20 Big Cats Die Of Bird Flu At WA Wildlife Sanctuary

The New York Times reports:

Twenty big cats, including a half-Bengal tiger and four cougars, died between late November and mid-December at a sanctuary in Washington State after becoming infected with bird flu, according to the facility’s director.

“We’ve never had anything like it; they usually die basically of old age,” said Mark Mathews, the founder and director of the Wild Felid Advocacy Center in Shelton, Wash. “Not something like this, it’s a pretty wicked virus.”

The sanctuary said in a statement on Friday that the facility was under quarantine and would be closed until further notice while the habitats were sanitized.

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“You think hopefully it’s just a bad dream, but it’s not.” At the end of November, the sanctuary had 37 cats. It is

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