Hercules
Hercules the Snow Leopard at Big Cat Rescue
Male Snow Leopard
Born 6/97 - Died 1/29/2010
The Species Survival Plan (SSP) is an organized effort of the AZA accredited zoos to propagate endangered species in captivity so that none are taken from the wild. Sometimes a particular gene pool will become unbalanced as some lines breed more successfully than others. This creates a "surplus" of an endangered species, meaning that there are too many with the same blood lines. These surplus cats are removed, temporarily, from the program until the other bloodlines catch up. Our Snow Leopards were surplus from the Species Survival Plan and that is why we are not breeding them.
At Big Cat Rescue our philosophy is that NO wild animal should be bred for life in a cage.Hercules came to Big Cat Rescue on 6/6/97, along with his mate Cloe. The Snow Leopard Lair is a "triplex" with over 1800 square feet of living space for each cat and a simulated snow covered rocky ledge wall that encloses their dens, which are air conditioned year round. The Snow Leopards are given only purified water as they would have had glacier run off in their native lands.
Listen to Hercules as he chuffs to his visitors:
In January 2010, Hercules was treated for a cyst on his throat, but it turned out to be a fast growing tumor that obstructed deep in his esophagus up to his mouth, causing him to have labored breathing. Nothing could be done to treat the cancer and he was euthanized while under anesthesia on Jan. 29, 2010 and is greatly missed by all of us.
Tributes to Hercules the Snow Leopard
I'm so sad by this post, I will miss Hercules very much. I really enjoyed taking my tours by him. he was stunning, powerful, graceful, magnificent & adorable. He will be missed !! Kim, Volunteer Keeper
I can not even express how sad I am, much beloved, most beautiful boy - we will never forget you..Becky, Volunteer Senior Keeper
Oh my... another hit to the solar plexus! I will miss this beautiful boy so very much! I could not agree with Kim more. I will also miss his 'hiding' and 'stalking' while cleaning his enclosure. I will also miss the intake gasp of breath from tour guests when they first spotted him. His life and the story of his species made such an impression on our guests. I hope that many of them will try what they can to save the Snow Leopards in wild. We are going to miss you so...Lisa, Volunteer Senior Keeper
Hercules was my first love when i came to b.c.r 7 years ago,i am so grateful that i took the time to stop and visit him on Wensday and to tell him i loved him not thinking it was my last to look into his beautiful eyes.R.I.P my sweet Hercules....Kym, Volunteer Keeper
I am heart broken. I loved hercules, even though he never really showed me much interest. I fell in love with him on my first tour many years ago. I always look for him on those cold mornings, enjoying our short cold spells. I will miss him so much. You are so majestic...BethAnn, Volunteer Keeper
Today was a very sad day! Our most beautiful boy left us for a long journey to heaven! I hope he never forgets us, because we will never him! Go free Hercules, you can bite your foot anytime you want now..Marie, Volunteer Senior Keeper
I had the pleasure of watching Jen R. do operant with Herc one day; what a real pleasure that was. I saw him turn from the sweet docile Herc I always knew to the super-aggressive and intense wild boy inside.He was one of my favorites, and I'm very sad to see him go.I will miss you Herc....Meredith, Volunteer Keeper
Herc and I shared our love/hate moments.. the hate being on his part. When I first started cleaning him he completely ignored me with the occasional stalking. These last few days have been the hardest, not just for all volunteers, but for those who had fed him, done operant with him, or have cleaned him for many years. My heart goes out to you all in this sad time. It's never easy working around animals, and it never will be. Herc now is free. He has endless mountains with snow to explore, and he will no longer be confined to captivity. Bye Snow man...Shiloh, Volunteer Senior Keeper
i will never forget my second day of volunteering at BCR 12 years ago, coming around a corner and literally running into Hercules. He was a playful, young cat out for a walk on a leash. Those were some interesting days. He would slink past all the other cages showing off. Thankfully those days came to an end, but I can still remember the feeling of my racing heart that day. Yikes! Now he is cage free and leash free...Cathy, Volunteer Coordinator/Master Keeper
