SHELTON, Wash. (KING) – At the end of a dirt road in Washington state, travelers may encounter the sounds of some large cats.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center is a non-profit wild cat sanctuary.
Mark Matthews started the non-profit 20 years ago.
The center has recently been going through a tough time. Matthews said at least 20 of the big cats have sadly died due to the bird flu virus.
Just one month ago, the center was home to 37 cats.
Matthews said the first cat got sick around Thanksgiving, and the state confirmed cases of the avian flu in early December.
“Every day. It’s just kind of wake up and you think hopefully it’s a bad dream, but it’s not, you know,” Matthews said.
The center is now closed and under quarantine. Only a few select people are allowed inside.
Matthews said 12 cats have not had any symptoms of the bird flu, and four are recovering from it.
The center is now hoping for financial support due to the costs of medical care and having to throw away thousands of pounds of meat as a safeguard.
“I suspect we’ll probably be around 150,000 (dollars) in damages before this is all over,” Matthews said.
Dr. Amber Itle, the Washington state veterinarian, said the cats are infected through carcasses or meat products in most cases and that cats are highly susceptible to the virus.
The state has confirmed 11 cases of avian flu in humans, all of which are farm workers who have been infected by poultry.
“What we’re seeing right now is there’s no evidence of mammal-to-mammal transmission and there’s no evidence of mammal-to-human or human-to-human transmission,” Itle said.
As the state works to track cases of avian flu, the Wild Felid Advocacy Center hopes to lose no more lives and to reopen in the spring.
“We hope everybody will continue to be healthy and we’re pretty confident they will,” Matthews said.
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