Letter to the editor

This is the letter I sent to the editor of my home paper regarding the previous post:

Do NOT support Corley’s Exotic Animal exhibit at the Hutchinson Mall. The event is described as a fundraiser to support the animals and raise awareness of unwanted exotic animals. Stop right there – these ARE tomorrow’s unwanted animals.

These baby animals must be constantly replaced as they grow into dangerous wild animals, so back at the park, adult exotics are caged up giving birth to the next. This is not an animal rescue, this is animal abuse! What rescue would put their baby animals in a truck and haul them all over the country for display in shopping malls?

I had never heard of Corley’s Exotic Animals before today, but when I saw the notice in the Leader, I immediately contacted a legitimate rescue organization based here in Minnesota, the Wildcat Sanctuary, to see if they knew more about this situation. I received an incredible amount of information accumulated from across the country.

Perhaps most telling to me was the following “Joe Schreibvogel is the president of the infamous G. W. Exotic Animal Park in Wynnewood, OK. He has been slapped with violations and even fined $25,000 which, in the world of USDA animal violation fines, is a huge amount. At any one time, he has housed more than 170 big cats and 1,400 animals on 16 acres.”

Read that again and imagine 170 big cats and 1400 animals on 16 acres. There is nothing humane about that; it is not a rescue. Please do not support this travesty and complain to the Hutchinson Mall that they brought these people to our town.