Langi Forringer, a volunteer at Safari’s for more than 16 years (from the time she was 12 years old), is an accomplished artist and photographer. The animals at Safari’s are often the subjects of her photographs and drawings. In August of 2005, Langi posted online photos of Amadeus, the one leopard cub that Safari’s kept from the three litters born to Mirage, from the intentional breeding of Mirage and Oscar, two of Safari’s African leopards. (see photo 1 of the two attached to this post). The caption she wrote to that photo posted on August 17, 2005, reads:
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“For those of you who don’t know, Amadeus is a young black leopard who was born at the exotic wildlife sanctuary I volunteer at. He just turned one year old July 7th ** and these are some new pics I took of him last Sunday (Aug 14). He’s such a cool guy, and pretty well behaved for a leopard, which means he only tries four or fives times to bite you every day. Disclaimer: Wild animals of any kind do not make good pets. Ama lives at a sanctuary which houses exotic animals who were once pets but became too big, troublesom, or dangerous for there owners to keep. He was raised by very experianced Big Cat trainers. I repeat do not think a big cat will be a good pet.” ++
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Strange then, that two years later, Langi would write the following comment on that very same page, to a post about a leopard bred and born at Safari’s. Did she not see the irony in what she wrote on the subject and its placement?
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“I volunteer at a sanctuary that takes care of exotic animals that need new homes, because they where confiscated by the police, their owners just didn’t have time for them any more, or they knew they needed care they couldn’t provide. I’m very lucky to get to work with these animals. Try to find a similar type of place near by you, but be careful, some places pose as sanctuaries just to get tax exemption. If they have an abundance of cubs, they probably breed, which adds to the captive overpopulation of these cats. Hehe, sorry for preaching, these things are important to me. =^-^=” – posted March 14, 2007, by TheFire Tigress (Langi Forringer). __________
http://thefiretigress.deviantart.com/art/Amadeus-21869310
Apparently, captive breeding of exotic animals by sanctuaries only bothers Langi if it applies to “other” sanctuaries, not Safari’s, as over the years, Langi has helped care for many of the cubs and other animal babies born at Safari’s or purchased/traded for (not rescued) over the many years there.
** Amadeus and his brother Bagheera (who went to the entertainment zoo Tiger Safari in March 2005) were born on Dec. 9, 2004 (not in the summer of 2004) – see previous post from Feb. 24, 2013, on this page, for more information.
++ Amadeus went to live as the personal pet of Kurt Beckelman, Safari’s park manager, as a young adult.
[Note: spelling in Langi's comments kept as-is]
See other photos and screen caps attached to the original post on Safari’s Truth Destination Facebook page, through this link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.426329967444695.93632.375092402568452&type=3
