Nemacolin Woodlands Resort
Five-year-old Prince suffered a seizure and died last week at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort.
But in addition to generating tears, Prince’s death also raised questions about the oversight that wildlife habitats such as Nemacolin face and curiosity about the expertise required of the veterinarians who care for a wide range of sometimes exotic beasts.
While Nemacolin is not accredited by any independent body, such as the American Zoological Association, it is inspected and licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The agency said Monday it will be looking into Prince’s death to ensure that Nemacolin complied with the federal Animal Welfare Act.
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Those inspections do not instill much confidence in Carole Baskin, chief executive officer of Big Cat Rescue, an animal sanctuary in Tampa, Fla., that rescues and rehabilitates exotic cats. “USDA and scrutiny don’t even belong in the same sentence. They might come out once a year, walk around for a few minutes and then nothing for another year. They don’t do undercover work and almost never catch animal abuse as a result,” Ms. Baskin said. “Only facilities that are accredited by the American Zoological Association or the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries have any sense of outside scrutiny.”
Prince died Thursday while recovering from anesthesia and a flushing out of his ear to treat what Nemacolin spokesman Jeff Nobers called a “very severe inner ear infection.”
Staff at Nemacolin’s wildlife center noticed last week that Prince had been scratching his ears and “carrying on” for a few days. When they found a stinky discharge on Prince’s mane, they notified Rebecca Wingfield, a Fayette County native who is Nemacolin’s primary veterinarian.
Once Dr. Wingfield put Prince under, she found the infection. During a procedure lasting no more than 20 minutes, she cleansed his ear, which had pus and ulcers, according to Mr. Nobers. “He came out of it and by all assessments and accounts by both the doctor and wildlife staff, he was fine,” Mr. Nobers said. But by the next morning, Prince had thrown up and become lethargic.
Dr. Wingfield conferred with Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center in Ohio Township.
“Their take to her is he’s just recovering more slowly from the anesthesia. … He should be fine,” Mr. Nobers said.
A short time later, Prince had a seizure and went into cardiac arrest, Mr. Nobers said. He said staff members worked for about 45 minutes to revive the lion but were not successful.
When Dr. Wingfield called the vet specialty clinic to give them the news, “they express surprise that he did in fact die, and they requested that his body be sent to them because they wanted to check it out and see why this occurred,” Mr. Nobers said. “They found nothing in their opinion that would have done this aside from an unusual and severe reaction to the anesthesia.” Administrators at the specialty clinic were not available Monday.
Anesthesia on big cats is risky, experts said. “It can be a very effective veterinary tool. That being said … with these big cats, it’s very difficult to get the dosage correct with anesthesia,” said Kate Dylewsky, program associate with Born Free USA, an animal advocacy group. “There’s always the risk that anesthesia will wear off prematurely or, on the flip side, they’ll get too strong a dose.”
Mr. Nobers said Dr. Wingfield was distraught and did not want to be interviewed. He noted that she had been on staff since Prince was born in 2010 to a white lion father, Stewy, and his mate, Dandy, who are both still at Nemacolin, along with another lion.
Dr. Wingfield is not board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia or any other body that confers recognition on highly trained specialists in the veterinary field, according to Mr. Nobers. But while some might imagine that any veterinarian knocking out a lion for a procedure would have advanced training, that is not necessarily the case.
Ms. Baskin said Big Cat Rescue’s vets had a primary background in taking care of domestic and feral cats. “It isn’t a matter of being board certified, so much as having hands-on experience with cats in general and big cats, if possible,” Ms. Baskin said.
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