Press Releases and News Coverage
Lion on the loose in El Paso County?
For immediate release
Monday, July 14, 2008A local news station received a report from a viewer of an African lion on the loose near Calhan, in eastern El Paso County, Colorado this morning.
The authorities are advising everyone in the area of Falcon Highway and North Log Road to remain indoors, and bring their animals inside, until they have located the animal. Serenity Springs staff are onsite assisting local, state, and federal authorities in tracking the animal.
Serenity Springs Wildlife Center owner and director Nick Sculac, who has over 30 years experience handling large exotic felines, is on hand with proper equipment to capture the animal humanely, and bring it into the center, where there is an enclosure available to immediately and safely house the animal.
“We have accounted for all of our animals and none of them are missing” says Nick Sculac. “We’ve also contacted other sanctuaries in the state, and no one has reported any animals missing.”
At this time, they have not confirmed via visual or tracks, whether the animal is actually a lion. The tracks that have been found so far are canine, not those of a large feline. More information will be released as soon as it is known.
Snowed-In Cat Sanctuary
Calhan
Posted: 6:06 PM Jan 14, 2007
Last Updated: 6:10 PM Jan 14, 2007Reporter: Lauri Martin
Nick Sculac has one passion in life. His 147 cats. He owns a sanctuary for tigers and lions. "78 tigers, we have 15 lions, bobcats... we have every kind of cat except a house cat."
He started building the non-profit cat sanctuary called The Big Cats of Serenity Springs in Calhan, CO about 15 years ago. It’s a safe haven for non-domestic felines. Sculac spends $15,000 every month to feed his animals.
But with the four snow storms in four consecutive weekends, he’s struggling keep all his kitties safe. "We have to give them water and in that kind of weather, we’re out here 3 times a day breaking ice because the water freezes."
Sculac also worries about the high winds that blow the cats' dens full of snow. "It was 25 feet tall. We spent 7 days on a bobcat just to get around to feed the cats. Looks like it’ll start all over again." Sculac spent nearly $10,000 cleaning up from the last blizzard. "That was all our food money, our reserve." Even though the storms are costing him, Sculac continues to care for his kitties. After all, they're like family.
Email: lmartin@kktv11news.com
Lions and tigers and students, oh my!
Student group CU Wild brings big cats into the classroom
Tate Delloye
Issue date: 11/11/06
Student organization CU Wild hosted a presentation by Big Cats of Serenity Springs Friday night on campus. Students and members of the community crammed into Chemistry 140 for a chance to view and photograph a 500-pound tiger, two leopard cubs and one black leopard.
The short presentation gave a brief history about the non-profit organization and its collection of cats. After the discussion, people were able to stand within inches of the cages. At one point, the anxious tiger reached between the bars of his cage and ripped the caretaker's pants.
"I was convinced after tonight's presentation to volunteer at the sanctuary," said Rachel Shelley, a junior psychology major. "The animals were so stunning. It was almost hard to believe that I was standing next to a wild creature in the same room I took my sociology class in."
Big Cats of Serenity Springs is based east of Colorado Springs and is home to more than 120 large cats. The group has an extensive variety of cats including, lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, ligers, servals, bobcats and lynxes.
Big Cats saves animals from euthanization after their display in zoos and rescues cats that have not been properly maintained by private owners. The sanctuary opened in 1993 and is the only facility in the state to be granted a Colorado zoological license.
The refuge is able to support its animals through various fundraising programs. It receives corporate donations, gives guided tours, conducts on- and off-site events and does commercial work for the movie industry.
CU Wild is a small group of students with a goal to educate the public about Colorado's wildlife. They formed at the end of last semester and together they work on various service projects.
“We have a good group of workers, not a lot, just quality members," said Niki Lecander, a sophomore business major and director of the program.
CU Wild often volunteers with Mission Wolf, a wolf sanctuary in south-central Colorado. They have done presentations with wolves in the past similar to Friday night's performance.
The group looks forward to expanding its purpose and adding more events throughout the year.
"Tonight was awesome," Lecander said. "We were all very surprised by the turnout, and we were blown away by how interested the audience was in it. These cats have been abused, and our purpose is to save wildlife. Hopefully our point was made."
