Good News -- Bad News

We are excited to report to you that the educational message we espouse is starting to take effect. As education begins to reap results and folks from all over the country start to realize that wild animals should not be pets, more municipalities are banning their ownership. In general, we believe this trend is a good thing and will ultimately lower the abusive and neglectful conditions that currently exist for many captive wild animals.

A recent example of this trend occurred in Minnesota, when a county made it illegal to possess large cats. Another example here in Colorado, that we have reported to you in the past, is the changing of regulations within the Division of Wildlife’s requirements for private ownership of any wildlife. This movement is even being felt in the general business community as most insurance carriers have been placing extended limitations on what they will cover in respect to captive wildlife. As we reported to you in our Summer 2005 newsletter, Wolf is no longer able to take animals off-site for educational purposes or public events.

Now for the bad news -- the majority of these new regulations and limitations do not differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. The regulations are penalizing many nonprofits, like Wolf, who are cleaning up after the bad guys.

The regulation instituted in Minnesota has required an accredited sanctuary (The Wildcat Sanctuary) to dispose of one of its residents, a rescued tiger named Meme. The battle to get county officials to make appropriate differentiations has ensued. You can find out more about this situation on-line at:

http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/

or sign an on-line petition at:

http://new.petitiononline.com/tiger1/petition.html

The new re`gulations in Colorado have made it nearly impossible for any new organization to receive a license to operate a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary. It also prevents existing nonprofit wildlife sanctuaries from moving their facilities, for whatever reason. This fact will eventually lead to the removal of all nonprofit wildlife sanctuaries from Colorado. The Division of Wildlife has been very vocal about not wanting to become a ‘dumping ground’ for the nation’s unwanted captive wildlife.

The more stringent requirements, initiated by insurance companies, will also severely limit the educational message trying to be disseminated by organizations like Wolf -- not to mention severely limit the earning power of those groups. We do believe that, at some point, the distinction will be made in the laws, between the good and the bad, and the ‘true’ nonprofit wildlife sanctuaries will be better off for it. But, until then it is going to be tough going for a number of organizations like Wolf .

We believe it is very important for all of you to be aware of this trend and how it could affect our mission. Although we have often stated that our ultimate goal is to put Wolf out of business, this is not the way that should occur. It needs to happen only when there are no more unwanted and uncared for wolves or wolf-dogs in need of sanctuary.

In that vein we are in need of your help now, even more than we have been in the past. In order to continue our educational mission, we need to implement new ways of reaching the public. In order to replace the funds received from educational programs, we need to increase our funding from other sources. You can help us accomplish both of these needs.

In order to thank you for your extra help and support we are making a print available from a drawing, donated by a wonderful supporter in Australia. Fiona Anderson created this graphite drawing of Kasha from a photo we sent her. We were so impressed with the outcome that we have received her permission to make these prints available to you. You can find out more about Fiona and her artwork on-line at: http://www.petalert.com.au/fma/

Therefore with any donation of $30 or more, we will send you an 8.5” by 11” black and white print of this artwork. Please indicate ‘print offer’ on your check or the remittance envelope.

 In Memory of Sabastian

Sabe was born late January of 1995 and was placed with Wolf by September of that same year. He had given his owner a good taste of why wolves and wolf-dogs do not make good pets. He dug holes in the yard, disassembled anything that was interesting to him, including the BBQ grill. He shredded window screens and was an escape artist that would not be contained in the back yard. He even tried to play with his owner as if he was a wolf, requiring at least one visit to the emergency room.

At about this same time we were also trying to rescue an abused female, which turned out to be Sabastian’s sister, Akyra. After bringing them both to the sanctuary and comparing the documentation that came with them, it was very apparent that they were from the same litter.

They became a new pack and a month later they were joined by Kai. The group did amazingly well for many years. Well, meaning that as long as Sabe and Kai catered to Akyra, everything was great. Akyra was very protective of her time and attention from the humans who would visit with her. We had to establish a new protocol with their enclosure that required three individuals to provide attention, at the same time, in three different areas of the enclosure. This allowed all of them to receive attention without Akyra feeling like she had to chase Sabe and Kai away.

Eventually Akyra decided that Kai was her mate and did not allow Sabe to even get attention from him. This escalated to the point that it became very obvious that it was time for Sabe to find a new pack. This took a while to accomplish, but ended up with Indigo being placed with Sabe. The two did very well together in spite of their age difference and it was very clear that Sabe was in charge. This was a long time coming for him and he seemed to enjoy both the respect that he received as alpha and the playfulness that Indigo craved.

As reported in our Fall 2005 Newsletter, Sabe was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in the lower jaw. This presentation was basically untreatable and the only meds prescribed were for pain. We also instituted a special feeding protocol, for Sabe, to make sure he was not having trouble with eating. He was getting bite-size chunks of red meat and cooked chicken, twice a day. He was loving the attention and the special meals and of course Indigo was loving the fact that he would get treats as well. We were not seeing any effects of the Osteosarcoma in Sabe’s attitude, eating habits or play habits with Indigo. Although the tumor became rather unsightly as it protruded from the bottom of his jaw through the skin and from the gum line next to his left canine, it did not seem to be affecting him.

From the time he was diagnosed, November 17th 2005, through December we were lulled into a false sense of well-being. On January 6th that all changed. Suddenly he was having some problems breathing and would not eat. On the 7th it was clear that it was progressing very quickly and all he wanted to do was drink water and be loved on. We instituted some stronger pain meds in his regimen and wanted to see if he responded to them.

When we checked on him in the early morning hours of the 8th, it was clear they were not helping. He was laying at the bottom of his enclosure, with Indigo laying close by, and was not moving at all, except to look up at us in obvious pain. We called the vet to come out and quickly administered a tranquilizer to keep him comfortable until the vet arrived. A number of volunteers were arriving at the sanctuary and we were allowing them to visit with him, two at a time. By the time the fourth set of visitors were with him, he passed. It was very peaceful, very painless, yet so quick that we were all in shock. Just two days before he was running around, playing and generally enjoying life.