Carole Baskins Diary

Rebecca Chaiklin contacts us about doing a big cat version of Blackfish

Hi Carole,  A phone call from a lady named Rebecca Chaiklin, a feature film producer.  She's doing a feature documentary on the wild life trade and is interested in coming out to BCR to film and interview you.  Her contact info is [email protected] 917-439-6639. Call came in on 7/16 at 11:30 am. Diana Rao - Sent from my iPhone. 

 

Fisher Stevens, The Cove Movie, RealTVfilms coverage of the Kat Kramer's screening of "Films That Change The World" at Bronson Studios Hollywood. Distributed by Tubemogul.  URL: http://www.celebritynetworth.com/watch/jzHVGUC9w-s/fisher-stevens-cove-movie-realtvfilms/

 

Academy award producer (The Cove) and actor Fisher Stevens and producer/director Rebecca Chaiklin are in Berlin film Festival after Sundance to present their new documentary ANOTHER WORLD.  Rebecca was both Director and Producer on The Party's Over (Last Party 2000), a feature documentary on the 2000 presidential election starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in Europe and SWSX in the US - and was released theatrically in over 30 cities around the US, as well as both theatrical and television broadcast throughout Europe.

 

Rebecca is the Producer on Poster Boy, an independent feature which premiered at the 2004 Tribeca and Locarno Film Festivals. Rebecca was the Producer on Men Make Woman Crazy Theory, a Zoe Cassavettes directorial debut, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and broadcast on Shotime.

 

Rebecca was the Producer on Hardball, a feature documentary on the first series of baseball games between the Cuban National Team and MLB, The Baltimore Orioles, Produced by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. Chaiklin was the Producer on Midnight in Cuba, a feature documentary chronicling the hopes and dreams of Cuba's younger generation, which premiered at The Berlin International Film Festival.

 

Currently Chaiklin is finishing The King of Soho, as both Director and Producer, a documentary film featuring Michael Pompa, an older Italian-American man who lives in New York City and has not travelled outside of 8 square blocks in over 54 years. Chaiklin is also directing a film on the war on drugs and hip-hop impresario Russel Simmon's campaign to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws.  Rebecca asked for photos of me which ultimately led to a scrapbook about my mom in Dec 2018.

 

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.

While in D.C. I was arranging for the rescue of Sheena Serval Carole’s cryptic notes: Diana in the Department of Ag in OH. Candace Miller. Female serval, spayed, 12 years old, declawed, plays at night. Simmerman, Melissa. Hi Carole, Thank you for taking time to speak with me today & thank you for your interest in our serval. The serval is currently in the custody of the Ohio Department of Agriculture and we have ownership of her. You can just use the contact information listed below. I will also be the vet signing the health certificate. I will work on the travel arrangements and call you as soon as I make some progress. Thanks again, Melissa Simmerman, DVM. Assistant State Veterinarian. Ohio Department of Agriculture. Division of Animal Health Dear Dr. Simmerman, I copied you, just now, on the application to the state of Florida for an import permit. I expect to have it by next Wednesday, and maybe even before. According to Dianna the serval is a 12 year old, declawed, spayed, female serval who weighs 31 lbs. She is described as being a fussy eater and loves to play after dark. The one thing I didn't hear was her name. Here are our other servals so you can see how they live:http://youtu.be/w-c-TsGxPSs Your serval will have her own 1,200 sf enclosure to herself, full of trees, bushes, grass and dens. Melissa Simmerman wrote: Carole, I was able to get a flight booked for next Thursday, June 26th. She will not arrive to you until 10:10pm that evening. I hope this is not too late. If you are okay with this I will send you flight details. Thanks for your help, Melissa Great! Here are the details: • Flight 2643 leaves Columbus @ 4:41pm, arrives in Atlanta @ 6:14pm • Flight 1797 leaves Atlanta @ 8:45pm, arrives @ Tampa INTL @ 10:10PM I will be in touch next week to let you know that plans are still on. Thanks This was the alert we ran to help fund her rescue: In 2003 John Babb of Berea, Kentucky shipped an 8 week old serval kitten to a woman in Ohio, who named her Sheena. (The breeder's website boasts that he is still selling serval kittens to pet owners in the U.S. for $6,000 and abroad for $9,000.). Fast forward 11 years... After Terry Thompson released 56 lions, tigers and bears in OH, the state decided to ban the private possession of big cats, but grandfathered in the existing animals as long as the owners would build a safe cage, register the animal and provide insurance or a bond, in case their animal escaped and hurt someone. Sheena's owner was willing to register her, and apparently kept her in a dog run, but was unwilling to provide insurance. She decided instead to turn Sheena over to the state of OH. To our knowledge she is the first exotic cat to be surrendered to the Ohio authorities. The ban became law in 2012 and the exotic pet exploiters predicted that hundreds or thousands of big cats would be dumped on the state, because they always try to scare off more protective rules with that absurd claim. It hasn't happened. People who really love their animals will do the minimal things asked of them by law to keep them. Sheena wasn't that lucky... Or maybe she was even luckier because when the state of OH called and asked if we would provide a permanent home for her we knew that YOU would help us do that. Please let Sheena know that she is loved and welcome at Big Cat Rescue by donating to her care. 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 streng

