecologist by degree who turned his passion for storytelling into a new and exciting career as a National Geographic photographer and explorer. His most recent project focused on studying the "Ghost Cats", Snow Leopards in the Indian Himalayas for nearly 3 years. Since turning to Photography only a decade ago, he has become one of the most decorated wildlife and landscape photographers on the rise today. We talk about how American culture influenced his childhood (notably the Tom Hanks hit Cast Away), what he learned about himself while studying the Snow Leopard's behavior, and the toll working in secluded wilderness for extended periods of time can have on mental health. Special thanks to National Geographic, and the Snow Leopard Trust for their research and awareness collaboration on this amazing species. Follow Prasenjeet @prasen.yadav on Instagram, and check out some of his work here:https://www.nationalgeographic.com/search?q=prasenjeet+Yadav

Dog person? Cat person? No, no, no. We're all Snow Leopard people. AI, the difficulty of finding snow leopards, a strange form of social networking, tricky trail cam footage, using their floofness as a conservation tool, what to call a group of snow leopards, how snow leopards are world-class experts at social distancing, and so much more, with Dr Koustubh Sharma, Senior Regional Ecologist and the International Coordinator of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection program for Snow Leopard Trust! Learn more about Snow Leopard Trust at www.snowleopard.org Follow: @koustubh_sharma and @snowleopard Become a Patron of The Wild Life for as little as $1 per month at patreon.com/TheWildLife https://thewildlife.blog/shop/ (https://thewildlife.blog/shop/) for shirts, mugs, stickers, phone cases. and more! Follow on Twitter @thewildlifepod and @devthenatureguy Follow on Instagram @thewildlife.blog and @devonthenatureguy Support this podcast

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with The Toronto Zoo’s Snow Leopard Zookeeper, Jenn Martin, to discuss all things about snow leopards. Jenn explains what it’s like to care for the majestic snow leopards at the Zoo; why it’s so much fun to come to see them during the winter; and why they have such long tails! She also reveals why one particular snow leopard is one of the most famous leopards in the world. This particular big cat is so famous, people come from as far away as Japan to visit with her and take photos of her.  Listen to the episode to find out why. Snow Leopard Trust: https://www.snowleopard.org/snow-leopard-facts/ Donate To The Zoo To Help Snow Leopards: http://www.torontozoo.com/donate

Justine Shanti Alexander is Regional Ecologist for the Snow Leopard Trust. She has spent the last eight years dedicated to snow leopard conservation from China to Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan. In this Talk at Google, Justine discusses her snow leopard research & her work with local communities that share the snow leopard's habitat. From tracking snow leopards to protecting livestock from predators, hear how the Snow Leopard Trust is saving snow leopards. About the Snow Leopard Trust: Founded in Seattle in 1981, the Snow Leopard Trust is the world's oldest & largest organization dedicated to the conservation of the snow leopard. The Trust works in five key range countries & aims to conserve the snow leopard and its mountain ecosystems through community-based conservation, rigorous science and education. The Trust takes a holistic approach to snow leopard conservation with the understanding that we cannot protect the species without the help of the people who share its habitat. Learn more at https://www.snowleopard.org  Visit http://g.co/TalksAtGoogle/SnowLeopardTrust to watch the video. 

If someone asked you what snow leopards and Vincent Van Gogh have in common, you might think it was the beginning of a joke. It’s not, but if it were, Mark Hamilton, a software engineer in Microsoft’s Cognitive Services group, budding PhD student and frequent Microsoft Research collaborator, would tell you the punchline is machine learning. More specifically, Microsoft Machine Learning for Apache Spark (MMLSpark for short), a powerful yet elastic open source machine learning library that’s finding its way beyond business and into “AI for Good” applications such as the environment and the arts. Today, Mark talks about his love of mathematics and his desire to solve big, crazy, core knowledge sized problems; tells us all about MMLSpark and how it’s being used by organizations like the Snow Leopard Trust and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and reveals how the persuasive advice of a really smart big sister helped launch an exciting career in AI research and development. https://www.microsoft.com/research  

