Photo: BARM / Fame Pictures
Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen shares her living space with four orphaned cheetahs, five lions and two tigers. And when we say share, we mean share: They climb in bed with her, prowl on her countertops, steal table scraps, and do many of the other things a typical house cat would do. In fact, they even play with her (small) dogs, and curl up with the pooches when it's time to snooze.
Van Nieuwenhuizen didn't just start bringing big cats into her home for fun -- she's working to prevent the extinction of these animals through Fiela's Fund Cheetah Breeding Project after being involved in "Friends of the Zoo" for over a decade. Van Nieuwenhuizen's first tame cheetah Fiela (born in January 2006) acts as a sort of animal ambassador to educate people about the endangered animals.
As of now Van Nieuwenhuizen mainly offers an educational "Cheetah Experience" (people can visit, pet, and take pictures with Fiela), but she envisions much more. On her website she says, "Merely owning a cheetah is not enough -- I want to start a cheetah breeding project, especially considering the fact that there are only 1,000 cheetahs left in the entire Africa."
Kudos to her for helping these beautiful big cats, but we'd still be nervous about having dinner at Van Nieuwenhuizen's!
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Cheetahs are the only big cat that can be taken from the wild and tamed. My husband had a cheetah and a lioness. I only had an ocelot.
rrriiiggghhttt......sure u did.
I would be thrilled to be in the same space with any of the big cats. As a cat lover, I am in awe of their grace, poise, intellegence,compasion, loyalty and love. However, I do believe that a time comes when they must be released into the wild as this is their natural habitat. I believe that although they may have been raised from infancy by a human being, that time comes when they are a danger to the hands that fed them. It is instinctual. They are a regal breed, and are to be cherished as one of natures most beautiful animal creations.
i agree with you
cheetahs r NOT the only wild cat that can b tamed!!!
That is great! I have a few friends that specialize in exotics that were rescued in the US. When I was a child the farm down the road had lions, tigers and zebras (oh my). In central Florida, we have a facility called EARS that is more than just a place for the animals, but a loving home for all animals there. People need to realize that this is the norm more and more in our society. There are people who actually have large cats as rehab pets to care for them.
I have never fostered in my home (I have horses), but I can visit 4 homes within 15 minutes from mine for my feline "maximus" fix :)
And she is going to be eaten and everyone is going to wonder what the heck went wrong and everyone is going to feel sorry for her just like they did with that Vegas Magician and I am going to sit here laughing my azz off as to why some idiot would live with big cats....and then the rest of the world is going to think that I am not a nice guy....blah blah blah
do you need a special license for that
Isn't this a photo of Bruce Jenner? I'm pretty sure it is. I DO know that his wife is a cougar.
i friend of mine raised a male lion he weight over 400lbs and died of old age
Gaby, I got your response to my comment. And I got to say your the idiot. Perhaps, you should watch Animal Planet and you should educate yourself on Cheetahs before you go making dumb comments. First off, YES LIONS EAT CHEETAHS. Young cheetahs are killed all the time by lions. And not only that, lions also kill older cheetahs too. Granted, the younger ones are easier to get, but lions will definitely still go after a Cheetah on occasion. They might catch them off guard as they are sleeping. Lions hunt at night while cheetahs hunt during the day. And one of the reasons that Cheetahs hunt at night, not the only reason, but one reason is to try to avoid lions. Just a little info that your tiny brain might not be able to handle anyways.
Yup, I know you did, SeattleLady! Kudos to you for saving the rescues!
I don't think so. Cheetahs are wild animals and as all others, can not be tamed.
Nor can ocelots....methinks you fib a bit!!
Sweet dreams...
Bravo, for being helpful in keeping breeds of animals from extinction. Most people only think of them as trophies. It shows the shape of this human race as they slowly get rid of most animals on the planet. We tend to forget they were here before us.
Just because they were here before us has nothing to do with anything really. Everything older than human kind is now superior to it? this is kinda mankind's world before it is another organisms, but besides that what do you mean this is what humans are shaping into? you do know that since man existed he has hunted living animals, and sure they ate them but they also used their heads as trophies and wore the animals as hides. This is not exactly something new that has been going on.
You are completely wrong in saying that these creatures were here before us. Its called evolution. We came from Ape like creatures millions of years ago, and cats came from feline like creatures around the same time period. We evolved as they did.There was never a time when one organism did not co-exist with somthing that would one day become human. And what we are becoming? We have ALWAYS hunted lesser animals, for both food and trophys. Humans are not becoming any worse, our numbers just continue to grow, increasing the hunting of such animals.
PatCoffey, you are COMPLETELY wrong. Evolution was some crazy dunce named Darwin who was drunk and went to Galapagos Islands, and said, ''We came from apes!'' God made us, and these majestic animals came before us. We were last. I have proof -- READ A BIBLE.
Umm..yeah Kellie? You need to get a reality check. The bible was written by people, hence it's not proof of anything at all. History, unless it has SCIENTIFIC proof is all just people writing down things that could all be lies, just to show off or do something else that humans do. Anything can be written that has no truth behind it. Okay, so you say the Bible is the all powerful truth, well I say Harry Potter is truth. Tell me I have no proof? Neither do you. Sorry, but you really have to start finding other things than the bible to justify your arguments. That's so 20th century : /
Actually, Kelly, Darwin NEVER used the words "We evolved from apes" or monkeys etc... he did get published in the 1800s (think of what life was like then), and was in school for theology. His ideas were about Natural Selection, which is not exactly the same as evolution. He was saying that the organisms best adapted to their environment survived. If we should read "The Bible" then you should go read "Origin of Species"... and take a Biology class with an open mind, if you dare to. You might learn something. You don't "believe" in evolution, because in TRUE science, there are no opinions, no bias, only solid evidence.
You are going to have to show me a lot more solid evidence than a book anyhow. You are right in one aspect...Humans obviously were not even close to being one of the first organisms, nor will we be the last. (Think chemosynthetic organisms, bacteria, single-celled protozoa, photosynthetic organisms, etc)
Anyway, tigers and such can be tamed, as long as they are handled as newborns. Think of trying to tame a wild wolf to be a domesticated dog... it isn't going to happen, but take in a wolf pup, and it will learn from whatever animal is around it and mimic its actions, routines, etc... however, it's going to run into issues once they try to release the animal back into the wild. Most likely the animal will be too timid and unfortunately will not survive; so obviously, just like everything in life, there are + and - to what the lady is trying to do.
lol Kellie, people like you disgust me.