***Please note: We are NOT closing. This story is posted here because of references to our sanctuary.***
BIG CATS RUNNING OUT OF SHELTER
1 SANCTUARY WILL CLOSE; 2 OTHERS ARE STRUGGLING TO STAY AFLOAT
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD - THE GAZETTE August 20, 2006
KEENESBURG
Pat Craig loves all his animals — all 155 of them. But he says he still may have to kill them. The owner of the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center, a large predator sanctuary
30 miles northeast of Denver, Craig says he is out of money and is closingafter 26 years. He is now appealing for donations to feed the 75 tigers, 12 lions, nine
leopards and 30 bears,plus wolves and smaller cats, until he can find new homes for them. Otherwise, he says he will have to euthanize them. It’s not the first time he has made such public statements. "Of course, that is going to be the very, very last thing we ever do,” Craig said last week during a tour of the sanctuary, where many of the cats nuzzle him as if they were cuddly mousers instead of 450-pound killing machines. “But in December, I was sure that within two weeks, I’d be doing that. “You either let them starve to death or you go out there and do the right thing,” he said.
His isn’t the only wildlife sanctuary in trouble. One in Kiowa is shutting its doors, while volunteers at another in Calhan are wondering how they will go on after the death of the co-founder, Karen Sculac.
Most others around the nation are full because of an increasing number of people who adopt big cats as cubs, usually tigers, and are overwhelmed when they grow up. Most shelters are struggling for donations after a series of natural disasters, from the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina, monopolized many people’s charitable donations.
But other sanctuaries are alarmed by Craig’s statements about possibly euthanizing the animals. It caused a split with the American Sanctuary Association, which led to him resigning from the organization.
Association director Vernon Weir said he understands Craig’s concerns, but that “to say publicly that animals’ lives are in the balance is almost like blackmail.”
“He knows, like us, that sanctuaries are filled to capacity and he’s got a lot of cats and where are they going to go?” Weir said.
“Once you start killing these animals, it becomes an acceptable method for disposing of these animals and we don’t want this to ever become acceptable,” he said.
Nick Sculac, Karen’s husband who is now the sole owner of Big Cats of Serenity Springs, a sanctuary near Calhan, said the threat of euthanization is a ploy by Craig to raise funds.
“He won’t do it. It’s the only way that he knows how to raise money,” he said.
Craig’s money problems are well-documented. He has gone to the Denver media numerous times since 1999, on several occasions saying he desperately needed donations to stay open. The public has always responded.
But he says no amount of donations will keep him open this time. With an operating budget of $750,000 a year — $400,000 of that on meat — he said there is no way the sanctuary can achieve financial security, even though he opened it for public tours in recent years, at $10 for adults and $5 for children. The sanctuary ended 2005 with a $250,000 deficit.
“We didn’t just lose a little. We lost well over half of our income,” he said, blaming the lack of donations on the national and global disasters.
He notified donors in a recent newsletter, “All I can do now is focus on finding a way to save as many animals as possible.” He took out a $50,000 personal loan and suspended his $2,500-a-month personal salary.
Since Denver media outlets ran his story early last week, he has received $20,000 to $30,000 in donations — enough for another month of food. But it doesn’t change his prediction that it will be months before he can find homes for the animals and he won’t be able to feed them.
He would prefer to turn the operation over to another nonprofit to run and has had some preliminary talks with other agencies.
Mike Jurich is learning it can be tough to get out of the sanctuary business.
Owner of Prairie Winds, a sanctuary with 45 big cats in Kiowa, he is doling his lions and tigers out, mostly one or two at a time. He would need, he said, at least $50,000 to stay afloat, and doesn’t have the resources or energy to raise it.
“We just don’t have the funding, and I think it’s the right thing to do to get ahead of a real financial disaster that could put the animals in harm’s way,” Jurich said.
“I feel like I’m parting with my family. I feel like I’m parting with my children,” he said. “It breaks my heart to think about it, but it’s better for them.”
After the sudden death of his wife Aug. 12, because of a rapidly spreading infection, Sculac could be forgiven if he did the same thing.
But he said last week he met with the sanctuary’s volunteers after her death, and they wanted to remain open, for the 128 big cats, and for him.
“That’s what I have left of her,” he said.
“She’d probably have a bolt of lightning on me if I didn’t (stay open). I’d be afraid to go out in the rain,” he said.
With Jurich’s closing, and Craig’s possible closing, the number of places for the big cats in Colorado dwindles. The Colorado Division of Wildlife licenses seven wildlife sanctuaries — three with cats — and one zoological park with cats.
The state has banned big cats as pets since 1985 and has some of the toughest regulations, adopted in 2003, for bigcat sanctuaries. The state banned new nonprofit facilities, and none have opened since then.
