 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Exotic Feline Rescue Center (EFRC) is an American exotic feline preserve established in 1991 and located in Center Point, Indiana.
The EFRC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. [1] It cares for ten exotic feline species, [1] including lions, tigers, leopards, servals, pumas, bobcats, Canada lynx, ocelots, Geoffroy's cat and an Asian leopard cat. The EFRC is the second largest [2] big cat rescue center in the United States, providing a permanent home for non-domestic cats that have been abused, abandoned, or lack habitation for other reasons. The EFRC does not buy, sell, or breed animals. Veterinary care is available from an on-site clinic and the organization also provides education to the public. The cats are housed on over 200 acres (0.81 km2). [3] [4]
The EFRC is the focus of several books published by Indiana University Press, including Saving the Big Cats (2006) [5] and Tails From the Exotic Feline Rescue Center (2016). [6]
The EFRC was prominently featured in the 2009 movie The Tiger Next Door [7] and was the subject of a TV documentary in 2009. [8]
Over a two-year period (2008-2009), Dr. Susan Linville at the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior (CISAB) [9] and Dr. Helena Sioni at the Institute for Pheromone Research, both located at Indiana University, [10] conducted a research project with lions, tigers, cougars and leopards at the EFRC to study rubbing behavior and determine whether a pheromone was being deposited during rubbing. [11]
In 2009, a research project was conducted by several veterinarians from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, College of Veterinary Medicine. [12] Under the direction of Dr. Stuart Clark-Price, immobilization and anesthesia methods for tigers were assessed in order to optimize current protocols and maximize animal safety under anesthesia. During these procedures, veterinary ophthalmologists gathered routine measurements on the tigers' eyes to determine what is normal in this species. Collected information was to be used to improve current therapies and establish a basis for the treatment of eye disease in tigers. Dental examinations were also performed by The Peter Emily International Veterinary Dental Foundation [13] to determine the current condition of each tiger’s teeth and the potential need for future dental care. Any needed dental treatments were performed by board-certified veterinary dentists pro bono. Other information, including normal blood values and anti-body levels of different diseases, was evaluated to improve the care of these tigers as well as global care for the species.[ citation needed ]
The EFRC offers internships for college students and credit is offered for students at Indiana University through the Center for Integrative Study of Animal Behavior. [14]
On June 21, 2013, a tiger mauled a caretaker who was cleaning its cage, clamping the woman's head in its mouth during the attack. The unidentified 21-year-old woman was airlifted to Wishard Memorial Hospital and was in critical, but non-life-threatening condition. [15] As a result of the incident, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an inspection and, in November 2013, fined the center $56,000 for "knowing" violations and $13,000 for "serious" violations, including dangerous conditions likely to cause death or physical harm to employees. [16] Three days after the incident, Ann Marie Houser, an animal care inspector from the USDA, visited the center to investigate. Houser noticed an issue with the enclosure door, a 4-to-6-inch gap, which the facility benefactor, Taft, had attempted to fix with the use of a piece of rebar, a reinforcing bar. It was Houser's finding that this repair prohibited the cage from functioning efficiently or quickly in an emergency. [17]
The cat, commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a house pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. It is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. Because of its retractable claws, it is adapted to killing small prey like mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It also secretes and perceives pheromones.
The Bengal cat is a breed of hybrid cat created from crossing of an Asian leopard cat, with domestic cats, especially the spotted Egyptian Mau. It is then usually bred with a breed that demonstrates a friendlier personality, because after breeding a domesticated cat with a wildcat, its friendly personality may not manifest in the kitten. The breed's name derives from the leopard cat's taxonomic name.
Onychectomy, popularly known as declawing, is an operation to remove an animal's claws surgically by means of the amputation of all or part of the distal phalanges, or end bones, of the animal's toes. Because the claw develops from germinal tissue within the third phalanx, amputation of the bone is necessary to fully remove the claw. The terms onychectomy and declawing imply mere claw removal, but a more appropriate description would be phalangectomy, excision of toe bone.
Cerebellar hypoplasia (CH) is a neurological condition in which the cerebellum is smaller than usual or not completely developed. It has been reported in many animal species.
Veterinary dentistry is the field of dentistry applied to the care of animals. It is the art and science of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of conditions, diseases, and disorders of the oral cavity, the maxillofacial region, and its associated structures as it relates to animals.
Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on non-human animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics, soft tissue surgery, and neurosurgery. Advanced surgical procedures such as joint replacement, fracture repair, stabilization of cranial cruciate ligament deficiency, oncologic (cancer) surgery, herniated disc treatment, complicated gastrointestinal or urogenital procedures, kidney transplant, skin grafts, complicated wound management, and minimally invasive procedures are performed by veterinary surgeons. Most general practice veterinarians perform routine surgeries such as neuters and minor mass excisions; some also perform additional procedures.
Cats communicate for a variety of reasons, including to show happiness, express anger, solicit attention, and observe potential prey. Additionally, they collaborate, play, and share resources. When cats communicate with humans, they do so to get what they need or want, such as food, water, attention, or play. As such, cat communication methods have been significantly altered by domestication. Studies have shown that domestic cats tend to meow much more than feral cats. They rarely meow to communicate with fellow cats or other animals. Cats can socialize with each other and are known to form "social ladders," where a dominant cat is leading a few lesser cats. This is common in multi-cat households.