Hercules, "Mr. Intensity", spent his last days next to his beloved "Lion". You were an icon at BCR, and will be missed by all...Barbara, Volunteer Master Keeper
Our tears seem to spring from a bottomless pit. Each cat is so special at BCR, but some are just iconic to our organization. We'll never walk down the path without seeing and feeling Hercules' spirit. He defined the core of what we are, who we are, and why we exist. He was trapped in a prison cell through no fault of his own and he, more than any other cat, reminded us of that every single day we gazed at his beauty. His loss is gut wrenching and I'm afraid we can't help but all walk around in a state of shock for some time to come....Julie, Volunteer Senior Keeper
Herc was one of the most beautiful cats of all time. I always said if I had the money I was going to rent a snow making machine for a day and make a big pile of snow for him to play in. I would have loved to see that, but it's too late now. Hard to believe he isn't there. He will be greatly missed..Willow, Volunteer Keeper
I'm going to miss you Herc. you're beauty has inspired me since my first tour many years ago. i know that you are free now and that lightens my heavy heart...Vanessa, Volunteer Keeper
What a beautiful, beautiful boy! It was a special treat every time I got to see him. I Will miss him very much! What a beautiful picture Shiloh put in my head though, "endless mountains with snow to explore" and Herc...Sue, Volunteer Keeper
Oh Herc, how my heart breaks. I will greatly miss his "Elvis" lip....the look he always gave me. The weird sound he always made when i would clean his enclosure, and his "Intense" look. He was a beautiful boy and one of my favorites for sure. Run free Herc and climb the mountains you were meant to climb... you will be missed...Regina, Volunteer Senior Keeper
There are no words to express my extreme sadness. He was such a magnificent creature and always the highlight of my tours. I was always so happy to see him even if it was just that handsomest head peering out from the opening of his den. I am so glad he came out for the last tour I gave before going to Antarctica and thought how awesome he would be on the mountains there. I will miss him greatly...Deborah, Volunteer Keeper
12/19/2016 Carole Baskin writes: I became Hercules the Snow Leopard.
I’ve come to really look forward to Sundays now, as I take advantage of the time I used to spend at church in praying and meditation. Yesterday’s meditation took me to the peak of the Himalayan mountains where I became one with Hercules Snow Leopard.
At first I was cold, but then I became the blood that seeped through his veins. I could feel me, coursing through him, becoming “me” in the form of a snow leopard. As his blood, I could feel myself reaching every cell in him, first from the inside out and then in whole. Once we had completely merged, I could again feel the world around me.
I felt the snow crunch beneath my huge, fluffy, snowshoe-like paws. I could feel the wind on my nose and blinked against the sharp gusts. I felt warm all over though because my coat was perfectly designed for days like this, and it was a beautiful day too. I could see for miles and miles and miles. The bright blue sky had only wisps of clouds that looked like the feathers of a great swan.
I noticed Cloe and Zoe Snow Leopards walking with me. They were silently, breathtakingly, stunning. All I could do was stare. I could hear the hum of the Universe and it diverted my attention to gazing back out over the distant, snow covered mountains. I could see past them to the stars, the galaxies and the beautiful colors beyond.
From that space images of relatives past came to me.
First my father’s image (Vernon Stairs) appeared. Our ice blue eyes locked across the ether and I thought about how he had built Big Cat Rescue into a peaceful haven for these many displaced exotic cats. I thanked him for doing so with such precision, creativity and care, that millions of people around the world are daily awed by the beauty of the place and the wonderful homes we’ve been able to give the cats.
If not for his 20 years of toiling at his craft here, we would not be the example that others strive to achieve. We would not be able to first mesmerize and then educate those who see the cats in these natural looking enclosures. It is the perfect combination of the natural life they should have in the wild, and the sad fact that they are caged, that gets our message across so well.