Nationwide, 20 states have banned keeping them as pets, and the federal government is implementing the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, which prohibits interstate or Internet trade of big cats.
The Humane Society of the U.S. estimates from 10,000 to 15,000 big cats are in private hands, from cages in basements to roadside zoos. Most that wind up in sanctuaries came from squalid and inhumane conditions.
Richard Farinato, who runs a sanctuary in Texas for the Humane Society, said people must realize they can’t care for these cats, even if they’re adorable as cubs.
But the sheer number out there, he said, could mean an impending crisis. Only about 15 sanctuaries take in big cats.
“There are many, many more animals than there are places for,” he said. “If you get an animal, you need to provide for it with a home for a lifetime.”
Sanctuaries are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which only controls how animals are euthanized, but does not prohibit it, even if they are healthy.
Craig sees his operation as a hospice for cats. They were dealt a poor hand by humans, and he is just trying to make their remaining years pleasant.
“These guys have a great life. They would have died the day we’d gotten the call if we’d said, ‘We can’t take them,’” he said.
And he stresses he would not resort to euthanizing them unless other options were exhausted.
“Having to be the one who physically takes their life away is something you never want to do,” he said.
Woman gave tireless devotion to cats
By ANDREA BROWN THE GAZETTE
The 113 lions, tigers and other castoff cats in Calhan won’t be homeless after the sudden death of an animal sanctuary’s owner.Karen Sculac of Big Cats of Serenity Springs died Saturday morning of pneumonia at age 47. She became ill with strep throat about a week and a half ago, yet kept cleaning and feeding her brood.
She was airlifted Friday to Memorial Hospital.
Her tireless dedication was her trademark.
“There were times she would get maybe two hours of sleep. She would do whatever she could to keep these cats going,” said her daughter, Ashley, 22.
“She put herself last.”
Family and volunteers gathered Sunday to continue chores on the 17-acre sanctuary licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.Sculac opened the exotic cat center in 1993 with her husband, Nick, a contractor who had a massive heart attack last year and had to quit working. He had been scheduled for medical tests Friday for his heart condition.
The Sculacs helped cover the cat costs by conducting tours and taking donations at the rescue center a mile from U.S. Highway 24.
Volunteers pitched in as the cat population grew.
The cats include circus has-beens, over-the-hill photography models, discarded family pets and refugees from closed zoos.
“My mom had the biggest heart. She could never say no to anybody,” Ashley Sculac said.
But big cats have big appetites.
The center had been struggling financially for years, Karen Sculac told The Gazette in an interview for an article published last month.
Her death presents a new challenge because she had no health insurance, and the family will struggle to pay medical bills, said Collette Colvin, a volunteer for the sanctuary.
“Karen was the heart and soul of this place,” Colvin said. “It will take many people to fill her shoes.”
Sculac’s daughter said the sanctuary was her mother’s dream, and the family plans to keep it alive.
“We are going to keep going strong,” she said. “It was her family and her cats — that’s what she lived by.”
A memorial service is planned this week, but details have not been announced.
In addition to her husband, Nick, and daughter, Ashley, Karen Sculac is survived by daughters Amber, 24, and Whitney, 22; granddaughters Sienna, 4, and Danica, 3 months; and her parents Jerry Brill of Colorado Springs and Joyce Modie of California.
The sanctuary is accepting donations on its Web site, www.bigcatsofserenitysprings.org.
People who want to help can also call 347-9200.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0253 or
andrea.brown@gazette.com
Staff writer Perry Swanson contributed to this report.
Director of Big Cats of Serenity Springs Dies at the age of 47
Calhan, CO – August 12, 2006
Karen Sculac, director of the Big Cats of Serenity Springs exotic cat sanctuary, died late Saturday morning from complications due to an infection.
Karen contracted a septic infection after a bout of strep throat. The infection spread rapidly through her system and she developed pneumonia. She was airlifted to Memorial Hospital on Friday afternoon but did not respond to treatment.
“Karen was, and always will be, the heart of Big Cats of Serenity Springs,” said Collette Colvin, public relations volunteer for the sanctuary. “No one can take her place but we will all continue to strive for the goals she set for herself and the sanctuary.”
Karen is survived by her husband Nick, her daughters Amber, Ashley, and Whitney, two beautiful granddaughters Sienna and Danica, her parents Jerry and Joyce, and a multitude of family and friends.
Funeral arrangements will be posted on the website (www.bigcatsofserenitysprings.org) as soon as they are available.
