Big Cat Rescue's Plans
2009-2013 FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
ANIMAL CARE AND RESCUE STRATEGY
In the past five years we have implemented the improvements we wanted to make to our animal care procedures and facilities. These included upgrading to the more expensive best possible food, , expanding cages, developing and fully implementing our enrichment and operant conditioning programs, and building rehabilitation cages we can use teach orphaned Florida bobcats to hunt so they can be returned to the wild. Currently we believe we have achieved our goals in this area and are providing the best home we can for the cats. Other than cage modifications as needed, our strategy over the next five years will be to continue to diligently follow the protocols we have developed over the past five years.
On rescues, the Board has established a policy of limiting the size of the population to 150 cats with no more than 20 being lions and tigers. We could adopt of policy of expanding the number of cats. Rescuing 50 more cats would not put a dent in the problem. But, it would substantially increase the cost of operation, making the fundraising treadmill spin faster. This would prevent us from building the reserves needed to insure that we can meet our future commitment to care for the cats. It would also prevent us from applying time resources to the efforts described below that actually can solve the problem and end up saving thousands of cats from abuse.
When we do have room created by the passing away of older cats, decisions on which of the many requests we get for rescues will be made based on the set of criteria established by our Operations Committee in 2008 subject to any amendments made to the criteria in the future.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY
Goals:
Increase in Net Asset Value. Our financial goal for the next five years is to generate revenue in excess of current expenses of a minimum of $500,000 each year, doubling our Net Asset value from $3mm to $6mm over the five years. Of this increase, our goal will be to apply $1.5 mm to capital projects as discussed below. The remaining $1.5 mm in would be added to liquid reserves.
Given the possibility of two years of slow economy, our goal for 2009 and 2010 is to achieve revenue growth sufficient to cover increases in expenses to preserve the level of annual increase in net asset value at no less than $500,000. Expenses will increase modestly due to the growth of our newsletter subscriber base and to plans to add basic employee benefits like health insurance that are not currently in place. In the following three years of the plan we anticipate growing revenue 10% annually while keeping expense increases to 5% annually.
Capital Improvements.
Perimeter Wall. The sanctuary property has 7000 feet of perimeter, of which 5000 is protected only by a chain link fence. Two years ago we had teenagers shooting paintballs at some of the leopards through the chain link fence. As development closes in on us, the risk of intrusion increases. We have built 1000 feet of ten foot high concrete wall to date at over $100/foot. Over the next five years we hope to complete the wall at least for the portion of perimeter that is chain link, and eventually replace the shorter concrete wall on the other 2000 feet. About half of the projected capital improvement budget above is allocated for the wall.
Hurricane Shelter and Generator. We anticipate spending about $20,000 on a generator to provide electricity to our freezers to keep the food for the cats from spoiling if there were an extended power outage caused by hurricane. This generator needs to be in a structure that would prevent it from damage. Separately, we currently have no hurricane proof building at the sanctuary in which to safely ride out a storm. We have begun design and cost analysis on a small hurricane proof structure that would serve both purposes.
Veterinary School Program. We plan to establish a relationship with a veterinary school under which students will spend one semester at Big Cat Rescue studying care of the big cats and treatment of small cats. To accomplish this we need to establish a clinic for domestic cats and student housing. We have zoning approval but need to wait for water and sewer to reach the property in order to build. The balance of the capital budget above is reserved for this effort.
Acquisition of Contiguous Land. There is some possibility of acquiring contiguous land if the market continues to drop. This land would provide a buffer so development could not be brought up to our perimeter fence. This is not provided for in the budget above and would require either reallocation of resources or a capital campaign.
Education/Event Building. We plan to build a 10,000 sf building that would consolidate our current small offices and gift shop and add a Big Cat Museum and a large room that could be used for educational activities and rented out for events. This will require a major capital campaign. We have zoning approval but will need to wait for water and sewer lines to be brought nearer the property.
Action Plan:
- With visitor traffic having grown to 25,000/year, on many days in peak season we are at capacity. We do not want a level of visitor activity that will detract from providing a peaceful environment from the cats. We will seek media support to promote tours during the off peak times for some incremental increase in traffic. But, the vast majority of the revenue growth will have to come from increasing donations.
- Restructure the array of donation options for individuals into levels of Sponsorship to encourage larger and more repeat donations by end of April 2009. (Status – redesign complete, currently designing the materials and signage to implement.)
