Leave the Wild Cats to the Jungle

As the executive director of The Wildcat Sanctuary, the only accredited sanctuary in the Upper Midwest, I wanted to thank you for your insightful article “Cat Scratch Fever” [May]. The article helped raise awareness of the exotic pet trade in Minnesota and the United States. In one year alone, The Wildcat Sanctuary assisted authorities in removing thirty-three tigers from Minnesota’s backyards. Even though Minnesota passed an exotic-animal law in 2004 to help control the purchase and trade of wild cats, there are thousands of wild cats and hybrids kept as pets in the state, many that will eventually need sanctuary or face being destroyed. The Wildcat Sanctuary provides a safe solution for the public and a humane alternative for the animal. We hope there will be a day that our sanctuary will no longer be needed and that wild animals will be allowed to be just that—left in the wild.