Collette Colvin
cell: 459-2738
Public Relations Volunteer
Big Cats of Serenity Springs
bigcatsofserenitysprings.org
Director of Big Cats of Serenity Springs Gravely Ill
Calhan, CO – August 12, 2006Karen Sculac, director of the Big Cats of Serenity Springs exotic cat sanctuary, was airlifted to a hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday afternoon where she remains in critical condition at this time.
Karen contracted a septic infection around August 5. Unaware of the infection, she continued to work at the facility until Thursday night, when her condition became too overwhelming to continue. “She thought she had picked up a stomach virus from her granddaughter,” her husband, Nick Sculac, said. “She kept insisting she was fine and she would rest this weekend, when she had volunteers scheduled to help with the cats and to do tours for her.”
Nick was scheduled for a number of medical tests himself on Friday for a continuing heart condition and voiced his concerns about Karen to his daughters that morning. They arrived to check on Karen early Friday afternoon and found her semiconscious on the couch, having trouble breathing. An ambulance was called and, because of the distance to a medical facility, a Flight for Life helicopter was dispatched. In order to help her breathe, a tracheotomy was performed in the emergency room and she remains on a ventilator.
Karen is listed in critical condition with a septic infection and pneumonia. While the doctors are concerned with her condition, the family is optimistic. Her daughter Amber stated, “She’s a fighter and she knows that she has a lot of people depending on her, especially her granddaughters. It may take some time but she will be fine.”
Big Cats of Serenity Springs is closed to the public at this time. Volunteers, with Nick Sculac’s guidance, will care for the cats that are in residence at the facility. “We will continue the work the Karen and Nick have dedicated their lives to for the last 13 years,” said Collette Colvin, public relations volunteer for the facility. “Karen has always said that the cats come first and that she would give her life for theirs. We will do our best to provide for the cats until both they are both back to full strength.
Karen is, and will remain, the heart of Big Cats of Serenity Springs and we thank everyone their prayers and continued support during this difficult time.
Cat tales
Story by DEB ACORD - THE GAZETTE - July 16, 2006
On a summer morning, a little more than a mile from busy U.S. Highway 24 in eastern Colorado, a lion roars. It’s a substantial, primitive sound that could come only from an animal who puts nearly 500 pounds of sinewy muscle behind it.Some say the lion’s roar can be heard for five miles. Karen Sculac hopes it travels a lot farther. Sculac owns Big Cats of Serenity Springs, a permanentplacement center for big lions, leopards and bobcats. She’s hoping that roar will generate attention and donations to help her struggling center.
Serenity Springs opened in 1993. Today, it sprawls over 17 acres near Ellicott, home to 113 cats — 69 tigers, 12 lions, and their smaller relatives. It’s licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
Running the elaborate operation costs more than $250,000 a year, a daunting amount that the Sculacs have covered by working other jobs, conducting tours and taking donations.
It has been a difficult existence for the couple, but one they’ve embraced out of their love for and devotion to the cats, all rejects from across the country: over-the-hill photography models, magician assistants who grew too big, discarded and confiscated family pets and refugees from closed zoos and refuges.
Then, last year, the unthinkable happened. Nick Sculac, a big man who loved working with the cats, had a massive heart attack followed by surgery, and he had to quit his contracting business and his work with the center.
2: Number of cats the Sculacs had when they started in 1993
2: Number of licensed mammal parks in Colorado with tigers and African lions
35: Number of licensed mammal parks in Colorado
100: In dollars, cost of vitamins to feed the Big Cats of Serenity Springs each week
113: Residents at the center now
475: Average weight, in pounds, of an African lion
1,000: Number of big cats in the United States that are in refuges or sanctuaries
1,683: Pounds of meat (a beef/horse-meat mix) Serenity Springs cats eat each day
5,000: Tigers in the wild, worldwide
10,000: Tigers in captivity in the United States
Karen took over the care and feeding of their charges and maintenance of the center, but she started getting worried about the rising costs.
“We were always losing money, but we could always keep things going before,” she says.
The couple began doing whatever they could think of to save the center. But their family finances suffered. The bank foreclosed on their house — a sprawling place nearby that the couple had built “for our retirement,” Sculac says. Her family life has also suffered from the demands of the big cats, and she finds it easier to talk about some things via e-mail rather than in person. “My ‘personal property’ was borrowed on to the hilt for the cats,” she writes. “With the last 18 months or so being so tough and seeing disaster coming, in my heart and soul I knew it was simply a choice of which was more important — my pride and a dream house which I’d had for 10 years, OR my cats, which had my heart, dedication and my promise they would always be able to count on me.”
