Bird flu kills 20 big cats at Washington sanctuary now under quarantine
A big cat sanctuary in Washington has temporarily closed after a devastating bird flu outbreak killed most of its animals, some rapidly after they developed pneumonia-like symptoms, the director said.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton was home to 37 big cats — including tigers, cougars and leopards — before the outbreak began in late November, said Mark Mathews, who co-founded the sanctuary in 2004. Twenty died from the disease — an even mix of elderly cats with previous medical issues and younger, healthier cats.
The five-acre sanctuary is now under strict quarantine, Mathews said.
Authorities are investigating how the big cats contracted bird flu, he added. Highly pathogenic strains of H5N1 influenza have been spreading in animals and to a lesser extent in people since 2022. There are many ways the animals could have been infected, Mathews said, such as consuming contaminated meat or water or coming into contact with infected migratory birds.
Bird flu has been reported in 50 states since 2022 across different wild bird species, including terrestrial, seabird, shorebird and migratory, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In early December, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife documented an uptick of bird flu cases in wildlife, warning in a news release that the threat extended to domestic pets, and cats were “more vulnerable” than dogs. It also noted two known infections in cougars in Clallam County.
The losses at the sanctuary in Shelton include a Amur-Bengal tiger named Tabbi, four cougars, four bobcats, an African caracal, two Canada lynx, a Geoffroy’s cat, a Bengal cat, five African servals and one Eurasian Lynx.
The first indication that “there wasn’t something quite right” was when a 17-year-old cougar named Hannah Wyoming stopped eating, Mathews said.
Three big cats have recovered from the disease, but a fourth one, an African serval named Neiko, is still in critical condition.
The sanctuary provides shelter to big cats escaping dire circumstances. Strict quarantine procedures now in place require workers and volunteers to dress in protective equipment, use tarps to prevent airborne transmission and keep animals a safe distance from one another, Mathews said.
He estimates the sanctuary will be closed until March as volunteers expect to spend more than 400 hours decontaminating the facility. The sanctuary has suffered financial strain as a result of the outbreak from medical costs and equipment.
“We’re going to come back stronger and better than we were,” Mathews said. “This is going to be a learning curve for all zoos and sanctuaries around the country.”