Kowiachobee Deepens Human-Animal Connections 

Humans and animals have a unique opportunity to directly connect with each other at Kowiachobee Animal Preserve in Golden Gate Estates. The Preserve offers tours every day at 10:00 AM by reservation and hosts events, as it did recently for a birthday fundraiser.  

Lucy Patterson, seven, hosted her birthday party with about 50 friends and family members at the Preserve at a particularly poignant time in the Preserve’s history, with the recent sudden death of one of the two white Bengal tiger twins, Tanju. Tanju died earlier in June following a dental surgery.  

As part of her birthday present, Preserve founders John and Grace Slaby presented Lucy with a bearded dragon, named Dennis.  

“He ate raspberries and looks like he has lipstick,” Patterson said.  

It’s not the first time Patterson held a fundraiser; she also had a lemonade stand that led to the purchase of a huge utility wagon. 
“We put bedazzles on it and called it Lucy One,” said John Slaby, as he stood in the heat of the Preserve near dwarf Nigerian goats with peacock chicks and adults roaming around his feet.  

Also visiting for the day was Mary Clawson, 29, of Utah, who has been in Bonita Springs for several weeks.  

“I’ve just always had a thing for animals. A big part of it is my autism. Humans are tricky to figure out,” Clawson said.  

Animals are simple. “Keep me fed, keep me sheltered, keep me watered, and I’ll return that with all the love of the world,” she said.  

Marmoset, turtles, donkeys, tigers, lion, alligators, numerous bird species - all were a joy for nearly 50 children and numerous others who visited during the birthday fundraising event at and for Kowiachobee.  

Their Kowiachobeet-shirts appropriately read “Change starts with me.”  

Though the shirts were designed by Slaby for children, the meaning and reminder is as needed for adults, who often seek to change others rather than themselves, Slaby acknowledged.  

Kowiachobee at times finds themselves in the center of animal rights controversies - mostly because he has big cats - the white tiger, Sabeena the orange tiger, a lion named Shaumbay, and others over the years, including a panther. 

“Animals need our help, whether in the wild, in captivity, in rescues or sanctuaries,” Slaby said.  

“This means more to me than anything because it helps me get a message out,” he said.  

Slaby has visited almost every school in the Collier County Public School District, as well as private schools and other community locations and events, sharing opportunities to bond with animals and educate.  

“With children, they just want to take care of anything and everything. They aren’t into politics. They just see animals and want to help them,” Slaby said.  

“Animals need love, need care, need respect,” he said.  

“Never completely lose your childhood, it’s the worst thing you can do,” said Slaby, whose passion for animals began in childhood. He was always attracted to a black panther, which is really a melanistic variant of the leopard and jaguar, he said. It’s fitting then that Kowiachobee is translated from local indigenous language to English to mean “big cat,” with a panther clan as part of the local tribes and with black panthers given as a special gift offered to revered indigenous people, according to local legends. 

After the passing of the Bengal white tiger Tanju, his twin brother Mali, 11, was getting a bit depressed, Slaby said. So, they introduced Mali to Sabeena, the female orange tiger. Whether the two could breed is a question for the future.  

“We didn’t put them together, yet. We just introduced them,” Slaby said. 

People who can’t care for their pets or wildlife often come to Kowiachobee.  

“People don’t want it to die, but they don’t support the place that’s keeping it alive,” Slaby said. “If you want to get real, get real about it,” he added.  

Groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) think they are doing the right thing. But so, too, do the Slabys and people like the Pattersons and Clawsons, as well as thousands of other Kowiachobee visitors, who deepen their bonds with animals through opportunities to build relationships with them at Kowiachobee.  

Visit FB.com/Kowiachobee to make a reservation.