Up Bear Creek Without a Paddle

I spent a good amount of 7 months working at Bear Creek Feline Center, Located out side of Panama City, Florida and I know a large amount of what goes on at the center that the main people do not see. I'm going to enlighten the public on Jim's "Don't Tell Anyone" policy and of the many things that go on behind the backs of the general population. Sit back, enjoy and I apologize if it gets a little long winded, It's hard to summarize 7 months in a short thing also, it's fairly hard for me to joke about things with animals But really this whole center is a big enough joke as it is. I do however apologize for my lack of proof because during my time there I did not take pictures showing the flaws, I kind of regret that now.

Major Players
The Owner
Our first stop in this lovely post isn't the animals, nor their habitats, it is in fact the owner, a  former local radio station owner by the name of Jim Broaddus. But in fact much like I've heard of his counterpart at Big Cat Rescue you rarely see him unless a large sum of money is involved or publicity is involved. This man began his center merely as an Animal Hobbyist who started with an Ocelot back when the rules regarding such animals were less stringent, I assume the animals later died and then he stuck to more traditional pets for a while. He eventually got his love for the exotics again and upon finding the new rules and regulations regarding Ocelots had become more stringent he settled for a Serval the state ended up rehoming many species there due to the quality of the cages he had at the time and over time it has grown to a large number that is usually in the 20s but is ever changing due to deaths and new acquisitions. 

Jim is also fairly lazy around his own center, preferring to delegate the work to the "interns" rather than do it himself, there has even been days I noticed when there were no interns the cages went uncleaned, after being told only to clean once per day my favorite cat pooped and it was still there two days later despite Jim saying he cleaned up, and I noticed no mark in any cage to indicate otherwise.

Jim is heavily disrespectful to his wife in front of others having called her various things I do not wish to repeat as even rumors of such have been known to get people in her career fired, and when she interrupts him with a simple bit of knowledge she knows he always snaps back with "Let me speak" or other things equating to "Shut up" such disrespect is hard to ignore for too long and I was about fed up with it when I left.

This man even attempted to make me choose between him or my grandfather, having badmouthed my grandfather, granted yes, he was a little uninterested in the facility Jim has no right to even attempt to make me make a choice between playing with his cats or spending time with my grandfather.

And when he "let me go" this sick bastard had the audacity to ask me and my family for donations. As seen in this email between my mother and himself:

"April & Stephen:  Exciting changes are in the works here at the Center.  New faces, programs and opportunities.  We will be moving cats to new centers around the country as we add other rare species.  We are now much more than just a place to enrich the lives of our family of cats as we focus on conservation programs in the wild with ties to off center campus activities in Arkansas and Costa Rica. 

Each of our board members have realized that financial support is vital to support both Bear Creek programs in situ conservation.  We are mandated to continue to feed our felines the best diets.  We are negotiating with suppliers to provide us with organic chicken and beef, containing no growth hormones and anti biotics. 

Our mission is changing.  If you would like to help us with both personal and financial support, I will apply to the board to devise a program custom tailored for Stephen as you have requested.  In any event, we wish both of you well!

Best,

Jim Broaddus

BCFC"

None of this ever happened, nor was it even attempted. A few more months went by and no results. Despite me having a bank account with a rather large sum that could just be thrown away at my very whim, I refuse to donate any some of time nor money to a facility I was not allowed to go to.

On the surface both Jim and his Facility seem nice, friendly and that everything is in order, however this couldn't be farther from the truth. Being around the facility for an hour (10 to 20 minutes max in each area.) Hardly allows you to see the lovely infractions of the regulations he attempts to instill in his interns and the cocky "I know better than everyone" attitude I shall get to shortly.

The Wife
Bertie Broaddus A nice school teacher whom I find almost no faults in as a person other than her seemingly horrendously submissive attitudes to various things going on at the place she works and lives.
Makes a great sandwich (no this is not a sexist joke, she really does) and has taken charge of the Class III Geoffroy's Cats A small South American Spotted cat and the adjoining breeding program for said animals. For some reason these cats didn't like me that much even though I didn't do anything to them but it might be because of the smell of a much larger cat on me.

The "Interns"
If you were to compare Jim to a Southern Gentleman in the 1800s these lovely people would be comparable to slaves, Despite being a charity and a Volunteer effort Jim has stated many times it's not a "come when you please" thing if you start going every Sunday for a while he will assume you are going to be there every Sunday in general as if that is the only thing you have going on. He has expected these interns to adhere to his schedule and more often than not either refuses to change dates for certain things or Gets angry if you don't show up for some reason like you have other things to do, such as deal with a dying grandmother.

