Big cats get new med clinic at Exotic Feline Rescue

May 5—Staff and benefactors broke ground Friday on a new medical clinic for big cats at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Clay County.

"It is a dream come true," said Rebecca Stevenson, head keeper at the rescue center.

"The (medical) recovery alone will be so much better with so much more room, and will make recovery much quicker and less stressful" on the big cats — including tigers, lions, leopards and cougars.

The new 7,000-square-foot medical clinic will be constructed of concrete block with wood trusses, said Michael Shaw, executive vice president of Earl C. Rodgers & Associates, the company building the new facility.

"It is heavily insulated so it will be energy efficient. We made a lot of decisions on finishes for durability, so it will be low operating cost," Shaw said.

Construction will take six months.

The new clinic will include a medical room, with an observation room for visiting veterinarian students and a suite for a medical provider to stay overnight for round-the-clock care. It also will include recovery rooms, space for new medical equipment, a conference room and a scale to weigh the big cats to ensure veterinarians providing anesthesia have accurate data.

Currently, medical procedures and dental care is done in founder of Exotic Feline Rescue founder Joe Taft's basement, said Taft.

Taft said he came to Clay County in 1991 with two tigers and a leopard. Today, the center houses 120 animals, Taft said. It has been the home to 500 animals over the past 32 years.

"We have had a long and somewhat difficult history providing medical care for these animals," Taft said. "Shortly after I arrived here, we were asked to take a lioness that was blind," Taft said.

Taft reached out to the University of Illinois, which had staff with experience in cataract surgery on large cats, such as tigers and lions.

"The chief of staff was the former president of the American Association of Zoo Vets," Taft said. "That is where we got almost all our veterinarian care for a number of years."

However, the university in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, is 100 miles away, Taft said, making the trip not feasible once the center had 100 animals.

Taft's basement was then turned into a medical clinic, "but there are a lot of drawbacks ... everything is very cramped. It is not really a hospital.

"So, this clinic will be a major step forward in the care of these animals," Taft said. "We are very appreciative to the Huck family and to all our supporters who have helped us acquire this piece of land," for the new clinic.

Three years ago the rescue center purchased 140 acres, which will now house the new clinic. Overall, the rescue center has 260 acres.

The new clinic is being paid for by the Huck Family from Indianapolis and from the state of New York. Mike Huck and Miriam Huck represented the family at the groundbreaking.

"I learned about the Exotic Rescue Center when I was in high school and then I started volunteering here," Miriam Huck said.

"When my aunt and uncle (David and Gwen Huck) came visiting from (New York) ... we brought them here and they fell in love and started giving donations," she said.

"My uncle then asked what are their needs ... he was impressed with how much they do here on such a little budget and they weren't spending their money on frivolous things. It was spent on the cats," Huck said.

David Huck, who is a grantor of Liebchen's Gift Foundation, "decided that the foundation and the family would build the building and take care of all the cost. We are big animal welfare family," Miriam Huck said.

Taft said "once an animal comes here, it is here for the rest of their life. These animals can live into their 20s..." with many older cats in need of serious medical care, as well as newcomer cats that have to be spayed/neutered.

"This will provide them a much better life," Taft said. The cats come from zoos, from government seizures and from state governments, as well as cats surrendered voluntarily from owners who determined they could not raise the big animals, Taft said.

The new clinic "is a huge step upwards in the medical care quality that we can provide the cats," Taft said.

Personally, Taft said the new clinic will provide relief.

"I sleep directly above the (current basement clinic), so if we have a tiger in there for a week, it is a little uncomfortable in my part of the house," Taft said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter @TribStarHoward.