The Felid TAG
Read Big Cat Rescue's Daily Updates on Wildcats in the Wild at Field Projects
Felid TAG Opposes Private Ownership of Exotic Cats
The following is from the Felid TAG (Taxon Advisory Group) Key Educational Messages 2009
The Felid Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) recommends the following key messages for AZA member institutions to use in their educational efforts relating to wild cats.
Wild cats are not appropriate pets.
It is unsafe to keep any type of wild cat as a pet; all species are extremely powerful and exhibit behaviors that are dangerous or lethal, even when hand-reared and cared for by people their entire lives.
Many state laws prohibit the keeping of wild cats as pets, and those that currently permit private ownership of wild cats are under review.
Few people have the expertise and resources necessary to provide for adequate welfare of a wild cat kept as a pet, including its needs for sufficient space, exercise, nutrition, veterinary care, and enrichment.
Keeping a wild cat is a long-term commitment that is expensive and time-consuming. When an owner is no longer able to provide for a wild cat, there are limited options available for placing it in a new home and euthanasia may be necessary.
Instead of considering a wild cat as a pet, visit your local animal shelter and adopt a domestic cat. Spay or neuter your pet and provide it with a good indoor home.
(Feline Taxon Advisory Group) posted it's recommendations at: www.FelidTag.org
The short version is that of the 28 species of small cats, there are not enough unrelated animals, or no place for them in the wild, and based upon those findings, the zoos are being told to discontinue their conservation efforts with 20 of these species so that they might have some chance at saving the other eight. You can visit their site at the link above, or check out each of the species listed on our pages to see the addendum to the information that states the plan for the cat selected.
Cats
like this will soon be no more than a memory to those of us who were fortunate
enough to have known them.
All Felid species were assigned to one of five management strategies: Species Survival Program Population (SSP): Studbooks will be maintained for the species. Species will have intensive management for long-term genetic and demographic viability. Participating institutions will be asked to sign a Memorandum of Participation (MoP). Compliance by participating institutions is expected. Coordinator with his/her management group will make breeding recommendations and develop a master plan on a regular basis.
Population Management Plan Population (PMP): Studbook will be maintained for the species. Species will be managed for genetic and demographic viability, although not as intensively as the SSP species. The long-term objective is to maintain a PMP population. PMP Coordinator encourages institutional compliance and offers breeding recommendations. No Mop, master plan, or management group is required.
Display/Education/Research Population (DERP): Species in this category are only held at a few institutions and are important display species for those institutions. No studbook is recommended, but individual
animals will be tracked in a registry by the institutions holding the species.
Phase Out Population: (POP): Species in this category are not recommended for breeding/acquisition. Phase In Population: (PIP): Species in this category are not currently in AZA institutions, but the TAG hopes or plans to import founders.
Not Recommended (Not Rec.): Species in this category are not currently in AZA institutions, and the TAG ecommends that the species not be brought into an AZA program.