Podcasts about species survival plan

Our Delaware Valley September 8, 2024  7:30AM 20 minutes of a 30-minute program Al Zone, Executive Director and CEO of Elmwood Park Zoo discusses the 100 anniversary year events, programming and new additions at the neighborhood landmark.  Created as a land trust in 1924, they grew from a facility for North and South American animals into a home for over 100 species from all over the globe including giraffes, zebras, bald and golden eagles, jaguars, and red pandas, a number of which are managed through an international Species Survival Plan.  They are one of only 230 institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  He discussed the importance of this designation and how their work supports the conservation and protection of these animals and their habitats across the country.  To showcase their efforts a visit is narrated by their work in creating habitats, and allows guests to see feedings and even veterinary care.  He discussed how the zoo offers programming for all with zip-lines and beer gardens to make it a full day of activities.  The zoo pioneered inclusion for children and adults with autism or special needs and were the first zoo in the world to earn certification as a Certified Autism Center with special admission hours, sensory backpacks and guides and even adult changing tables.  They were the first to add pet-friendly programming and offer ‘Yappy Hour' events. To celebrate their anniversary there are centennial Saturdays the first Saturday of the month with special programming and early admittance for members.  The 100th Anniversary Gala will take place November 2 at the Oaks Expo Center, tickets are now on sale, as well as for the annual Beast of a Feast October 10th, featuring food stations and evening entertainment throughout the zoo.  For Halloween family fun there's Boo At The Zoo.   Elmwood Park Zoo is located at 1661 Harding Blvd. in Norristown, PA, for tickets, memberships and visiting information go to elmwoodparkzoo.org.

Join Greater Vancouver Zoo's Zookeepers, Calum and Ashley, for a Wild Conversation! Covering all things wild, from conservation, natural events, zookeeping, and much more! - In episode 30 of AWC season 2, Cal and Ashley discuss an exciting announcement as well as the Species Survival Plan! (SSP). Remember to submit your questions for future episodes to podcast@gvzoo.com, updates can be found on our social media platforms so remember to give us a follow. - Visit gvzoo.com for more info. Remember to support or donate to your local zoos, conservation organizations, or even volunteer!

Newsweek Exposes the Cruelty Behind Breeding White Tigers   I've been working in the area behind Nirvana for the past several days and have had the pleasure of hearing tour guides talking about the white tiger issue.  I have heard the amazement in the voices of the guests as they learned that every thing they thought knew about white tigers was wrong.   I have heard guests try to argue the facts or ignore the new information by proclaiming that they still think white tigers are beautiful.  It has given me a new appreciation for what all of you go through when giving tours.  It especially impresses me that some of you, who are still so new to the knowledge yourselves, manage to be firm in your presentations while still being kind to the guests.   This week a thirty year old secret was exposed in Newsweek, the second largest weekly magazine in America.  Sharyn Beach exposed it in Britannica Online Encyclopedia in March of this year.  It is the same secret that Big Cat Rescue exposed 11 years ago as the first organization to go public with the truth about the white tiger.   What I knew in 1998 was that people could sell a white tiger cub for $60,000 and just about all of the breeders and dealers and zoos were out to breed them.  I had been to facilities such as the one where Shere Khan was born, (Dennis Hill in Flatrock, IN) and where Modnic, TJ & Bella came from (Robert Baudy of Savage Kingdom in Center Hill, FL) and where Auroara had come from (Predators Plus).  What I saw haunted me because I saw many tigers who had horrible deformities;  teeth going in all directions, eyes out on the nose, clubbed feet and lame hips.   These birth defects were primarily in the white tigers, but some of their golden litter mates were affected as well.  I started asking about who the tigers' parents were, who their siblings were, and discovered that people were inbreeding these cats.  They never used that word, but rather would say “line breeding” or “selective breeding” or they would make outrageous claims about how they had “created” a line of white tigers by choosing the best pairings. In 1998 there were only 200 white tigers world wide.  With Siegfried and Roy promoting white tigers as Royal White Bengal tigers the breeders scurried to meet demand.   Especially complicit were the Cincinnati Zoo & the Nashville Zoo who knew that the origins of white tigers only came from severe inbreeding.  It was common knowledge to breeders that there was an 80% mortality rate.  