Paws for a Cause

For Sabeena, visiting Nemo’s Sports Café was something of a homecoming. The Bengal tiger is a resident at the Kowiachobee Animal Preserve and tips the scale at just under 300 lbs. Ten years ago, though, she was an adorable cub, barely more than a kitten, and made her first visit to Nemo’s, restrained by just a leash and collar. 

Saturday, although Sabeena was well-behaved, she came to the Kowiachobee fundraiser inside a stout trailer-mounted enclosure, with double layers of chain-link fence between her and the public. The volunteers and staffers from Kowiachobee Animal Preserve (KAP) were in the parking lot outside Nemo’s, which is connected with the HeadPinz bowling alley at the junction of Radio Road and Davis Blvd. in East Naples, for a fundraiser soliciting funds to help with the preserve’s operating costs. 

Sabeena had some animal companions with her, as well. Rachel Andrus held Rocky the bearded dragon on her neck, and Angel Diaz provided a perch for Sidney the Moluccan cockatoo. Volunteer Sarah Sabean sat with Fergie the skunk in her lap, and assured nervous spectators that yes, he – despite what you might expect, Fergie is a boy skunk – did not possess the ability to stink up the event. 

Visitors were given the chance to allow a ball python to entwine itself around their necks, and some were more eager than others. Angie Castillo’s children passed on the opportunity, but Angie embraced the chance and the python, a four-footer named Ashe, presenting an appearance reminiscent of Eve in the Garden of Eden, although more fully dressed. 

One woman who was shepherding a group of children into the bowling alley for a birthday party promised to stop by again on their way out. “Look at the paws on that tiger,” she said. “They’re the size of dinner plates.” 

Kowiachobee founder John Slaby, who with his wife Grace has operated KAP for 22 years, was on hand to explain the mission of the facility, which sits on five acres deep in Golden Gate Estates. 

“Our purpose is not tourism,” he said. “It’s all centered around education” – and providing a home for hurt, distressed, wild, exotic or domestic animals. The 501(c)3 organization is licensed by both the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the USDA. They receive no government funding – “money from the government comes with too many strings attached,” said Slaby. 

Kowiachobee is not a zoo, although they do have 130 animals in residence, including four tigers, an African lion with an impressive mane, lemurs, monkeys, tortoises, donkeys, an alligator who has appeared repeatedly on national television, donkeys, raccoons, rabbits, birds from chickens to peacocks, and at least one Florida panther. The name Kowiachobee is an Anglicization of a Native American word for panther, which translates to “screaming cat.”

Kowiachobee is not a zoo, and visits to the site are by groups with reservations only. The center also conducts outreach visits, working with school groups, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and civic organizations, and other nonprofits, bringing their exotic residents to events.

Bringing in enough money to feed all those 130 animals, as well as keeping the lights on and providing veterinary care, is a constant challenge for Kowiachobee, said Slaby. “We’re always in debt. My credit cards are maxed out every year.”

It’s easy to see where the money goes. At nearly 300 lbs., Sabeena is the smallest of the four KAP tigers, and she eats nine lbs. of meat every two days – she prefers it very rare. The volunteers at Nemo’s allowed a reporter to “stick feed” her, which involves taking a chunk of beef – or something – they had attached to a stick and pushing it through a gap in the chain link barrier. Sabeena displayed a healthy attitude and seemed to size up her visitor as if wondering if there was more.

At home at KAP, she has more commodious accommodations. While government standards mandate at least a 24 ft. by 24 ft. pen, said Slaby, Sabeena enjoys a 50 ft. diameter walled enclosure, with trees, shrubs, a pool and a waterfall. Like all the exotic cats at Kowiachobee, she was born in captivity and would not likely survive in the wild.

Aaron Wheeler, general manager of Nemo’s, said they were happy to host the fundraiser for the Kowiachobee Center. “Donna Caesar, our AGM, was here 10 years ago when they came and Sabeena was just a baby. We’re glad to have them back.”

To learn more about Kowiachobee Animal Preserve, or support their education and shelter efforts, go online to www.kowiachobee.org/contribute.