Tributes to
Bengal tigers Harley and Lucca, two of the eight big cats who died
during last year's distemper outbreak, are on display at In-Sync
Exotics. Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer
Rafiki, a 7-month-old lion, rests in the afternoon at In-Sync Exotics, which was founded in March 2000 by Vicky Keahey. Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer
By DANIELLE GROBMEIER
WYLIE — Lisa Williams was making her usual rounds at In-Sync Exotics, escorting visitors through the habitats that house more than 60 large felines. But Tuesday’s tour was different. That morning, Kiro, a white tiger, had died. His habitat stood empty. A sign with his name and picture, hung on the enclosure’s chain link fence, was just a humble reminder of the feline that used to play in the sanctuary’s pools and make “chuffing” sounds at visitors and staff members.
Hugs and tears among the sanctuary’s staff were not unexpected. A year ago, Kiro was one of the first cats at In-Sync to contract canine distemper. He survived the initial viral infection, and the sanctuary hasn’t determined whether his death was related to the 2013 distemper outbreak that killed eight big cats and made more than 20 others sick. The volunteers still refer to the virus as “the d-word,” their euphemism for an epidemic that reduced powerful predators to frail and dying animals.
Williams remembered last summer’s 24-hour watches over sick cats and the “pills and pills and pills” that she had to keep feeding them. Many of the cats who survived the virus still longingly look to Williams for affection and playtime. “I love you!” she said to Rafiki, a lion, while playfully rattling an old Folgers can near him.
Williams, who’s volunteered at In-Sync for five years, said it’s important that no one mistake the big cats for pets; however, the bond between the staff and the animals is special. A lion will snuggle up against the fence around its enclosure to get close to Williams. Cincinnati, a tiger, likes to play peekaboo with Williams, peering at her over the rim of his large, metal bathtub.
Williams can distinguish the cats by minute facial details, and she even knows how each one walks.
She gestured to one of the enclosures, which is shared by several tigers. It used to house one who died in the distemper episode. “This is where Lucca’s was,” Williams said, pointing to an empty spot between three cats’ pictures on the fence. Though In-Sync’s cats had been vaccinated against feline distemper, there is no vaccination to protect cats from the canine version of the virus. She said she knew the epidemic was worsening last year when she stopped hearing coyotes around the sanctuary. Coyotes are canines, susceptible to distemper. Since the outbreak, In-Sync has taken precautions to avoid lightning striking twice.
The sanctuary administered vaccines that guard against the ferret version of distemper, in the hope that it might help protect the big cats from the canine strain. Additionally, employees use a bleach foot bath when entering and exiting the cats’ habitats to avoid tracking debris from one enclosure to another.
Williams said the sanctuary expects to break ground later this summer on an on-site veterinary clinic, where felines can receive medical treatment without leaving home. During last year’s distemper outbreak, the sanctuary had to transport its sick animals to a nearby vet in Wylie. The new clinic will also include space where infected animals could be quarantined. Last summer, In-Sync had to make do with makeshift quarantine areas.
Normally, felines don’t contract canine distemper. The virus was believed to have been transmitted last summer by infected raccoons, who would scurry across the chain-link tops of the cats’ enclosures, sometimes defecating. The raccoon feces, in turn, could have infected cats who ate the grass or played in areas where it landed.
More than two decades ago, a far more destructive distemper outbreak struck the Wildlife Waystation animal sanctuary in California’s Angeles National Forest. The sanctuary, just north of Los Angeles, was forced to close for about a year after canine distemper claimed 17 big cats in just three months.
In all, about 65 of Wildlife Waystation’s felines were affected by the illness at once, said Martine Colette, the sanctuary’s founder and director. “By the third day [of the outbreak], we knew we had something horrific on our hands, and we took the appropriate precautionary measures,” she said. “It still did not help.”
There, too, raccoons and other native wildlife were suspected of spreading the virus. The year the epidemic struck, there had been a boom in the raccoon and skunk population, Collette said. A similar boom was observed last summer in parts of Collin County near In-Sync Exotics. The boom was followed by a swift decline in the population, as distemper ravaged raccoon gazes. Plano Animal Services saw about 170 raccoons die during an outbreak from January to March 2013.
Cliff Moore, owner of Animal Services Inc., said these boom-bust disease cycles are a hazard for any wildlife population. “We recognize when it’s fixin’ to happen,” he said. “It hurts, there’s no doubt about it.” Animal Services Inc., based in Van Alstyne, contracts with cities and other jurisdictions to manage wildlife problems.
In-Sync Exotics was founded in March 2000 by Vicky Keahey, a veterinary technician. Nine years earlier, someone had abandoned an 18-month-old cougar at the veterinary office where she worked. She turned to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for advice on how to care for a cougar, and established a rapport with people there. A few years later, when parks and wildlife officials found themselves with a cougar on their hands, they asked Keahey if she would take it in. By the time she acquired her third big cat, a Bengal tiger, in 1998, she decided to form a nonprofit and start In-Sync.
Despite the tribulations brought on by last summer’s outbreak, Williams said, the sanctuary earlier this year rescued 11 tigers and three cougars. And in late May, it took in several lions. “One of them is a lion cub, and he’s so stinkin’ cute,” she said.
All of In-Sync’s cats have tested negative for canine distemper, and Williams hopes the scourge of 2013 is far behind, never to return. “There still is that little fear in the back of your brain that the cats who seem to have beaten it will come down with more symptoms,” she said. “My God, I hope it has ended.”
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