They should have put an end to it right then and there, but white tigers were a novelty and people would pay to see them.  The accredited zoos, who actually keep pedigrees on their tigers, knew that inbreeding was the only way to increase their probability of getting that money making white cub.   In 1998 I still thought that most of the breeders and dealers out there were just ignorant.  I was a member of AZA and had been attending their conferences and meeting their cat experts to find out what they thought to be best practices.  I thought that if the private sector knew better they would behave better and so I spent a lot of time writing articles for their club called the Feline Conservation Federation (FKA the Long Island Ocelot Club).  I was part of their list serve and participated in discussions about exotic cat husbandry in the hopes of helping their cats have better lives.  We had only had the Internet for a couple of years and were still trying to find ways to use it to band all exotic cat owners together for a comprehensive repository of information on best practices.  Our own website had only been up for two years and I was using it as a way of making all of the lessons we had learned available for everyone else.  I figured the reason all of these breeders had so many defective tigers was because they didn't know that they were all so inbred and they were just making it worse by not keeping records.   I proposed all of what I knew about white tigers on our website and suggested that we create a registry of all of the cats in the private sector, along with micro chipping, to make sure that no more cats suffered from such terrible birth defects.  I quickly learned that the people making money off the white tigers knew what they were doing and ignored the agony they were inflicting.   About a year later a veterinarian wrote to me after finding our white tiger page on the Internet.  He said that we were the only people telling the truth and that he had the full story because he had been the veterinarian for the Las Vegas duo for many years, as well as the vet for several large zoos.  He had worked with 250 tigers.  He spent 20 years documenting the origins and malpractice involved in breeding white tigers and had never found a way to make his findings publicly known.  The zoos didn't want anyone to know.  Dr. Dan Laughlin and I spent hours on the phone pouring over the documents he had sent me to convince me of his credentials and his findings.   We launched his letter on our website which culminated in his statement, “…every white tiger in the U.S. is not only the result of repeated inbreeding of genetically defective animals but, even worse, is a hybrid or crossbred animal. Thus, anyone involved in breeding and/or exhibiting white tigers is doing a great disservice to honest conservation and preservation efforts to save the five remaining and endangered subspecies of tigers barely clinging to survival…”   We also quoted Ron Tilson, the head of the tiger species survival plan who said, "The white tiger controversy among zoos is a small part ethics and a large part economics. The tiger Species Survival Plan has condemned breeding white tigers because of their mixed ancestry, most have been hybridized with other subspecies and are of unknown lineage, and because they serve no conservation purpose…"   "However, there is an unspoken issue that shames the very integrity of zoos, their alleged conservation programs and their message to the visiting public. To produce white tigers or any other phenotypic curiosity, directors of zoos and other facilities must continuously inbreed father to daughter and father to granddaughter and so on. At issue is a contradiction of fundamental genetic principles upon which all Species Survival Plans for endangered species in captivity are based. White tigers are an aberration artificially bred and proliferated by some zoos, private breeders and a few circuses who do so for economic rather than conservation reasons."   Our tour guides began sharing this information with our visitors.  We began writing letters to USDA, state wildlife agencies and to the media to raise awareness about the horrific practice of inbreeding to get white tigers.   The breeders, dealers, zoos and circus acts who were profiting from white tigers saw us as public enemy number one.  There was no way they could prove the outrageous stories they were promoting about how these cats came from hidden islands, or were the product of their animal husbandry genius.  If anyone looked beyond the image in front of them, they would find out the truth and that would mean the end of their profits.  White tiger sales began to plummet, both from the over abundance of animals born and because more people were becoming aware of the inbreeding.  I have seen white tiger cubs selling for as little as $1000.00.  I have lost track of the number of adults who were offered to us for free and sometimes people even offering to pay us to take them so they could make space for more cubs.   The people who went from making $60,000 for a white cub to only $1000 for a white cub have no excuse for what they do.  