Microsoft KI hilft Wissenschaftlern dabei, Schneeleoparden schneller zu finden und so die bedrohte Art besser zu schützen. Ein Prozess, der ursprünglich zehn Tage dauerte, dauert heute nur noch zehn Minuten. Ein Beitrag aus dem News Center von Microsoft Deutschland. Den Textbeitrag dazu gibt es hier: https://news.microsoft.com/de-de/features/wie-microsoft-ki-dem-snow-leopard-trust-dabei-hilft-eine-bedrohte-tierart-zu-schuetzen/

Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley will wrap up its inaugural Conservation and Science Speaker Series tonight at 6:30 with a peek inside the fascinating world of the elusive snow leopard. Jennifer Snell Rullman, Assistant Director of Conservation for the Snow Leopard Trust, will give a first-hand update on the vulnerable cat's status!Jennifer and Joel Vanderbush, Niabi Zoo Curator of Conservation and Education, joined AM Quad Cities!

Conservation Discussion: Snow Leopards From Jane Goodall to Snow Leopards: Communities in Action Join us to hear Jennifer Rullman of the Snow Leopard Trust speak with Club member Janice Sargoni on conserving wild species and the iconic, reclusive snow leopard in particular. Ms. Rullman began her career with the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program in Tanzania and now helps the Trust protect the iconic, reclusive snow leopard on and beyond the Tibetan plateau, home to more than half of the remaining leopards. Learn how Ms. Rullman first became involved in field research and now tirelessly aims to help secure the future of the endangered cat through innovative community-based projects based on improved understanding of its behavior, needs, habitats and threats. The complex work ranges from researching conservation techniques and partnering with communities in and near snow leopards’ habitats, to engaging necessary support of governments, businesses and international organizations. Jan Saragoni has been a regular on-air contributor to the Emily Rooney Show on WGBH-FM. A Harvard Kennedy School alumna, she is president of the media relations, marketing and public relations firm Saragoni and Company, and serves on, among other things, the editorial advisory board of the Kennedy School’s Magazine and on the executive committee of Save Venice.

Have you ever crossed frozen rivers to climb 4,000-meter ridges in search of snow leopards? This is a normal day "in the office" for Dr Justine Shanti Alexander. As a Regional Ecologist for the Snow Leopard Trust, Justine supports snow leopard research and conservation efforts in China and Mongolia to further safeguard the species. The cats live in the border regions of Central Asia, spanning 12 countries; the home range of males has been estimated to cover up to 200 km squared - that is half the size of Barbados. Due to the sheer expanse of their range in high remote mountain areas, it is difficult to quantify the population size, but it is guestimated that less than 10,000 individuals remain. Justine tells us how she tracked snow leopards during her PhD and now works with Shanshui (featured in our episode "Nature Conservation: There's an app for that"), training herders working in snow leopard habitats to help protect them. Our guest discusses how saving snow leopards can have trickle down effects, protecting their prey, grasslands, and the local people who coexist with them. China holds 60% of the global snow leopard habitat and therefore plays a key role in its conservation. For more information on Justine's work with the Snow Leopard Trust, visit: www.snowleopard.org

