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maxicharming · 6 years
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ezatluba · 5 years
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The tiger next door: America’s backyard big cats
There are more tigers in American gardens than there are left in the wild. Alex Hannaford meets the owners who live cheek by jowl with their pets, and also those ensuring the big cats are treated without cruelty
Alex Hannaford
10 Nov 2019
It was the sort of headline impossible to scroll past: “Pot Smokers Find Caged Tiger in Abandoned Houston House, Weren’t Hallucinating: Police.” Last February, a group of people had snuck into a deserted house in Texas’s largest city to smoke marijuana when they stumbled upon a full-grown tiger in a cage – a cage secured by just a nylon strap and a screwdriver. Sergeant Jason Alderete of Houston Police Department’s animal cruelty unit, later told a local TV station: “It wasn’t the effects of the drugs. There was an actual tiger!” The animal was given a name, Loki, and sent to an animal sanctuary in the country, run by the Humane Society of the United States. You’d be forgiven for thinking Loki’s experience was an isolated incident – it isn’t.
An oft-quoted statistic is that there are more tigers in American back yards than there are left in the wild. According to the US Fish & Wildlife Service, there are between 3,200 and 3,500 tigers remaining in the wild globally. By some estimates there are 5,000 in captivity in the US, though there might be more. The truth is we have little idea how many there are in American ranches, unlicensed zoos, apartments, truck stops and private breeding facilities, due to a mishmash of state, federal and county laws governing their ownership.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, only 6% of America’s captive tiger population lives in zoos and facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums; the rest are in private hands. Some are regulated by the US Department of Agriculture and others by state laws, but some are not regulated at all. “In some states, it is easier to buy a tiger than to adopt a dog from a local animal shelter,” says the WWF.
In Texas, which lets each of its 254 counties regulate the ownership of dangerous wild animals, it’s hard to accurately gauge how many there are. In a state that prides itself on promoting individual freedoms, like openly carrying AR-15 semi-automatic rifles or bringing concealed handguns on to university campuses, it’s perhaps not surprising that owning a tiger is considered (by some) to be a God-given right.
The deplorable conditions in which Loki was found illustrate the fact that these “rights” can come at a cost. He was discovered in a 5ft x 3ft cage in the dark garage of the abandoned home. The cage’s floor was made of plywood. It was three months before police arrested his owner, a 24-year-old woman named Brittany Garza, who was taken into custody and charged with animal cruelty. She responded that she was in the process of relocating and had not abandoned the animal, as it had food and water.
Katie Jarl, the Humane Society’s southwest regional director, says there have been numerous similar incidents. In 2016, police in Conroe, a town north of Houston, received reports of a tiger roaming a residential neighbourhoodafter it escaped from someone’s back yard. “No one knew about them,” she says. “They were completely off the map.”
These animals are extremely complex and powerful and can kill a human being with a swipe of their paw
In 2009, a 330lb tiger escaped from its enclosure in Ingram, Texas, and was found in a 79-year-old woman’s back yard. In 2007, a one-year-old tiger “wearing a makeshift lead” was found shot dead in a wooded area off the motorway in Dallas. In 2003, in another Dallas suburb, a motorist spotted a four-month-old tiger roaming the side of the road. In 2001, a three-year-old boy was killed by one of his relative’s three pet tigers in Lee County, Texas. And in 2000, animal control officers near Houston spent three hours searching for a tiger that had escaped from a garden cage while its owners were out of town. That same year, in Channelview, Texas, a three-year-old boy had his arm ripped off by his uncle’s 400lb pet.
As for Loki, Jarl says a law-enforcement source of hers outside the city had got in touch to say the authorities had known about Loki’s owner for a long time. “She had been raising cubs in her home for years,” Jarl says, “in a county where there were no restrictions.”
This year, two state legislators filed bills aimed at prohibiting the private ownership of “dangerous wild animals”. But this is Texas, where the private ownership of pretty much everything is sacrosanct, and neither bill became law. There was “passionate testimony” on both sides of the debate, says the assistant to one of the legislators involved.
According to one conservation charity, four states (Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin) do not regulate the private ownership of exotic pets at all. Brittany Peet, director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), says there are a “patchwork of laws” regulating the possession of big cats. “And you can usually get around those laws by applying for a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) exhibitor’s licence,” she says. “It’s as simple as filling out an application and writing a cheque for $100. The regulations are very minimal – as long as you have a cage where the animal can fully stand up and turn around you shouldn’t have a problem getting a licence.