The only thing they can do is to try and discredit us.  That is why they are always attacking us, and me in particular.  I feel for you guys because it can be scary to have people say such horrible things about you, or Big Cat Rescue, if you speak out in a public forum.   Someone asked me recently if the woman who has the REXANO site has a full time person dedicated only to tracking my postings so they can go on there and talk all kinds of trash about me.  Little do they realize that it just makes them look stupid and is actually helping us show the world what kind of person would breed white tigers.   Thanks to the pressure that Big Cat Rescuers have kept on them, the AZA came out with a policy statement against breeding white tigers fairly recently, even though they do not yet enforce it strongly.   It is so exciting to me to see that we have persevered through more than a decade of trying to get the world to see that breeding white tigers (especially) is cruel and unconscionable.  To see Britannica and Newsweek running stories that tell the truth is a HUGE win!  This was the headline caption for the Newsweek story this past week, “Bred for profit, the animals are often cruelly deformed by inbreeding.”  The only reason this is happening is because of you.  No one else was willing to take on the Goliath of zoos, circuses and Las Vegas (where REXANO is based).  The day is coming when no more tigers will be purposely inbred to create a freak for the paying public.  That day is coming because Big Cat Rescuers won't give up until it does.     Inside America's Tiger-Breeding Farms   BY RAVI SOMAIYA ON 7/28/10 AT 11:15 AM EDT   Almost all of America's 7,000 tigers are born and raised here. Reports from tiger farms suggest there are many unscrupulous breeders, and activists allege that the trade is cruel. What's clear is that tigers are often kept in small pens, people die when safety is lax, and the cats are hideously inbred to produce valuable white cubs.   The trade is not illegal, though a recent law bans the sale or trade of big cats across state lines for the pet trade. But breeders exploit a patchwork of state-by-state rules, and loopholes, to continue to sell cubs. People who rescue unwanted or mistreated tigers estimate that the number of breeders might be in the hundreds. Several alleged traders contacted by NEWSWEEK refused to be interviewed, perhaps because in recent years many operations have been shut down by authorities.   One of the biggest, Savage Kingdom, in Florida, was closed by the Department of Agriculture in 2006. Several accidents had occurred there. In 2001 a handyman named Vincent Lowe went into a cage to repair a dangerously worn-down gate. Colleagues had to watch as a 318-pound male tiger, Tijik, "ripped out [his] throat," according to the USDA report. They could not rescue him for fear of being attacked themselves.   The tiger was eventually shot by Savage Kingdom's octogenarian owner, Robert Baudy, who had been in the tiger trade for many decades—he'd even been on The Ed Sullivan Show promoting his animals. "He was from an era before animal welfare," says Jamie Veronica, who is with the charity Big Cat Rescue and went into the farm after it was closed to try to remove and resettle dozens of tigers (all were eventually moved safely). "When he started out, people just saw animals as a commodity, a way to make money." The USDA report blamed Baudy for safety failures that led to Lowe's death. He could not be reached for comment at a number listed for him...   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.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Thank you to our executive producer CW for Bowl After Bowl Episode 87 coming in with a monthly stonation! Shoutout to Boo-Bury, CMike, and SirVo for streaming those sats.  Don't be a mooch! Bowl After Bowl is a value-for-value podcast meaning you get our content for free with no ads. All we ask is the the love you make is equal to the love you take. If you receive value, send some back to us in return! There's lots of ways to do it: PayPal donations, cryptocurrencies, streaming satoshis on your favorite app, making art, sharing news stories, ISOs, or leaving a voicemail at (816) 607-3663. CRYPTOCURRENCY   Do you have a node yet? Every podcaster should have their own node! What are you waiting for? Just get in the car and drive, dude! Check out this article SirSpencer referenced, How to run a Lightning Network node on Windows. Consider Umbrel,  myNode, Voltage, or setting up a RaspiBlitz. And be sure to visit NewPodcastApps.com on the regular! TOP THREE 33 Rest in Peace, Joya. Born in 1988 at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, this 33-year-old greater one-horned rhino (also known as the Indian Rhino) was the oldest male in the Species Survival Plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Joya moved to Salina, Kansas' Rolling Hills Zoo in 1995 where he had been monitored by veterinarian staff for age-related issues for the past few months. Add another tally to the