That much I can understand if someone makes a promise to be there they should be there unless family business becomes a factor, or something more important such as Paid Work, or something else such as needing a break from Jim (which contrary to his belief most of the people at his center only go there for the cats, Jim is not the loved expert it is incredibly hard to be around him even once a week continuously.

The interns are the main work force around Bear Creek, as stated above Jim sits on his computer or on the phone most of the time and tells people to do his work. The only things separating Interns from "slaves" in my metaphor is that we are offered a chance of possibly getting a license for a Class II Species of animal but to date I've only heard of two or three people actually receiving the license. Mike and Amanda Myers and Billie Lambert. For this license we need to do 500 hours and then take a test after Jim "confirms" we did the hours, or 1000 and then we just get the license, due to the nature in which Jim treats some of his employees for offering ideas counter to his own, the number of licensees doesn't surprise me.

Board of Directors
Finally we have the Board of directors, an ever changing mostly unknown mysterious list that only is known in Jim's mind. I have gotten more lists of Directors than pairs of pants I own.

This Board is basically just a way to say "Jim likes you for now" they hold what seems to me no real power because I've noticed if you disagree with Jim you won't last very long. This board I've been given lists of people in New York, Texas, and even other Countries that are certainly not Florida, the problem with such is the "board" is not in touch with what is going on day to day and only relies on Jim's word, the few from Panama City Either didn't know people well enough (only going once a week) or were in Jim's Pocket and did not wish to say anything to potentially get canned. 

The Broken lists I've gotten from Jim's babbling consist of these People
Jim
Bertie
Mike Myers
Craig Derosa (a gent in New York, nice guy but is only around maybe two weeks out of the year)
Possibly a German Gent who lives in Panama City
And Possibly two guys one either in France or just a guy who lived in France for a time (hard to pay attention to all of them), and a man in the Czech Republic

Of course due to the ever changing nature of such and the distance the majority of this board is either ineffective for the "firing" portion that they are seemingly deemed with as well as a majority of other things.

Of course that is not to say they are bad people, the Majority are in fact great people but I believe to be misinformed about things going on in the actual center.

Animals and their Homes
Ever Been in one of those "haunted houses" I mean the real Scooby Doo like, 100 year old no upkeep houses in the country that the locals tag a story onto about hauntings and you can only get to in a drug induced trip? Get that image out of your head it's nothing like that but it's still not too great for some animals.

For the Most part the animals are Felines, excluding the Macaws and various squirrels, birds and occasional snake that roams on any large property in a wooded area. my last count included...

5 Puma Concolors which consist of one Mountain Lion and four "high percentage" Florida Panthers
4 Bobcats
6 Servals
3 Lynx
and 3 Geoffroy's Cats

This count is due to a loss of Various animals due to Deaths or giving them away. Most habitats are built as the laws state, but Maintenance has suffered from time to time. There have been missed cleanings, but not missed so much that the animals are swimming in their own excrement, needed repairs to cages go undone for months because Jim was "waiting on X Employee to bring some chain link fence poles" instead of getting it himself. 

Allow me to tell some stories I heard directly from Jim. It had occurred that the Servals in once cage found a place they enjoy to urinate on, the place happened to be the corner of the fence facing out into the yard. This went largely unchecked until they "Peed their way to freedom" both Servals had urinated so much in one area that the ammonia in their urine sped the Rusting of the fence from about 10+ years to significantly less, both Servals escaped into the yard their only protection from escaping completely being their fear of the unknown having been in the cage for so long and a 6-8 foot fence that as Jim teaches in his tours a Serval can easily jump over leading to the road and not far from a Highway 231 where dozens of deer are hit annually. Of course this was not the case in this scenario, the Servals were retrieved and the fence was repaired. But these repairs don't seem to happen until something happens, much like other things in life changes don't seem to happen until it's already too late.

Another story involving a Savannah cat that Jim always qualified as being worth "six thousand dollars" Escaped, but Jim also qualifies that as he believes it was "released" This cat was never found.

Along with potential escapes we also have the ever present cage repairs and cleanings to prevent things such as disease or death or general harm to animals and humans. However I've noticed a few things and heard a few that went unchecked and caused such things to happen.

My major concern due to the amount of time and bonding I had spent with Servals was the completely rusted through pole in the Serval Cage, it was only being held up by it's anchor point in the top and gravity and possibly some rusted away "foot hold" type things to keep it in place this pole needed to be replaced when I arrived at the place, and a good 7 months and countless reminders later, It still hadn't been, and quite honestly I would put money on it still being as I left it. 

Protip: For someone who claimed to have been born into a Horse raising family he wasn't too wise to the fact tetanus is a problem for animals as well as humans and that is is commonly gotten through rusty metal and contaminated dirt.