Aging in cats is the process by which cats change over the course of their natural lifespans. The average lifespan of a domestic cat may range from 10 to 15 years. As cats senesce, they undergo predictable changes in health and behavior. Dental disease and loss of olfaction are common as cats age, affecting eating habits. Arthritis and sarcopenia are also common in older cats. How a cat's health is affected by aging may be managed through modifications in a cat's diet, accessibility adjustments, and cognitive stimulation.
Cat behavior is a cat's behavior and responses to events and other stimuli. Cat behavior includes body language, elimination habits, aggression, play, communication, hunting, grooming, urine marking, and face rubbing. It varies among individuals, colonies, and breeds.
Carolina Tiger Rescue is a nonprofit wildcat sanctuary in Pittsboro, North Carolina, that offers public tours and field trips and is home to rescued tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, caracals, servals, bobcats and other wild animals. Over 20,000 visitors come to the sanctuary each year for guided tours, field trips, summer camps, volunteering and corporate work groups. Their mission is saving and protecting wild cats in captivity and in the wild. They work toward a day when wild cats are living in their native habitat and are not exploited by humans. Carolina Tiger Rescue is Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) and USDA accredited. The Executive Director is Kris Marino.
A cat pheromone is a chemical molecule, or compound, that is used by cats and other felids for communication. These pheromones are produced and detected specifically by the body systems of cats and evoke certain behavioural responses.
Veterinary anesthesia is a specialization in the veterinary medicine field dedicated to the proper administration of anesthetic agents to non-human animals to control their consciousness during procedures. A veterinarian or a Registered Veterinary Technician administers these drugs to minimize stress, destructive behavior, and the threat of injury to both the patient and the doctor. The duration of the anesthesia process goes from the time before an animal leaves for the visit to the time after the animal reaches home after the visit, meaning it includes care from both the owner and the veterinary staff. Generally, anesthesia is used for a wider range of circumstances in animals than in people not only due to their inability to cooperate with certain diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, but also due to their species, breed, size, and corresponding anatomy. Veterinary anesthesia includes anesthesia of the major species: dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, as well as all other animals requiring veterinary care such as birds, pocket pets, and wildlife.
Nepeta cataria, commonly known as catnip, catswort, catwort, and catmint, is a species of the genus Nepeta in the family Lamiaceae, native to southern and eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of China. It is widely naturalized in northern Europe, New Zealand, and North America. The common name catmint can also refer to the genus as a whole.
The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center (MSPCA-Angell) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with its main headquarters on South Huntington Avenue in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1868, and is the second-oldest humane society in the United States. "MSPCA-Angell" was adopted as the society's identity in 2003, and indicates the names of its two closely related predecessor organizations: Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Angell Animal Medical Center. The organization provides direct care to thousands of homeless, injured, and abused animals each year, and provides animal adoption, a veterinary hospital, advocacy, and humane law enforcement.
The Tiger Next Door is a feature-length 2009 documentary film directed and produced by Camilla Calamandrei.
The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, alternatively known as the G.W. Zoo, Tiger King Park and formerly the Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park, was an animal park displaying predominantly tigers and other big cats in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, United States. The park garnered substantial public attention due to the 2020 Netflix documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, which focused on park founder and owner Joe Exotic.
Big Cat Rescue Corp., also known as BCR and previously known as Wildlife on Easy Street, Inc., operates an animal sanctuary in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, which rescues and houses exotic cats, and rehabilitates injured or orphaned native wild cats. It was founded by Don Lewis and Carole Baskin in 1995.
The Persian cat, also known as the Persian Longhair, is a long-haired breed of cat characterised by a round face and short muzzle. The first documented ancestors of Persian cats might have been imported into Italy from Khorasan as early as around 1620, however, this has not been proven. Instead, there is stronger evidence for a longhaired cat breed being exported from Afghanistan and Iran from the 19th century onwards. Widely recognised by the North-West European cat fancy since the 19th century, and after World War II by breeders from North America, Australia and New Zealand. Some cat fancier organisations' breed standards subsume the Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair as variants of this breed, while others generally treat them as separate breeds.
Scent rubbing is a behavior where a mammal rubs its body against an object in their environment, sometimes in ones covered with strongly odored substances. It is typically shown in carnivores, although many mammals exhibit this behavior. Lowering shoulders, collapsing the forelegs, pushing forward and rubbing the chin, temples, neck, or back is how this act is performed. A variety of different odors can elicit this behavior including feces, vomit, fresh or decaying meat, insecticide, urine, repellent, ashes, human food and so on. Scent rubbing can be produced by an animal smelling novel odors, which include manufactured smells such as perfume or motor oil and carnivore smells including feces and food smells.
Carole Ann Baskin is an American animal rights activist and CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary based near Tampa, Florida. She has attracted the attention of local, national and international media outlets to the plight of captive big cats.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