Clinton Body Count. This week, ABC 33/40 reporter Christopher Sign suicided. He broke the secret tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch in 2016, then published a book about it. After its release in February 2020, he told Fox & Friends his family received death threats which drove him out of Phoenix, Arizona back to Birmingham, Alabama -- to Channel 33. When asked about chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes for the November 3, 2020 election, a Fulton County election official admitted to The Georgia Star News "a few forms are missing" and "some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced." Coincidentally, Georgia is missing chain of custody documents for about 333,000 absentee ballots out of an estimated 600,000 which is pretty suspicious considering Biden only "won" by 12,000 votes in the Peach State. Lastly, neighbors called for a wellness check on a Glendora, California home after smelling a strong odor coming from it. Law enforcement found 33 cats -- 7 dead and 2 that had to be euthanized -- and one dog living in filthy conditions. THE COOF This week, 33 deaths were reported in Oman and the Punjab state of India. 33 new cases were reported in the Prey Veng province of Cambodia, Kentucky's Graves County, Massachusetts, Maui, New York's Monroe County, and Washington's Clark County. The CDC updated their travel guidance, moving 33 countries to their lowest risk category which is deemed safe for travel for anyone who got a coof shot. In England, a 33-year-old music teacher plead guilty to faking a COVID 'Fit to Fly' certificate to travel to Egypt by altering the date on a negative 'rona test PDF from February. An Egyptian airline worker spotted a missing digit on the certificate. He was found guilty of forgery and counterfeit offense of making a false instrument but was granted bail and is leaving the country ahead of his hearing, telling the judge he will be back in time for it and now has an up-to-date negative test certificate. Also, the symptoms for this scary new Delta variant are headaches, coughs, and sneezing...like a cold. WEED In 2007, Robert Franklin tossed a pound of weed out of his car during a traffic stop in Saline County, Missouri and received a 22-year prison sentence. But after serving more than a decade in prison, he has become the first 420POW to have his case commuted by Governor Mike Parson. Jeff Mizanskey was the last time weed-related POW freed by Governor Jay Nixon in 2015. Joints for Jabs launched Monday in Washington state, but dispensary owners aren't participating. Unlike other jab freebies which require citizens to simply flash their poked papers to claim their prize, Joints for Jabs requires pot shops to set up a vaccine clinic inside so only those with a fresh band-aid can claim their jay. Many don't have the space to set up a clinic inside, and healthcare providers are concerned about setting up shop in a place that distributes illegal drugs since that could jeopardize their federal funding. Since the program expires July 12, citizens planning to get poked in the pot shop might not be able to get their second shot in time. Participating pot shops will be able to cash in on a tax break for product they give away unlike alcohol retailers, but that doesn't help much when they are still unfairly facing Section 180E. Last Tokin' Tuesday, the pain management committee for the NFL and NFL Players Association announced it will provide $1 million in funding for research into pain management with cannabis and cannabinoids. Five grants are expected to be awarded around Thanksgiving. Arkansas' medical sales exceeded $330 million since the market launched in 2019 and last month, May 2021, Maine hit a new record with $5.4 million in recreational sales. The Montana group opposing the 2020 voter-approved recreational initiative has dropped its lawsuit since Governor Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 701 into law, amending the legalization law voters passed. The lawsuit claimed the initiative was unconstitutional for earmarking a portion of tax revenues from federally illegal marijuana sales, contending only the legislature can determine how tax revenue is spent. Tomorrow, June 16, 2021 at 10 AM, the Connecticut legislature will hold a special session to determine the fate of the recreational weed bill mentioned previously on Bowl After Bowl. Rhode Island will have to wait a little longer for a recreational market, as the backers of three adult-use bills failed to compromise and likely won't before the end of the legislative session the last week of June. Today, Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) and Cori Bush (D-MO) unveiled the Drug Policy Reform Act (DPRA) to end criminal penalties for drug possession federally and incentivize state and local governments to adopt decriminalization policies by limiting their eligibility to receive funds if they don't. The bill also proposes moving regulatory power from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, record expungement and resentencing, "reinvesting in alternative