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The family thinks they've rescued it from apparent abandonment, but that's far from the truth, Thea Miller Ryan says, because the rescue can be harmful, even deadly. So, with the backdrop of the bison calf in Yellowstone that had to be euthanized this month after tourists put it in their car, Ryan is taking to social media to teach people to let nature take its course. "I know that it's not going to have a happy ending," Miller said of any rescued animal's future. "... Really, the minute humans intervene with wildlife in most cases, not all, it's a death sentence."
Miller and the Outdoor Campus in Sioux Falls, which she directs, have been teaching adults and children for years to avoid this type of rescues. But the number of calls the facility receives every year — upward of 300 — has not decreased. Now, for every call her office answers about a potential rescue, she posts on Facebook and Twitter a photo of a ceramic sparrow that has a sugar skull as its head. The accompanying message mentions the creature that the call was about and the phrase, "If you care, leave it there."
Her campaign comes at an appropriate time after the failed "rescue" at Yellowstone National Park, where a man told park rangers that he loaded a bison calf into his sport utility vehicle May 9 because he thought it was cold. Rangers took the animal back to where it was picked up, but they could not reunite it with the herd. The calf had to be euthanized as it was causing a dangerous situation by constantly approaching people and cars. "You wouldn't pick up your neighbor's kid and try to raise it just on your own. So, why would you assume that you want no better than mother nature?" said Kenneth Wilson, who leads the fish, wildlife and conservation biology department at Colorado State University. "... How do we know they are abandoned? They have no sign on them."
Wildlife officials across the country almost always encourage people who have attempted a rescue to return the animals exactly where they found them, because mothers are likely to return to their offspring after searching for food or hiding from predators. People are also told to put the animals in a nearby area if they are at risk of being attacked by a pet. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, for example, has a website that helps people determine whether a wild animal is orphaned and provides detailed descriptions for at least 13 species. People are also encouraged to use gloves while handling the animals and avoid hugging them to prevent their "human scent" from transferring, which could be a giveaway to predators. "Nature can be pretty darn harsh," Wilson said. "Often sometimes people will grab a youngster, 'Oh, we are worried about it getting attacked by something,' Well, that's the natural cycle."
Leave baby wild animals alone, new campaign stresses
Police and wildlife officials started an operation on Monday to remove all the living tigers at the Tiger Temple. Pictures from journalists at the scene posted to social media showed the 40 cubs lined up on the floor. The site in Kanchanaburi is a popular tourist attraction but has been closed to the public since the raid. Police colonel Bandith Meungsukhum told AFP news agency that wildlife officials would file new criminal charges after the discovery, and added that the cubs were just one or two days old when they died. He said it was not yet clear how long they had been dead for.
The dead cubs "must be of some value for the temple", Adisorn Nuchdamrong, from Thailand's Department of National Parks, told Reuters news agency. "But for what is beyond me." Tiger bones and body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Monks at the temple were not available for comment but have previously denied trafficking allegations. In a statement on its Facebook page, the temple said the mortality rate for tiger cubs at the temple was "comparatively low" and that it used to cremate dead cubs but the policy changed in 2010.
Thai wildlife officials use a tunnel of cages to capture a tiger and remove it from an enclosure at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province
The statement did not say why the temple started freezing cubs' remains, and also denied selling cubs. Body parts from other animals were also found in a freezer, Tom Taylor, from Wildlife Friends Foundation, who was at the temple for the raid told the BBC. A reporter from the Khaosod news website said he had seen animal intestines in containers, a dead boar and other animal parts. Dozens of living tigers have already been removed, out of 137 at the temple. The 1,000-person operation is due to continue all week.
Since 2001, authorities have been locked in a battle with the monks at the temple to confiscate the tigers after allegations of wildlife trafficking and abuse surfaced. The monks deny any wrongdoing. The temple, officially known as Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, has been a stop on many tourists' itineraries for decades. Visitors could pose for photographs with the tigers or help with their exercise routine. But animal rights campaigners have long campaigned to close it down. Peta said animals there are "imprisoned and denied everything that is important to them".
Tiger Temple: Forty dead tiger cubs found at Thai temple - BBC News