Sculac says she wants people to know that she doesn’t live off the center. She works at home selling refurbished medical equipment on the Internet, and until his illness, Nick was a contractor.
Rumors surfaced recently that Serenity Springs was closing or had already closed. Sculac was furious, saying rumors “can really hurt a place like this. The donations we do have dry up, and new ones stop coming in. It means that we let these guys down. I will never do that.”
“These guys” are a who’s who of the big-cat world. Orange and exotic white tigers — some formerly owned by boxer Mike Tyson — lounge in comfort. Lions, some displaying horrific hairstyles, rub the chain-link fence when Sculac approaches. A black leopard, temporarily distracted by a mouse in his enclosure, comes to the fence like an affectionate pet. Mountain lions, perched in dens high above the ground, snarl grumpily when their names are called. Ligers, the massive offspring of a lion and a tiger that look like tigers on steroids, recognize Sculac and head for the fence, chuffing affectionately (a throaty rumbling that is the big-cat equivalent of purring).
They all want her attention. Sculac carefully touches, pets and nuzzles the cats who were raised around humans; she stays clear of those who were mistreated or abandoned because they were thought to be too dangerous.
They are equal in Sculac’s eyes.
“We — humans — made these animals,” she says. “They didn’t ask to be born. But here they are, and I think we need to take care of them.”
And taking care of them is a complex and often controversial business. Many people believe the cats should be destroyed, “discarded,” Sculac says with disbelief. But around the country, wildlife sanctuaries like Serenity Springs are the last stop for big cats.
Colorado Division of Wildlife requirements for keeping big cats:
- Fences at least 8 feet high with a top cover over the entire enclosure, or 10 feet high with an inward cantilever and two 16-gauge electrified wires on top.
- Walls that extend at least three feet below ground if woven wire or chain link; at least one foot if solid concrete.
- Nine-gauge or heavier chain link for fences below the eight-foot level if electrified wire isn’t used.
- Minimum space for enclosures: bobcats and lynx, one or two animals, 20 by 20 feet with 13 by 6.5 feet for each additional animal; tigers, lions, mountain lions, 15 by 20 feet, with a 50 percent increase for each additional animal.
- At least two consecutive, self-closing, locked gates.
- Posts every 10 feet if less than 8 inches in diameter, or 20 feet if greater than 8 inches.
- Shade shelter for each animal.
- Den for each animal.
They have opened their doors to these creatures who are neither stellar examples of their species nor furry pets. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association estimates there are as many as 10,000 tigers in private possession in the United States. An estimated 5,000 tigers live in the wild worldwide.
Factor in the genetic heritage of these cats — they are dozens of generations removed from the wild and thousands of miles from their wild relatives’ native habitat — and you have a population of massive carnivores who can catch a mouse or bird with a casual swat but don’t know they can eat it.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, more than 20 states ban owning big cats as pets. And each year, more take steps to limit or prohibit the practice.
That means more calls to people like Sculac, who admits she has trouble saying “no.”
Serenity Springs didn’t start out to be an elaborate big-cat complex. Ardent animal lovers, the Sculacs purchased two tiny African lion cubs from a breeder in 1993. They dreamed of raising them and showing them to school groups and others.
“We wanted to give educational programs, so we applied for and got the proper licenses,” Sculac says. Then, their phone began to ring. Would they take a tiger that had been kept illegally as a pet? How about a lion that had been found neglected because it grew too big and its owners were afraid of it? How about 13 tigers left homeless when another Colorado refuge closed?
“Before we knew it, we were a full-fledged center,” Sculac says.
In 2000, they had 31 cats. By the next year, they had 48. And after Sept. 11, 2001, when donations “dried up completely,” Sculac says, they kept taking them in. It has become a massive undertaking, with the cats eating nearly 1,700 pounds of meat a day.
“We are a nonprofit, and we can’t afford to pay help,” Sculac says. “We don’t have volunteers because we just don’t have time to train them properly.”
She admits she’s a “mother hen” at the center. She’s had trouble with misguided volunteers who believe their experience with house cats will allow them to have physical contact with the big cats.
Running an animal sanctuary as a business is key to its success, says Carol Baskin, chief executive officer of Big Cat Rescue, a Florida facility that claims to be the one of the biggest in the world.
Big Cat Rescue opened in 1992, and Baskin says “for the first 11 years, we couldn’t come within $150,000 of breaking even.”
