[FEL-L] Wildlife Survival Sanctuary theft

[Gary Breuckman]

Cougar caught in middle of tiff

The big cat has been taken from a sanctuary in Pasco where board
members don't get along. One likens it to a hostage.

By THOMAS LAKE and MICHAEL KRUSE
Published July 9, 2006

MASARYKTOWN - The feud has many of the same elements as a
child-custody battle.

But it's not about children. It's about a South American cougar named
Sheene and a Bengal tiger named Misty.

Jim Moore owns 10 acres in north central Pasco County, near the
Hernando County line. The land holds the Wildlife Survival Sanctuary,
a refuge for about a dozen castoff big cats.

Moore, the president, is on one side of the battle line. Lisa
Schafer, the vice president and his estranged wife, is on the other.

Schafer says she held a board meeting July 1, which concluded that
the cats weren't getting proper care and should be relocated.

But Moore wasn't at the meeting. Neither was Diane Roger, the board's
new treasurer. They say Schafer didn't have a quorum.

Quorum or not, Schafer and at least two others showed up Thursday
morning while Moore was at work.

They coaxed Sheene out of her enclosure, loaded her into a cage and
took her away.

They might have gotten Misty, too, but Moore had someone on the
property who sounded an alarm. Moore arrived about the same time as
the sheriff's deputies.

Moore claims that Schafer's helpers used a cut-rate tranquilizer that
could have killed the tiger.

No one was arrested, although Lt. Rick Moore of the Pasco County
Sheriff's Office confirmed that a detective is investigating a report
of a stolen cougar.

After the incident, Roger, the treasurer, sent out a mass e-mail full
of accusations against Schafer and her allies. The message also asked
for donations.

Schafer denies all wrongdoing.

"All I'm trying to do is what's best for the animals," she said in a
telephone interview.

On Saturday, Misty padded around her wire-mesh enclosure. Roger said
she was still recovering from the tranquilizer.

Inside Sheene's fence, a red rubber ball lay near a stand of tall
grass.  Schafer had taken her to another refuge near Orlando.

"It's kind of like a hostage situation," Moore said.

The Sheriff's Office had not released an incident report.

Schafer says she has had enough. She plans to sell her house in
Spring Hill and move away.