Monday, August 21, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section D · Page 3
Big cats find home on the range at Kansas farm
Ken Alvarez and his 2-year-old leopard, Tundra, are an unlikely match since leopards are typically solitary animals typically don't keep company with others. Photo by Phil Cauthon.
By Phil Cauthon
Kansan campus editor
One look at Boomer's penetrating glare and visitors to the exotic cat farm near Oskaloosa will know they are not in a zoo.
Though the 400-pound male lion — like all 34 lions, tigers, cougars and leopards on the farm — is doubly secure behind cages much like those in any zoo, Boomer's fierce territoriality is rarely seen in zoo animals more accustomed to the presence of humans.
Ken Alvarez and his 2-year-old leopard, Tundra, are an unlikely match. Alvarez said leopards were solitary animals and typically didn't keep company with other leopards, much less humans. However, Tundra is a veterinar of Alvarez's traveling cat show and is quite comfortable even around strangers.
And few zoo-goers will ever feel the fear that Boomer's growls and stares arouse in many visitors to Barb and Dick Stephens' cat farm.
"Oh, Boomer's all right," Barb Stephens reassures a newly arrived group of visitors. "He just likes to intimidate, don't you Boomer? As soon as you show him you're not afraid, he's just another pussy cat. He's really a sweetheart."
As a teen visitor squats within a foot of Boomer's cage, Stephens quickly adds, "You still want to stay plenty back from the cage, sweetie."
Stephens bought her first cat — a cougar named Stinky — six years ago for $550 out of the Animal Finders' Guide, the want ads for anything from alligators to zebras.
"It's always been a dream of mine," Stephens said. "And now they're mine, and I love them. We love them all."
In 1997, Stephens bought Tuffy, her first Siberian tiger kitten, who is now her 750-pound pride and joy.
Along the way she has taken on four more cougars and a lioness kitten — all abandoned by their owners and directed to Stephens' refuge by word of mouth.
— until it gets to be 300 pounds. Well, somebody still has to take care of them."
Neither federal nor state law prohibit Kansans from owning exotic pets, whether toucans or tigers. The City of Lawrence and Douglas County prohibit ownership of most exotic pets, including all big cats.
At least eight Kansas counties permit exotic cats, and 14 Kansans own licensed farms like the Stephenses', according to U.S. Department of Agriculture licensing records.
Agriculture licensing But there are probably more Kansans than that keeping big cats as pets. Exotic pet owners need licenses only when they breed cats, travel with them or otherwise profit from them, said Robert Bacon, a USDA inspector.
Cougars are an exception. Because they are native to Kansas, they are licensed under the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
Exotic cat licensees are subject to unannounced inspections several times a year by Bacon and other USDA officials.
"There are people getting into this business who don't know what they're doing," he said. "But many people genuinely care about the animals, and they have good operations and are a credit to the industry."
"We go to each site a minimum of once a year," said Bacon, who oversees 21 counties in Kansas, inspecting zoos, kennels, circuses, traveling petting zoos, airports that ship live cargo and farms like the Stephens'.
"If somebody is a stripper — and this really happened — and she has a Bengal tiger as part of her act, then we go to where she has the cat — in this case the strip joint — and you do your job and you leave," Bacon said. "We go to some sites three or four times a year, or more for the worst facilities. Those that are more noncompliant get visited more."
Bacon said operations like the one in Oskaloosa were as varied as the people who ran them. At a minimum, he said, his inspections check for adequate caging, edible food, potable water, healthy animals and signs of neglect such as scattered bones or old feces.
...Saves the cats
Boomer and his cagemate, Madeleine, are Ken Alvarez's lion breeding pair, which he keeps at an exotic cat farm near Oskaaloa. Each year, Alvarez breeds up to four lions or tigers for "picture cats" — young cats that are safe around children and can travel with his exotic cat show.
Abandoned animals now comprise less than half of Stephens' cats. In April, her farm's cat population more than doubled when she began taking care of cats owned by Ken Alvarez, who operates a USDA-licensed traveling cat show.
By the end of this week — once Alvarez brings his two white tiger kittens — Stephens' farm will house 36 cats and one black bear cub.
Alvarez — a 31-year-old manufacturer who lives near Wichita" says he travels with his cats to discourage people from keeping them as pets and to raise awareness of exotic cat conservation programs.
Now in his third year, Alvarez has booked several dozen shows, touring the United States and Canada with four or five picture cats, kittens that are just a few months old and safe for contact with children.
The $10 he charges for each photo — averaging 300 or 400 photos per show — nearly covers the cost of keeping his cats, he said. And several shows a year are for charity, including benefits for tiger research and conservation.
"This has been a lifelong dream and, after starting the show with one tiger, we were able to work up from there," Alvarez said. "It looks like a profitable business, but it's not. We do it because we love the animals."
Food alone costs $1,700 a month for the 34 cats — or about $50 per cat each month, he said. Except for a weekly starve-day, his full-grown cats get about 10 pounds of chicken and beef daily. The cats occasional-
iy get a treat when the sheriff directs the Stephenses to area roadkill.