Then, she began looking at it in a different way. “We began approaching it like a business,” she says. “I think a lot of nonprofits approach their endeavors like charities, thinking feelings of the heart will keep them going.”
Approaching a rescue center as a business “has allowed us to weather long-term conditions, like a huge global disaster,” she says.
Baskin says her organization “started looking at where our money comes from, and finding ways to get more people involved as far as corporate sponsors.”
The Florida center now takes in more than a million dollars a year.
Near Ellicott, Sculac has slowed the growth of Serenity Springs, taking in one new cat in the last 15 months. But she still feels trapped between the day-today operation of the center and the projects she knows should be done to make the center less of a money pit.
“But because I run the center myself, I can’t go out and do programs and ask for donations and come up with elaborate fund-raising ideas. I’m just caught up in the feeding and watering, that takes about seven hours each day.”
She keeps a Web site updated, and she leads tours for school groups and others who reserve time in advance. It’s one of the few places in Colorado where people can observe the big cats up close.
Serenity Springs holds a zoological-park license from the Colorado Division of Wildlife; it’s the only facility in that category in Colorado. Though more than 200 commercial parks held licenses in 2006, most are game-bird parks, said Kathy Konishi, manager of the special licensing unit of the DOW. Only 35 are mammal parks; 10 have big cats, and only two have tigers and lions: Serenity Springs and Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center in Keenesburg, south of Hudson in Weld County.
In 2003, the DOW made mammal-park regulations more strict, specifying that wildlife-sanctuary licenses can be issued only to nonprofit entities, and that they be certified by the American Zoological Association.
The DOW hasn’t had any new applications for sanctuary licenses since that regulation took effect, Konishi says. And at the same time, states are passing stricter laws about possession of big cats. So centers like Serenity Springs continue to be besieged by requests for placement.
“Since I’ve stopped taking in new animals, I’ve had at least 100 calls,” Sculac says.
Running the center is demanding, offering no relief, no vacations, but Sculac has embraced it.
“There’s never a day when I’ve said ‘I’m done,’ ” she says. “Never. Every animal is here because I promised to take care of it, no matter what, and I’m going to do everything I can to live up to that promise.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0264 or deb.acord@gazette.com
Big-cat sanctuary in a jam
By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News
June 26, 2006
Nick and Karen Sculac, owners of Big Cats of Serenity Springs, have another sad animal sanctuary story. But they're counting on a happy ending.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs, located in Calhan about 65 miles southeast of Denver, is home to 105 lions, tigers, leopards and other large felines. The Sculacs started the refuge 14 years ago, taking in cats from failed sanctuaries and from private owners - including fighter Mike Tyson - who had lostinterest in their toothsome exotic pets.
"They don't come with dowries, not even Tyson's," said Karen Sculac. "Other refuges don't take cats without dollars, but I can't put a price on their heads."
That was fine until last year, when Nick Sculac had a massive heart attack and mothballed his contracting business that kept fresh meat in the large cats' bellies.
This year, the bank foreclosed on the Sculac's 8,000-square-foot home. The couple moved into a small house on the sanctuary's already-paid-for 15 acres.
"We're not going to a homeless shelter, and neither are the cats," Karen Sculac said.
Nick Sculac, 54, known in southeastern Colorado as "The Tiger Man" for his cheery pickups of fresh livestock carcasses for his brood, has six stents in his arteries and a slew of medicines.
He's hoping for a full recovery by next year and has paid all his medical bills with cash. But he grieves that he's got to stay away from his furry wards.
"If they bite me, I'll bleed to death because of the blood thinners," said Sculac, who once romped with lions and tigers that embraced him with paws the size of baseball gloves.
Each week, the cats devour 1,683 pounds of meat, and the Sculacs' savings account is as dented as the metal barrels the lions toss around their enclosures.
A vendor who trades in meat that's past the deadline for human consumption and Red Bird Farms in Denver help, but sometimes those supplies run short.
Karen Sculac said she then buys chicken quarters by the case at the local discount store.
The Sculacs said their refuge, one of only two licensed big cat sanctuaries in the state, isn't closing.
But if Big Cats of Serenity Springs did close, state officials wouldn't be surprised.
"It's tragic, but it's a tough world and sometimes the animals are better off being euthanized," said Rick Enstrom, a Colorado Wildlife Commissioner.
In 2003, the commission banned new nonprofit exotic animal refuges to prevent Colorado from becoming the dumping ground as other states banned refuges.