health-centered approaches," prohibiting drug tests for individuals to receive federal benefits, prohibiting the use of civil asset forfeiture related to personal drug possession cases, and establishing a Commission on Substance Use, Health and Safety to determine benchmark amounts for drug possession and publish a report including recommendations for preventing the prosecution of individuals processing, distributing, or dispensing personal use quantities. In 2018, Tampa-based Florigrown sued the state over its licensing process which resulted in three of the 22 licensed operators controlling two-thirds of the market. Six license holders account for 90% of sales. They hoped the state would provide standalone licenses for small businesses and break up the vertical scheme, but the Supreme Court just ruled against them in a 6-1 decision saying the Florida Legislature met its constitutional obligations in enacting a limited-license vertical structure. With the lawsuit over, the state's licensing freeze comes to an end. It is likely state regulators will issue 15 new vertical licenses over the next six months. The Ohio State Medical Board added Huntington's disease, spasticity or severe muscle spasms, and terminal illness as qualifying conditions for medical weed. Earlier in the year, the board granted separate requests to add arthritis, chronic migraines, and complex regional pain syndrome but rejected petitions to include autism spectrum disorder and restless leg syndrome. In Colorado, 21 individuals were arrested in connection to a black market marijuana and money laundering scheme. They are accused of growing millions of dollars worth of pot across metro Denver and funneling their profits to China through social media apps. The investigation began in August 2020 and investigators have since seized thousands of plants, hundreds of pounds of packaged pot, and about $1 million. Charges range from racketeering and conspiracy to drug cultivation, distribution, and money laundering. Federal investigators found the money cycled from the US to China to Central and South America, then back to the US. Two individuals were allegedly involved in the illegal Oklahoma grow op referenced in Bowl After Bowl Episode 80: I Shitted My Priorities. Yesterday (Monday, June 14, 2021), the California legislature approved a $100-million plan to strengthen their legal industry which continues to struggle in competition with the emerald market five years after voters approved recreational sales. Grants will be provided to cities and counties to help businesses transition from provisional to regular licenses. It's a complicated process to get a permanent, annually-renewed license from a temporary one, requiring high costs and developing a plan to reduce the harms of the industry's negative environmental impacts. Speaking of negative impacts, Sacramento is being sued by a number of unidentified weed businesses for establishing "Neighborhood Responsibility Plan" fees equal to 1% of gross revenue on top of a 4% business operations tax on gross receipts -- even though the city failed to identify a single negative impact from cannabiz operations. After receiving eight complaints about a growing operation's odor March 2019, Santa Barbara County filed the jurisdiction's first nuisance lawsuit against Island View Ranch and Island Breeze Farms.  The lawsuit also claims Island Breeze hasn't "diligently pursued" obtaining the county and state business licenses to operate and therefore is illegally growing and processing weed. First Time I Ever... #FTIE The bowlers discuss the first time they ever held a baby and next week, we want to hear about the first time YOU ever saw a lover's junk. Leave a voicemail day or night! If you're voice shy, feel free to send a text message: (816) 607-3663 Fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling. #FIDLGB A man from Cape Cod spent 40 seconds in the mouth of a humpback whale.  Some lucky duck in Ontario bought a painting for $5 at a thrift store which turned out to be a David Bowie original! A Kansas Lottery player celebrated their birthday with one of the state's largest Keno jackpots off a Quick Pick. An analysis published by the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters found commonly used cosmetics contain high levels of potentially toxic chemicals not listed on labels which can be ingested through lip products or absorbed through the skin and tear ducts to enter the bloodstream.  An Atlanta cashier was shot and killed over a face diaper argument. There's a petition for Jeff Bezos to buy and eat the Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. A suspicious vehicle complaint turned up a man stuck in a vineyard fan. A couple in Alberta, Canada are paying a $500 fine after their gender-reveal party caused a small wildfire. A White House press corps flight to England was delayed due to mechanical issues caused by cicadas. Jack Herer told us first, but now the science is catching up since Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute says hemp could save the planet from climate change.

