High Sierra Topix

Has anyone visited this place on the way in or out of SEKI off of Hwy 180 near Dunlap.
Have always though about stopping to check it out but have always been in a rush.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 4638.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.cathaven.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maverick

Never been there but my old district ranger and good friend, now in his 80s is a docent there. What a terrible accident!

Mike

The son of a friend who lives in Fresno did a summer internship there in the late 1990s. That winter, our families did an overnight trip at Grant Grove. On the drive back to Fresno, we stopped at Cat Haven because the son needed to drop something off. Since it was a weekday in winter, it was closed to visitors so I didn't see much. I confess I'm not fan of confining large wild animals so I felt something was not right about about this place.

LMBSGV

I too have a problem with wild animals in confinement. But most, if not all, of these animals cannot be returned to the wild. I suspect that more open "wild animal parks" are close to capacity. What is the alternative?

Mike

I have been there once about 6 years back and I saw the article about the girls death in this mornings paper. Living in Clovis, alot of the Elementary Schools take field trips to the Cat Haven and thats how I went on my one visit, as a chapperone for my daughters class. Terrible to say the least and I agree I am not all that fond of putting such large animals on display or keeping them in enclosures. I am surprised she was in the enclosure, as we were told that is not common at all on our visit.

Regardless of peoples views on such issues, I do hope folks dont rush to a judgement about this place. From my one visist I was quite impressed with what they do. No cats on barrells or jumping through rings of fire. Just a group trying there best to educate the public about the rapidly dissapearing habitat for these cats and others.

In fact, I was surprised to find the big cats are not their main interest. Saving the smaller cats of North and South America (sorry , but I cant remember the names of the cats, but think along the size of house cats) is the owners main objective, but people wont come to see them and there are just too few of the various species to capture any. They have the bigger cats to draw in visitors, but saving the smaller cats is their main goal.

Again, its a terrible tragedy and my thoughts and condolences go out to the young girls family.

My kids and I have visited Cat Haven twice. It was pretty horrifying to read about the fatal mauling in this mornings paper. On one of our visits about a year ago, the male lion (the one involved in the mauling) got pretty testy with the female lion in the enclosure. He was fighting over one of their "treats"--they apparently like watermelons as treats to go with their regular meat diet. His roar and explosive attack was quite impressive, to say the least.

I never view these things as "accidents". They are inevitable. I feel bad for the young lady but worse for the lion who was only doing a natural thing. You fool around with the band wagon long enough your bound to get hit by a horn.