Carole Baskins Diary

Cats We Saved That We Might Never Meet

The following are a few wild cats who you helped save, but that you may never meet.  Because of the collaborative efforts of all of you, Big Cat Rescue is known far and wide as THE resource for all things wild cat related.  About  month ago a desperate bobcat owner contacted us.  He had been keeping a bobcat named Maggie in a back yard dog kennel for 15 years before the NC authorities found him out.   It is extremely rare for people to keep wild cats after they reach adulthood and are no longer fun or safe to play with, but this guy did and it was obvious that he wanted Maggie to go someplace good.  He had researched us and felt like we could give her the best home.  His only problem was that the man was 79 and would never be able to see Maggie again if she came to Florida.

 

We suggested that he try Carolina Tiger Rescue because they would be close enough that he could visit.  The only holdup was that CTR didn't have a permit for bobcats even though they have worked with almost every type of wild cat there.  Bobcats are native and required something like our Rehab permit, even though Maggie (pictured at left) had never lived in the wild.  The state was threatening to confiscate and euthanize Maggie, so we jumped in and endorsed CTR, but also told the state that we were standing by, ready and able to pick Maggie up if it turned out that they would not allow her to go to CTR.  Last week, all went well and Maggie went to her forever home at CTR.

 

Meanwhile, a rehab bobcat kitten named Rufus, who is only four pounds, and thus probably only a few months old, was turned in to another Carolina wildlife center.  You may remember that they had three bobcat kittens back at the same time we did and Jamie walked the center through the proper rehab techniques, since they had never raised orphaned bobcat kittens for release.  The rehab center said it was the hardest work they had ever done because bobcats are much harder to rehab and release than other wildlife.  If not for the fact that there were three of them to practice their hunting and fighting skills on, they felt that they would not have succeeded.

 

With Rufus being a lone bobcat, who already shows no natural fear of humans, they don't think they can give him the space nor training he needs and asked if we would take him as a permanent resident if they fail.  They are pretty sure that Rufus will never be able to go free because he is blind.  This may just be from the impact that broke his jaw and landed him in their hospital, so we are hoping that he recovers his sight, but if not we have offered to take him in if the state of NC will let him go.  We will keep you posted.

 

We were asked to take an Asian Leopard Cat who appears to be illegally possessed in FL and we advised the owner that they would have to get approval from FWC for us to take the cat as we cannot accept a cat from someone inside the state if they do not have a permit.  It is against the law.  They decided instead to send the cat to an un-named "rescue group" and we advised them to seek a permit so that the animal is not confiscated and euthanized.  His name is Skye and he had been bought as a pet and then bounced from home to home because ALC's make awful pets, despite being about as cute as they come.

 

And we got a call from a rescue center in Central America this week asking if it is OK to house adult, female ocelots together.  We advised them against doing that as ocelots are notorious for latching on and NEVER letting go.  Wild cats are solitary and do not want to share space; especially the tiny, barren quarters of most rescue center cages.

 

Thanks to those who wrote emails, made phone calls and helped promote the issue on facebook the Centerpointe Mall agreed to send the animal abusers home.  (I didn’t call him out by name at the time, but this was Joe Schreibvogel) The outfit was due to be at the Grand Rapids mall for 10 days, up until Christmas, which

"Maybe you should have given everyone a pep talk,"

Jamie said as the last of the sad faces left Food Prep. "It was an awful way to end Thanksgiving Day."

 

I was fighting back the tears as I was trying to post on the important updates the awful news that 17 year old Simba Tiger had just died. Gale, Chris, Willow, Regina and Chelsea had left their Thanksgiving dinner to come to help us carry out her body.  

 

I countered, incredulous that Jamie could think me even capable of a "pep talk" at a time like that, but she stood firm. "They don't know how we deal with such pain.  What they hear is us talking about watching your step, don't back into Shere Khan, duck your head, make sure the duct tape secures the bags, and get a sheet to make it easier to carry her...

 

They may not know that we talk about mundane stuff to keep from breaking down and weeping when a cool head is needed to be in charge." I am guessing that you do know that it is just a coping mechanism. We all deal with grief. We all lose pets, loved ones and the cats here who have come to depend on us. I hope that you all know that when we are dealing with a loss, such as Simba, that we are doing so with the only tools in our emotional toolbox to do so.

