PENNS CREEK, Pa. (WJAC) — Terry Mattive freely admits he talks to the dozens of lions, tigers and other animals at his T&D's Cats of the World, about a half hour outside of Centre County.
In fact, Mattive, a Navy veteran and retired state trooper, just loves to talk.
Ask him how he got started here, and he'll tell you about first helping police in Maryland, going undercover and busting an illegal operation selling cougars.
Then police in Delaware called, "and they said they got my name from Maryland, and I thought (it was a) one time (request). Then New Jersey called and New York called and it snowballed from there,” Mattive said.
So T&D's was opened, but not as a zoo. It's open only about 60 to 70 days a year, and visitors have to behave.
“We probably throw out six or seven visitors a year for misbehaving with the animals,” Mattive said.
There's no selling of the animals; it’s a true rescue. There's no breeding of animals, either.
“If I started putting them in pairs and they have babies that everyone wants to see, and I run out of room, then I get a call to take two tigers, and I can’t take them and they could die, because of my stupidity,” Mattive said.
All of the animals at some point were unwanted, mistreated or illegally owned.
“If I need to, I'll build another shelter pen,” Mattive added. “Many times, I'm their last resort. If I can’t take them, they'll die.”
He does say no to taking other animals once in a while.
“It was for a rhinoceros, which, good God, would’ve been great,” he said. “But what happens if it gets loose? Who would stop it? It would be like a runaway train.”
On the day 6 News recently stopped by T&D's, there was a rare sight. Surgery was being performed on a tiger named Jade.
She’s a white Siberian who needed her claws clipped, because they were basically ingrown.
“Jade, because she is basically lazy, and this happens to big cats once in a while, had this problem,” Mattive said.
The surgeon, who went to work after Jade was tranquilized, was Dr. Fred Metzger of State College.
“I've clipped plenty of nails on cats, but nothing like this for a tiger,” Metzger said.
With the surgical procedure nearly complete, sugar is used to begin the healing process.
“It does help with the healing because of the specific chemical properties of sugar,” Metzger said.
Jade is now up and about, and doing fine.
Recently, more stories are being told about animal rescues being overrun, with the owners having more animals than they can handle.
The SPCA, or others -- such as T&D's -- are asked to help.
Mattive says people can mean well, but seem to lack common sense when it comes to animal care.
“Everyone is born with common sense, but it’s, like, ... they say, 'I’ll save these two,' and then 'these two' and the next thing you know, they have 70 or 80 cats and you can’t afford to feed the first four you had, maybe,” Mattive said.
Mattive knows full well about the money and resources needed to run an animal shelter. The big cats at T&D's usually eat 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of meat every month.
Mattive operates T&D's with his two children, who are both Penn State grads.
Funding for T&D's comes solely from Mattive's pension, mainly from his time in the state police, along with money collected through private donations.
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