On this episode, we talk about the snow leopard, thanks to a suggestion from the Peace Out podcast. The snow leopard is a beautiful, solitary animal that has learned a lot of ways to adapt to the cold. It can also jump way longer than we can—we tried! We also introduce the Creature Quiz. Submit your answers to us at coolfactsaboutanimals@gmail.com and get a sticker! Links: Peace Out: https://bedtime.fm/peaceout Snow Leopard Trust: https://www.snowleopard.org Find us on Twitter https://twitter.com/coolanimalspod And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coolfactaboutanimals/ (We have some cool Facebook live videos up there on beaver dams!) And we have a website! coolfactsaboutanimalspodcast.wordpress.com Thanks for listening! Please rate/review/subscribe!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Android Donate here! Listen here. Now on Spotify! In episode 57 of America Adapts, Doug Parsons talks with experts from all over the world focusing on the conservation of the elusive snow leopard of the Asia High Mountains and how this species - and the communities around this species - are adapting to climate change.  Guests from Nepal, India, China, Russia, Sweden, and the US share stories on studying this amazing cat and talk about some of the innovative adaptation strategies that are being put in place thanks to funding from a USAID project that is being implemented by World Wildlife Fund. Two additional themes emerge in this episode, the influence of Peter Matthiessen’s epic masterpiece, The Snow Leopard, and stories from these experts about their own magical encounters with the snow leopard in the wild.  Peter Matthiessen never did see a snow leopard, but several of these experts did. Hear their amazing stories in detail. This podcast was sponsored by World Wildlife Fund and USAID as part of the Asia’s High Mountains project. Brochure: Conservation and Adaptation in Asia’s High Mountain Landscapes and Communities Subscribe/listen to podcast on Apple Podcasts. Guests in this episode: Ryan Bartlett – Lead: Climate Risk Management, WWF US (Starts 2:52) Juan Li, Post Doc, Panthera/University of California, Berkeley | UCB, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management - China/Science/snow leopard (starts 23:44) Ghana Shyam Gurung – WWF Nepal/Science/adaptation (Starts 37:33) Oksana Lipka – WWF Russia, Climate Adaptation and Environmental Specialist - Russia/Science/adaptation (Starts 51:31) Charudutt (Charu) Mishra, the Snow Leopard Trust’s Science and Conservation Director- India/Science/adaptation (Starts 59:58) Judy Oglethorpe, Senior Director, Multilateral Program Development at WWFUS - Adaptation/Nepal (Starts 1:20:58) Theo Perlin – Student, Snow Leopard Fundraiser (1:45:15) Matthias Fiechter - Communications Manager, Snow Leopard Trust (1:50:17) Donate here! Subscribe/listen to podcast on Apple Podcasts. Donate to America Adapts, we are now a tax deductible charitable organization!   Facebook and Twitter: @snowleopards @WWFUS ‏ @wwfRU @WWFNepal @WWFINDIA https://www.facebook.com/worldwildlifefund/ https://www.facebook.com/snowleopard.org/ @usaadapts https://www.facebook.com/americaadapts/timeline www.americaadapts.org Subscribe to America Adapts on Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/america-adapts-climate-change/id1133023095?mt=2 Listen here. On Google Play here. Please share on Facebook! On Twitter: @usaadapts Links in episode: https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/asia-high-mountains?utm_campaign=freshwater&utm_content=CBS&utm_medium=print&utm_source=events https://nature.berkeley.edu/beislab/BeissingerLab/?page_id=355 https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/ryan-bartlett http://www.wwfnepal.org/?224234/WWF-Nepal-and-partner-ministries-signed-a-grant-agreement-for-Sustainable-Land-Management-in-Churia-Region-Project https://www.snowleopard.org/sweet-treats-help-save-cats/ http://www.icimod.org/?q=15429 https://www.snowleopard.org/about/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Leopard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Matthiessen https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Leopard-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143105515 www.thirdpolegeolab.org https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/nepal-honors-a-new-generation-of-conservation-leaders http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_together_possible/making_friends_with_the_enemy/ Facts on Snow Leopard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSdJwBhWgZQ Theo Perlin’s Cheese Scone Recipe! America Adapts also has its own app for your listening pleasure!  Just visit the App store on Apple or Google Play on Android and search “America Adapts.” Join the climate change adaptation movement by supporting America Adapts!  Please consider supporting this podcast by donating through America Adapts fiscal sponsor, the Social Good Fund. All donations are now tax deductible!  For more information on this podcast, visit the website at http://www.americaadapts.org and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on Itunes.   Podcast Music produce by Richard Haitz Productions Write a review on Itunes! America Adapts on Facebook!   Join the America Adapts Facebook Community Group. Check us out, we’re also on YouTube! Producer Dan Ackerstein Subscribe to America Adapts on Itunes Doug can be contacted at americaadapts @ g mail . com

Today I chat with Dr. Charudutt Mishra and his work with the Snow Leopard Trust. 