Getting Our First Working X-ray Machine

 Note that this started in 2014 and was done in 2015 so this entry had info from the future included for brevity of the entire discussion.

Jeff Kremer secured the donation of an X-Ray Machine from Sarah and Bruce on 5/6/14 and today we decided on the model and got the quote for the machine.  What we did not realize at the time was that this would become an epic ordeal that would take a year to complete.

The machine was too big for any of our buildings and had an arm that needed 9 feet of ceiling height, so we had to construct a two story building, with the idea that the second story floor would have to be cut out.  Then we found out that it only worked on 3 phase power which was going to run us 165,000 above ground or 350,000 under ground, so Howie got the bright idea of buying a 3 phase generator.

I’d never heard of such a thing, but he found one that we had to have built and delivered w/ a crane, because it was the size of a small car.  Then the power transformers weren’t big enough for the load, so they had to be installed.

Then there wasn’t a good enough Internet signal for the X-ray machine to transfer images to the software program in the cloud, so that had to be installed.  Now the whole thing is on the outside of our cat area fencing, so as of 3/22/15, I still haven’t moved that. 

Hi Tom,  I will be your point person going forward for the machine.  I have no technical understanding, but will be the one who will have to make the decisions, so please forgive my lack of expertise in this matter.

We are having a building constructed to house the machine, right next to our Cat Hospital, but if it is not done before the machine arrives, it can be stored in our current Cat Hospital.  I understand that we need 14 x 16 feet of floor space and perhaps as much as 14 foot ceilings for a 700 lb cat to be X-rayed, so our current building can't handle it.

My husband, Howard, has been working with the developer next door and TECO to bring 3 phase power to our Cat Hospital.  What do you need from me? - Carole

 

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.

Oxford Scientific on Odd Couples Susan Bass wrote: Carole, I just got off the phone with Jenna, who is working on the new Animal Odd Couples show for Animal Planet that we discussed. She'd like to set up a time to speak with you as well since you know more about Cam and Zabu when they first arrived. She is 5 hours ahead in London. Do you have a few minutes tomorrow afternoon to speak with Jenna? On Jun 17, 2014, at 4:55 AM, Jenna Lane wrote: Dear Susan, I work for a TV production company called Oxford Scientific Films, where I'm working on a series about animal behaviour for the Animal Planet channel. It's all about interesting relationships between different species of animals. I believe my colleague Sarah might have been in touch with you recently about your lion Cameron and tigress Zabu I wondered if you could spare a little bit of time to talk to me on the phone so I could find out a bit more about their behaviour, and if we could potentially film them for our series. I can call whenever is convenient to you if you let me know a good number to reach you on. I'm really looking forward to talking to you! Best wishes, Jenna Lane, Researcher Dear Jenna, Sorry for the phone issues. Tomorrow at 1PM EST if fine for Skype and my ID is BigCatRescue. This video is 6 years old, so isn't very high quality, but it shows the day that Cameron and Zabu arrived at Big Cat Rescue in 2004. The man with the blue tee shirt in the video was the volunteer who had contacted us about the plight of the cats in New Hampshire and he is the one who negotiated the release of the cats from the widow to us, but for the life of me, I can't remember his name. He drove with the cats, in the truck you see them being unloaded from.http://youtu.be/SNt0e1cguyY Background on Cameron and Zabu: http://bigcatrescue.org/cameron-lion/ http://bigcatrescue.org/zabu/ There are lots of links to videos of them together on those pages and on this one. http://bigcatrescue.org/lion-white-tiger-cameron-zabu/ You should know that Cameron no longer has that beautiful mane though. CAMERON UPDATE - He may look a little different now but he seems much happier and he's DEFINITELY more relaxed and content since we neutered him (and he'll be much cooler this summer!). Plus Zabu likes the fact that she doesn't have to spend 2 hours a day grooming him anymore! Read more about why we decided to neuter Cameron here:http://bigcatrescue.org/advocat-2014-04/ 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.

