Al Ain wildlife park is exporting 4 sand cats to the USA. Two male and two female sand cats will be flown to zoos in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas where they will become founders of a new sand cat breeding programme intended to further diversify the genetics of populations in the US. gulfnews : Sand cats get new lease of life with breeding scheme
Very good news indeed (regulars on ZooChat know how I feel about cats). During the first Gulf War, several rescued sand cats were flown from the Middle East to the United States. Some went to breeding programs at SOS Care, a private small cat breeder in San Diego County (now retired) and I think some may have ended up at Exotic Feline Breeding Compound. At the time, the woman who ran SOS Care had formed a friendship with the founder of Big Cat Rescue (known at the time as Wildlife On Easy Street). The latter was going to work with her as a holding facility and received 5 of these cats, which I photographed shortly after during a private photo safari at BCR. However, the founder of BCR has had a RADICAL change of opinion regarding animals in captivity, and even though they actually started as a cat breeding center she is now opposed to any form of zoo whatsoever. According to an insider in the industry I know (someone who runs a wildlife facility with sand cats), the founder of BCR refused to send out her sand cats when requested because she did not want any animals breeding in captivity. So these potential founder animals were held hostage and forced to live out their lives at BCR without breeding ever.
