Thank goodness my enemies are such weirdos!

 

Photo is unrelated, other than it was at the ABC studio where Jamie and I talked about the upcoming Fur Ball gala for Big Cat Rescue.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gun-toting-zoo-owners-in-showdown-with-peta-and-the-feds-over-baby-tigers

 

Gun-Toting Zoo Owners in Showdown With PETA and the Feds Over Baby Tigers

 

A Florida zoo featured on ‘Good Morning America’ for its tiger-cub ‘swims’ is facing lawsuits from PETA and state and federal agencies over its charity and treatment of the cats.

 

Kate Briquelet

12.26.17 12:00 AM ET

 

One day in October, Randy Stearns walked out to a Florida campfire, dressed in a fringed leather top like a modern-day Davy Crockett. “Hello, friends, Randy the Tiger Man,” the animal trainer greeted the camera, which was set between a teepee and totem pole out in the woods near his family’s Dade City zoo.

 

“You can’t believe a damn thing you see on the news,” the 34-year-old declared in the filmed fireside chat posted on Facebook. “Just look at me. I’m the newest Charlie Sheen. Every time you go on, there’s something on about us, the park…”

 

Then Stearns took aim at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)—a constant topic in The Tiger Man’s online videos. “Kind of like Rambo, they drew first blood,” Stearns said. “We had to go out there, defend ourselves.”

 

Just two months before, the wannabe Jack Hanna stood guard at the zoo’s gates with a holstered weapon, joining supporters flaunting neon “PETA Kills” T-shirts. They were protesting, and allegedly delaying, a court-ordered inspection of the private, unaccredited zoo’s collection of adult and baby tigers.

 

Stearns and his parents run Dade City’s Wild Things (DCWT), a 22-acre zoo about 44 miles northeast of Tampa. The attraction has more than 300 animals: jaguars, lions, bears, lemurs, macaques, porcupines, bearded dragons, and other reptiles.

 

But it’s known for baby tigers, deployed for photo-ops and swim sessions in the zoo’s chlorinated pool. In years past, the cubs appeared on Good Morning America and Fox & Friends for the seemingly adorable gimmick.

 

Yet behind the footage, there’s allegedly a darker side to the tiger business, according to animal-welfare advocates—one that prematurely rips cubs away from their mothers and forces them into stressful encounters with humans for profit.

 

According to PETA, Dade City’s Wild Things is contributing to a captive tiger overpopulation crisis by continually breeding them for photo-ops and ticket sales. Once cubs grow too large for customer interactions, they’re left to languish for the rest of their days in cages, or sold off to other roadside attractions and collectors of exotic animals, PETA says.

 

The big cats are at the center of separate lawsuits brought by PETA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which respectively allege the zoo violated the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act over its handling of the tigers.

 

The zoo also faces a state lawsuit for allegedly accepting donations while not registered as a nonprofit. Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services claims the zoo used hundreds of thousands in charity funds to foot the bills for Randy Stearns’ nuptials and the bankruptcy payments of his mother, Kathy.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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