The Big Cats of Serenity Springs;
A Wild Kingdom on the Plains

We roll along the unpaved highway as it rises and dips like a lazy rollercoaster on the plains east of Colorado Springs. At the last crest, the refuge appears at the bottom of the hill, a glinting compound of chain-link fences where the Big Cats of Serenity Springs live—more than 120 of them.

A wild kingdom in a rural oasis, Big Cats of Serenity Springs is so named to reflect the peacefulness of the retreat where the magnificent cats will spend the rest of their lives.

It’s said that a lion’s roar can be heard for five miles, but today there is no sound as we approach the entrance. Julie Walker, significant companion and all-around assistant to owner and director, Nick Sculac, waits at the gate to take us on a private tour of the facility. We will visit 40 cats, representative of the lions, tigers, ligers (born of a female tiger and male lion), leopards, servals, lynx and caracals who inhabit the facility. They are the most socialized of the feline residents.

Sculac emphasizes that BCSS is not a breeding facility. The cats that come there will stay forever but not reproduce.

Founded in 1993 by Sculac and his wife, Karen, who died in March of 2006, the refuge is the state’s only big cat facility to be granted a State of Colorado Zoological License. It covers 17 acres with an adjoining 40 acres available for expansion. Will they ever run out of space? “No, I will run out of time before space,” he says. “We really don’t want to have more than 200 cats, and we have plenty of room for that.”

In the beginning, Sculac planned to raise and train big cats for the movies. But soon he began getting calls to take in cats in need of care. As he discovered the terrible treatment and appalling conditions that so many suffered, he changed his plans. Most of the cats at BCSS were rescued from illegal breeding operations, private facilities, individual owners who thought they would make nice pets, roadside zoos, and show biz. Many arrived sick, undernourished or mistreated.

This is an excerpt from the January/February 2008 issue of Colorado Springs Style magazine.
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