Vernon Yates Wildlife Rescue and Rehab

Because Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc., is located in Seminole, FL and its owner, Vernon Yates is often set up in parking lots with his tigers in circus wagons for people to gawk at, we get a lot of angry mail from people asking us if this was our display. Big Cat Rescue does NOT take exotic cats offsite and we do not condone it. There is no way to insure the cat's safety, nor the public's safety in such situations and it shows disrespect for the animals to treat them like props. If you see people using animals this way, please take photos, videos and document when, where and what the conditions were. Send it to us at MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org and we will use it to try and get laws passed so that animals cannot be abused this way.

PDF with photos

Check for yourself to see if Vernon Yates of Wildlife Rescue and Rehab meets the sanctuary standards for an accredited animal refuge. Vernon will argue that he is a shelter and not a sanctuary to overcome that shortcoming, but what does that really mean? There is no good place for these cats to go as the accredited sanctuaries are full so where do his cats go if he is just a temporary shelter as he claims?

At the following link is a story that ran on CNN about 5 tigers and a lion who were being starved and were more than 100lbs underweight. The Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) was reported to have been investigating the owner for two years and believed the cats were starving but couldn't prove it. The owner, Susan MacKay, was said to have a tiger in her freezer that she was feeding to these cats, and still the FWC did nothing. When the FWC did finally take action they called Yates because he will pick up anything they ask him to take. He already has 200 exotic animals on 2.5 acres in a residential neighborhood next door to an elementary school.

In the clip you can see Yates yelling at the obviously stressed cats who were being kept, two to a cage, in circus wagons. If Yates cannot control his temper in front of a CNN camera crew, it is depressing to think how he must behave when no one is looking, which is most of the time.

One tiger appears to have lost half of her tail and the cats are roaring at each other, baring their teeth and threatening violence. In the video Vernon claims that if he gets the cats he will "find a new home for them," but legitimate zoos don't want castoffs from the pet trade, so the only buyers will likely be similar or worse situations than where the cats came from.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/t ech/2007/11/12/sot.fl.starving.tigers.lion.wtsp

In the video above, his lack of intelligence, compassion or patience is abundantly clear, so why does the FWC call him? It is most likely because he will make their immediate problem go away.No one wants to be the bad guy and euthanize an animal, but there are not nearly enough true sanctuaries to take in the exploding population of lions and tigers. If the FWC were to tighten up the rules on who could possess these cats, Vernon Yates wouldn't have a market for them and wouldn't have any way to bail out the FWC.

This link is to a County Commission meeting where Vernon Yates accuses a County Commissioner and others of lying and demands that they apologize to him and the tiger that he carries all over town in the back of his pick up truck. http://www.pinellascounty.org/medi a/bcc022205/Results.htm

In the photos at right you can see the awful concrete and steel prisons that are jammed together on less than 2.5 acres in a residential neighborhood, near a school. Big cats are not designed to live on concrete and need far more space than is provided at places that just meet minimum state requirements. Vernon Yates started Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in 1980 and is reported to have more than *40 big cats in the back yard of his residential home located in Seminole, FL. See the video here on Fox 13:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox /pages/News/Detail?contentId=2180325&version=1 &locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3 .1.1

*an article from 1998 said he had 40 big cats, Vernon Yates has claimed to have 48 big cats, but as of 11/11/07 he only has 14 tigers and a lion in his collection of 200 exotics.Where did all of the other exotic cats go?

Vernon Yates figured his Siberian tiger , Tai , was owed an apology .

February 27, 2005
Section: PINELLAS
Page: 6

CARLOS MONCADAcmoncada@tampatrib.com

By CARLOS MONCADA cmoncada@tampatrib.com

CLEARWATER — Vernon Yates figured his Siberian tiger , Tai , was owed an apology .

Yates characterized the big cat as a victim of circumstance when the outspoken wildlife trapper had an altercation with county Commissioner Ken Welch last year. Welch saw Yates driving the golden, white and black tiger in the back of a pickup truck in the commissioner's south St. Petersburg neighborhood one morning in September. He called the number on the truck and talked to Yates , who was behind the wheel. What happened next depends on which version you believe.

