Controversy
Sherry Blanchette, owner of a wildlife sanctuary, went under cover with the BBC posing as a veterinarian and toured the CPT in 2000. She later wrote a report to the USDA and County officials, saying that the facility was unsafe because of vegetation on cages, rusting feed bins, and inadequate, rusting fencing. CPT officials refuted those claims. In 1998, a volunteer was mauled by a couger while cleaning cages. Sherry Blanchette was called as an expert witness on cougar behavior in the trail of Mark Kostich, the volunteer mauled by a CPT cougar.
Due to the under cover work by Blanchette and her official report, Carolina Tiger Rescue now uses a 4 level enclosure labeling system. Enclosures housing extremely dangerous predators (level 4) like tigers and leopards are never entered, except on the rare occasions when the animal has been tranquilized for a veterinary procedure. Employees may briefly enter lower level enclosures housing animals like binturong and caracal for cleaning and maintenance but are careful not to interact with these wild animals. All employees and volunteers are trained before they can enter any enclosure. Carolina Tiger Rescue is a no-touch facility and meets USDA and US Fish and Wildlife standards for a big cat sanctuary.
The North Carolina legislature considered a bill in 2004 which would make it illegal for individuals to own many of the animals housed at the Carolina Tiger Rescue. Carolina Tiger Rescue supported this bill.
Read more about this topic: Carolina Tiger Rescue
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)