PAWS Conference in California

Today we visit Ark 2000 which is the 2300 ac elephant sanctuary started by Pat Derby and Ed Stewart.  The weather is spectacular and I’m with my beloved.  It will be a good day.

 

The news is all focused on the protests that are going on for the fourth night in a row against the Trump presidency.  Such a waste of time.  It’s done.  Now we need to figure out how to make it work.

 

We had dinner with the women from the International Fund for Animal Welfare last night.  Carson Barylak is our lobbyist for the bill that they employ and the mission was to make sure her new boss, Beth, allocates enough of Carson’s time to the bill that it passes.  She said that it’s the only IFAW bill that is likely to pass, as everything else they will be doing is to try and not lose ground under this upcoming anti environment government.

 

Meredith Whitley is their current person in charge of coordinating big cat rescues, but she dropped the bomb at the table last night that her husband was promoted in his coast guard position in Germany.  She didn’t say it, but sounds like she’s not long for this job if she wants to maintain her marriage.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Angel’s Camp CA.  Yesterday it was bears and today it’s all about elephants.

The captive wildlife conference, hosted by PAWS, has been interesting.  Day one was all about big cat issues.  Howie gave an excellent presentation and then both of us served on a panel with Carney Anne Nasser from the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Bill Nimmo from Tigers in America, and others.

 

I’m thankful that our part went first, so we can just relax and enjoy the rest of the conference.  I appreciate that they have provided wonderful vegan fare, which is becoming more and more standard at animal protection events.  I find the breaks and ice breakers to be the best networking and am grateful to be part of such a wonderful group of people who are working to end the abuse.

 

We were each asked, at the end of our panel to summarize what was important to us.  I asked for a show of hands as to how many in the group of 200+ were involved in sanctuary work.  About 70 percent raised their hands.

 

I told them how we educate people for an hour and a half about the plight of the cats and then hold their hand through the process of calling their member of Congress to ask that they champion the Big Cat Public Safety Act.  I then said, if all the people who raised their hands would do the same thing, we could fix this problem.

 

I then suggested that if the people who didn’t raise their hands were donors, that they demand their charity do the real work of ending the trade at its root.

 

As I came off stage an elderly little wisp of a lady came up and took both of my hands in hers.  With tears in her eyes she said that she’d traveled from Chicago to Tampa just to see Big Cat Rescue.  She said her older brother drove her from his home in FL to see us and that their 2 hour tour had been life changing.  She just kept saying, over and over how much she loved what we are doing and how much she appreciated our efforts.  I was deeply touched.

 

The same day LaWanna had forwarded a Facebook message to us that said:

 

“I want to thank you for educating me about the real issue with the beautiful big cats.  I have a sincere and deep love for them,  tigers especially.

 

Being naive to the facts,  I am guilty of contributing to the problem.  I recently visited Browns Oakridge Zoo in Illinois.  I believed that I was fulfilling my dream of holding a baby white tiger.

 

After my visit there,  I saw your Facebook page.  I have been following you every day and I am learning so much about the problems.  I feel so bad for the cats at the Browns Oakridge Zoo.  They are breeding these beautiful creatures,  and stealing them away from their mothers so that naive people like myself will come to take pictures with them. I was horrified at the tiny cages (jail cells) that they are born to spend their lives in. As I stood outside of the cages and looked into the eyes of the cats, I could see and sense their utter sorrow. I pray that God and the cats will forgive me for my contribution to the problem.

 

Thank you for giving me a way to help these cats. I have followed your link to your petition and have asked my Senator and Representatives to champion your bill.

 

I live in Salt Lake City, UT.  I hope to be able to make my way to Florida  to visit your rescue some day and to personally thank you for all that you are doing for the beautiful big cats.

 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  - Tina B

 

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.  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 tha

I met the ghost of the Hotel Leger and Saloon.

Every place has its ghosts.  In this respect, Mokelumne Hill has not resisted keeping up with the Joneses. And all of the ghosts, it seems, are located at the Hotel Leger.

 

“The ghost of Leger, who was assassinated in the Hotel in 1879, has been seen in the saloon and in many of the Hotel’s thirteen rooms, which are furnished in period antiques. Other ghosts in the Hotel include the Lady in White in Room 2 and a young boy in Room 3.”