Of course to my knowledge the Servals are fine, unlike the Jagurundis who died this year from what they assume is a "virus in their cage" which having cleaned it a few times could be from the raw meat they left in their little house that was rarely cleaned to the point of near putrefaction. One can only assume the various bacteria and diseases that congregate on raw meat that has been left out for hours, days, and possibly weeks in a dark, moldy hot house simply got to them.
Of course since it wasn't my job to clean all the cages myself I always let others clean that cage because of the damage I've seen done by that specific cat species.
My belief is that if given proper attention by the owner and interns after I left these animals would not have met such a harsh death, since they both died within days of each other it's a safe assumption that it was something in their cage.

My final note on this is that during the winter months Jim and I found that one of the Serval, who happened to be my favorite was effected very badly by cold weather on one occasion becoming incredibly sick one time Jim brought him into the house but to my knowledge that was the only time such an occurrence happened.


Work With the Disabled Community
In the Local paper Jim was heralded as a hero to the disabled community, this however is not as true as it seems. The only "Disabled" people he's worked with are those with no Visible problems, no diminished faculties, in fact I assume most were Aspergers diagnosed, which I believe honestly isn't much of a disability if it even really effects anything more than their tact in social situations. Jim has in fact refused many people due to their disabilities to join the Vocational Rehab Program he had.

In fact Jim has an admitted Aversion to the more disabled populous going as far as to refuse a tour to one of my mother's clients, I would imagine would be the best word. This mentally disabled young man whom can't even speak was refused an outside of the cages tour that was offered to be given by another school teacher who knows how to deal with such children. In fact at the time in question there were three school teachers who either specialized in dealing with the mentally disabled or at the least knew a decent amount, on the grounds, outside willing to help just show this poor child a few cats just to brighten his day. Jim of course would not hear of such a thing for whatever reasons he had. Somewhat unfortunate because he in fact has a better relationship with Parolees and inmates than the innocents of the world.

Due to being force to join the Vocational Rehab program through my school I later was getting paid to work at the center, despite my saying I didn't want to be paid to work there and I continually refused such until Jim rudely said things like "Why did I even bother doing this if you weren't going to be in it." And even going as far as begging me to change my mind, and of course I figured by the way he was talking if I didn't say yes I'd never be allowed there, even though I stated from the start I wanted nothing to do with their "experiment" as they put it. The reasons of course were multiple, One I didn't like being expected to do the work, I liked it better when Jim appreciated the work I did rather than having the idea in his head that I had to do it. I didn't like the idea of being paid to work there in general due to it's status as a nonprofit, and finally I knew that if I was around him every other day with him scrutinizing every move I made like I was some idiot I would grow more and more resentment towards working there and would eventually not be allowed to return despite Jim's promise to not have the Vocational Rehab stuff affect my being there as a volunteer.

While working there Jim treated the first guy that I was paired with like the sun shined out of his ass, he was a fairly nice guy, but I did not enjoy having to pick up his slack and cleaning up the "messes" he made, I had to repaint a wall he didn't paint properly or finish before quitting to be with his girlfriend, I had to reclean cages he didn't finish, and make sure everything was done properly and this kid got all the credit. Which I half didn't like but that is a moot point.

Jim was charged with supervising us but most of the time he sat on his computer or on the phone, if he had been out there he would have noticed my multiple cases of heat exhaustion, or the few times the before mentioned "X employee" claimed to have just before arriving having partook in Marijuana use, which he admitted to me. The few times Jim was around doing his share of the "job" he was either yelling at us when we were doing the best we possibly could and it didn't meet up with his standards which led to injuries multiple times. Or he was scrutinizing every move like we had never used a drill before when in fact I've assisted with more complex projects than has ever been done at BCFC. And as a side note, we were not supplied with any safety equipment such as Helmets, Eye Protection, or Masks for when we were dealing with various volatile substances such as bleach mixed with ammonia or paint. The effects of the former can be read here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A795611

In summary, Jim does not have the proper tools to be dealing with the disabled, Mentally and otherwise not allowing our well documented disabilities be factored into why we did certain things differently than he wanted and such.

Misc

As a self-proclaimed "expert" Jim believes far too highly in his own abilities despite telling his tour groups and interns not to do something he in fact decides that the rules he lays out do not apply to him, which has led to injuries and attacks by animals which Jim has gone as far as to deny despite multiple witnesses. 

I am aware of two attacks that have occurred at Bear Creek due to Jim's cocky attitude. One of such injuring him to the point his skull was broken a bit. 

