Bobbi Brink–founder and director of Lions, Tigers & Bears (LT&B), a 140-acre animal sanctuary in east San Diego she launched in 2002—recalls living in Texas, planning to open a restaurant (she’s from San Diego), and seeing her first advertisement offering the sale of big cats.
She responded to the ad, she explained, not to make a purchase, but to step into the realm of the illegal wildlife trade. She was aiming to learn about it–in order to help undermine it–chiefly by volunteering at pseudo-sanctuaries and other operations such as the one that placed the ad.
After putting in stints at a few of those places, closely observing how they work, learning what they do—and learning what not to do–Brink returned to San Diego, having rescued tigers Raja and Natasha, and started LT&B. (The name is intended less as a reference to “Wizard of Oz” than as a tribute to what her dying father-in-law shouted to Brink and her husband before they embarked on their regular hikes.)
She describes her ongoing efforts to rescue big cats, bears, and animals from cub petting businesses (in which customers pay to hold, pet, and have their pictures taken with the babies of wild animals), roadside zoos (which tend to display their animals in small, horrid enclosures) and other nefarious operations that exploit and often abuse animals for profit.
Brink also describes the monumental challenges she and her colleagues face in trying to halt these operations. Including that the laws governing the sale and housing of exotic wildlife vary significantly from state to state—and a fundamental federal law defines animals as property, affording them no rights.
This means that even when an official investigation of, say, a cub petting business or roadside zoo reveals criminal-level animal exploitation or abuse, the wheels of justice turn very slowly, delaying when the affected animals can be rescued or seized, and placed in Brink’s care.
Noting that big cat sanctuaries have become common across the country, while facilities providing refuge to bears are relatively rare—and that Lions, Tigers & Bears, of course, does both—I asked her about the unique challenges of caring for bears.
Brink’s response noted that bears tend to be busier, sleep less, need more space. Basically, she said, bears require more enrichment, elaborating on my follow-up question about how bear care at LT&B might vary by species, like a Himalayan Black Bear versus a Grizzly Bear.
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