Care for the Caracals: Ella’s Call to Action

Ok people. A lot of interesting stuff has happened since my last post. A couple days later we went to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner. 10 days after we went to see the penguins we went to a bird sanctuary. There were many types of birds, most of them very colorful. There were also many species of monkey and other animals such as lemurs and meerkats. Some of the birds were Marabou Storks (they were kind of ugly)! A couple days later we went to a cat sanctuary called Panthera Africa: Big Cat Sanctuary. There, we were told about the back stories of their 23 animals. Most of them came from breeding farms. This is the way breeding farms work: 1) Adult cats are forced to breed *in order to get certain colors or types of cats, siblings and other family members (even parents and children) sometimes mate* 2) After 1-6 days the kittens are taken away from their mother so that she will breed again sooner *a female cat will sometimes have three litters in one year* 3) The kittens are rented to zoos where they are hand-raised *the employees are told that the kittens were rejected by their mothers or that something else happened to prevent their being raised naturally* 4) After a couple weeks the kittens are ready to be able to be petted and handled by humans and their children *this causes them to become used to humans, meaning that they cannot be released into the wild* *when the kittens play and accidentally hurt someone they are punished* 5) After a few months the kittens become big enough to be walked with a stick *the tourist holds a stick and can walk amongst the cats* *they are holding the stick that the cats are beaten with* 6) When the cats become too big for human interaction they are returned to their original breeding farms where they are mistreated *cramped for space* *malnourished* *beaten* 7) The cats are sold to canned shooting companies *where people pay to stand outside of a fence and shoot the big cat (with nowhere to hide) *in addition, these are trained cats who may even run forward to meet a person* for their ego *they are too beaten and scarred to be used for trophies* or are used for breeding. Any place where you are allowed to touch an animal, think about why that animal is so placid. The employees are told LIES so that they tell you lies. You shouldn’t go to these places, but if you do, ask the employees questions! Make them think! Support places like Panthera Africa. Now, on to a happier note. I think I found one of my new favorite animals! It is called a Caracal. There were three of them at the sanctuary, Max, Jack, and Amy, and they are absolutely beautiful. I learned a lot about them and the other animals. After that, we went whale watching and saw seals, dolphins, and Southern Right Whales, called so because when people used to hunt them they would float when dead, making them the “right” whale to hunt. I look forward to writing more soon!

Ella

1   ❤ 5-4-17-4-5-4-14-23!