When to Euthanize a Tiger

At Big Cat Rescue we have a general  decision tree that we and our vets use to determine when it is time to euthanize a big cat, but every situation is different. The vast majority of the time we just aren’t sure that it is the right decision until we do the necropsy, which is the animal version of an autopsy.  The reason it is so hard to know, if we are doing the right thing, is because cats are hard wired to live the mantra of the wild; “Survival of the fittest.”

 

They just will not reveal their illness or their suffering until they cannot hide it any longer. We just had two situations, back to back, where we had to make the gut wrenching decision to euthanize an exotic cat.  One was an ocelot (known in Central and South America as the Tree Tiger) and the other was an actual tiger.  Both were 20-22 years old, but their histories were so different, that the decision in each case came after painful deliberation of our veterinary care team.

 

Amazing Grace the ocelot was 22 years old and had been with us since 1996.  She had always been robust in health and purr-sonality and had been a favorite of Keepers and Guests alike.  We knew Gracie’s moods, what she liked and didn’t like to eat, how to get her to relax when her hyperactivity was getting the best of her and what her favorite enrichment treats were.

 

When Amazing Grace came up on the Observation Chart for NOT being excited about dinner, and yet looking bloated, we knew something was wrong and scheduled a visit with our vet, Dr. Liz Wynn. Sedating a 22 year old cat is not something we would do without considerable cause, but Amazing Grace was in excellent condition and there wasn’t anything we could determine about her failing to eat from just looking at her.  When she was sedated it was discovered, via blood work and being able to get our hands on her, that her kidneys were done and she had several tumors.  The bloating was from fluid filling her abdomen, which is usually a sign of a failing heart.  At 22 we did not believe that she had any chance for improvement and had to say, “Good-bye” to our precious, long time friend.

 

Her necropsy gave us the peace of mind that we had done the right thing for her.  It revealed that she did, in fact, have liver cancer, advanced heart disease, many other masses throughout her organs and a tiny, blister – like surface over her entire omentum (the tissue that envelopes your organs).  The second situation was even harder to make because Kimba the tiger had just been rescued 17 days before we had to make a life or death decision.  We knew almost nothing about Kimba, except that she was literally starving to death in NY and that we weren’t even sure she would make it through the day that we loaded her into a transport and gave her food and water for the first time in who knows how long.

 

She and her two family members were all starving and dehydrated and drank 8 gallons of water between them in the first 24 hours. As soon as they arrived at Big Cat Rescue we began offering food and Zeus ate like there was no tomorrow, but Keisha and Kimba were shy about it, so we couldn’t be sure if they were coming into the feeding area at night.  Within a few days, Keisha overcame her shyness and would eat while Keepers were present, but Kimba was still not packing away the chow like the other two.  We weren’t sure if she was just more shy, or if she had been starved for so long that she just couldn’t eat as much at any given time, so we started feeding her several times a day.  She would eat a couple bites, off a long stick, but then no more.  She was seen drinking regularly, so we just did all we could to increase her food intake, in the hopes that we could build up her strength enough to sedate her and look for anything else that may be going on.

 

Maybe she had bad teeth and eating was painful?  Maybe she had tumors or an obstruction that was keeping her from eating?  Maybe she had some disease?  Some things

Lessons From Mom, a book for Jamie’s birthday

 

Love & Marriage (I think I adapted this from someone else’s work)

 

If you are looking for the purr-fect mate: stop looking. If you want to keep the one you have, then take it from me and what I learned from Mom.  

 

Appreciate him. Every time he takes out the trash, washes a dish, picks up his own socks, carries a bag of groceries or does anything that you can praise him for; do it. Lavish praise on him and act sincere, even if you are thinking to yourself, "It's about time!"   Men can never get enough praise and other women know it.

 

Tell him how handsome he is. Do it every time you see him primping, exercising, getting dressed, getting undressed and even when you think he is just too full if himself. Men can never get enough compliments and other women know it.

