Backstory on Big Cat Blackfish to Lou Ferrante This is inspiration for why we need a Big Cat version of Blackfish: Blackfish has huge impact on animal abuse: http://www.animals24-7.org/2014/12/13/sinking-seaworld-shoves-311-staff-overboard/ When most people who are pitching such a show call me, these are the questions and answers we typically give. Are there lots of people still trying to buy tigers as pets? The problem isn't that there are a lot of people out looking to buy a tiger. The problem is that there are a lot of people who will pay to pet a tiger cub, or to swim with a tiger cub, or to have their photo with a tiger cub, or to see cute cubs on display. They don't stay small and cute very long, so the abusers are constantly breeding or buying more, but taking care of an adult tiger costs $10,000 a year, so the abusers will often give away their juvenile cubs, who have outgrown their cute stage, to unwitting people who think that just because they can walk that cub on a leash today, they will still be able to do it a year from now. When the cat is about a year old and over 200 lbs is when those owners often start looking for a sanctuary. Sadly there are pseudo sanctuaries, like Tiger Haven, in my opinion, that has 300 tigers, who let the same bad actors breed cubs each year and then dump them straight onto them. When we take a big cat we make the owners sign a contract that they will never possess another wild cat, but most sanctuaries don't take that precaution and are just enabling bad behavior. Where do they buy them? We think two of the biggest suppliers of cubs are GW Zoo in Wynnewood, OK and T.I.G.E.R.S. in Myrtle Beach, SC, but it is nearly impossible to prove. USDA asks for a census, but it is up to the owner to say how many cats they have, because no one really counts them. How often people are calling you because they want to get rid of a big cat? 2003 was the worst year. We had to turn away 312 big cats, but that same year a federal law passed that made it illegal to sell a big cat, over state lines, as a pet. Since then nearly a dozen states have passed bans or possession of big cats so the number we have to turn away is decreasing. Now the largest problem are all of these pseudo sanctuaries that fail after taking in more big wild animals than they can afford. In this documentary we'd also like to show how big cats are Abused by owners in order to force them to perform. You are never going to see this because training is done behind closed doors and the abusers know that the public would put an end to their trade if they ever saw what they really do to train big cats. You can see the tricks they use to make the cats think that they have the electric prods in the circus ring though. These prods are usually a couple feet long and they wrap them with ribbons, so the cat knows that if they don't do the trick, they will zap the cat and sometimes even shove the hot-shot down the cat's throat. In the circus ring they carry a stick, wrapped with the same kinds of ribbons, usually in a back pocket, and whips in their hands, to make the cat think they still have the cruel instrument of torture on them. Attached is a list of the tigers we know of, but it doesn't include pet tigers, because no one counts them. Tim Gress, the man we got Kali Tiger from in GA said he will talk to someone on camera for a documentary about the wildlife trade. He knows a lot of the bad guys very well. Another very important topic to cover are the lies the animal abusers tell that really confuse and mislead the public. The worst seems to be that they say they are breeding, allowing contact and exhibiting big cats in order to "save the species." This page addresses the lies they tell: http://bigcatrescue.org/abuse-issues/issues/pet-cubs/ How lions end up in tacos in America: http://bigcatrescue.org/lions-on-the-menu-send-a-letter-now/ I have an AdvoCat who is updating the cubs who have been born and exploited since 2011. The big li