The Tiger Loves his Pool!

The pool has been installed and he loves it...He spends most of the day in it. Now I just have to get some pictures. Recent storms have not been a problem, and the current one, "Ivo" looks like it will not be a problem either. The zoo is located near the edge of a huge wash that comes out of the mountains to the west, and flooding is a concern.

Also, their has been some movement on getting a foundation established. (YES...things move so slowly down there!)

Now, if I can just get someone to take some pictures of the tiger in his pool! Any volunteers?

The Pool Is on It's way to Santiago!

Vicky has found a company...Who knows how many people she has talked to...that has agreed to take the tiger's pool down AT NO EXPENSE.

Richard Mikhail of Import Export International has already picked it up and it is on its way down. Vicky also got some balls & water bowls.

Richard has offered to include any future items we want to ship down, too...THANK YOU!

I hope to get some pictures when it is set up and the tiger is happily splashing away. August & September are the hottest & muggiest months of the year, so this is perfect!

No Response Yet From The Guy With The Cubs

Did we really expect one? For those of you who are reading this blog for the first time, you might want to start at the bottom and read up for the whole chronological story.

Well...Behlen Country flaked on the pool, but someone else came through (gotta get their name)...but it won't fit through the cargo bay door on Frontier! So we are looking for some kind animal lover who will ship it for us. We are sending other stuff, water bowls, big cat toys, etc...about $300 worth. The pool is 6' wide and 2 'high and weighs about 80-100 lbs.

You can reply on this blog or email me: goldilocks "at" bigfoot.com

Thanks!

Cubs At The Marina?

Last month I was contacted by a woman who had just returned from her vacation in Cabo San Lucas. She was expressing her enthusiasm for what we were doing and how much she enjoyed interacting with our little lion cubs at the marina…

At first, I had no idea what she was talking about…what little cubs? At the Marina? Then I had a suspicion about what was going on but I needed more information. Her email address indicated where she worked and I was able to track her down and call her.

She had been on vacation with her family and came upon a booth at the marina in Cabo San Lucas.. The people in the booth had some very small cubs that they were letting people hold and have their picture taken with…for a fee, of course. They also took their own pictures of the banner stating that the money would go to the Santiago Zoo.

I knew then who was behind it. There is a man…I know his name, who shows up in town with small cubs that he exploits for commercial gain…when the cubs get too big to be cute and handled safely, he “donates” them to whoever will take them. The last batch of cubs were “donated” to the Santiago Zoo. They have all died of pneumonia. The third one died a few weeks ago.

Apparently this man had offered to give some of the money to the zoo and nobody saw anything wrong with that. The woman gladly sent me the pictures which we sent to Dr. Ivonne.

In language that was way more diplomatic that I would have been, Dr. Ivonne gently explained in an email to this man the several reasons why his actions were against everything we wanted to accomplish. She even told him the cubs were much too young to be away from their mother. In fact they should be nursing for at least 4 months. The nutrients in their mother’s milk could not be replaced by artificial milk. She told him the cubs were not getting the nutrients to build their immune system, which may be why all three cubs he “donated” to the zoo got sick and died.

That’s where we are at now….I do not know if this person received Dr. Ivonne’s email. But reports are that he no longer has the booth at the marina. I hope my sources are accurate.

The concept of conservation & education is hard to instill when the common mindset is that these are just big pets to breed for fun and profit.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

There has been a sad development. The second of three lion cubs died of pneumonia about 6 weeks ago. Even winter in Baja can be too cold for a little lion living on concrete.

Of course we were extremely upset at how this could happen...again. But nothing seems to improve down there until there is a tragedy. The fallout has produced a small victory.

Vicky has rallied to get funding to pay for one of the local vets to visit the zoo once a week - just to check on the animals. She has instructed Juan Carlos, the attendant, to keep a journal of what he administers to the animals, his behavioral observations, etc. Yes...that seems so elementary, but there has never been a budget for regular vet health checks. Animals would just get sick and die. If a vet was called, it was usually too late and the vet was not compensated.

This funding is coming from the pockets of Oscar Dacarett, our "patron saint" of the zoo. Now if we can get them in gear to establish that foundation so we can start raising money from the local community!

Leo's paw healed nicely from the surgery he had in February...what a relief! (For us as well as him!)

Now...about the tiger. Unlike other cats...they LOVE water. Pools are standard features in well-run zoos and sanctuaries. Our tiger has not been in water for years, but that is about to change.

