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Big Cat Rescue Saves 4

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By BETH GADDIS | TBO.com

Published: October 22, 2007

TAMPA – Through the efforts of Tampa's Big Cat Rescue workers and the donations of lots of animal lovers, two abandoned lions and two abandoned tigers have a new home.

Big Cat Rescue teamed up with the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Wild Animal Orphanage to rescue the animals from an unsanctioned shelter in Ohio.

The rescuers seized six cats in all. Big Cat Rescue was going to take only the two lions because of the expense involved. Just adding those two cats would cost $15,000 annually, according to the organization's Web site.

Then things changed.

The volunteers at Big Cat Rescue learned the two lions had been sharing the same cage with two of the tigers for most of their lives. The organization's president, Jamie Veronica, asked for more donations to transport the two tigers as well and raised more than $23,000 to help save all four cats.

Veronica and several other members of Big Cat Rescue flew to Columbus, Ohio, on Friday to load up the animals. The cats arrived in Tampa on Sunday morning. They'll live in a half-acre enclosure that includes a lake, cavelike dens and hills.

The other two tigers rescued from the Ohio shelter were taken to the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, TX.

For information on the rescues, go to www.bigcatrescue.org/rescuelionsandtigers.

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