 

An item in the Calaveras Chronicle casts doubt on the authenticity of Leger’s assassination. George Leger died March 13, 1879, but not from a bullet fired into him: “Mokelumne Hill mourns. The public has suffered an irreparable loss and the entire community joins in an universal lamentation. George W. Leger, one of our oldest and most esteemed fellow townsmen, one of the noblest men that ever breathed the air of heaven, is dead. He expired Thursday afternoon after a short illness of two days, regretted and mourned by all who will read this paper. We frankly admit that we are not adequate to the task of writing a fitting tribute to the memory of the deceased.”

George Leger’s grave is located in the Protestant cemetery.

 

More recent, and possibly more authentic, claims of ghostly sightings describe George Leger wandering. Room 7, a woman crying for her child.

 

In Room 2, and a child playing by the fireplace in Room 3. A former owner of the Hotel Leger describes seeing smoke and fire in the bar area multiple times when no fire was present upon closer inspection.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Helping Animal Rescue Workers Overcome Compassion Fatigue

I’m telling myself that everything happens for a reason, but have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that we are heading into some very bad times for the planet and all of her inhabitants.

 

Donald Trump won the electoral college last night and is our future President, although Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by less than one million votes.  The stock markets are tanking as I type in fear of what this means for the economy, which is ironic, as the many voters certainly thought that Trump, as a business man, outsider to politics, would be good for American business.

 

I’m predicting he’ll be impeached pretty early on and Mike Pence is a lot better choice as President, so maybe that’s how we will survive this idiocy.

 

The Republicans retained both the House and Senate, so that doesn’t bode well for our bill to ban the private possession of big cats, but the best bill to ever pass for wild cats did happen under similar circumstances, so maybe…

 

Meanwhile it makes me ever more determined to get it passed this year.

 

I’m thankful it’s over, regardless of the outcome.  I think there are a lot of good things that can come from such a shakeup.  I am a Republican, and I can appreciate closing our borders to illegal immigrants, ending the fair trade agreements that have sent jobs outside our borders, and taking a hard stand against terrorists.

 

Yesterday I spend almost my entire day putting together a comprehensive presentation, with audio, video and concrete steps people can take to cope with the loss of our cat friends and posted it as a page on BigCat.me.  I plan to add it to ZooCollege.com today and sent it to IFAW and GFAS to share with other sanctuary and animal care workers.

 

An email from my mother this morning:  Sorry that you are disappointed that Hillary didn't win but hope you know that Trump's win made me the happiest that I have been in months!!!!  Love,  Mom

 

On Facebook Patty Finch was posting an image from 1959 of her aunt who had been one of the suffragettes, 96 years ago, who fought for women to have the right to vote.  This was what followed:

 

Patty Finch Dewey: It wasn't until 1993 that women could wear pants on the US Senate floor.

 

Carole Baskin: Seriously? In 1973 I was the leader of a campaign at my little private school to allow that girls wear pants to school. I didn't even own a pair of pants at the time. When we won I went out and bought a pair of green plain slacks that I carried with me for decades as a reminder that one person can change things.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

There is no way I can express the tension in the air today, Election Day.

I can say that I will be greatly relieved when it is over because I just can’t stand one more negative ad campaign, or one more snarky remark from the pundits, although the latter will surely continue to a lesser degree.

 

Regardless of which of these lesser two evils wins, I know it won’t be over, as they are both powerful enough and bull headed enough to drag it out for months, but I am sensing there will be some relief and I’m ready for it.

 

Last night Chelsea arranged for our lecture speaker to be Samantha Tubbs Crews, a therapist who talked on Compassion Fatigue.  I didn’t think she was a very good speaker and she didn’t appear to me as being a good therapist, but by the second slide everyone in the room was crying.  By about the time she was through defining what Compassion Fatigue was, the bawling was so obvious throughout the packed room that I went and got napkins and passing them down the rows like hand outs.

 

Jamie couldn’t even stay in the room.  She listened from around the wall so no one could see her losing it.  I don’t know how to help her through this.  I’ve seen this topic presented three times and Jamie has always been stuck in the Angry phase and nothing I say, do nor suggest helps her.  I just seem to make her angrier.

