By Pat Craig | Executive Director
The South Korean Serval’s rescue story is intriguing, especially since it was not a typical legal seizure or confiscation. Although we have carried out a number of high-profile rescues from South Korea, we were still moderately surprised to receive an email from a young man asking if The Wild Animal Sanctuary could help rescue a wandering illegal, non-native African Serval.
African Servals have a high level of intelligence and this one seemed to avoid man-made objects including cages, traps, and humans themselves. To work around this challenge, a hanging cage was constructed such that it would come down over the Serval once the animal was below.
Drawn by a small pile of food beneath the hanging cage, the Serval was quickly caught by the dropped cage. Once caught, we thought the Serval would panic and possibly find a way to disrupt the cage but surprisingly, the Serval sat calmly as if it was totally used to being in a cage. This only added to the belief the Serval had been someone’s pet and had probably been kept in a cage that was probably very similar. Whether he was born in South Korea at some illegal breeder’s facility, or smuggled into the country, we will never know. The authorities tried to find who owned him illegally but, of course, no one wanted to come forward and get in trouble.
At the Wild Animal Sanctuary, nearly 95% of all the animals we take in are legal cases that involve abuse, neglect or illegal ownership, so we are accustomed to not receiving background information on the animals we rescue. Regardless of falsified background documentation, our mission is to rescue animals, so knowing the full history of an animal would not change our goal toward giving them the best care possible.
With your support, we will be able to continue to provide rescued animals like Yong-Wa with everything he needs to live a wonderful life. We want to thank you for caring about each and every animal we rescue, as we know they all matter and deserve to live a life of freedom!
If you would like to read a more in-depth version of this rescue story, check out our 2024 Spring newsletter at https://online.publicationprinters.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=465b583b-2427-425a-86d3-cc8ab25ff02b
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