“Everyone should be terrified and shocked by this,” Peet adds. “These animals are extremely complex and powerful and can kill a human being with a swipe of their paw. People keeping tigers in back yards are not experts. They don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re not providing these animals with enrichment and stimulation that they need in order to live relatively normal lives in captivity.”
Bill Rathburn disagrees. He believes he provided the seven tigers that once lived on his private, 50-acre ranch 80 miles east of Dallas, with more than enough enrichment and stimulation. For more than two decades, Rathburn and his now ex-wife Lou raised the animals from cubs. For the Rathburns, the tigers were a surrogate family.
I interview Rathburn over the phone and later he sends me a photo of himself and Raja, the first tiger he and his wife bought. The pair are nose to nose inside its cage. “That was the relationship I had with him,” he says. “I’m not a reckless person and wouldn’t have gone into the cage with him if I hadn’t raised him, or knew I’d be safe doing it. He was the most loving animal from the day we got him to the day he died.”
Not everyone in the Rathburns’ neighbourhood shared their enthusiasm. “Tiger sanctuary has residents growling,” read one local headline.
Rathburn is a former deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and chief of police of the Dallas Police Department. In 1996 he was director of security for the summer Olympic Games, in Atlanta. It was while he was there that Lou bought their first tiger. Rathburn admits to feeling “kind of overwhelmed” initially, thinking about all the work and expense that would inevitably go into raising it. But when he came home he says he “immediately fell in love”.
The following year the couple bought two more tiger cubs “from a guy who had tigers in the back yard of his house in Houston”. Rathburn and his wife raised the cubs in their house. They installed a heavy mesh screen door “so they couldn’t get out of the pantry and wander round the house at night”. Outside, they constructed a cage complex. “If you saw it,” he says, “you’d realise it was a pretty good life for a tiger: a 10,000sqft play area with grass, trees and bushes, so they could run, play, hide, and chew on grass to help their digestive system.”
Raja lived to be 21. “He was unsteady on his feet towards the end,” Rathburn says. “I knew it was time to put him down. The vet came round and agreed. I was crying like a baby. It broke my heart.” Their second animal developed a tumour on her spine. When she died, Lou insisted on having her skin made into a rug. “And after we got divorced I ended up with the rug,” Rathburn says. “I have it over a chest in my bedroom, and it’s wonderful way to remember her. I talk to her once in a while.”
Eventually, he says, a neighbour complained to county officials about what they described as a growing tiger problem next door. “He got county officials upset, and two votes can sway an election in a rural area. So the county commissioners weren’t willing to extend my permit.”
I’m not a reckless person and wouldn’t have gone into the cage with him if I hadn’t raised him, or knew I’d be safe
Rathburn believes in regulation. “There should be adequate confinement areas, [and regulation] protecting animals and protecting people who might be injured by them.” But, he says, he stands by the rights of individuals to own big cats.
While this might sound incredible to someone in the UK, Rathburn’s sense of entitlement – this rugged individualism that says the government shouldn’t interfere with an individual’s right to own pretty much whatever they want – runs deep in America.
Marcus Cook has owned and worked with big cats since the early 1990s. Back then he was working for a zoo in south Texas, and when the owners retired and closed their business Cook adopted a couple of black leopards. “Anyone who says they can tame one is unrealistic,” he tells me by phone one morning from his home in Kaufman, Texas. “But they’re handleable.”
Cook says he’s owned everything “from small cats, like cougars, to lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. The big guys.” He says his own firm, Zoocats, began as a hobby in 1995 and grew from there. He began to take the animals on the road around the US – to schools and fairs and temporary exhibits. Cook says it was all about education – “creating an entertaining wow factor” – but his critics say he was ruthlessly exploiting the animals for gain. He has been accused of numerous animal welfare violations, subjected to various complaints, and issued citations over the years.
Loki, the tiger rescued from the Houston garage, was taken to a vast ranch in Murchison, Texas, run by the Humane Society. Murchison, population 594, is a rural farming community 70 miles southeast of Dallas. The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch is situated discreetly, a few miles outside town, next to a remote country lane. You can see horses and cattle grazing in fields next to the road, but none of the exotic animals that also live here.
We feed him 8lb of food a day – humanely raised beef, turkey, large rats and rabbits
Noelle Almrud, ranch director, meets me at the main office and we climb into a truck to drive to the enclosures at the back of the ranch that house its two tigers. It’s not unlike a wildlife park, although there are no gawking tourists here and the enclosures are bigger. Loki lives in a quarter-acre fenced area, but he rotates each week from this into a three-acre enclosure next door. Both have an abundance of willows and oaks to provide shade.