 

I need to help her and all of our volunteers find ways of coping with the losses of so many cats.  We are losing about 24 a year…2 a month…so no one can finish the grieving process before they are hit with another huge loss.  Dr. Crews reported that:

 

A recent study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reveals that animal rescue workers have a suicide rate of 5.3 in 1 million workers. This is the highest suicide rate among American workers; a rate shared only by firefighters and police officers. The national suicide average for American workers is 1.5 per 1 million.  Read more at http://stories.barkpost.com/compassion-fatigue-animal-workers/

 

A small step I can take is to create a Compassion Fatigue section to our BigCat.me site and ZooCollege.com Just knowing the signs is a big step for most people.  I’ll keep looking for ways to actually assist them in coping too.

 

Mediation was one such coping mechanism and I’m thankful to have found Lilian Eden’s guided meditations on YouTube.  Her voice soothes me and helps me get to a place, outside my body, where there are infinite possibilities.

 

I’m thankful for all of the love our volunteers and supporters pour into helping the cats.  They inspire me.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I am thankful for a service called Jib Jab that makes it easy for me to send funny cards to my family on holidays.  It pastes their heads on dancing figures to pop tunes.

 

My pants are tight, from eating real food for the past several days.  I am grateful for the chance to get back to starving myself and exercising so I don’t blow up.  Was that a snide note of thanks?  I guess so.

 

I am REALLY thankful to be home from the Big Cat Workshop in Denver, CO.  It was a great experience, and I’m excited to create the website below to help the other members.

 

Dear Ysabel,

 

If everything is working, I'd like you to spin up a new WP site using either the Shopify hosting or Flywheel hosting, which ever you think best for BigCatTrust.com

 

I’m thinking about creating a new website that will be used by a coalition of big cat rescue organizations to consolidate our efforts.  The reason I'm thinking you might want to spin it up via Shopacity, as there is a very real chance these partners will not use the site, so I hate to be paying for premium hosting at Flywheel, if that turns out to be the case.

 

There are a number of things it will need to do.

 

It will need to be able to have several Admins (and maybe different levels of Admin ((i.e. Super Admin who could delete the site, Secondary Admin that can edit pages but not do things like change the theme or add plugins, etc)))

 

It will have several key areas or categories.

 

Advocacy

 

Most important will be a way that all of these organizations can collaborate on the message we want users to distribute.  It will be an Advocacy area where we all agree on a bill, like the BigCatAct.com bill.  So we would need both a “back end” where we could all put in our edits and then a front facing part to the public.  Maybe those would be the same page? Just not published till we all agreed.

 

The publicly facing page should have the call to action, where we tell people to cut and paste, the agreed upon message, into the email they send, based upon them finding their member of congress at Congress.org

 

There should be a forum like element in this category where members of the coalition can upload documents, and share ideas that are not visible to the public.

 

• Shared Info

• This should be visible to all participating sanctuaries, but not the public.

• This will have many subsets, but some would be:

• Veterinary - Where we could share case studies, videos of procedures, lab results.  This area should be searchable by species of cats (lions, tigers, ligers, leopards, cougars, bobcats and servals only for now) and by issue, such as dental, blood born, parasites, bones, claws, ears, weird and eyes.

• Caging - supplies and where to find them, cage designs, videos, etc.

• Resources - for sanctuary goods like where to find the best tiger bowls, sharing plans for transport cages, where to buy supplements.

• Staffing

• This should be visible to all participating sanctuaries, but not the public.

• Subsets would be

• Job Openings (part secret but also a publicly visible areas)

• Volunteer and Interns Needed  (part secret but also a publicly visible areas) What I mean by that is sanctuaries should be able to tell each other what they are looking for, but there should also be a visible job board to the public that can be found in search)

• Training manuals

• Work contracts

• Documents on worker’s comp, employment disputes, VISA issues

• Rescues

 

This is probably the most fluid area because there are roughly 20 organizations who all care for cats with the smallest being a place with maybe a dozen cats and several of us with 75-400 cats.  What we are trying to figure out is a way that we can tell at a glance, who has room for what when a rescue happens.

 

Getting people to keep this updated almost needs something like a quarterly reminder to go in and double check each sanctuary’s list of available spaces.

