Cynthia Gamble: filmmaker, animal lover
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She graduated from Whetstone High School in 1971 and attended Kent
State University. She worked in New York on the set of "All My
Children.", and traveled with ABC sports doing camera work. Edited film
for the PBS series with Marty Stouffer's "Wild America". A short stint
with the Jacques Cousteau Society followed. After marrying Steve
Kroschel, cinematographer, they started raising wolverines and filmed
them in a movie, "One Paw". Showed animals on the Johnny Carson Show,
Good Morning American and many others. She started the "Center for
Endangered Cats" with Craig Warren. They took the cats to Renaissance
Festivals, schools, Sports Shows, educating people about why they are
endangered. Along with film work, she wrote the text for the book
"Leopards". She was one hell of a karaoke singer. Cindy is survived by
her son, Garrett; her mother, Phyllis; sister, Patti Crossmon; brother,
Gary (Kem) and David; also several nieces and nephews and a
great-nephew. A Memorial Service will be held at Summit United
Methodist Church on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 2 p.m. with calling
hours one hour prior. Burial services will be at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday
with Rev. Linda Wallick officiating at LaRue Cemetery, in LaRue, Ohio.
In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Columbus Zoo, 9990
Riverside Drive, Columbus, OH 43065. Arrangements completed by
WEIR-AREND FUNERAL HOME, phone 268-3593.
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burn on her land in rural Pine County on Thursday afternoon, she was
nowhere to be found.
Feeling uneasy, Wolter went to one of her barns.
Inside, a 500-pound Bengal tiger lunged toward him, hanging on the wire
fence that separated them.
"The tiger was just really going ballistic," said Wolter. "It scared me
away several times because it would leap up on the cage."
Moments later, Wolter saw Gamble lying inside the cage. Emergency
workers who responded to Wolter's call for help found her dead.
"She was so safety-conscious, and somehow got into this cage with the
tiger who was known to be a really mean tiger," said Wolter, who has
known Gamble for several years. "Something went wrong, and I suppose
we'll never know."
Gamble, 52, was known nationally as a wildlife film editor, writer and
artist. She edited films for Jacques Cousteau, appeared with wolverines
on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, and helped write and produce
documentaries for the Discovery Channel and BBC, said her former
husband, Steve Kroschel.
Until about two years ago, Gamble operated the Center for Endangered
Cats on her land about 16 miles east of Sandstone with her
then-partner, Craig Wagner.
"We're all completely devastated by the news," said Tammy Motif, a
spokeswoman for Wagner.
Gamble also was involved in television and feature films, according to
a biographical note listed in her book "Leopards: Natural History and
Conservation," published in 2004 by Voyageur Press in Stillwater.
Gamble is listed as an animal coordinator for "Vertical Limit," a major
motion picture released in 2000 that used snow leopards. She and
Kroschel, to whom she was married for three years in the early 1990s,
also collaborated on "Running Free," a 1994 movie about a boy who
befriends an abandoned wolverine cub in Alaska.
"Cyndi was multitalented," Kroschel said from his Alaska home. "She was
artistic, she could draw, she could sing, she was a film editor, the
best."
Wolter, a retired forester who lives in Cloverdale, Minn., said he sang
karaoke with Gamble: "She could do Patsy Cline better than Patsy
Cline."
She called him Thursday morning to ask that he help with the burn, but
when he arrived he found the gate to the compound locked. He met her
14-year-old son, Garrett, who had just gotten home from school.
They found her body inside a large barn where at least two of Gamble's
tigers were caged, Wolter said. He thinks that a trapdoor that was
supposed to keep the tiger in an outside kennel while Gamble cleaned
the inside cage somehow malfunctioned.
"The inherent danger in working with some of these animals is pretty
clear," said Minnesota Zoo Director Lee Ehmke, who opposes private
ownership of tigers. "Was it an accident or a mistake, or was it
negligence? It gets back down to the question of who should have these
animals in their possession."
The Ramsey County medical examiner's office will do an autopsy.
"She loved those big cats," Wolter said. "She really had an affinity
for animals."
Tammy Quist, executive director at the Wildcat Sanctuary, which just
weeks ago moved within 5 miles of Gamble's property, said authorities
called her to come to the scene with a tranquilizer gun.
No known complaints
Pine County Chief Deputy Steve Ovick said Gamble had kept tigers on her
property for at least a decade and they had never caused problems that
required a response from the Sheriff's Office. At the time of her
death, Gamble had two other tigers in fenced enclosures. Friends are
caring for those animals, he said.
"The timing of this thing is unbelievable, with the sanctuary opening
up just a stone's throw away," he said. "I've got a strong feeling this
is going to stimulate a lot of discussion at the County Board about how
they regulate these facilities in our county. People either love these
big cats or they hate them."
Gamble founded the for-profit Center for Endangered Cats in 1992. She
filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2004. She held an animal exhibitor's
license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has no record of
previous investigations of her operation, said department spokesman Jim
Rogers.
Quist said the center took tigers to renaissance festivals, parks,
schools and even a recent auto show in Minneapolis. The large cats did
routines while on leashes, she said.
In 1996, a black leopard from Gamble's center scratched and bit a
student after a presentation at Oak Grove Junior High School in
Bloomington. Authorities said the child was not supposed to be
backstage, where the attack occurred.
"The day will come when we'll ban the ownership of tigers and lions,"
said state Sen. Don Betzold, DFL-Fridley, who this session is trying to
add penalties to a law he sponsored last year requiring private owners
of so-called exotic animals to register them. "If you slip up, it could
cost you your life."
However, Kroschel said Friday that he hoped his ex-wife's death doesn't
lead to a backlash against private owners of such large animals. He
said she was an excellent teacher who helped people understand more
about wildlife than they would learn in zoos.
Quist said she is braced for Pine County resistance to her sanctuary, a
refuge for abandoned wildcats, in the wake of Gamble's death.
"Something like this shows why we need sanctuaries for these animals,"
Quist said. In the past year, she said, her sanctuary has removed 33
tigers from Minnesota homes.
A veterinarian killed the tiger that attacked Gamble. The body was sent
to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Hospital for examination.
Pine County has no ordinances regulating the ownership of wildcats.
"I think the attack might create a little more public scrutiny now,
just to be sure safeguards are in place," Roger Nelson, vice chairman
of the Pine County Board, said Friday. "There are hazards in any
occupation. But in this case, there was no danger to the public, which
is our big concern."
Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.