Sanctuary in Sandstone gives rescued wildcats compassion for life

By Beth Jett
FOX 21 News

06/12/2009

There's a place in Northern Minnesota that houses more than 100 wild cats rescued from people who forced them to be pets. It's called the Wildcat Sanctuary, and it's celebrating its 10th year and hoping to someday be run out of business.

"We didn't know if you would make it," said Tammy Quist Thies to a cougar on the other side of a fence. "You did so good. Are you the best girl ever?"

The cougar snarled a friendly snarl at Thies. Every day, Thies walks on the wild side at the sanctuary, which she founded. She knows each of the 108 residents by name and the neglect and abuse each one has suffered.

"Most of these were privately owned by people who tried to domesticate a wild animal and soon realized that was not a good idea," said Thies.

Bobcats, lynx, jaguars, tigers, and lions--as majestic as they look, each has scars from maltreatment and none will ever know freedom again.

"Every animal that comes here is for life," Thies said.

The staff at the sanctuary gives the animals anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 square feet of habitat to roam on 40 acres of land.

"We want them to feel a little bit of wilderness and nature here," said Thies. "And animals that are born in captivity, they've been de-clawed, de-fanged many times. They are not releaseable candidates for the wild. They would not survive."

Thies added that people can purchase an exotic cat off the internet for less than the cost of a purebred dog. Most of the cats at the sanctuary came from seizures by law enforcement from, perhaps, unlikely owners.

"From lawyers, from vets, from individuals who think loving something enough, they'll get the love back and they don't think 20 years down the road and what it takes to house a tiger and what is right for the tiger," said Thies.

The cats come from all over Minnesota. For example, Spring, a cougar, was rescued from Grand Marais where a homeless couple had him. Thies is working to change the law to prevent more animals from ending up in sanctuaries.

"Breeders have changed their business to now do domestic wildcat hybrids to get what you call 'lap leopards,' and we are seeing those surrendered at an alarming rate," said Thies. "We're really hoping to get a breed ban bill introduced this year federally that would curb the breeding of wild cats for the private sector."

She and her colleagues had success in 2005 changing Minnesota law to forbid owning a bear, primate or wildcat as a pet. But she says her ultimate goal is to close her sanctuary because it's not needed anymore.