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" From now until next August, the Body Shop will be donating money from the sales proceeds of its super-yummy Dragon Fruit Lip Butter to three nonprofits&amp;amp;#8212;Sprout Up, an organization dedicated to providing environmental education in public schools; WeStopHate, which is committed to emboldening youth; and Big Cat Rescue, the largest accredited sanctuary in the world that takes in abused and abandoned big cats. Last week, I flew down to Tampa to see, firsthand, the work that Big Cat Rescue does&amp;amp;#8212;and find out how the Body Shop helps take care of our furry four-legged friends. Have you ever been to a fair or a mall where someone had some tiger cubs or other wild cat species babies out for &amp;quot;petting&amp;quot;? Well, turns out that the sale and trafficking of big cats and other wild feline species is a huge problem in the United States. It&amp;#x27;s lucrative&amp;amp;#8212;with some cubs going for thousands of dollars on the black market&amp;amp;#8212;but because most, if not all, private owners are incapable, ill-equipped, or unable to provide proper care and quality living conditions for their animals once they reach adulthood, lots of these cubs are torn from their mothers at too young an age, abused, not provided with veterinary care, and later imprisoned in tiny cages once their owners tire of them. (This is Flavio, a former circus performer who one day decided he was over performing&amp;amp;#133; and started picking fights with other tigers.) According to reports, somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 big cats are currently privately owned in this country alone. And keeping them isn&amp;#x27;t safe&amp;amp;#8212;for either the cats or the humans! In the last two decades, private ownership of big cats has led to the deaths of 22 people, 144 big cats, 260 escapes, (!) and 248 maulings. So, yeah, nobody wins. The Big Cat Rescue is home to more than 100 cats&amp;amp;#8212;lions, tigers, cougars, leopards, bobcats, and lots of other species (including bearcats, which technically aren&amp;#x27;t even cats&amp;amp;#8212;they&amp;#x27;re in the wolverine family, so that means they&amp;#x27;re related to Hugh Jackman). All these cats were rescued from situations where they were abused, about to become fur fashion, or are retired performers (there are lots of circus cats on campus). Some of the cats were abandoned by their owners after the people realized that wild animals don&amp;#x27;t make good pets. And, heartbreakingly, some of them have been living at BCR since they were babies&amp;amp;#8212;because their moms were killed by hunters. If you&amp;#x27;ve ever watched Animal Planet&amp;#x27;s Fatal Attraction&amp;amp;#8212;that show about pets that kill (and sometimes eat) their owners, you might recognize TJ. Don&amp;#x27;t worry, TJ didn&amp;#x27;t kill or eat anyone, but he was living in a breeding facility that was featured on the show&amp;amp;#8212;his previous owner thought he&amp;#x27;d make a good household pet. This is Sundari the leopard, who likes to stalk the groups who come on tour (she&amp;#x27;s a smart one). Here&amp;#x27;s Armani&amp;amp;#8212;who&amp;#x27;s very appropriately named, considering he was bred to appear in photo shoots and in commercials. Look, he&amp;#x27;s totally giving us Blue Steel. Nik the tiger is usually quite shy (he usually only wants to hang out with his tiger BFF Joseph), but we were lucky to get a glimpse at him snarfing his holiday turkey. Rusty the Caracal, who grew up around humans, and has a very possessive gal pal, Sassy, who visibly gets annoyed if you pay too much attention to Rusty. Reisa the cougar, one of the newer additions to BCR, playing with her scent-filled enrichment paper bag in the afternoon. Me and Arthur the tiger, who lives in an enclosure with two of his siblings, Andre and Alice: Nikita the lioness was rescued in 2001, when she was found chained to a wall during a crack house bust in Tennessee. Now she enjoys her days napping in the sun. Oh, and, as promised, here&amp;#x27;s a binturong (a.k.a. a bearcat). Fun fact: They love bananas and they smell like popcorn! Tampa&amp;#x27;s Big Cat Rescue isn&amp;#x27;t just about harboring animals that are being abused or mistreated&amp;amp;#8212;the founders are also working hard to change legislation to make the private ownership of big cats illegal in the United States. Seriously, these animals are not good pets, you guys. To find out how you can help get this legislation passed, check out the Action Center to find out how to get in touch with your state and local representative. And don&amp;#x27;t forget to pick up some Body Shop Dragonfruit Lip Butter while you&amp;#x27;re at it! It makes a great stocking-stuffer for the holidays&amp;amp;#8212;and how great that you can spend $6 and know that the money is going to help these gorgeous animals. P.S. While we were there, the staff at the Big Cat Rescue made an animal-friend giant (fake) Dragonfruit Lip Butter for Bengali the tiger to play with. Check out the adorable video, right here: "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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