Many of the bobcats here at Big Cat Rescue came from fur farms.

In the early days of the sanctuary, our founder closed down three major fur farms in the US by offering a high price for all the bobcats and lynx’ living in those farms. In exchange, the farm owners had to sign a contract, agreeing to never breed or sell cats for slaughter.

This was in the early nineties, a time when protesters were spray painting people in fur coats, and it was considered unethical to wear fur.

The cats were in cages that were several inches deep with layers of fur and feces. The flies were so thick in the metal shed that we had to put hankies over our faces just to breathe without inhaling them. On the floor was a stack of partially skinned bobcats, Canada lynx and Siberian lynx. Their bellies had been cut off as this soft, spotted fur is the only portion used in making fur coats. I was so stunned by the sight, that I was numbed and in denial of what I had just seen. There were 56 kittens and we asked if there was that big of a market for them as pets. We were told that whatever did not sell for pets would be slaughtered the following year for fur.
(Excerpt from Carole Baskin’s “How We Started”)

Today, there are 29 bobcats living at BCR, most of them in their late teens and early twenties. Bobcats in the wild live 12-13 years and they are distributed in the United States and Southern Canada. Northerns bobcats are larger than those in the South and their coat tends to be fluffier with less pronounced markings.

Bobcats sometimes get confused with their “cousin” the lynx, but they can easily be distinguished by their tail. While the tail of a bobcat is black at the top with a white underside, the lynx’ tail looks like it has been dipped in black ink.
A bobcat is smaller on average than the Canada lynx, with which it shares parts of its range, but is about twice as large as a domestic cat. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby “bobtail” wich gave the bobcat its name.

Some of BCR’s bobcat residents are:

Andi – Female northern bobcat, born 4/22/97

Raindance – Female northern bobcat, born 5/8/93

Anasazi – Female southern bobcat, born est. 4/22/02

Tiger Lilly – Female northern bobcat, born 4/30/95

Thurston AKA Mr. Howell – Male bobcat, born 5/11/98

Windstar – Male bobcat (possibly a hybrid of unknown type), born 5/11/98

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The Great Pretender – Male Texas bobcat, born 4/30/92