Hey, all you cool cats and kittens. Carole and Howard Baskin will be selling the land from their Florida-based Big Cat Rescue operation. A rescue made famous/infamous by the 2020 Netflix docuseries, “Tiger King.”
According to the rescue’s website, they will be moving most of their big cats to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an accredited sanctuary based in Arkansas, also confirmed this via a Facebook post. The refuge will soon be taking in 35 cats from closing shelters. After the cats are rehomed the Baskins plan to sell the 67-acre (27-hectare) property.
“We have always said that our goal was to ‘put ourselves out of business,’ meaning that there would be no big cats in need of rescue and no need for the sanctuary to exist,” Baskin said.
Recently passed federal laws and overall changes to industry practices have seriously reduced the “cub petting” industry. These operations, mostly seen in roadside zoos and circuses, offer tourists the chance to pet (an often heavily sedated) cub. Unfortunately, when a cub gets too big to be part of these attractions they are often euthanized. This is where places like Big Cat Rescue step in to provide these animals with a forever home since they cannot be released into the wild.
Fortunately, these newly passed laws seem to be working since we are already seeing fewer big cats in need. Big Cat Rescue’s population has dropped from 100 to 41 cats which caused the cost per cat to more than double. Making the Rescue “an increasingly inefficient use of donor funds per cat to operate a facility like ours,” Howard said.
Big Cat Rescue, based near Tampa, Florida was thrust into the spotlight when Netflix’s “Tiger King” took the nation by storm in the early days of the pandemic lockdowns. Most of the attention focused on accusations that Carole Baskin had killed her late husband. Accusations that she continues to deny.
The docuseries also featured a gun-toting Oklahoma zookeeper, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as “Joe Exotic.” After the series called attention to the horrific treatment of these big cats Maldonado-Passage, ended up being sentenced to 22 years in prison, for killing five tigers and plotting to have Carole Baskin murdered. He was later sentenced to 21 years after a federal appeals court ruled that the prison term should be shortened.