Cherishing the Life of Nakita Bobcat Cats make us laugh but they can also touch our hearts in ways that defy explanation.  Nakita the bobcat is one of those cats.  The first time I saw Nakita she was sharing a small rabbit hutch with Czar, a cat of uncertain parentage, but who appeared to be a cross between a Canada Lynx and a Bobcat.  It was a cold day in November of 1992 in South Carolina and the cats had only a couple of boards on top of the cage to protect them from the elements.   Both cats were hunched down, as close as they could get to each other, as if in a combined effort to look bigger and more formidable to the two novices who stood before them.  They knew, all too well, all about the exotic pet trade and we knew nothing.  We were being told that they were rare creatures who would only survive if we bought them and bred them for future generations.  We were ignorant as to the deception of that advice, but we could clearly see that these cats would be much better off with us than in this rickety chicken coop of a cage, so we paid the ransom and took them home.   As the years passed we learned that none of these animals are genetically traceable for use in any internationally sanctioned Species Survival Plan and even if they were, there isn't a re-wilding program in existence for any of the exotic cat species due to man's encroachment on their habitat.  We learned that paying their ransom just enabled the drunk who had sold them to continue his dirty trade.  We learned a lot; more than these pages can hold, but for now I just want to share two precious lessons learned.   In the wild bobcats and lynx are solitary and only come together for mating.  Nature has equipped them to be self sufficient and to look out for number one.  One of the things I love most about bobcats is that they draw a line in the sand and are quite content to live and let live as long as you stay on your side of the line, but the second you cross over, the fury that is theirs to unleash is a fearsome thing.  They are that way with us and with each other and almost every scar on my body is from breaking up bobcat fights.  (This should come with the warning:  Do Not Try This At Home!)   Czar and Nakita never fought and I was thankful for that.  I don't know if I could have survived breaking up a fight between a hybrid the size of Czar and a cat as sure of herself as Nakita.  Their love was the stuff of legends.   When Czar was in his teens he succumbed to both deafness and blindness, but he lived on for years because his unwavering companion put aside all that is instinctive in her to only provide for herself.  They would lay close and groom each other throughout the day.  At dinner time, Czar could not see the volunteers with wagons full of meat coming.  He could no longer hear the excited chirps and calls of all the other cats that alerted everyone down the path that the glorious hour of the day had finally arrived.   All of the other cats would be excitedly pacing in and out of their lockouts where they are fed, but Czar would sit, staring with eyes that no longer see, into the darkened silence that surrounded him.  What happened next would bring tears to the eyes of everyone who ever witnessed it and still brings tears to my eyes today.   Nakita would nudge Czar to stand and leaning against him, as one might steady an elderly person, she would slowly walk, shoulder to shoulder with Czar and deposit him in his lockout where the staff would place the food before him.  In his last days, all he did was sleep all day, but at supper time Nakita made sure he got up and made it into his feeding area.  Nakita's devotion to her loved one was far more than we often see in human families and it taught me that real love never fails.   Czar died in the spring of 2003 and I wondered if Nakita would survive it.  They were so old, having been born in 1988, and had never been apart.  Nakita taught me about being strong and resilient in the four years that have lapsed since then.  Now that she no longer had to serve the role as constant companion and friend she seemed to take on a renewed interest in the world around her.   She has a high vantage point in her cage from where she watches the song birds and seems to draw herself just a little closer to the heavens that shower her with morning sunbeams.  A lizard darting by would have her full attention and the butterflies seemed to dance out a message that only she could translate.   In recent days though, age has taken its toll on her tiny little body.  She eats as much as before, but is becoming thinner and more fragile every day.  She still lives for the sounds of the food carts and at feeding time I will see her sitting up as tall as she can stretch herself looking in the direction of the path where her caretakers will emerge with the day's delicacies.   It is painful to watch her go and when she signals that she is ready we will ease her to the other side, but she has done what she came here to do.  She has taught us all a lot about what it means to really love someone and how to keep finding joy in the little blessings after losing all that you cherished most.   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.

Gloria Noble Johnson Cougar Ridge   Dear Gloria Noble Johnson,  You asked me if I thought there was no reason to breed exotic cats and it sounded like your thoughts on that are evolving.  I am early on in that process and thought that sharing how this belief has come to be may aid you in the unfolding of your path.   I always loved cats and knew I would do something for them someday but I left home at 15 and was a street urchin for two years before marrying an auto mechanic.  The next decade was spent as most probably are:  raising a family, earning a living and being too tired at the end of the day to do anything but collapse on the couch.   By the time I was 23 I was divorced and still raising my daughter (two of the children had been his from a previous marriage) and earning a living.  I felt more and more that something really big and expensive was going to become my burden, but had no idea what it was, so I worked 7 days a week and reinvested every penny we didn't have to have for food.  Being caught up in the rat race I didn't spend any time thinking about the big picture.   I remarried at 30 and started the sanctuary the next year.  The evolution of the sanctuary was pretty average.  We had a pet bobcat and when we went in search of another one discovered 56 that were going to be slaughtered at a fur farm and brought all of them home.  Unable to give personal attention to 57 lynx we placed them in homes where possible.  We bought out two more fur farms and began asking everyone who had cats about how to care for them.   We met all the people you usually meet at that stage:  The breeders, the dealers, the users, the “educators” and the exploiters who all had very polished media sound bites that they had rehearsed for years to justify what they did.  