Vicky found a company, Behlen Country in Columbus, Nebraska, who gave us a deep discount on a big rubber pool like the one a big cat sanctuary here in San Diego uses. Frontier Airlines has agreed to ship it for free, so we are waiting on delivery.

Juan Carlos has been hosing him down and he seems to love the water. Nobody had ever thought to turn the hose on him all these years.

We have to keep checking on them, hold them accountable and keep them inspired....it's a tough job! (But someone has to do it!)

Leo Gets His Surgery

On the first weekend of February 2007, Dra. Ivonne Cassiagne of Mexico City returned to Santiago. This time she brought with her Dr. Ole Alcumbrac who is the consulting veterinarian for the Arizona Game & Fish Department, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service. The project was to operate on what appeared to be a bone sticking out of Leo's paw. It has been there for over 3 years.

They were assisted by Cabo San Lucas vets, Dr. Andres Yeechig and Dra. Samantha Acosta. (a husband & wife team). A close-up picture of the protruding bone is in a previous post, but here is another one to show the location…which will be interesting when you learn what the doctors found. I took this picture last August.

The first job was to get Leo on the table…it took several people to lift him with a tarp. The whole operation was captured on video by Dr. Ole's assistant. I hope to obtain a copy of it and if I do, I will post it if possible.

Once they got him on the table they took x-rays. Here Dr. Yeechig is holding the x-ray plate under Leo's paw, while Dr. Ole is holding some other piece of equipment. They were assisted by two young vet interns.
The x-rays showed an unbelievable condition. All this time we thought it was a broken bone that was protruding out…even though there was no known event that caused the injury…it had just appeared.

X-rays showed that it was a malformed claw! Leo had been the victim of a botched declawing procedure, most likely when he was a cub.

Declawing exotic cats is now illegal in the United States....the law was just passed recently. When done improperly, growth tissue is left behind causing claws to grow in aberrant directions. This one had curled under and over the years had grown up & out. They fixed it as best they could since the original surgery was substandard. His other paws were OK.

Ironically, there were many people in the chain of contacts that led us to Dr. Ivonne. One person in that chain was Dr. Jennie Conrad, of Paw Project. Dr. Conrad was one the of main advocates that lobbied to outlaw declaw surgery on large cats. She had cared for a large group of tiger cubs that were confiscated and temporarily housed at the Fund For Animals' Wildlife Rehabilitation facility near my home. I talked to them when I was looking for resources to help Leo. This incident with Leo illustrates so clearly why this type of procedure needed to be outlawed.

Leo also got his teeth cleaned by Dra. Samantha Acosta, aided by an intern.

Leo wasn't the only lion to get a check up. The cubs were examined and blood taken for tests. Here is Dr. Ivonne with a young male cub that was brought in with two of his siblings three months ago.

It has been four weeks since the surgery and Leo is healing nicely. He is still on antibiotics to ward off infection.

Dr. Ivonne has reported back that the blood tests were all normal, on the cubs as well as Leo. But a test for Feline TB has yet to come back. This is a standard test they do, expecially when new cats enter the facility. They do not suspect them to be infected...BUT if any of them show up positive...and it is confirmed, the infected one will be put down and the others will be in peril. TB is very contagious.

Our next project is to push for the establishment of a foundation so we can start fundraising to build larger enclosures. For the first time in 5 years, that seems to be a very REAL possibility!

That all for now! Thank you for checking in.

Dr. Ivonne Cassaigne Visits The Santiago Zoo

August, 2006

I was not about to miss this! I bought tickets to fly down to meet everyone. David Flores of the Gringo Gazette arranged a room for me at Club Cabo, a modest motel on the highway towards Santiago. It was a convenient location to catch the bus north. I met Ivonne, Raul, and Dr. Jorge Bravo in Ivonne's hotel lobby on Friday night. Raul Ramirez is an energetic, dedicated man who never lost patience with Vicky and her persistant calls to arrange all of this. Dr. Bravo is a vet who works with the Humane Society in San Jose Del Cabo. We all agreed to meet at the zoo in the morning. Raul & Dr. Bravo left and Ivonne & I had dinner together.

I was totally enchanted by Ivonne. She spoke excellent English, was funny, caring and 110% dedicated to doing whatever she could to help the animals and support improvement of the zoo. Vicky could not have found a better person for us.