 

Let him be right, especially when he isn't, but it doesn't really matter. Save your superior intellect for matters that would really cause you financial or reputational ruin. It will be easier to make sure he listens to you if he almost never has to.

 

Whatever he wants, whenever he wants, is what YOU want, in 99% of the times a choice is to be made. Really make him believe that you want whatever would make him happy. Men are like cats; if they know they have a choice, they will often concede it to you. But do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, whether he cares about what you want or not. Men can never get enough of being in charge and other women know it.

 

Surprise him with your thoughtfulness. You are particularly good at this, so make sure he is the recipient of your efforts to create a moment that will live forever in his heart. Men can never get enough of being made to believe that they are the center of your Universe and other women know that.

 

Be the mistress.  Men leave their wives for their mistresses, because the mistress always looks her best for him and does all of the above. When she becomes the wife, another mistress will take her place. If you are ALWAYS the mistress he won't have a reason to cheat. Even if he does, as most men do, he probably won't leave you.  Making him suffer for his indiscretion won't make him stay and certainly won't keep him from straying again.

 

Having a man in your life is something most women want for some un fathomable reason. If you want to keep yours, then consider these words of advice from someone who believes she is the happiest woman in the world.  It was one of those books you can create online and I illustrated it with photos of Jamie and Justin.

My Mother's Memories of Her Mother

 

L-R Carole Norris, Jacqueline Norris, Mary Barbara Jean Norris

 

When Momma J acquie (my mother's mother) died, my mother and her sister asked if each of us grandchildren would speak at her memorial service.  There were some memories that came before us, or were seen from the different perspective of my mother though and are too precious to be forgotten.  Here is what my mother, Mary Barbara Jean Norris Stairs wrote:

 

"In 1940 Jacqueline Thompson married Floyd Norris and they moved to California to help Floyd's father who was building orange crates for pennies each.  In January of 1941, she had their first daughter, Mary Barbara Jean, named after all her sisters and sister-in-law, and 11 months later her second daughter Carole, named after her favorite movie star - Carole Lombard.  Seven years later in 1949 the third daughter, Diana, was premature and died after five days.  Mother always kept our hair in ringlets when we were young and had our grandmother sew beautiful clothes for us.  My mother is remembered for her hair always in place, beautiful jewelry, although just costume, and fine clothes, a lot of which were purchased at garage sales and flea markets.

 

Mother was always a hard worker.  During World War II, she worked at Delco Remy, lifting armatures which weighed about 15-20 pounds, from conveyor to conveyor.  She became quite strong and would be the entertainment at parties by arm wrestling the men.  That strength was still apparent up to her last days.  She would hold onto nurses' gloves and not let go.  They would have to slip their hands out of the gloves and leave them with her.

 

She was also very athletic and was on the high school's basketball team.  When we were growing up, Mother and Daddy would play basketball, volleyball, softball, table tennis, jacks and other sports with us.  They both had many trophies for their bowling skills.

 

Another good quality was she was careful with money and always would put back a little into a savings account.  Our first trip from Indiana to Florida was hosted by James Cope, President of Florida Christian College (the name was later changed to Florida College) where we stayed in a dorm room in order to keep down costs.  We all loved Florida and moved here shortly after that trip.  The trip and the move were done with Mother's savings.  She was generous with her finances in sending us to college and later helping other college students in the Florida College Adopt-A-Student program.

 

Mother used to tell us about the time she and her mother, Goldie, were in a boat crossing a deep creek.  They had baby chicks with them that they were taking to sell to get money for groceries.  They lived in the Arkansas countryside and were very poor.  The boat tipped over and everyone fell out.  Mother did not know how to swim but Goldie was concerned about the baby chicks and was gathering them up so they didn't drown, totally ignoring Mother, who learned to "dog paddle" that day, but she was always afraid of water from then on.  Her fear of water did not stop her many years later when her three small grandsons, Alan, Stacy and Mike Crim, stepped into a hole in Lake Keystone where Mother and Daddy lived.  She would sink to the bottom of the hole and push up with all her might and push the three young boys closer and closer to the shore, taking a breath of air, and then going back down into the dreaded water until all three were safe.  My sister said that was the scariest time of her life while she watched from the shore.

