On April 20, 2017, Lion's Gate Sanctuary, located in Agate, Colorado, chose to deliberately euthanize 11 of their animals. Reason? They could no longer care for them, reportsThe Dodo.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
Owned by Michael Jurich until 2006, the sanctuary, which was called Prairie Wind Animal Refugeat the time, was forced to give up its animals afterJurich got sick. The Wildcat Sanctuary, founded by Tammy Thies, stepped in to take in several of the animals.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
In 2007, Prairie Wind Animal Refuge was sold to Joan Loab and Peter Winney who renamed it Lion's Gate Sanctuary. During their 10 years of existence, the sanctuary cared for over 40 animals, many of which died from old age, according to Loab.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
Unfortunately, Lion's Gate started to face difficulties when the property was flooded ultiple times. Loab and Winney attempted to find a solution to move the sanctuary, but the authorities denied the move, invoking the obvious lack of resources at Lion's Gate.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
So Loab and Winney made the terrible decision and euthanized their three lions, three tigers and five bears. For Tammy Thies, of The Wildcat Sanctuary, this choice is incomprehensible.
Being in the industry, usually when you're in an emergency situation with cats, you're going to reach out to the sanctuary community to get their animals help, and everybody we spoke to in the sanctuary community never received a phone call for help - to come help with these animals, move them, whatever they need.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
The Wildcat Sanctuary would have gladly taken in the animals. Loab defended her decision, placing blame on the Elbert County Commissioners who denied the permit to move the sanctuary. The delegates of the committee claim they were just as shocked by the sanctuary's decision as everyone else:
Only two weeks earlier, the operators of the facility assured the County in a public forum that if the application was denied, they would continue to operate at their current location as they had for the previous 10 years.
Once again, Loab tried to justify herself by claiming that Lion's Gate couldn't place the animals in other sanctuaries for "numerous reasons": too old, handicapped, with specific needs. She also explained that for many of the animals, adapting to a new life at another sanctuary would be impossible and cause stress for them.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
For Tammy Ties, these allegations don't hold up.
What we do on a daily basis is rescue cats - whether they're geriatric, whether they're sick or whatever. They can still live happy, healthy lives, so we're a little hesitant that 11 animals were so sick that they had to be put down the same day.
Source: Lion's Gate Sanctuary
And the Lion's Gate directors would have gladly displaced the animals to move them to another sanctuary if they had been given a permit to do so. So for Thies, this act was completely unjustified and cruel. She concluded:
I hope we can help people in the future. They can still make the right decision.
To help Wildcat Sanctuary, you can make a donation byclicking here.
H/t: The Dodo
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