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.