This is Bovey, a Bobcat Hybrid who is the treasured companion of Steve and Denise Strong here in Lake Havasu City.

He is a very unique animal, and his story is featured on the Strongs' website, www.denisestrong.com

Bobcats have been the most heavily harvested and traded member of the cat family for the past 20 years. In the 1970’s CITES went into effect and the pelts of the Appendix 1 cats became illegal and unobtainable, the price offered to trappers for a Bobcat pelt went from $20.00 to $600.00. This also caused the number of Bobcats killed annually to rise from 10,000 to over 90,000 by the 1980s. Thankfully, the interest in Bobcat pelts today is declining due to international awareness of the cruel methods of trapping and prohibitions against trade of animals trapped using these methods. They also battle the ever growing human population and its destruction of all habitat in its path. According to 2001 statistics provided from actual sales of hunting permits, over 40,000 bobcats are still being killed each year.  This figure does not include all the bobcats killed by hunters who do not buy licenses nor report their kills.  Less than 6% of our population are hunters but they kill over 100 million animals each year for sport.

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