Welch told his colleagues at a meeting in January that Yates and Tai apparently had been visiting in the neighborhood overnight, as he spotted them at 7:30 a.m. while taking his daughter to school. On Tuesday night, with county commissioners set to act on setback requirements for outdoor wildlife cages,

Yates showed up and angrily confronted Welch about the phone call and comments the commissioner made in January. Yates said the incident happened at 9 a.m., that he wasn't in Welch's neighborhood all night and that he was there picking up animals, not visiting. He said the commissioner told him over the phone several times, "Do you know who I am?" "I don't think it's right for any government person to scream at anybody, "Do you know who I am?' " Yates said.

Yates also took issue with Pinellas animal services director Kenny Mitchell, who told commissioners he saw children coming up to Yates ' truck at Bardmoor Shopping Center in Seminole and putting their hands on Tai 's steel cage. Yates said no children touched his tiger 's cage. He said Mitchell should have reported the incident to the state if he believed the public was in danger.

"My tiger was totally within his legal rights to be where it was ," Yates said. "I think some people here owe me and my tiger an apology ." Welch denied asking Yates whether he knew who he was . The commissioner said he did identify himself and asked Yates why he had a tiger in the back of his truck. "At no point did I say, "Do you know who I am?' " Welch said. "Most of your statements are patently false." As for an apology , Welch said, "You won't get it from me." Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 823-3412.

Cutline: Vernon Yates Confronted county Commissioner Ken Welch at meeting Tuesday Tribune photo by MARK GUSS This caged Siberian tiger caught the attention of county Commissioner Ken Welch one morning as it rode in the back of Vernon Yates ' Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation truck.

See an interactive online map of exotic cat owners .

Vernon Yates' tiger breaks off her teeth on chain link cage:

Re: "The Tiger and My Dentist" (aka My Dentist, Animal Hero), this issue. I received the following email from Dr. Craddock's chief nurse and significant other....

SONG is a 200 lb. Siberian tiger who lives at the Seminole Wildlife Rescue and Preserve. Vernon Yates is the owner of Wildlife Rescue and also happens to be one of our dental patients.

Several months back, Vernon Yates approached Dr. Craddock and explained that he had a problem with one of his Siberian Tigers. The tiger, 11-year-old SONG, had tried to get into a male tiger's cage by chewing through a chain link fence. In the process of doing so, she broke her canine teeth, and they consequently became abscessed. Thus, she stopped eating and was rapidly losing weight.

The dilemma!

Normal procedure would be to extract infected broken teeth on an animal such a a tiger. However, due to the structure of a tiger's skull (their roots being so close to their sinuses) removing their teeth can create future sinus problems. Not to mention also making it extremely difficult for them to chew up meat.

In any case, after Vernon Yates explained the problem to Dr. Craddock and myself, we decided to go to work and create instruments long enough that would allow us to do a root canal on her 2.5-inch long canine teeth. We volunteered our time and expertise to do this with the hopes of getting her to eat again. If the root canal was a success, we could then prepare her teeth for crowns.

The first of two precedures was done several months back in May. SONG was placed under general anesthesia at the Bayshore Animal Clinic. Dr. Craddock and I prepared for the 3-hour long surgical root canal procedure. Lo and behold, the root canal was successfully completed and impressions were taken for her new white gold crowns.

Our dental lab, Fox Dental, located in Tampa , donated the white gold for her crowns. They even went so far as to engrave Dr. Craddock's initials (JEC) into the white gold crowns.

On 9/23/02, SONG was again placed under general anesthesia and prepared for the installation of her new crowned canines.

After 5 long hours, the surgery was another success!!!! Her new white gold crowns were in place!

Last reports from her owner, Mr. Yates: She was once again eating and smiling and very pretty with her four (4) new shiny teeth.

http://www.crazedfanboy.com/nolansnewsstand02/popculturereview131.html

Vernon Yates Calls Commissioner a Liar

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This link is to the entire County Commission meeting where Vernon Yates accuses a County Commissioner and others of lying and demands that they appologize to him and the tiger that he carries all over town in the back of his pick up truck. http://www.pinellascounty.org/medi a/bcc022205/Results.htm