Captivity can break their bodies but not their spirit. Jade is the most playful of the tigers rescued as ADI emptied Guatemala’s circuses following the country’s ban on animal acts, but her distinctive walk has a dark origin. Jade has a ‘goosestep’ walk due to spondylitis – a type of arthritis which causes inflammation in the joints and ligaments of the spine. In captive big cats, this is primarily caused by poor nutrition. At the circus where we rescued Jade, we found drums full of chicken feet, which we were told was food for the cats. Jade and sister Luna were 18 months old when we rescued them and the damage had already been done. Their younger sisters from another litter, Sun and Moon, were rescued at the same time but were just six months old, so the damage had not started. Sun and Moon are now significantly larger than Luna and Jade, and walk and run normally because they grew from an earlier age with a proper diet with added vitamin and mineral supplements. Max and Stripes were rescued from the circus at 6 months old, many months after Luna and Jade. They have also benefited from a nutritious diet with added supplements since they were cubs, and as a result, they are much larger than their parents and luckily, no sign of spondylitis.

Although she is the tiniest among her sisters (the ‘Spice Girls’), she is the most spirited, and always gets her sisters Luna, Moon and Sun playing. If you watched Sunday’s live from the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary and wondered who that was hurtling around in the background at times… That was Jade.