Half-blind sanctuary owner hand feeds his 14 big cats - including a 700lb Siberian tiger

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | October 27, 2014 | Jenny Awford

[Stoat]

He has been bitten on the nose by a leopard and had his shoulder separated after wrestling with a full-grown Bengal tiger.

But Carl Bovard, who is blind in one eye, believes living with 14 big cats including two lions, six tigers and a desert lynx, is a risk worth taking to raise awareness about endangered species. 

They all spend time living in his Florida home before moving into the outside enclosure and are seen clambering over the pool table and cuddling up in his bed.

 

(edit)

[Stoat]

This isn't going to end well, of course, but the pictures are breathtaking. Sadly, I can't post any of them here because they're all copyrighted so please click on the original article link, here again:

Meet the half-blind sanctuary owner who hand feeds 14 big cats - Daily Mail Online

 

[Stoat]

BIG kitteh, tasty human ping

[eater-of-toast]

We all love pets, but excessive affinity for animals makes people strange. Just ask Jane Goodall.

[Hugin]

I hope this guy remembers every day is ordinary until suddenly it isn’t.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Friday my daughter went the circus ("Europe's Largest Circus") and had her picture taken with one of the rare white lions.

Four rare white lion cubs born at circus in Germany

[Semper Mark]

But Carl Bovard, who is blind in one eye, believes living with 14 big cats including two lions, six tigers and a desert lynx, is a risk worth taking to raise awareness about endangered species.

I hate to say it, but one of the 15 mentioned here is probably a future menu item.

[Slings and Arrows]

Don't try this at home, kids.

[Envisioning]

That Siberian is beautiful....

[dynachrome]

“all spend time living in his Florida home”

Need a darn big litter box!

[Mark17]

This isn't going to end well, of course,

It is almost an iron clad guarantee that it won't. I saw a special a few years ago, about the kinds of people who own various kinds of animals, that eventually end up eating them. Mostly, they tended to be loners, anti social types, don't like other people much, and also tend to do this because they just want to piss other people off.

[Brother Cracker]

[driftdiver]

Big cats aren’t pets, they are wild animals and always will be.

[Moltke]

Next week’s headline: “Half-blind, one-armed sanctuary owner...”

[grimalkin]

His caracal looks like a little pussycat compared to his other animals.

Yikes.

[katana]

They really are magnificent animals and all of them seem to be better cared for and in better physical condition than any I’ve seen in zoo enclosures. The man is living his dream and the whole “the government is considering legislation” to forbid people from owning big cats just rubs me the wrong way. That being said most such situations are not at all like this and God help anyone living within a few miles of the place if or when any of those cats go walk about. Local kids, pets, and livestock would be at deep risk. Also, can’t imagine what the place smells like. Cat piss on that scale must be like tear gas.

[njslim]

How would you like to clean that litterbox.....?????

[Flag_This]

"That Siberian is beautiful...."

They kill and eat Russian brown bears.

[Nepeta]

They are beautiful...but they are wild animals and are just not reliable. I love cats...but I would never try to keep a wild one as a pet.

[arthurus]

Eventually one of them will kill him or do him some severe damage. A man who had and thought he was good friends with a coupe of tigers here made a move that caused one of his tigers to think he was in trouble and it grabbed him the way it would have grabbed its kitten to rescue it. Hans didn’t die but he was torn up pretty badly about the upper body and neck.

[Tax-chick]

'There's no doubt about the fact that death would be the worst outcome from this. I know I'm dicing with death.'

None of us is guaranteed another day.

The cats are gorgeous.