Cougar To Move To New Shelter

7th Cat Finds Home; More Need Refuge

Crews with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge carry Princess out of her cage at Riverglen Tiger Shelter near Mountainburg on Nov. 14 as they prepare to move her to their facility near Eureka Springs.
Crews with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge carry Princess out of her cage at Riverglen Tiger Shelter near Mountainburg on Nov. 14 as they prepare to move her to their facility near Eureka Springs.

A 70-pound cougar named Makita will become the seventh big cat transferred from a shelter near Mountainburg to a refuge near Eureka Springs.

Makita will make the 75-mile trip to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, said Scott Smith, vice president at Turpentine Creek.

Turpentine Creek took six tigers from Riverglen Tiger Shelter near Mountainburg last week but quickly ran out of space for tigers, which can weigh from 500 to 900 pounds each.

Betty Young, owner of Riverglen, said she contacted Turpentine Creek, asking if they could adopt some of her big cats. Smith said she has hip trouble and walks with crutches. A neighbor helps her feed the big cats at Riverglen.

“I’m 72 and I haven’t been to a doctor in 30 years,” Young said Monday. “This is really hard work. I’m losing my ability to take care of them. It’s just that I am physically broke down. I’m just too old. Too old for this.”

Young wants Turpentine Creek to take about 20 of her big cats. She plans to keep about 10 and continue to operate Riverglen. Young said she’ll keep some of her older cats and animals that won’t travel well to a new location.

Currently, there are 24 tigers, two cougars and two leopards at Riverglen and 115 big cats at Turpentine Creek, which Smith described as one of the largest refuges of its kind in the United States.

Smith said Turpentine Creek raised $7,000 through its Facebook page to build a 20-by-50-foot cage for one more tiger from Riverglen. He said it will take two to three weeks to build the new tiger cage. Turpentine Creek is trying to raise more money through Facebook to take in more big cats from the Mountainburg shelter.

Smith said the cats at Riverglen are well fed but the facilities could be better.

“The cats are OK where they’re at, for the short term anyway,” he said.

Young said her cats are in excellent condition.

“They’re loved,” she said. “They’re fat. Some of them are too fat.”

Blake Sasse, nongame mammal/furbearer program leader with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said Riverglen is exempt from inspections by state or federal officials because it is a nonprofit “wildlife sanctuary” under Arkansas Code Annotated 29-19-501(3)(a).

In such cases, the sheriff is supposed to inspect the shelter. Crawford County Sheriff Ron Brown said he has done that on a regular basis since he took office in January 2011, and the previous sheriff, Mike Allen, also inspected Riverglen.

“Her animals are very healthy,” he said. “Her cages are clean.”

Brown, who has worked for the sheriff’s department since 2005, said they’ve never received a complaint regarding abuse or neglect at Riverglen.

The only complaint regarding Riverglen in the sheriff department files, which date from 2003, was about donkeys getting loose and wandering onto other people’s property.

Young said she took about 80 donkeys last year after they were rescued from a drought in Texas.

“We got these four big trailers, just an ocean of ears,” she said.

Young said she turned the donkeys loose on the 300 acres she has, and some of them apparently ventured far away.

Brown said Young initially contacted him about a year ago saying she was trying to make plans for her cats when she retires. Brown said Young had about 80 big cats when she moved to the Mountainburg area in 1996. Young said many have died over the years of natural causes.

Young said many people think they want a tiger as a pet, but caring for such large carnivores is hard work.

“Not everybody should have a tiger,” she said. “It’s extremely potentially dangerous. I respect what they are. I don’t try to change them into a poodle dog or whatever. They’re tigers.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 11/20/2012

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