 

Mother assisted her sister, Barbara Huff, and her daughters in buying homes and cars; wanting us to have good running, safe vehicles.  A Cadillac once saved her life so she knew how important the right car can be.  In the 1980's she was stopped at the stop light at Waters and North Dale Mabry when a tractor trailer rig driver, who claimed his brakes failed, plowed into the rear of her large Cadillac.  The Highway Patrol sa

DejaVu is all I can say

 

It happens over and over, like a recurring nightmare for the wild animals suffering through it; only the names and places change.

 

Someone wants to “rescue” wild animals because that seems like glamorous work, so they buy animals (and just prolong the problem) until the really bad guys find out there is a new place to dump last year’s photo cubs, and then the “rescues” become more legitimate, in the eyes of the “rescuer” because at least they aren’t paying for animals any more.

 

Usually the big cats who need rescuing are the cubs who just outgrew the ridiculous 8-12 week window, in which USDA condones the use of cubs for photo and pay to play sessions. All it takes to fix this mess is for USDA to acknowledge that it is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act to take cubs from their mothers for this inhumane, unethical, albeit lucrative exploitation… But I digress.

 

This video was shot in 2009 at JnK’s Call of the Wild and the dangerous conditions, lack of respect for the powerful nature of these wild animals and lack of understanding of their physical and emotional needs was evident.  The cats were thin, but not starving yet at that time.

 

Five years go by, and citations pile up for not providing sufficient shelter, not having an attending vet, not willing to provide documentation of where the cats came from or went and having a perimeter fence that was only 2 feet above the 6 feet of snow.  This article from 2009 detailed the illegal purchase of a leopard that resulted in seizure and a fine, as well as a number of other violations, and yet the media treated it like a puff piece.  http://bigcatrescue.org/lions-tigers-and-bears-find-refuge/

 

So, every few weeks more litters of lions, tigers, primates and bears are bred, used and discarded into these pseudo sanctuaries. But then the animals grow up into 500 pound apex predators who require thousands of dollars in food & vet care each year and before you know it, the “sanctuaries” have collapsed under the collective weight and debt. Then other sanctuaries, of varying financial stability, are called in to clean up the mess; but most of those are not in much better shape than the facilities they are being asked to bail out.

 

Big cats are bounced around from breeder, to photo booth operator, to the public as pets, who then dump them into the hands of backyard hoarders, who collapse and then the bigger sanctuaries come and move them to their fourth or fifth home, where they may stay until they die, but even then will sometimes end up in yet another rescue situation when the bigger places fail as well.

 

The second worst part of all of this is that the animals suffer from the time they are only a few hours or days old, when they are ripped from their mothers and thrust into this dismal cycle, and begin the years of suffering as the legal processes wind through the courts.  The worst part of this scenario is that it would be so easily avoided by a ban on public contact with cubs.  Help do that here:  https://www.votervoice.net/BCR/Campaigns/30111/Respond

 

That’s what happened at JnK’s Call of the Wild.

 

In 1997 Ken and Jackie Wisniewski started “rescuing” big cats, bears, wolves and a variety of other wild and domestic animals. Before long they were in over their heads. Feeding the animals wasn’t a problem because there is a lot of roadkill in Sinclairville, NY. We counted half a dozen dead deer, a duck and raccoon, in just two days visiting this sleepy little town. Maybe the locals drive too fast, or maybe it is all of the grape vineyards and farms that attract so much native wildlife.

 

The problem was that the rotting carcasses were just left to fester, along with the piling excrement, in the tiny, barren cages. The lions and tigers, who are the most fastidious creatures on earth, were forced to live in these abysmal, fly infested conditions while USDA went through the tedious process of citing the facility year, after year, after year wit