- Create a Corporate Sponsor program and actively market it. This will include recognition signs on the tour path and tour waiting area with size rising with sponsor level and recognition in the Big Cat Times. (Status – design in process.)
- Continue to build the donor base using the Internet, particularly with videos on YouTube and elsewhere.
- Expand the mobile phone donation program that is already proving successful.
- Work with major donors to structure matching grants to encourage others. (Status – successfully tested this concept in March raising $25,000 to match a $25,000 matching grant from one donor.)
- Create the new position Director of Donor Appreciation to provide more consistent attention to donors and more proactive engagement of potential donors, both individual and corporate. (Status – hired one of our volunteers to fill this role early 2009 and currently gradually transferring duties to him as we train.)
EDUCATION STRATEGY
A critical part of our mission is to educate the public, both adults and children, about the cats and the issues they face in captivity and in the wild. The goal is provide knowledge that will encourage people to avoid behavior that supports or leads to abuse of the cats and will encourage active support for better regulation and legislation.
Issues to be addressed regarding big cats in captivity include educating the public about why:
Big cats
- should not be pets
- should not be carted around for display in small wagons or on a leash
- should not be used for entertainment
- should not be brought into schools
Individuals
- should not to support petting or having photos taken with cubs
- should not pay to see the new white cub or white tiger on display
- should not patronize big cat entertainment acts
White tigers should not be bred – they are a genetic defect, not a species
Internet hunting should be banned
Canned hunts of big cats should be banned
Banning private ownership is the only real solution.
Action Plan:
- Continue to expand the Big Cat Times subscriber list and the AdvoCat subscriber list by promoting them online and to tour visitors.
- At year end 2008 we had 250 videos online receiving 8000 views/day and 5000 subscribers on YouTube. Goal is to produce (number) videos per year and double the number of subscribers each year.
- Continue marketing to schools to increase annual field trips from current 70 to 100 per year.
- Review and rewrite the sections of our website devoted to the issues above to maximize their effectiveness.
- Continue to monitor the press reports to track injuries and deaths from big cats to provide statistical and anecdotal evidence of the danger of private ownership.
LEGISLATIVE STRATEGY
There is overwhelming evidence that trying to insure that wild animals kept by private owners are treated humanely through regulation can have only limited impact. It is financially impractical for a state to employ enough staff to regularly inspect thousands of owners, follow up promptly to determine if violations have been corrected, and take action if they have not. The legal process to enforce the laws in the small number of cases that staff can take to that point can be delayed for years. The tiny number of violators who are shut down simply move to another state and start over. Finally, in the few cases where the enforcement officials end up confiscating the animals, it is very difficult to find good homes for them. If they were able to do more enforcement and confiscate more animals, it would be impossible to place them. The small number of good sanctuaries can only house a fraction of the thousands of animals in private hands being kept in abusive conditions.
The goal of Big Cat Rescue’s legislative strategy is to:
1. Improve laws and regulations at the local, state and federal level to limit the abuse
2. Ultimately have the entire United States catch up to the other nations that have recognized ahead of us that private ownership of wild animals leads to uncontrollable abuse and have banned such ownership entirely. Currently 18 states have such bans. Seven of those were passed in the last five years. In the next five we hope to have at least one more per year pass bans. At this writing the Oregon Senate has passed a bill which, if it passes their House, will make them the 19th state.
3. In Florida, specifically
1. Seek to have the cougar reclassified as a Class I animal like lions, tigers and leopards and subject to the stricter regulations applied to that class.
2. Urge that ownership be limited to sanctuaries who meet the Sanctuary Standards and zoos who meet AZAA requirements.
3. Seek ways to implement a ban on private ownership in Florida despite Florida’s unique Constitutional provision giving the FWCC a level of control that is perceived to limit what the legislature can do.
Action Plan:
- Continue to allocate up to 3% of our budget to influencing legislation. The bulk of this goes to maintain the Capwiz software that allows us to track bills across the country, advise our email database of those bills that need support, and makes it easy to email their specific representatives.
- Attend Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission public hearings, and the hearings of their NAME OF SUBCOMMITTEE to support stronger regulations and organize supporters to attend to show public support.
- Attend Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington D.C. annually to continue to grow our knowledge about how laws are passed and our skills in supporting legislation.
- Obtain pro bono legal counsel to research whether there is an viable argument that the section of the Florida Constitution giving FWCC control over “wild animal life” was not intended to cover captive wild animals, in which case the legislature could implement a ban on private ownership.
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