As we walk towards the fence, Loki gallops over and makes a breathy snort that Almrud says is known as “chuffing” and signals affection. He rubs himself against the wire enclosure before running back to his water trough and jumping in. “He’s acclimated really well,” she tells me. “We feed him 8lb of food a day – humanely raised beef, turkey, large rats, or rabbits and supplements – six days a week, then he has a day of fasting, as he would in the wild.”
Two years ago, Almrud helped found the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance, a network of reputable big cat sanctuaries whose mission was to strengthen the regulation of big cats in the US and get conservation facilities to work together to place rescue animals. But they face a big challenge, she explains: “Roadside zoos need shutting down, but where do you put all the animals? You couldn’t re-house all the tigers currently in roadside zoos in America. We need more money and more facilities. In a perfect world,” she says, “I’d like to be put out of business.”
Judging by the Texan appetite for big cats, that won’t be happening anytime soon.
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junker-town · 7 years
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Please never forget Texas lost to Kansas in American tackle football in the year 2016
The Horns’ catastrophic loss created a meme.
The Texas Longhorns and Kansas Jayhawks meet in Austin on Saturday (6 p.m. ET, LHN). Tom Herman’s team will try to do what Texas couldn’t do last year: beat Kansas.
The Jayhawks’ 24-21 overtime win in Lawrence last Nov. 19 was the lowest point in a miserable three-year run for Charlie Strong. Losing to Kansas is a low for almost any Power 5 team, but this was a particularly rough gut punch.
On the verge of the teams’ rematch, let’s look back.
Losing to Kansas requires a team to do a lot of things poorly.
In the last two seasons, just one FBS team has managed it: Texas.
But here’s what’s so weird about Texas losing to Kansas, aside from the core fact of Texas losing to Kansas: The Longhorns didn’t even do anything that egregious. They had more yards than Kansas, both per play and in total. Even though they threw three interceptions, the Horns scored 14 points off turnovers to Kansas’ 10. They had a field-position advantage all day, starting the average drive at their own 35-yard line. They had a slight time-of-possession edge and a 21-10 fourth-quarter lead.
Somehow, Texas lost to Kansas anyway. The Horns let the Jayhawks drive 52 yards in six plays and 51 seconds to tie the game on a last-minute field goal. Shane Buechele threw an interception on the second play of overtime, and KU kicked a field goal to win. Even Kansas fans remain baffled as to how their team actually won.
Down go the goal posts.
youtube
The loss became an instant meme for the following 12 months.
A light sampling, going back to last year:
Don't let this World Series distract you from the fact that Texas lost to Kansas in football. http://pic.twitter.com/ViayqLXR3I
— Switzer Statue (@switzerstatue) November 2, 2017
Good morning all! In case you forgot.... Texas lost to Maryland... and Kansas... #ohwhatabeautifulmorning http://pic.twitter.com/DRMSFXHZId
— B. C. Ker Fuffle (@medschoolislife) September 3, 2017
With all of the excitement today being the first full Saturday of college football, don't forget that Texas lost to Kansas in football. http://pic.twitter.com/pUnjho9Heu
— Chaz Cook (@ChazCook) September 2, 2017
You can stand here and argue but Texas still lost to Kansas http://pic.twitter.com/JBNel61fIi
— Trelynda Kerr (@tre0808) August 29, 2017
24 of 25 teams in the preseason @AP_Top25 won at least 8 games last year Except for Texas who went 5-7 and lost to Kansas http://pic.twitter.com/A54IXiBhMe
— FANK. (@dfank_BU) August 21, 2017
Tomorrow is going to be a hot one, but don't let that distract you from the fact that Texas lost to Kansas in football. http://pic.twitter.com/euuejDJY6u
— Kahlie (@KahlieRhae) July 11, 2017
Currently on the field where Texas lost to Kansas in Football http://pic.twitter.com/zcnNxcEYh5
— Josh DeMoss (@jdemoso) May 14, 2017
Texas lost to Kansas AGAIN!! KU takes the series 2-1. http://pic.twitter.com/HUDXrud8pu
— Gig Em Gazette (@GigEmGazette) April 2, 2017
*An event happens in sports* Twitter: "DON'T LET THIS DISTRACT YOU FROM THE FACT TEXAS LOST TO KANSAS IN FOOTBALL!" http://pic.twitter.com/svb6GSmcX5
— Josh Remington (@joshremington) March 21, 2017
When I am scrolling through my TL and come across a "Texas lost to Kansas" joke. http://pic.twitter.com/0CxA0tN1rW
