Zoo Ready To Scatter Its Animals Only Leonard The Lion To Stay In Spokane

Animals still roaming Walk in the Wild zoo are expected to be rolled like dice across North America by the end of September.

They’re being sent to such settings as Doug’s Exotic Zoo Farm in Alberta, Wolf Haven International in Tenino, Wash., and Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, Wash.

Leonard the Lion is going to a private Spokane owner the closed zoo won’t yet identify.

“It’ll all start taking place daily,” said Carol Snyder, president of the Inland Northwest Zoological Society, which ran the zoo for 23 years.

Meanwhile, animal autopsies were performed on Kasey, Tiger Lily and Dandi-Lion, the three Walk in the Wild cats that died early Monday during a charter flight from Spokane to Texas.

The two tigers and a cougar were headed to a new home at the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio.

The cause of the deaths has not been determined. Results from tissue and toxicology tests should be available in one or two weeks.

About 40 animals and a smattering of waterfowl are still living at Walk in the Wild, waiting to be sent to new homes. Zoo officials say most of the animals have been placed.

Roscoe and Rosie, the two grizzlies, will be sent to the Olympic Game Farm for the winter. Then the bears might be sent to Great Bear Adventures in Coram, Mont., pending a dispute between the park owner and state regulators.

Two coyotes will be sent to the Wolf Haven International on Tuesday, where there’s already a new enclosure. The bobcat, foxes and an opossum are going to the Wildlife Educators of America in Great Falls, Mont. The lemurs are being sent to Silver Springs, Fla.

“Basically everything’s leaving but Leonard,” Snyder said.

Walk in the Wild officials hope to regroup around Leonard, who will be placed with a private owner familiar with exotic cats, she said.

“Leonard will be our mascot to start all over again,” Snyder said.

The zoo’s other three lions were transported to Doug’s Exotic Zoo Farm, northeast of Red Deer, Alberta, on Aug. 13. They’re settling in well, owner Doug Bos said.

Dusty, Naushka and Tawny are eating about 24 pounds of meat per day and romping in a 15,000-square-feet fenced-in area.

“The females were actually a little overweight,” Bos said. “They’re going on a diet.”

That’s a familiar complaint.

Carol Asvestas, vice president and director of the San Antonio animal orphanage, said the dead cats were severely overweight.

Asvestas theorized that the drugs used to sedate the cats lodged in the animals’ fatty tissue instead of their bloodstream.

When the cats didn’t immediately become sedated, more sedatives were used, she said. Asvestas said the cats choked on their own fluids.

“I don’t think it’s feasible to try and point the blame,” Asvestas said. “I just think people should learn from this.”

Yet Asvestas did question Dr. Kevin Rogers, the Spokane veterinarian who helped anesthetize the Texas-bound cats at Walk in the Wild. She said he administered his own drug cocktail to at least one of the cats, and gave a second dosage to Kasey the tiger.

Rogers said he followed dosages prescribed by animal orphanage staff. He questioned why the orphanage didn’t bring along a veterinarian, especially for the plane ride home.

Both Rogers and Snyder also denied that the cats at Walk in the Wild were overweight.

“We’ve been told our animals are skinny and unhealthy,” Snyder said. “Now we’re being told they’re fat? We’re damned if we do, and damned if we don’t. It’s like this black cloud won’t leave us.”

Janis Joslin, senior veterinarian at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, said Bengal tigers like Kasey and Tiger Lily are the most tricky cats to sedate.

Joslin said Bengal tigers can become cold while sedated and die from hypothermia. “My guess is they just got cold and never woke up from the anesthesia,” she said of the Spokane cats.

, DataTimes