But that didn't stop the Sculacs or Pat Craig's Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center near Greeley from taking in more animals every year.
The Conservation Center, which houses 152 lions, tigers, bears, wolves and other wildlife, ran $150,000 short last year.
Craig launched a media campaign for donations.
It worked, as it had before, said Enstrom. He said the Sculacs haven't resorted to emotional pleas to raise money - but they could.
"When something does happen to the Sculacs or Craig, we will have an emotional and financial train wreck," said Enstrom. "The refuge owners can't do it all their lives. And, they run out of money."
Big Cats of Serenity Springs Not Closing
Calhan, CO, USA – Thursday, June 22, 2006 - In the face of a personal financial crisis, Big Cats of Serenity Springs has found it necessary to publicly state that the organization responsible for the protection and care of over 105 exotic captive felines is not in danger of closing.
Without permission, and against the code of ethics that Big Cats of Serenity Springs operates under, an individual not associated with the facility leaked false information to local media outlets. This person had access to private, personal financial data and released this information to the press, along with their erroneous belief that the sanctuary was being closed.
Karen Sculac, director of the sanctuary, has spent the last 4 days correcting threatening suppositions and assuring callers that her personal finances are totally separate from the finances of the organization that she and her husband started. “Like any responsible business owner, we made a conscious decision 13 years ago to keep our personal finances personal so that any misfortunes that may befall us would not affect the cats that depend on us.”
Due to a drop in donations since September 2000, and an even more dramatic loss of funds since the natural disasters in 2005, the Sculacs have been putting the majority of their personal incomes into ensuring the wellbeing of the residents of the feline refuge. Karen was well aware that this decision could mean the eventual sacrifice of the home she and Nick had built on property adjoining the facility. “I can live without my dream house; the cats can’t live without me,” Karen said in a statement on Monday.
Adding to an already stressful, personal situation is the fact that misinformation was leaked to local media outlets stating that the sanctuary was closing and cats were being evicted from their home. Assumptions that Big Cats of Serenity Springs had closed is already having a negative impact on donations, making it necessary for a public statement to be released regarding a personal financial situation that should have remained private.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs has not been, nor will it be, affected by any personal adversity faced by those involved with the organization. We remain open and invite the public to visit us through our Tour Program and 100% of all donations received will continue to be used to provide for the exotic captive animals in our care.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs is a non profit organization dedicated to providing a safe, stable, permanent home for non-domestic felines, regardless of prior history or physical condition in accordance with their code of ethics.
Contact:
Big Cats of Serenity Springs, 719-347-9200
presscontact@bigcatsofserenitysprings.org
Karen Sculac, director
Collette Colvin, public relations
http://bigcatsofserenitysprings.org/
PREMIER TIGER SANCTUARY CONDEMNS UNETHICAL FUNDRAISING
Calhan, CO, USA – Sunday, June 11, 2006 - The director of one of the premier exotic cat sanctuaries is taking a stand against animal advocate abuse in the form of unscrupulous fund raising practices that have become rampant in the captive exotic wildlife world in recent months.Karen Sculac, director of Big Cats of Serenity Springs, said, “The use of scare tactics and emotional blackmail to raise money are making the fund raising efforts of all wildlife sanctuaries near impossible. The loss of support from a public that feels betrayed has put all exotic cat refuges in danger of losing funds vital to their continuing existence.”
A long time member of the wildlife refuge community, Sculac has been aware of less than scrupulous fundraising tactics for some time but did not realize the extent of the problem until Big Cats of Serenity Spring itself became a victim of a malicious attack.
After the initial influx of captive wildlife that was directly affected by Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, and Rita, Big Cats of Serenity Springs, and many other wildlife sanctuaries, dramatically scaled back their programs. As the months passed and donations remained at all time lows, many sanctuaries stepped up their efforts to keep the animals’ plights in the public eye.
Unfortunately, some facilities made a conscious choice to use the media to promote a scare tactic approach, either by attacking the reputation of other facilities in their area or making their own situation seem more dramatically dire than reality would prove. Announcing that if they do not raise sufficient funds, they will have to euthanize animals in their care has become popular and an instant money producer. Many times, money raised in this manner is used to increase the number of animals at the refuge, thus increasing funding needs that could not be met in the first place. Within a few months, these facilities are back in the news, using the threat of euthanasia to once again emotionally manipulate the public.