Welcome again to The Lost Geek podcast! This week I talk about: On The Needles Lace bodice of Low Tide cardigan, blocked Low Tide cardigan by Tin Can Knits: finished lace bodice and working on stockinette body. I talked about frustration that centered around picking up stitches. Part of Tin Can Knits KAL with Kim of Craft Stash. Arden fingerless mitts by mikka (The Wayfaring Knitter). US size 4 (3.5 mm), Snow Leopard Trust handspun camel yarn. I don't enjoy knitting this for some reason... Nespelem cardigan. Finished collar, sleeves left. I want to convert the pattern from flat to in the round, but don't know how. The Whirligeek Babydoll Southdown, spun on Wildcraft top whorl drop spindle

The podcast is now officially on iTunes! *happydance* You can subscribe to the podcast here.  Or you can also download it directly from Libsyn here. What other platforms other than iTunes do you use? Let me know in the comments. This week's episode is titled such because I am so overwhelmed by support, nice messages, feedback, and constructive criticism from people that I know and strangers that I met through the podcast. Even though episode 0 is technically a pilot episode not meant for public consumption, it's so nice to be contacted by listeners who found the podcast either through twitter or Ravelry, or referred to by podcasters who gave the episode a listen. I apologize for the sniffles, I got a stuffy nose but thankfully it didn't get blown up to a full cold. I'd like to thank Kristin of Yarngasm, Kim of Craft Stash, Ray of Podcasters' Studio, Martine of iMake, Paula of Knitting Pipeline, Steph and Stacie of The Must Stash Podcast. I will keep improving content and quality of the show, so stay tuned! Off The Needles Damson by Ysolda Teague. Yarn: Three Irish Girls Kinsale Merino Tencel. Lovely pattern, love the magic of blocking that opens up the garment. I mentioned blocking wires by inspinknitty. You can buy from her Etsy shop or direct from her website (and she has a coupon code for 10% off until April 30th 2013: "save10now"). On The Needles Caravan Scarf by Anne Hanson. Yarn: handspun Mongolian Bactrian camel from Snow Leopard Trust. I complained about the veg matter on the first skein. Bits and pieces of veg matter and hair would fall off to my lap when I wound the skein into a ball, and even when I was knitting. Can't decide what to do with two skeins (one heavier than the oth

Listen here or subscribe on iTunes. I finally recorded and published my first trial podcast episode! I am loving Garage Band and its magic, and I thank Apple for making the software learning curve so much less steep by developing awesome user interface... I mentioned Paula of Knitting Pipeline Hopefully I can fill a niche of non-US non-British knitting podcast, I will talk about knitting and spinning stuff, about life in Indonesia, and random stuff that comes in my life. On The Needles Nespelem cardigan by Norah Gaughan, Berocco Pura Pima as suggested, US 5-3.75 mm Hiya Hiya Sharps interchangeable needles. Finished back and two fronts. Working on the collar, and still have one collar and two sleeves, AND seaming to go. A lot of ribbing and stockinette on the cardigan. Meant to be worn open. Love the yarn, but feeling the FO of a friend, very heavy. Damson by Ysolda Teague from Whimsical Little Knits 2. Three Irish Girls Kinsale Merino Tencel, colorway Serenity blue, a shipment of Sharon's Pick of The Knitter club, which is currently unavailable for new subscriptions. US 5 -3.75 mm Knit Picks nickel. Construction: garter tab, simple garter body, a stockinette edge and loops on the very edge. Working on the stockinette edge, seemingly endless. Thing about triangular shawl: easy breezy beginnings and a long slog in the end. Caravan Scarf by Anne Hanson, from Barenaked Knitspot club. First February shipment, Snow Leopard Trust handspun camel from Mongolia. 2 skeins of brown undyed Bactrian camel fiber (two-humped camel). First time ever knitting with handspun. Love the variety of texture in the yarn. Some (actually, a lot!) of vm (vegetable matters) in the yarn, but easily taken out. CO using US 4 -3.5mm, realized I was wrong about gauge. Went up to 6 halfway through the ribbing and switched to 7s for the body. going to be for dad. Hard to knit for guys especially those who live in a tropical climate like Indonesia. Off The Needles