Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Abused animals get a helping hand
Jbjsaturday
JUMANJI’S whiskers twitched as he sized up his visitors beyond the fence. Seconds later he leapt toward them, ears back, yellow eyes narrowed, fangs bared.
“He thought that was fun,” said Pat Craig, founder of The Wild Animal Sanctuary in the US, who rescued the black leopard from a menagerie in Ohio. Jumanji was nursed to health on grasslands, recovering from frostbitten ears and infections he got from lying in his own urine.
The 65kg cat’s one of the lucky ones. He and 400 other animals – along with some coati-mundis, alpacas and a camel – are cared for by a small staff and hundreds of volunteers at Craig’s nonprofit park.
It’s one of dozens in the US involved in rescue work brought on by crackdowns on circuses and unlicensed zoos with exotic animals, as well as on people who keep them as pets.
Craig’s charges include Baloo the black bear, whose claws were ripped out with pliers, and Major the mountain lion, who arrived so stressed he was furless on his front legs and tail. Grizzlies Gaika and Masha lived in a truck for 17 years, addicted to the nicotine a trainer used to coax them into tricks.
“It’s always been far too easy for people to get animals, trade animals and breed them,” said Ed Stewart, co-founder of the Performing Animal Welfare Society, or PAWS, which runs three sanctuaries. “Finally municipalities are making it harder, and now there’s a rush to find homes for everybody.”
Many cities in the US have outlawed performances of wild or exotic animals. Thirty countries, from Greece to Peru, forbid wild creatures in travelling circuses, as will England at the end of the year.
The oldest US circus is under the gun too. Facing pressure from activists and bans on bull hooks – poker-like devices wielded to prod animals into performing – Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey is phasing Asian elephants out of its acts.
Craig opened The Wild Animal Sanctuary 35 years ago when he was 19, starting out with a few acres on his family’s farm. Today the place covers 290ha, and he said he’s halfway toward raising $1.2 million (about R16m) to buy 600 more. Craig relies on donations to feed the ani- mals. Denizens nosh on 15 000kgs of food a week, including steak, eggs, peaches and asparagus. They’re given more than they can eat, so they won’t fight over food.
The shelter also house pets people buy before discovering health codes that prohibit them keeping them, which has created a vast population of homeless potbelly pigs.
Anjali Polu, an 8-year-old from San Francisco, plans to help. She tugged on Craig’s orange staff shirt and said she’ll be donating her allowance. Her mother, Heidi Butz, a nurse, said she brings Anjali and her 4-year-old brother, Axel, to visit the sanctuary every year. “I want my kids to learn that not all animals are lucky.” – Washington Post