 

Tribute to Simba Tiger

Simba Tiger  Female Siberian Tiger  6/8/94 - 11/25/11

 

Before being rescued by Big Cat Rescue in 2007, like most captive exotics, Simba had a very difficult life.  She was owned by a woman in Ohio, Diana McCourt, who had declawed her and had her large canine teeth pulled. Supposedly, this made Simba “safer” to be with people.

 

The woman would chain Simba to the ground with short chains so the tied down cat could not stand or turn to bite people.  Then, the woman would charge visitors to go in with Simba and straddle her to take photos.  After years of people being hurt, the woman finally lost her USDA license. But, she kept operating without a license because there was no enforcement.  When the woman was finally evicted from the property some years later for not paying rent, she just left, abandoning Simba and many other animals.

 

Thanks to our sanctuary's supporters, we were able to provide Simba with a a safe, peaceful permanent home at Big Cat Rescue.   With all she had gone through, Simba still had a very warm personality and would approach the side of her enclosure and greet passersby with an enthusiastic “chuff.”  

 

A beautiful tiger, with a rich cinnamon colored coat, she was probably one of the friendliest tigers at the sanctuary. Simba loved to spend the heat of the afternoon in the cool shade of her den and, just before dark, she would lounge peacefully in the grasses looking out over the lake.  Her last days were spent enjoying a 3-acre natural habitat with the constant company of her tiger friend Nikita and the keepers who loved her so.  Our heart is broken having to say goodbye on Thanksgiving Day 2011 to one of the sweetest tigers as she chose to journey on.

 

Simba the tigress died on Thanksgiving Day. She was 17 and had been in renal failure for a while but in the end it was her precious little heart that gave out.  Thanks to Big Cat Rescuers who were on site tonight we were able to remove her from her cat-a-tat. Thank you Jamie, Gale Ingham, Chris Poole, Willow Hecht, Regina Rinaldi and Chelsea Feeny for being with her when she died and helping with her afterward. I know that Simba was thankful for all of you who helped her ease from this life to the next over the past few months.

 

That said, I thought Jeff Kremer said it so well when he said that he thinks it is no coincidence that she chose Thanksgiving Day as her day to leave because we will ever remember how thankful she and the other 100+ cats here are for all that we do for them.

 

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.

Big Cat Rescue is a Family Affair

 

Pearlie Mae was my blue-cream longhair cat and constant companion from the time I was 8 until after Jamie was born.  When I lived in my truck, she lived with me, and when I didn't have so much as a truck to live in, my parents took care of her.  I'd like to give you a little background on why I am moving my parents and my grandmother, Momma Jacquie, into the Cougar Camp.

 

My parents have always been work-a-holics, so my maternal grandmother helped raised me and thus the name Momma Jacquie.  You have seen her name on Food Prep because when Jamie was old enough for college, she offered to pay her way, but at that time our Food Prep was a truck body with sinks down both sides and cutting up 500 lbs of meat a day was a dangerous proposition with knives flying and people crammed in like sardines.  Jamie asked instead that the college fund be spent on building us a food prep building.

 

In 1997 when I lost my husband I discovered that one of our secretary’s had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of our properties in her name and had become a beneficiary and executor of Don’s will.  We had a dozen or so office staff and handy men to manage our real estate business and I didn't know who I could trust any more, since that woman had been my best girl friend for 17 years so I replaced a dozen people with just my parents.  My mother ran the real estate office and my dad did all of the maintenance to the properties, in addition to all of the cage building here and all of the mowing and maintenance here at the sanctuary.  Even though more than half of their work has always been to benefit the sanctuary, I paid them from my real estate business.  When the sanctuary began to do a little better financially, my father became an employee here.

 

He has worked at the sanctuary 6 days a week for all these years until having triple bypass surgery and repair to five aneurisms in August 2010.  My mother has worked 6 days a week for all these years doing the sanctuary's banking,  and managing all of the mortgages and properties that I donated to the sanctuary as well as investments we have made in recent years as funds have allowed.  She rents out the properties, negotiates the sales, chases down late payments, and cleans up and fixes up the properties when the tenants leave.  She is the one who makes sure that petty cash expenditures have receipts to back them up, she checks our credit card statements to make sure we are not being billed for things we didn't order and works with Howie to do all of the back end work that goes into our tax accounting.  She does all that while still taking care of all of my real estate business and while being the primary caregiver to her 86 year old mother, Momma Jacquie.  She has never been paid a dime from Big Cat Rescue.