 

The other thing we need to know is who can transfer cats (who has crates, vehicles, staffing

Letter to Jamie from me in Denver, CO

I just wanted to thank you for making it possible for me to attend this Big Cat Workshop.  My presentation on how these other sanctuary operators can use ZooCollege.com to train their staff and volunteers can help them get to the point that you've helped me get to:

 

Which is that I don't have to worry (much) about whether or not the cats are getting fed, cleaned and vet care.

 

That allows me to focus on how to end the captive trade in them.  If all of the great minds in the room here could automate their training and management processes, they could be more helpful in ending the abuse.

 

I couldn't do it without you.  You have always been my right hand and the grown up in the room.  I just want to be sure you know how much you are loved and appreciated.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I am thankful to all the people who share their expertise on YouTube.

I feel confident I can pass the Unmanned Aircraft test today.  Sheesh!  I can’t believe I failed it the first time.  It might be my second failure ever.  Organic chickens for the cats being the first.

 

I’m grateful that Pharaoh the white serval didn’t die yesterday.  Apparently Justin and Gale miscommunicated on the status of the oxygen machine and it wasn’t until Jamie burst into tears that Justin figured out he had to reverse the cat’s sedation and start pumping breaths into him to save him from dying right there on the Xray table.

 

I’m thankful for the cooler weather.  We will start putting heating pads in the dens of the elderly cats.  They already have hay.  I prefer warm to cold, but the extremes always worry me for the cats and it appears the 90+ degree weather has subsided for a few months.

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Today we all go to see Dad’s tombstone erected.

We are leaving Tampa at 6 am to drive to Bushnell for the placement of Dad’s grave marker but are going to have Family Breakfast at the Cracker Barrel at I-75 and 301.  From there Mom and maybe Chuck’s whole family, are headed to the mountains in N.C. to watch the leaves turn.  This was the family vacation they were all headed out to on August 6th when Dad had his final ambulance ride to the hospital.

 

I think he didn’t want to go.  We both are workaholics and just go stir crazy.  My mother is an extremely hard worker, but she can relax, and I’m glad she’s going to get some time to do that.  I’m sorry he wasn’t there for her in that way.  She loves to travel.  He hated it.

 

We still have to decide on how to memorialize him at the sanctuary.  I think everyone wants a plaque with his picture on it.  I think I’ll die a little inside, every time I see it, but I don’t want to keep them from having what they want.  We all feel and express love in different ways.  I can’t stop crying.  I feel him all around me.  I see him in every cage, every spigot, every blade of grass, but it causes me to ache.  I don’t know why.

I found and recorded the first 2 hours of the NYC vs Circus hearing.

It was worth the 2 hours out of my day to sit through the part I missed yesterday and to record it for future generations.  I was so happy to see the chair of the committee saying things like, “If you have to use tranquilizers and guns to keep the animals from escaping the circus, then maybe that should be an indicator that they don’t belong there?”

 

The timing of this couldn’t be better.  I have been pretty much gagged through our contract with Feld Enterprises, to not say what I know, while their cats were boarded with us.  Now that the last of those cats have died, I was able to have this read into the record by Mark G? of HSUS:

 

Big Cat Rescue has been the final stop for 21 tigers & leopards who previously performed in the circus.  We have observed these retired circus cats since the year 2000 and note that they always arrive fearful of people, especially those carrying anything that looks like a weapon.

 

We use long poles to pull waste to the side of the cages, and have to be very careful to never raise the poles near the cats as they flinch, wince, lay back their ears, run, roar or hide at the sight.  We don't see that reaction in cats who were not forced to perform.

 

We use operant conditioning, also known as reward based training, to urge our cats to do the things we need for medical or management issues.  We train consistently every day and never tell a cat "no" and never with hold food or punish a cat for failing to do the requested action.  As a result, the cats do it when they are in the mood, but that won't make them perform on cue.

 

We know from 16 years of daily observations of ex circus cats that they could never have been made to perform reliably in the ring if they had not been beaten, shocked, whipped, intimidated or deprived of food.

 

You know it is the case when you see the cats in the ring with ears laid back in distress.  Circuses know that people today do not want to see the abuse, so it can only happen behind closed gates and doors.

 

Please don't reward this abuse by continuing to allow circus acts to exploit wild animals within your city limits.  For the cats,

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

"Judge me by the enemies I have made."  - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

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.  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.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk