From Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre
Cassandra the serval is the ultimate hissy kitty, but we wouldn’t have her any other way!
Sadly, this year has been particularly bad for servals falling victim to the illegal pet trade. We will never understand why anyone believes a wild animal belongs in a home instead of the wild.
Thankfully, Cassandra was confiscated and given a second chance.
A chance to be free. A chance to be wild. A chance to live the life she was always meant to have, rather than being confined for human entertainment.
Since arriving at the centre, Cassandra has done incredibly well. She has grown stronger, gained confidence, and shown us exactly what a wild serval should be.
Now comes the moment we’ve been working towards. Cassandra is ready to move to a soft-release enclosure, where she’ll take the next important step on her journey back to the wild.
Every animal rescued from the pet trade reminds us why this work matters. Wild animals are not pets. They belong where they can roam free, hunt, and live as nature intended.
thanks for sharing that. all I could think of while reading your last paragraph about the needs many of these animals have is how the type of people who get pets like this are already ignoring many of their needs just by keeping them in captivity, so it’s a safe bet they’re going to ignore stuff like a certain color scaring them.
I don’t see the appeal at all, personally.
The beauty of wild animals is in a large part the whole “wild” part. We live in parallel worlds. I imagine they’d enjoy being thrown into domestic life about as much as we’d enjoy being thrown out into the wilderness. It’s like a caged bird. Why would you want to possess something only to have its most unique attributes taken away?