California’s latest victim of a deadly rattlesnake bite has emerged, and it’s not a human but a black jaguar living in a Central Valley sanctuary, underscoring the dangers of rattlesnake poisonings this year.
On Monday morning, Samba was rushed from her home at Project Survival’s Cat Haven in Dunlap to the Fresno Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center, about 44 miles west, after suffering two rattlesnake bites.
Dale Anderson, founder of the 93-acre exotic cat haven, told The Times the sanctuary staff members start their day at 7 a.m. to tend to the animals.
Around 10 a.m., a staff member noticed that Samba wasn’t leaving her den.
“Then she noticed [Samba’s] left paw was twice the size of her right one and the swelling went all the way up her leg,” Anderson said.
In the veterinary emergency room, Samba was anesthetized, and the medical staff was then able to draw her blood. “The echinocytes (a type of red blood cell) in her blood were 100% which means she got a real big dose of venom,” Anderson said.
Samba received two doses of anti-venom, which brought the level of rattlesnake venom in her blood down to nearly zero, “but then you have to go into the recovery process of trying to get her woken up and out of anesthesia,” Anderson said. “That’s where we lost her.”
The fallout was largely documented on the cat haven’s Facebook page with posts of veterinary and haven staff working together to administer heart compressions on the large black cat lying on the medical table.
Samba died surrounded by the veterinary staff and her sanctuary family, including Anderson.
The sanctuary sent Samba’s body to the UC Davis California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory for a necropsy to understand if she had any underlying health issues or complications that contributed to her death.
This year, there have been 277 rattlesnake bites reported in California, along with multiple deaths. In a typical rattlesnake season, which lasts from April to October, there’s an average of 290 to 390 bites annually statewide, according to the California Poison Control System.
The cat haven has been operating for 28 years and houses 39 different cat species, including cheetahs, bobcats, clouded leopards, cougars and snow leopards. Anderson said he’s observed more rattlesnakes on the sanctuary property in the last several years, especially this year.
In the last eight years, Anderson said there have been at least six cats who suffered rattlesnake bites, and every feline has recovered once they received anti-venom treatment.
Experts say unseasonably warm weather patterns at the beginning of the year have driven rattlesnakes out of their winter retreats ahead of rattlesnake season in search of food and mates. The odds of run-ins between rattlesnakes and humans — as well as other animals — increased this year due to warmer temperatures, which encouraged outdoor activity for both serpents and humans.
Anderson said he appreciated the veterinary staff who tended to Samba, the feline he describes as one of his kids. Samba and her sister Rose were born at the sanctuary 14 years ago.
The sanctuary’s mission is to conserve and protect the world’s wild cat populations and, sometimes, in partnership with zoos and other humane wildlife facilities, it breeds certain species.
“She was a very sweet cat personality-wise,” he said. “She was always very calm and very pleasant.”