"It's pretty interesting to watch them eat a deer." Alayrez said. "They tear it to pieces pretty darn quick."
Other costs include an average of $5,000 a year in veterinary care for all the cats and $4,000 each year for a million-dollar insurance policy.
All things considered, keeping one adult lion or tiger costs Alvarez about $2.000 a year.
Alvarez has to breed three or four cats a year to keep his traveling show going. Before they are 2 years old, tigers put on about 300 pounds, rendering them far too large to be picture cats.
And Alvarez and Stephens can plan on those costs for 10 to 20 years—the typical life span of a big cat.
Not for sale
Selling the ex-picture cats would be the easiest way to sustain Alvarez's show, were it not diametrically opposed to his ideals.
Not only would he save thousands in costs each year, but he also could earn more than $1,000 for each adult tiger or lion he sold through the Animal Finders' Guide.
"If someone offered me $10,000 for a cat, I wouldn't do
it." Alvarez said. "These cats are my kids and you wouldn't sell your kids."
Alvarez said that if someone insisted on buying one of his cats, he would require that the buyer work with him for several months to prove dedication to the cat. Even then, he said, he would rather not accept money for a cat.
Dick Stephens has never sold any of his cats either. He said his work as a federal contractor pays for his exotic pets. But he said he would consider breeding his cougars for sale if the price were to rise substantially higher than the current $400.
Endangered species?
A reason cited by Alvarez and Stephens for raising Siberian tigers is to help preserve an endangered species. According to National Geographic magazine, fewer than 7,000 tigers remain in the wild.
Though Stephens and Alvarez say their cats are all purebred, many farms that claim to have endangered cats really have crossbreeds, which are genetically useless, said Conrad Schmitt, zoological curator for the Kansas City Zoological Park in Kansas City. Me
Schmitt said that well-documented bloodlines and breeding records — often only kept by zoos — would be necessary to assure any given genetic strain could survive in the wild once reintroduced from captivity.
Tiger numbers continue to dwindle, say researchers, because of poaching in India and China, where a dead tiger can fetch up to $250,000 on the black market. Not only are the pelts extremely valuable, but so are tiger teeth, claws and entrails — all used as aphrodiascars — and tiger penis, which is considered a delicacy in many Asian cultures.
Crossbreeding an Indochinese tiger with a Bengal tiger, for example, was no different than cross-breeding a lion and a tiger Schmitt said. Such crossbreeds could not be used in the future to recreate the animals that now roam wild in Asia and Africa.
Legal but lethal
Schmitt is something of an activist when it comes to spreading his concern that people not equate the legality of keeping big cats with safety.
Whenever he gets the chance, Schmitt tells the story of his college roommate — a zookeeper at Miami Metropolitan Zoo for 20 years, who was mauled by a tiger he had been with for several years.
"He was dead before he could turn toward the door," Schmitt said. "Our concern is that often people don't know what they're getting into commitment-wise or financially."
Schmitt's concern is echoed by the USDA. Its Web site warns that unsuspecting children and adults have been seriously injured or killed, even when the animals involved were only playing.
However, the site also notes that the federal government does not regulate ownership and care of large, wild and exotic cats as pets.
And that's the way it should be, said Davy Harkins. El Dorado veterinarian and one of the few vets in Kansas who will operate on exotic cats.
"We live in America, and in America people are allowed to do a lot of crazy things. I'm not sure keeping these cats falls in the category of crazy things, but as long as the public is safe, they should be able to do it," Harkins said. "As far as I feel, they're one of God's great creatures to be admired and appreciated, and they need care just like a pet dog, a pet cat or a pet big cat."
Roy Dunnaway, Jefferson County sheriff, said that nearly all of the county's residents appreciated the Stephens' cat farm and that his office hadn't received a complaint about the farm for years.
"There's people that are not comfortable with the cats," Dunnaway said. "But as far as the Stephenses, I think they take good care of them and make sure the public won't be harmed by them." Different than a zoo
Visitors to the Stephens' farm frequently will see more than just cats behind cages.
If the weather is cool and the cats aren't moody, Barb Stephens can exchange kisses with her tiger Tuffy. Dick Stephens becomes a human gym jungle for his cougars. And, if he's in town, Alvarez will jump in the pool with his tigers or play tackle football with Boomer, his breeding lion, which he raised from a kitten.
"He's hurt me a couple times when he's tackled me and hit me pretty good," Alvarez said. "But I've hit him pretty good, too."
Barb Stephens watches with a group of visitors as Alvarez enters the cage with Boomer and the lion's pregnant cagemate Sable. Undaunted by the growls of the two full-grown carnivores, Alvarez strides through the cage and wraps his arms around Boomer's mane.
"When I see Ken and Boomer together like that, I want to do that, too," Stephens said. "I will. Before I die, I'm going to get in the cage and hug him, at least once."
—Edited by BriAnne Hess
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