The first happened before my time but he always brings it up, Cleo his Mountain Lion had wanted to play and instead of leaving when she was getting rough he stayed which resulted in him ending up on the ground laid out by an Animal multiple times his own strength. Resulting in what I amateurishly diagnosed as amnesia brought on by the event, which resulted in his admitted not remembering the attack as it occurred from his point of view, I imagine he pieced it together from the witnesses, which he is lucky were there otherwise he might currently be dead.

Another one occurred while I was there the tour group arrived at the Lynx cage and he decided to provoke Shakira a bit after saying "I don't think I should be in here because she doesn't like me but I think I can handle it" or something to that effect. shortly afterwards she jumped onto his back and as she was declawed began to bite through his shirt in a clear attempt to teach him a lesson.

Neither attack would have happened nor would have any others not witnessed if Jim knew his own limits and lost his cocky attitude but I'm sure this will not occur.

On to what Jim saw as a "major issue" for some reason. Jim sent out a series of emails and told us to "help defeat Carole Baskin" due to her own foolish attack on the center in which she labeled a "sponsored link" on Google as "Bear Creek Feline Center" in an attempt to detract people from the center. As Baskin has not been to the center in my knowledge she had no place to speak in the matter, and I am surprised this was an issue for either of these people. I'm surprised Bear creek is even big enough to show up on the radar of Big Cat Rescue's "business opponent" list and was willing to spend her own money to bad mouth a center as such. Of course I agree that a lot is not how it should be, but it is foolish to argue just because you aren't getting people from Panama City to go to your South Florida center. People in this city think going to Tampa is a bit too far for some pussy. Both Jim and Carole acted immaturely and in cases stupidly in this little "fight". But Jim insisted on wasting time on the computer every day clicking links and doing stuff to fight that instead of using the time for the cats fixing the issues pointed out by Ms. Baskin.

On to more pressing matters than wasted time of an aging man.

It was claimed in the Local paper that "Saint" was born at the center on super bowl Sunday. unfortunately that's not quite the case. Saint was born in South Florida and came to the center at the age of 4 months and has been raised there since. Of course no one cares for technicalities when you can be falsely praised for birthing a Panther in captivity which is hard to do when the only male at the center at the time is not a fan of Female Panthers. Of course this is just a small error I felt like noting.

Jim filed a claim with BP during the oil spill that was only somewhat true, he did lose some business but not as much as he claimed, as stated before  Jim cancels tours, I recall Jim Canceling a few of them because they either weren't important or "big" enough around the time of the Spill, which somewhat exaggerated his losses, of course in the end I believe he only got $1,500 dollars

Finally Jim has gone as far as to look the other way on various laws, such as putting a panther in a cage without "two gates" which he teaches as mandatory, putting large animals in cages that are under the legal size and my personal favorite ignoring illegally possessed animals, and on top of that actually supplying them to unlicensed people. 

One, a Billie Lambert was in possession of two bobcats given to her by Jim before becoming licensed, at least according to Jim's telling of the story, She has recently (within a year or two) gotten her license. So everything is legal now but that doesn't change the fact Jim Overlooked it intentionally, of course the cats were well taken care of and everything is kept up to standards so I have no gripes with Billie.

And Another Person who's name I will not mention without a court order compelling me to, I do not wish for his animals which he loves to be taken away and put down due to the laws. However this person illegally possesses two Servals, he is unlicensed and in addition the cats are in fact illegal where he is from, Jim either supplied these cats to the man or gave him the "hook up", telling him to say if anyone asks they are Savannahs, which I'm not sure but I believe those are illegal there too, but anyone with any knowledge of these cats knows most Savannahs lose the yellowish coat and well defined spots in favor of a more brownish main coat and slightly less defined spots due to the change in the contrast of colors.  Here are pictures to Illustrate the difference:

F1 Savannah

Serval

And yet he teases myself and others with the impossible notion that if we deal with him for 500 to 1000 hours we could have animals like these of our own. Having at one time stated that if I had the proper cage he'd allow me to take my favorite cat home at the time, a thing I would have loved (and still would love if he wants to make this "go away") of course such an act would not be legal But I'd settle for being allowed to see it at all.

Of course it's fair to say it I wanted to make up things I'd state how he abuses animals and other false statements, but I believe the truth works just as fine for my intended goal. Letting the truth be known whether or not people intend to believe it. For the most part the animals are healthy and somewhat happy, but there is the occasion that it has become deadly and injurious for humans and animals to be in this facility.

I could go on for days talking about the center in both good and bad ways. But clearly I've droned on for too long. If you wish to ask a question, feel free to comment on this blog and I will answer it without the "Bear Creek" spin.

Have a lovely day,

Stephen Swift


Update: Please read part two of this blog here: 
Up Bear Creek Without a Paddle Part 2