To newbies like us, who knew nothing of the facts, it all sounded very noble.  We met Robert Baudy, Darrell Atkinson, Doc Antle, Peter Caron, Judy Watson and on and on I could go for pages.  They seemed to be the experts and there was no one else to ask.   Zoos wouldn't talk to “the private sector” and most of the places calling themselves sanctuaries explained that they had to breed and sell in order to support all the cats they already had bred and not sold.  The “educators” quoted famous people by saying that “people will only save what they love” indicating that by taking animals to schools, flea markets and shopping centers we were teaching people to care about animals and that would ultimately save them.  We fell for all of it.   Then one day we were at an exotic animal auction and I recognized a cat being sold.  I knew he was a kitten I had raised and placed in what I thought would be his forever home.  We bought him and brought him home and I began microchipping all of our cats.  Never again was I going to wonder if a cat of ours had wound up on that downward spiral.  People began asking me to take back cats we had placed and I always did.  I began to realize, that unlike me, when people committed to an animal, it only meant that they were committed as long as it was fun or at least convenient.  My husband was suffering from Alzheimer's by now and was totally irrational.  I couldn't stop him from breeding and selling, but I started sneaking cats to the vet and having them neutered.  He could pair up cats until the cows came home, but they weren't having any kittens.   I lost him in 1997 when I was 36 and our assets were tied up in court (and obliterated I might add) over the next six years.  The cats were costing me 400,000.00 a year, but the courts would only allow 150,000.00 of my business earnings to go to the cats each year for the six years.  My daughter was 17 and graduated 2 years early so that she could help me care for the cats.  All of my time was spent trying to figure out ways to keep the cats fed.   Finally in 2003 it was over and my new life had begun with Howie who I just married last November.  He was a retired Harvard MBA and lived frugally enough that he wouldn't have to work again.  His life was all about spending time with his friends and playing golf and tennis.  Now he works crazy hours like I do for no pay in order to lift some of the burden of the sanctuary off me.  He has used his special talents with people skills to get a lot of media exposure for us.  I always believed that if people knew what we were doing they would support us.   That was a long winded way to get to where I meant to start the letter.  Because I now don't have all of the burdens I have had in the past I have been able to sort of hover over the situation and take a good look at it.  I am amazed at how simple things look from 30,000 feet up.  I asked myself:   What is the problem?  How can I fix it?   It has been my observation that there are hundreds of exotic cats each year that end up unwanted, which usually ends very badly for them.  Even the people who do keep them for their whole life, usually keep them in conditions that we would equate to life in prison at best.  So it got me wondering as to “Why?”   Too often, when I ask myself that, the answer is “because that is the way I always did it or always believed”.  I discovered that no one outside of the Species Survival Plan was actually breeding for conservation back in 1999 when I became active on those committees in the AZA.  My task was to define all of the cage space in zoos and the census of all exotic cats of known origin (pedigreed back to the wild) that would be viable in breeding for true genetic conservation.  None of the back yard breeders in Florida were holding animals that could be traced back to their historical origins.  The Baudy cats especially are known around the globe, not only in AZA but in WAZA and ICUN as being the most unhealthy, inbred, lame, “throw away” cats in the industry.  Zoos were being encouraged to “get rid” of all of their un usable stock to free up cage space for the real conservation efforts.   Since there is no demand for the big cats after they aren't cubs that draw in customers, these cats were culled or sent to brokers who then sell them at auctions to anyone with money in their pocket.   The last of the myths that I believed that finally couldn't withstand the light of open questioning was on the issue of taking animals out for education.  I haven't done that since firing our education director in 1999 when she shoved a Jungle Cat into a carrier to go out to a school.  Our policy had always been that if the cat didn't want to go, you just went alone.  Even though I abandoned the practice long ago, I still believed that bringing people face to face with the animals, even if not in a natural environment, was still doing some good for engaging people to save wild places for wild animals.  I was wrong.   At the 2005 AZA Legislative Conference Todd Willens, the Senior Policy Advisor to Chairman Richard Pombo, on the House Resources Committee spoke to us.  While everyone was patting themselves on the back about all of the success stories in endangered specie recovery brought about by captive raised and released endangered animals, Todd pointed out that less than 1% of endangered species have recovered or improved at all as a result of all the zoo efforts combined.  “No matter how you cut it, that still means 99% of all endangered species continued to decline or went extinct since the Endangered Species Act was created in the 70's.” he reported.   For 30 years we have been exhibiting cats in un natural situations and saying we are doing it to make people care and it hasn't worked.  Einstein's definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.  So now the hard part, how do I fix it?   I can't fix the problem of shrinking habitat caused by the explosion of the human population.  I can't do it in Florida and I can't do it globally.   I can stop the suffering and abuse that exotic cats face as a result of being kept as pets, traded like used cars or used in entertainment.  I believe that I can because I believe that the crisis of exotic cats escaping, killing and mauling people has reached an epidemic level that legislators are willing to respond to.  I believe that the majority of people would agree that there is no reason that an animal should be purposely bred for life in a cage, just because we want to see one.   If it's not for the good of the animal and it's not for the good of the specie, then what other purpose is served in allowing the practice of using and abandoning exotic cats?  Just my rambling thoughts on the matter.  - Carole   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.  