I then saw Momma Jacquie (my mother’s mother Jacqueline Norris) and thought about how her shrewd, yet fair business practices were the example that made it possible for me to take on the challenge of caring for over 200 exotic cats over these past 24 years. If she had not been my example to mimic, of someone who was driven to create a financial empire, I would not have been able to carry the sanctuary for the first 11 years when it cost far more to run than was provided by donations.
I thanked her for showing me that hard work pays off. I thanked her for showing me that taking the high road always leads to better business. I promised her I was still working on being beautiful and elegant like she was. She wanted me to grow up to be a movie star, like the ones she grew up with; Carole Lombard, Lucile Ball, Mae West. I wonder if she’s happy with my silver screen being Facebook?
Then I saw my maternal grandfather, BigDaddy (Floyd Norris) and thanked him for showing me how to love even the most unlovable. I acknowledged his great patience and quiet demeanor that conveyed nothing but absolute love.
Next I saw, in great contrast, my paternal grandfather, (Harold Stairs) who always seemed to hate my mother and I because of her religion. He didn’t seem to bear the same ill temper toward my brother, but maybe he held out hopes that Chuck would grow up to be like him. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but there were still lessons taught by my German grandfather that were equally important.
Sometimes people teach best by their bad example. His example of being intolerant of those he considered inferior taught me to be tolerant. His example of being a bully to his wife, taught me to be respectful to my spouse, in contrast. He had a great love for animals, in his own strange way that has also helped me in the work I do now. He was a farmer who raised bees, rabbits and cows. My favorite memories of him was to watch him milk the cows and shoot the milk across the barn to the waiting mouths of his dozens of barn cats. They would leap up and catch the stream, never missing a drop.
Despite being poor, I’d watch him cut open a twenty pound bag of Purina cat chow and pour it out into garbage can lids, turned upside down, to feed his many strays. I remember the last of those cats, an old deaf, white cat named Monk, who seemed to be his soulmate.
He raised rabbits for sale to the butcher and that’s where he and I had the most stress in our relationship, as I’d try to save them from being loaded into the van to go to market. He loved those rabbits. He devised clever penning and denning for them, to give them comfort, and would handle them all like they were his precious pets…and then send them to market. I didn’t understand how he could do that, and still don’t, but it helped me to understand that there are a lot of people like that.
They claim to love animals, but they eat them. They claim to love animals so much that they want to farm them; yet they are raising them to be killed. They claim to love their pets, but send them to the pound when they move, or get a job, or a mate or a baby.
It’s probably the genesis of my own peculiarity; which is a deep rooted feeling that there are cats and then there is cat food. None of that makes sense, but I thanked him for awakening in me the understanding that we are all flawed and that we are all here to help each other be better souls.
His wife, my paternal grandmother, (Sarah Stairs) was just plain crazy for most of my life, but she was French and had a great love of music. She was an opera singer who gave up her career to marry and become a mother of four. Perhaps she could hear that universal song that resonates throughout space and time. It was clear she could hear voices that no one else could. From the time I was about 11 - 15 we lived with her and then next door to her and my role was to keep her from wandering off.
My father put her to work in his furniture business so he could keep an eye on her. She gave away more money than he made, because she couldn’t make change and was easily fooled by unscrupulous customers, but it kept her busy, and happy and my father was okay with that. Despite the harsh treatment that she received from my grandfather’s words, and the way the public used her for their own gain, she was a happy soul and a great inspiration to be happy, no matter what your lot in life. I thanked her for that.
Of course, this whole time tears are streaming down my face, and I’m heaving great sobs of gratitude for those who were instrumental in shaping who I am, but more importantly for their part in creating what Big Cat Rescue is. It was healing to reconnect with them during this time of meditation. It gave me renewed strength to deal with the challenges ahead. It made me even more appreciative of the opportunity we have to make the world a more kind, loving and healthy place to live.
There are countless people still living who have been, and still are, critical to the success of Big Cat Rescue’s mission to end the trade in exotic cats as pets, props and parts. Maybe future meditations will allow us to meet on that windswept mountain top, and feel the connection over space and time, that reminds us we are all ONE.
More Memorials at https://bigcatrescue.org/category/memorials/
