This is an horrendous story. The pictures of this cougar are painful. They are distressing. This cougar has severe arthritis and torn ligaments which explains the appearance of his hind legs. They look so painful. It is very upsetting to see this when this cat species is usually super-athletic cat.
He was found in backyard zoo. We know about those don’t we? A lot of them should not exist. They should be shut down.
The cougar named Mickey was severely neglected and allegedly fed live cats and dogs. A leopard who was also at this backyard menagerie was mauled by a doberman and severely injured. He was put down or he died of his injuries.
Big Cat Rescue (BCR) rescued Mickey and have operated on his teeth and legs (2 operations on his legs). This was described as life saving surgery. His teeth were rotten. He looks much improved after the operations (see below).
‘Mickey was in a terrible condition when we found him but we worked hard to make him as comfortable as possible,’ said Carole Baskin is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue.
For his first surgery Mickey had to have the ball joint in his left knee reshaped to fit back into place – Carole Baskin
His right knee proved to be more of a complicated procedure and along with having to reshape the knee joint the vet – Dr Callum Hay
Under the direction of BCR, Mickey is undergoing physical therapy with the objective of getting him to walk normally.
He is recovering and doing well. But what a horror story. Carole Baskin said “he has a real playful side”. It’ll be a long road to recovery. He’ll never be the magnificent wild cougar he should be with the ability to jump better than any other cat on the planet.
What a shame humans do this to beautiful animals such as Mickey.
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