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By Karen Pearlman
Republished with permission from Local Umbrella Media
January 25, 2022 (Alpine) -- Among the many jobs she had in the food service industry, Bobbi Brink once worked at a waitress for a San Diego restaurant known as “Hungry Hunter” and another one called “Hungry Tiger.”
It is just a little bit of irony for the 54-year-old El Cajon native. Never when she was in her 20s did she imagine she would be at the forefront of legislation to stop the exotic animal trade while running a no-kill big cat and bear sanctuary in rural Alpine.
“I didn’t have any idea I would be doing this,” Brink said. “I guess God had other plans for me.”
Brink has driven cross country in big vehicles with towing capabilities, to pick up and bring abandoned and abused animals to live out their lives at her sanctuary. She has also many times helped transport and deliver needy animals to other accredited sanctuaries.
But on a sunny January day in 2022, Brink was in a less stressful vehicle -- tooling around an oversized golf cart around some of the 93-acre land she founded in 2002, the sanctuary that is Lions, Tigers & Bears.
Stopping at several spots on the sprawling grounds, Brink hopped out to feed a snack to Nola, a rescued white tiger for Louisiana, explained how medicated drops are put into the eyes of Baloo, one of the sanctuary’s aging bears, and showed where raccoons scamper across the roof of the house she shares on the premises with her husband, Mark.
Lions, Tigers & Bears has nearly 70 rescued animals on site – 17 species in all. Their habitats are roomy, homey, places in which the wild ones are free to roam inside secure gates, their grassy habitats filled with enrichment toys and pools with circulating, running water and other natural features.
The animals are fed well – at a cost of about $15,000 a year for food for each one -- and are treated by a group of 12 veterinarians, with proper medication available for the myriad health challenges most of the animals face.
The inhabitants that are doted on by the 16-member Lions, Tigers & Bears staff and about 25 core volunteers were largely treated inhumanely or were neglected. Some are elderly with issues that particularly affect seniors.
She said one of the most difficult things about running the sanctuary is when the animals in their fall sick – or worse.
“The hardest thing is when they die, it never gets any easier,” Brink said. “It’s hard because a lot of them are so messed up physically and mentally when they get here. It takes a while to get their health back, just like us when we get older.”
Brink has been working for decades on the Big Cat Public Safety Act, a piece of federal legislation that would end the private possession of big cats as pets. She is adamant that animals should no longer be considered “property” but rather are sentient beings that will get the protection and care they are supposed to have.
She said that today, five states allow exotic animals to be kept as pets: Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Texas.
“To this day I don’t understand why animals are considered property,” Brink said. “Nothing ever happens to people who abuse animals. It seems like they never get in trouble for the animal abuse. So in my lifetime I'd like to see animals not be considered property and to have rights where we can prosecute people for animal abuse, and that they’re not used for and exploited for nothing more than profit.
“If you’re taking on one of these animals, it should be for life just like a dog or a cat. There's no difference. The more I work around these animals the more I know they’re wild, and they don’t belong in a cage.”
Brink and other groups that are part of the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance are working to stop the trade of “pet” wildcats and the commercial exploitation of exotic cats around the country.
According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, it is estimated that more tigers are held in captivity across the United States than remain globally in the wild. Cub cats are used for photo opportunities and unscrupulous breeders looking for big payoffs instead bring physical and create psychological damage to these animals born outside of legitimate zoos and sanctuaries.
The Big Cat act aims to put a stop to exploitative practices and protect the public from possible deadly encounters with the wild animals. It has been supported by IFAW, Animal Welfare Institute, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and others.
As much as she works to see to it that tigers, leopards, jaguars, lions, servals and other felines are no longer treated as “things” to be bought and sold, Brink is just as committed to the bears under her care.
The Lions, Tigers & Bears gives background details on all the animals under its care: https://www.lionstigersandbears.org.
One of the bears, Liberty, was brought to the site in 2010 by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, the group that taught Brink the phrase, “A fed bear is a dead bear.”
Liberty was living in the Angeles National Forest and had to be removed from it because she had learned how to get food from campers, Brink said. Bears like Liberty who become dependent on humans for food, continue to frequent campgrounds and become dangerous. Bears typically have to be relocated and if not, are euthanized.
Liberty was one of the lucky ones, Brink said, coming in as an emaciated 54-lb. cub, and blossoming into a 300-lb. bear living comfortably for nearly 12 years now with several other black bear brothers and sisters.
Brink started in the hospitality business and was in Texas in the 1990s when a brush with animal welfare first took root. She saw advertisements for the sale of big cats and answered one of them.
Brink described how she found herself inside a woman’s mobile home with young tigers, leopards and cougars crawling inside, walking around. She said the woman was selling the cats to commercial places and also to “regular people.” She said she became increasingly concerned as she learned more about the exotic pet trade.
As Lions, Tigers & Bears embarks on its 20th year, Brink said she is still horrified by what goes on, but is at least heartened by the changes she sees in protecting the animals of the wild. She said she sees social media as being key in exposing what goes on behind in the scenes in the exotic animal world.
Running the sanctuary “is a 24/7 thing,” Brink said, adding that she has no plans to retire anytime soon.
“There’s no turning it off, there’s no vacation -- you’ve got to live it, eat it, breathe it,” she said. “One of the best parts for me is when new animals come in, not about seeing what terrible condition they come in with but in knowing what we can do for them. There’s a lot of love here. We’ve got about 100 volunteers, they all love each other, and they are very passionate about this work.”
Brink said she enjoys seeing the animals help people. There are groups of physically and emotionally challenged adults who visit regularly as well as troubled teenagers who work off probation hours at the sanctuary.
“Animals are incredible therapy,” Brink said. “It’s amazing how animals can help people, where people can’t help people. Animals can’t talk but they listen -- and it helps.”
Brink said fundraising at the nonprofit can be a challenge, especially when costly things are needed such as updating a jaguar habitat for a new resident cat, special habitat needs for a bear who suffers from seizures who will be coming to the sanctuary in the coming months, laser treatment for arthritic geriatric animals, and a needed Xray machine.
She said the sanctuary counts on its 10,000 to 12,000 annual visitors, donations, but also benefits from people sharing photos and stories about its work on social media, volunteering and attending events at Lions, Tigers & Bears such as its coming “Wild in the Country” fundraiser in May.
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