I brought Ivonne up to date about what we had been doing and while we wanted to move the lion & tiger, I also acknowledged the very real possibility that, if we DID succeed in moving them, there was nothing to prevent the arrival of more big cats in the future. The uncontrolled breeding of exotic animals is extremely prevelant in Mexico. If Santiago could not take care of the large cats they have now, and we take them away, what is to stop them from acquiring more and treating them as poorly? The answer, of course, was "nothing".

My ride from Cabo San Lucas to Santiago the next morning was provided by Tamara, the reporter from The Gringo Gazette. ========>

Raul and Ivonne arrived about 20 minutes ahead of us. Raul introduced me to Juan Carlos Gonzales, the first full-time employee the zoo has ever had. He had been hired about 3 months prior (coincidentally not long after another article came out in a Mexican newspaper about our efforts). Later I learned that Raul was aware that there was a new caretaker, but knew nothing about him or what he was doing.

Juan Carlos is educated in what would be our equivalent of perhaps Animal Husbandry, with an emphasis in "production" (such as for the beef industry). He has knowledge of domestic animal nutrition and basic health care. This was confirmed by a long discussion with Ivonne.



Pictured are Dr. Jorge Bravo, Dr. Ivonne Cassaigne and Juan Carlos Gonzales

Juan Carlos had moved Leo out of his little cage into a slightly larger one vacated by the bear. Juan Carlos said that when he was hired, Leo was limping on the foot with the injury, and looked in poor health. He has been feeding both cats horse meat (no more frozen chicken!), giving him vitamins, putting medicine on his injury and Leo is doing much better now. In fact, Leo was chomping on a big meaty bone while I was there. He looked so much happier & healthier that any of the other times I saw him.


Juan Carlos gave us a tour, showed us the bags of animal feed, and the new enclosure under construction for the python (boa?). The zoo gives him a monthly budget of approximately $6,000 (US). His dream for the zoo is to get the permits necessary to make it legal, then raise money for the larger enclosures. He candidly said that if the government of Santiago was given a donation right now for the zoo, he would still receive just the budgeted amount. In other words, the zoo would not get the money. And he personally does not want to be responsible for taking donations. So nothing can happen until a foundation is in place.

I left the zoo "cautiously optimistic" of the new developments. One part of me was disappointed at the reality that they would never give up those cats, but thrilled that Leo was better and that the Santiago munincipality was finally taking a measure of responsibility.

Later that afternoon, back at Ivonne's hotel, we discussed the day's findings. Raul talked of setting up a conservancy similar to what had been done with the Turtle efforts. Ivonne was going to write up a list of recommendations. Here is a copy of it.
As much as I would have liked to get the lion & tiger out of there, the reality is that there is no way to force them to give up animals if they do not want to let them go. But the fact that they are now coming around to acknowledging responsibility is a huge step in the name of progress. And, unfortunately the forecast of more big cats has already come true. The zoo now has come into possession of three lion cubs that were confiscated from an apartment in Cabo San Lucas. One cub, very sickly, died in Dr. Bravo's arms when he went to treat it. Dr. Bravo has been given permission to neuter them, and may have already done so at this writing.

Saturday night Ivonne & I had dinner with two more veterinarians, husband & wife team of Dr. Andreas Yeechig and Dra. Samantha Acosta.



They own a vet clinic at the base of The Pedregal, a very exclusive gated community on the cliffs overlooking Cabo San Lucas. They took us on a tour of The Pedregal. I have seen many high dollar homes before, but the dramatic cliff-hugging architecture with End of the Earth views of both the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez left us drop-jawed. I completely forgot to take pictures.

Sunday morning I took the bus to San Jose Del Cabo to meet with Ivonne again. She was busy writing up her report before her flight out that afternoon. She vowed that she was going to remain a part of this project, not merely coming in, rendering an opinion, and going home. She has lived up to that promise….we are in touch every week.

Breaking News

Ivonne and another vet, Dr. Ole, an orthopedic surgeon... have booked their flights into Los Cabos to operate on Leo. They are donating their services, but their travel costs are being paid for by Sr. Oscar Dacarett. This will take place February 1-3.

Stay tuned!

After Three Years, FINALLY Some Progress!

July 2005

The first three years were a series of frustrations. We could not find people to trust, we could not find who was actually in charge of the facility. Every government official we could talk to pointed to another…if they would take our calls at all, (which they usually didn't).

That began to change once we started talking to Sr. Dacarett in 2005. He took our calls, (and even returned them!) listened to us, asked for the history of our involvement and paper work. About the same time we were introduced to Raul Ramirez, Director of Ecology, by reporter Ezequiel Lizalde of the Tribuna de Los Cabos. Sr. Ramirez was very receptive also. At last…real dialogue with people who cared!