Join Greater Vancouver Zoo's Menita Prasad for a Wild Conversation. Covering all things wild, from conservation, natural events, animal behavior, and much more! - In episode 3, Menita discusses the history of Zoos, misconceptions of Zoos, and the difference between accredited facilities and unaccredited facilities. Menita also speaks on why Zoos are necessary, conservation, and the Species Survival Plan here at GVZoo! - Be sure to visit gvzoo.com. And remember to support or donate to your local zoo, conservation organization, or even volunteer!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park has had a handful of births this year, including a giraffe, a zebra, an aardvark, a porcupine and recently a white rhinoceros. Mark Penning, Disney Parks' vice president for animals, science and environment, talks about the baby boom. Baby rhino milestones (2:55) More babies on the way (7:55) Mommy/Daddy rhinos (9:02) Species Survival Plan (10:36) Baby giraffe (12:17) A baby what? (16:13) Animal contraceptives (17:02) Zebra born at Animal Kingdom Lodge (17:50) The best part of the job (18:51)

The Safari heads across the border to The Toronto Zoo to discuss what the Species Survival Plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums looks like from a keeper's perspective. I talk to Lisa Termini, a keeper in the Eurasia Wilds section, all about the decision by the AZA to bring Ila and Suva, two red pandas, to the zoo in the hopes of breeding them. What's it like for the pandas? What's it like for the keepers? And is there any exciting news to share at the end of the process? Tune in to find out! You can check out the Toronto Zoo @thetorontozoo on Instagram, and also find Lisa there @zoogirl19. And don't forget to check out @rossifari on Insta and all the socials, www.rossifari.com, patreon.com/rossifari, and rossifari.redbubble.com for show and photography merch! Also, we yet again include a mention of Red Panda Network (@redpandanetwork), so make sure you're checking them out if you haven't yet!

Giraffes are a unique animal with their long necks and very long and flexible tongues. I wanted to find out more about giraffes at the Toronto Zoo, so I got the chance to sit down with Brent Huffman, Zookeeper, to ask him some questions about the two Masai giraffes at the Zoo.  Brent and I discuss their conservation needs in the wild in light of their massive population decline, the Species Survival Plan, behavioural husbandry implemented for giraffes at the Zoo, and we learn why giraffes have such long and flexible tongues.

Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley will be hosting Endangered Species Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday! You can become an Endangered Species Ambassador at the event! The zoo will share proactive actions everyone can take to protect rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species around the planet! Many of the animals at Niabi Zoo are part of the Species Survival Plan. Niabi Zoo's Curator of Conservation and Curation Joel Vanderbush joined AM Quad Cities!

This week we talk to Linda at the Akron Zoo about how "Legends of the Wild" was designed to showcase culture and the natural world, the zoo's involvement with the Species Survival Plan, and what a jaguar's favorite scent is. Music Credits: "Serengeti Song", "Light Tribal Background" Purple Planet Music (purple-planet.com)

Zoos demonstrate commitment to stewardship of the animal kingdom through participation in the Species Survival Plan, a program aimed at maintaining a healthy gene pool among endangered species who live in captivity. As an outcome of these efforts, one animal at the Greensboro Science Center has received a new possible mate.

Consummate herbivores, tortoises have a healthy and hearty diet at Smithsonian's National Zoo. Here, caretakers walk us through what goes into their special salad mix.