— Ted Harrison (@tedvid) March 4, 2017
During the Oscars, at least 11 people tweeted the following at the same time:
"Texas lost to Kansas in football" http://pic.twitter.com/OEgLggvVNp
— Trevor Rogers (@TrevorRogers247) February 27, 2017
Don't let this distract you from the fact that #Texas lost to Kansas in football. http://pic.twitter.com/yDESwM0iKt
— OKCMouthpiece, Esq. (@OKCMouthpiece) February 6, 2017
"texas lost to Kansas... in football!" http://pic.twitter.com/zqFpCrka5k
— *redacted* (@TxAg1802) January 22, 2017
“Texas has never lost to Kansas. Period.” http://pic.twitter.com/kXDlAMo2fe
— Process Truster (@zoocat) January 22, 2017
Don't let the National Championship distract you from the fact that Texas lost to Kansas http://pic.twitter.com/t8c8HWs2DE
— abogado malo (@LawTalkingGuey) January 10, 2017
"Mack, can you please explain to me how in the world Texas lost to Kansas?" http://pic.twitter.com/0rO2ub9EQw
— Recovering OSUaholic (@RobertW_OkSt) December 29, 2016
Me: Texas hasn't lost to Kansas since 1938, we should be fine. Charlie Strong: http://pic.twitter.com/ucuKrvtgLK
— EJ Adams (@ej_adams98) November 20, 2016
Lots and lots and lots of fans posted phrases like these on social media in response to news events related or unrelated to either team, but this example goes above and beyond:
Always remember to accessorize. http://pic.twitter.com/HEm1KHHGIk
— Deva❄️ (@DevaFreeman) May 22, 2017
This one’s from a full eight months after the game ended, just one of many outcomes Horns fans have had to endure:
Internet, you wanted a Titanic version of Kansas beating Texas in football, well by God you've got it. http://pic.twitter.com/luxOZYGz8A
— Barstool KU (@BarstoolKU) July 10, 2017
And it wasn’t just limited to social media, either.
Before the fumble, Baylor student section behind the Texas bench was chanting "Rock chalk Jayhawk, KU".
— Anthony Geronimo (@ATXANT10) October 28, 2017
You can also buy a shirt in honor of one bad Big 12 team beating another once.
Design by Humans
By losing to Kansas, Texas put itself in some bad company.
The only teams to do it since 2011 started:
McNeese State (FCS)
Northern Illinois (MAC), by three points
South Dakota State (FCS)
South Dakota (FCS)
Louisiana Tech (C-USA), by three points
4-8 West Virginia (Big 12)
Southeast Missouri State (FCS) twice, one of them by six points
Central Michigan (MAC)
2-10 Iowa State (Big 12)
Rhode Island (FCS)
One of the biggest and most powerful athletic departments in the country and the winners of four national championships
It snapped a bunch of Kansas streaks in embarrassing fashion.
Texas hadn’t lost to Kansas since 1938. The loss bumped UT to 13-3 against KU all time.
Plus all of these:
Kansas ended all manner of losing streaks with its win over Texas. http://pic.twitter.com/ZPUo9ebyLT
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 20, 2016
And the loss sealed Charlie Strong’s fate in Austin.
It dropped Texas to 5-6, putting the Horns’ bowl eligibility in peril. It also dropped Strong to 16-20 in three seasons. Word leaked that the Longhorns would fire Strong, but they still had a game left in their season.
The Texas players who spoke publicly were devastated, and some reportedly threatened to boycott the season finale a week later against TCU. Texas lost that game and missed out on bowl season, then fired Strong officially.
But Strong’s face and demeanor at the podium in Lawrence a week earlier made it clear that he knew what was coming. Someone asked him, basically, if he thought losing to Kansas would get him fired:
The most painful part of the Strong post game presser. "Do you know what this means for your future?" http://pic.twitter.com/MRNuTko8au
— Casey Keirnan (@CaseyKeirnan) November 20, 2016
“No, I don’t. No idea,” Strong said, near tears.
At Longhorns blog Burnt Orange Nation, in the immediate aftermath:
Now it’s time to look towards the future, with another head coach at the helm in Austin.
This just wasn’t acceptable and the decision facing president Greg Fenves should no longer be difficult.
Strong never got traction on the field, and his end might’ve come soon anyway. But Texas can’t lose to Kansas, and that happening made it clear that Strong was done.
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officialpeta · 13 years
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(via IndyGlobe.com) USDA finally rings down the curtain on Marcus Cook’s ZooCats display after decades of animal abuse and public endangerment
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