When I first got involved, the focus was building new, larger enclosures for the animals. However, the whole operation was virtually unlicensed and un-permitted. There was no trustworthy entity in place that could be held accountable for the money and materials we were bringing in and nothing was accomplished. We switched our goal to getting the two large cats out of there. WAO, in San Antonio was willing to receive them, if permits could be secured.

Once our dialogue with Sr. Dacarett began, we wanted to get a wildlife veterinarian's opinion of the current health status of the lion & tiger and the enclosure requirements necessary in order for them to stay. He agreed to let us bring in a vet.

There are veterinarians in Los Cabos, but no one with wildlife expertise, and we wanted to get an expert in there to assess the conditions and make recommendations. After numerous phone calls, a Google search and more phones calls, Vicky found Dr. Ivonne Cassaigne of Mexico City, a wildlife specialist with the National University of Mexico. She agreed to come to Santiago without charging us for her time. We would have to cover her travel expenses and Sr. Oscar Dacarett covered her hotel. The visit was set for August 12th, 2006.

To say we were excited by this monumental step is an understatement!

It Began With A Whimper

The history of my involvement with the Santiago Zoo dates back to my first visit on December 26th, 2001. When we were planning our itinerary, my traveling companion said he wanted to stop at the zoo. He had been there in 1985. I firmly said I had no interest in going to a village zoo. I knew I would see animals in horrid conditions. Each time the subject surfaced, I said no. I was still refusing to go in as I sat in the truck in the Santiago Zoo parking lot....and again as I was walking through the gates.

Ok....I acknowledged that the grounds were tidy..."See, he said...it's not that bad". Then, I saw the lion.


He was pacing in his small cage, and he looked me in the eye and whimpered. I burst into tears and ran back to the truck. I didn't know there was also a tiger and a bear until the film was developed of the pictures he took after I had returned to the truck. (I was so upset about the lion, he wasn't about to tell me there was also a tiger and bear.)

When I came home, I went on the Baja discussion boards and began a campaign to help "Leo" and the zoo. Over the years the project has had its ups & downs. I found two people to help me, and they have helped to keep this project alive. First I met Robin, who had successfully moved a lion out of Mexico a few years ago and his friend Vicky. Robin also saw an Animal Planet episode about a woman named Gloria out of Houston who had moved a lion out of Cancun to a sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas - Wild Animal Orphanage . Gloria helped a lot in communicating with the local government to establish exactly who was in charge of the zoo. There were only part-time employees and an honorary volunteer "President". There was no regular veterinary care.

• In 2003 Leo somehow broke a bone in his paw and it was sticking out. We contacted Animal Planet and had a commitment from one of their vets to come down to operate on him, but they kept cancelling on us, then stopped taking our calls. Click picture to enlarge.



• In January of 2004 Lic. Maribel Collins of the Tourism Dept. of the State of Baja California Sur announced that the state was giving the zoo $150,000 (pesos) for improvements. Where did the money go? No one knows....it did not go towards new enclosures for the animals.



• In April of 2004, we thought we were going to be successful in getting Leo moved to Texas. Jesus Corrall Gonzales, the Municipal Secretary of Tourism, Los Cabos, BCS wrote us a letter of intent to start the permit process to export him. Unfortunately, the permit was denied by Julio Cesar Peralta Gallegos of PROFEPA.



• The bear died in June of 2004 and that started to bring some unfavorable publicity to the zoo.

After the permit was denied, we were stalled and nothing happened for quite a while. Gloria had other animals in Cancun she was trying to help, and we were running out of ideas.

In July of 2005 I asked David Flores of the Gringo Gazette for help. I wondered if he could get an answer from the government about what improvements had been made since he published that announcement in 2004 about the 15o,000 pesos that the state supposedly gave to the zoo. I hardly expected them to give David an answer, but he was very instrumental in advancing our efforts, because the authorities told David that they had just appointed Oscar Dacarett to be in charge of the zoo. David gave us Oscar's telephone numbers. Vicky now had someone to call.

I would have given up long ago, for I do not speak Spanish, but Gloria and Vicky do. So Vicky went to work on Oscar. We were also supported by an article that came out in a local Mexican paper. At last....the locals were getting involved. When Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun, the sanctuary Gloria had been working on suffered a lot of damage. She no longer had the time to work with us, so it was left up to Vicky to keep the lines of communication open.