WASHINGTON STATE — Twenty big cats at a wild animal sanctuary in Shelton have died from the bird flu.
It happened within a matter of days around Thanksgiving, and now the non-profit is preparing to clean so it can reopen to the public next year. The Wild Felid Advocacy Center announced more than half of its big cats as of December have been infected with bird flu.
“It’s been one big nightmare. I never thought something like this would happen to us,” Wild Felid Advocacy Center Director and Co-Founder Mark Mathews told KOMO News. “Maybe only at a facility that had cats near each other, and ours are spread out over five acres.”