A sanctuary practicing ethical fundraising and responsible stewardship of the animals in their care cannot compete with a dramatic “money or death” headline and, therefore, loses valuable media coverage. And while the public will respond to the first and second appeal, they will quickly feel betrayed when a third hardship appeal follows a story of that same refuge taking in more animals.
This betrayal of the public trust puts all wildlife sanctuaries in danger of losing necessary funding. Most donors do not have time to find and research every individual sanctuary so they choose not to donate at all. The long term affects of this loss of public support will be devastating to captive wildlife population in the United States.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs is calling on all wildlife sanctuaries, regardless of political and organization affiliations to create and execute proper and ethical fundraising and marketing plans to ensure life-long care for the animals in their custody. In an effort to restore public confidence, wildlife sanctuaries should publish an individual code of ethics, donation usage information, and their requirements for acceptance of animals to their facility on their website and in their printed materials.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs is a non profit organization dedicated to providing a safe, stable, permanent home for non-domestic felines, regardless of prior history or physical condition in accordance with their code of ethics.
Contact:
Big Cats of Serenity Springs, 719-347-9200
Karen Sculac, director, karen@bigcatsofserenitysprings.org
Collette Colvin, public relations, collette@bigcatsofserenitysprings.org
http://bigcatsofserenitysprings.org/
December 2, 2002
Safe haven for big cats
Shelter near Colorado Springs is home to 65 lions and tigers, including 3 once owned by Mike Tyson
By Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News(Excerpt from Rocky Mountain News)
ELLICOTT - Every tiger has a tale, but a trio of the large, striped felines that once belonged to prize fighter Mike Tyson aren't talking.
The tales all have the same plot: People buy wild animals as cuddly cubs, but can't take care of them as toothsome adults.
Big Cats of Serenity Springs, a federally licensed and state inspected refuge about 25 miles east of Colorado Springs, is home to 65 lions, tigers and other felines that outgrew their previous owners' ability to keep them.
"It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase that if you build it, they will come," said Karen Sculac, who owns the refuge with her husband, Nick.
Tyson's cats, two white tigers - Kenya and Storm - and a rare, golden tabby tiger known as Boris, arrived at the southeastern Colorado sanctuary last week from a Texas shelter near Tyson's home.
Tyson, known for biting off part of fighter Evander Holyfield's ear and serving a prison sentence for rape, bought the animals as cubs and then tried unsuccessfully for seven years to get a license to own big cats.
Rather than euthanize the tigers or turn them over to law enforcement, Tyson gave them to the animal shelter and asked that they be sent to the Sculacs.
"Mike Tyson picked us because he wanted them to have a good home," said Nick Sculac. The Sculacs never talked with Tyson, but the Texas refuge said he checked out sanctuaries across the country.
Tyson, who told reporters he sparred with the tigers, paid $900 a week to board the cats while he owned them and hooked up video cameras around their cage so he could watch their antics on a computer when he traveled, Nick Sculac said.
Tyson wasn't available for comment. And, the tiger support checks stopped coming when the Texas shelter took in Kenya, Storm and Boris.
"At least they still have their ears," Karen Sculac quipped.
Spooked and hostile at first, Kenya and Storm, both females weighing about 350 pounds, were chuffing happily by Thanksgiving. Chuffing is the sound a feline makes - a throaty moan of pleasure that tapers off into a loud purr. Boris, a 550-pound male, still prefers to lunge at the fence or sulk in the shade.
"He barks at men, but not at women, so we think if he was abused, it was a man," said Karen Sculac, explaining that a bark is a short, loud roar that serves as a warning.
Inside the tall chain fence, Kenya and Storm charged each other, embraced in midair, and hit the ground rolling with a sound akin to a large tree falling in the forest. Then, they groomed each other and sunned.
Read the full story in the Rocky Mountain News
11/28/2002
Rare Tigers Find A Home Near Colorado Springs
(Excerpt from KRDOTV.com) by Jessica Miles
One of the most rare Bengal tigers lives just 15 miles east of Colorado Springs.
Former owner, boxer Mike Tyson couldn't care for the big cats, so now it calls Serenity Springs home.
Having only been here three days and already receiving visitors these three tigers, two whites and a golden tabby, are still a little un-easy.
"These cats were originally owned by Mike Tyson, there were some licensing and legality problems with him keeping them permanently," says Karen, owner of Big Cats of Serenity Springs. The golden tabby is one of only 300 in the country. Now he'll live out the rest of his life here at serenity springs.Read the full story at www.KRDOTV.com
All photographs © Big Cats of Serenity Springs. All rights reserved.
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