My presentation to the FWC drew deafening applause from the crowd. This was the testimony I offered to the Florida Wildlife Commission in an unsuccessful effort to protect the Florida Panther. My name is Carole Baskin and I am the founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue. I urge you to discard your plan to undermine the Florida Panther recovery program and instead to fully support your partners who are working to protect our state's most treasured icon. I've been coming to these meetings for 20 years urging you to ban the private possession of wild animals. I participate, at considerable peril to my family and self by those who seek to use wild animals, because I love this state. Florida is the top travel destination in the world, generating in excess of 67 billion dollars annually. Tourists come here to enjoy our sunshine, beaches and natural resources so it is in the best interest of the state to protect our wildlife. It is as simple as supply and demand. For the Florida Panther to thrive they have to eat. The amount of land necessary to support a viable population is dependant directly upon the availability of food. No person in Florida HAS to hunt to survive, but the Florida Panther does. The very first thing the Florida Wildlife Commission should do is prohibit hunting in existing and potential panther habitat. The very next thing that needs to be done is to ban the private possession of wild animals in Florida. Failure to do so has wreaked havoc on our state. Escaped and released pythons have sucked virtually every other living species out of the Everglades. Opening a hunt on them, while exotic animals are still openly traded in Florida is ridiculous, at best. If you just took those two steps, the Florida Panther would begin to recover, as would all other wildlife that would benefit from the protection given the panther. If hikers didn't have to worry about being shot by hunters you could charge for access to natural areas that would far exceed what you can make by selling permits to maim and kill our state's wildlife. Only 3% of our population are hunters, and yet they seem to be the only stakeholders that matter to this commission. In all the meetings I've attended, it has been loathsome to have to listen to this commission, spend the vast majority of their time, trying to devise more ways, to sell more permits, to maim and kill more animals. If you went home today to find that your child tortured and killed the family pet, you would probably worry that they are on their way to becoming a criminal. And yet, when adults do it under the banner of "hunting" or worse "sportsmanship" it has some perverse sanctity...at least in the minds of other hunters. Cecil the lion's death raised awareness about the entire hunting industry and the public outcry makes it clear that it is time to set aside the brutality and work together to protect our wildlife. I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/ I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet. You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.