Big Cat Rescue for broadcast TV From: Kelly Lin Date: Tue, May 27, 2014 at 1:02 AM Subject: Potential documentary series To: [email protected] Hi Big Cat Rescue, I'm development producer with Infocus, a production company. We produce content for all the major broadcasters - Discovery Channel, Nat Geo, BBC, to name a few. We're the folks behind Monsterfish which is NG US #2 show currently. Our offices are in Asia but our work is global - we get commissioned out of the US, UK, and Asia Pacific. I think that there is huge potential in translating Big Cat Rescue for broadcast TV - it's definitely something our clients are looking for this year. I'm wondering if you're working with any production companies at the moment, as I'd love to talk further. Cheers, Kelly Lin Development Producer Infocus Asia Dear Kelly Lin, I'm not sure what you mean by "translating Big Cat Rescue for broadcast TV." Productions companies pitch us all the time, but usually what they want is for people to act irresponsibly toward wild animals for the shock value and we aren't interested in that sort of nonsense. We would be willing to work with a production company on a truthful presentation of what it means to run a big cat sanctuary day to day and you can find out more about the people involved and see some of the thousands of hours of high def video on our two YouTube.com sites: • http://bigcatrescue.org/about/our-staff/ • https://www.youtube.com/user/BigCatRescue • https://www.youtube.com/user/DailyBigCat Our mission is to end the trade and public contact with big cats so any show that we do would be primarily to aid in that purpose. - Carole Hi Carole, Many thanks for your reply. I'd like to see if there's any potential to feature the work at Big Cat Rescue into a format for TV. I get where you're coming from and I think that a look at our portfolio can assure you that we take a strong stand on factual programming rather than entertainment for entertainment's sake. We are the company behind Nat Geo's Monsterfish, which differentiates itself from all other fish shows in that the host is a fish biologist and conservationist, rather than an angler fishing for the sake of catching a big one. This is representative of the approach we take to our shows - we don't craft 'reality'. We've also filmed documentaries on the rescue of bears from bile farms. Our approach to Big Cat Rescue would be similar to our portfolio; it's about portraying the true reality of what happens in the day to day in an interesting and engaging way. I hope this helps to explain our approach - we take our factual programming seriously. If this piques your interest, I'd be keen to speak further. Many thanks for your time. Best, Kelly We swapped several more emails and tried to set up a Skype call that never happened. I explained that we aren’t able to film most of our rescues, and that’s what they really want. 6/15/14 Hi Carole, Many thanks for your emails and apologies for the delay - I was tied up in another production this past week. This is super helpful, thank you, let me share it with the team. As mentioned over our call, the fact that most rescues can't be covered is definitely a factor to the channels, but I'll see if there is any interest that combines rescues with the interesting day-to-day life inside Big Cat Rescue. I will be in touch if I receive favorable feedback from the channels. Best, Kelly 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 reco

Joe Schreibvogel update by Howie:

Schreibvogel provided further entertainment to us today when he tried to respond to my comment below about how ridiculous it is for him to claim Carole paid $100,000 to have dinner with Wayne Pacelle.  He showed a post from 2011 by one of our staff expressing excitement about our being a Silver Sponsor at that year’s Taking Action for Animals Conference (TAFA) in Washington DC.  The conference is devoted to animal welfare issues and legislation and is attended by about 1000 people.   Then mathematical genius Joe showed a screen shot showing an HSUS gala where the Silver Sponsorship price was $50,000.

 

There are just two tiny little problems with Joe’s silly effort to back up his lie.  First, last time I looked, $50,000 was not the same as $100,000.    So where is the other $50k to back up the lie?  Maybe Joe needs a new calculator.

 

Second, and more relevant, the gala Joe shows cost $50,000 for a Silver Sponsorship  just happens NOT to be the TAFA event we sponsored.  Joe’s screen shot is from an event we had no involvement in.  Our Silver Sponsorship at TAFA in 2011 cost $2500 and was worth every penny.  Oops Joe?  Honest mistake, or one more lie?  Then again, Joe seems to never lets the facts interfere with his personal reality.

 

He also rants about our being the $25,000 top level sponsor of this year’s TAFA, claiming we are paying that just “for a booth.”  You might want to check the sponsor benefits list on that one Joey.  In 2011 we did not have in place a federal bill that would end the abuse of big cats, so we were not the major sponsor.  Now we do have that bill.   The purpose of our large presence at this year’s conference is to promote awareness of and support for the federal Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act, HR 1998 and S 1381, to the 1000 attendees who care about how animals are treated.

 

The bill now has 102 co-sponsors in the House and climbing!  This bill will stop people like Schreibvogel from continuing to exploit tiger cubs.  Past workers for Schreibvogel tell us heart wrenching stories of cubs being taken from their mothers shortly after birth, physically punished for doing what comes naturally, and even being thrown into the air by Joe’s “husbands.”  The TAFA sponsorship gives us multiple opportunities to build awareness of and support for this legislation that is critical to putting an end to big cats living in miserable conditions.

 

Thanks to Joe for today’s good laugh. I am sure he will keep ‘em coming.  Of course, nothing tops him having someone else sing songs, filming himself lip syncing, then claiming he is a country western artist.  Earth to Joe.