 

Any of you who date back to 1998 will remember the day the "old blue van" caught fire and burned on the way to an offsite event.  Back then the sanctuary was costing me hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund and I could not afford another van.  My parents bought and donated the van we currently drive.  They have continued to donate money as well their time over the years and you may have seen their sign out by Joseph Lion.

 

Momma Jacquie doesn't know us any more for the most part and is now suffering from Bell's Palsy which causes her to fall and not be able to get back up.  My mother had polio as a child and is a tiny little person who at 5'4" is not capable of getting my grandmother back up off the ground when she falls.  With 55 acres to mow, my father sometimes cannot hear when my mother calls him for help and she won't bother Jamie or me to come to her.  My parents live in a two story condo in Carrollwood and the stairs are just treacherous for them given the circumstances.

 

I feel the value offered by my family in the past and the value my parents still provide to the sanctuary is deserving of housing on site.  It enables Jamie and I t

An Anniversary Non Poem to Howie

At family time you made it clear

That poetry your heart holds dear

But how could I, a poem write

About a poet of your might?

 

Painting for Michael Angelo

Would be as crazy, don't you know

As trying to convey in rhyme

My thoughts of you and love sublime

 

When you are master, lord and verse

Someone who never needs rehearse

My simple efforts seem so small

And by comparison would pall

 

I'd sooner challenge Einstein's mind

Or close my eyes and lead the blind

Than try to impress you with word

The very thought is just absurd

 

For you're the smartest man I've known

Your brilliance has the sun out shown

That if I were to take a crack

At poetry I'd be a hack

 

So here upon the day we met

It surely is a safer bet

Foregoing all the rhyming part

To say I love you from my heart

 

The inspiration for this was Howie teasing me at a family dinner about how I never wrote him poetry any more.  

 

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.

Tribute to Zoul the Serval

3/1/1997- 10/29/2011  Arrived at Big Cat Rescue 4/29/2011

 

Zoul let us know, as most do, that something was terribly wrong when he stopped eating.  We took him to the vet for testing and found that he had moderate to severe kidney disease, fluid in his lungs, and one of the worst cases of spondylosis the vet had seen. Yet, he had shown no signs of this painful and debilitating condition.  Zoul was not able to wake up from the sedation, despite the heroic efforts of his caregivers, and sadly passed away in his sleep.  Though he only lived here with us at Big Cat Rescue for 6 months, we had all grown to love him and will miss him.

 

ZOUL'S RESCUE STORY

 

A woman in NY was battling cancer, her sister had run off leaving her with her three children ages 6-17 and her home was in foreclosure…. she also had five servals living in her basement!

 

She would never be able to rent an apartment to keep her five servals and was left no choice but to try and find them a new home. After careful consideration, we decided that we were able to rescue the 5 servals and immediately went into action. All the servals currently at the sanctuary live alone, which they prefer as they’re solitary by nature, so in order to house 5 servals in one enclosure we had to get creative. We joined two existing enclosures together which made one huge 3000 sq ft space that the servals could roam around in and enjoy.

 

On top of joining the enclosures together, we added platforms, den boxes, hideaway areas and we were told they had a waterfall as kittens and loved it, so we also added a pool! We received the import permits, loaded the van with carriers and equipment then started on the long drive to New York while others finished preparing the enclosure.

 

We arrived in Cohoes, New York, just north of Albany, to a typical residential neighborhood.  The 5 servals had been kept in the basement of the house which had been converted into a living room and, except for a few escapes over the years including an incident where one of the owners was bit and hospitalized for a week, they’d never spent any time outside. There were 4 males, Santino, Doodles, Zoul and Zimba and 1 female Zouletta, all 5 had been declawed and were between the ages of 12 and 14 years.

 

All the servals, except for Doodles, are related and had been purchased from a pet store in Latham NY, Doodles was added to the serval pack at a later date and ironically belonged to a man in Florida whose wife told him to choose between her and the cat!

 

It was a kind of a bizarre and an uneasy experience to walk into the basement area and see the 5 servals hanging out in front of the fire, by the TV and on top of the hot tub! It is hard to imagine that these cats spent much time out of their concrete floored cell because the furniture and hot tub cover were not chewed and these five love to chew! But most of all it was just sad to see these 5 wild cats in such cramped unnatural conditions. The owners obviously loved the cats and had planned on them being a part of their life, they’d constructed a caged area with a drain in the floor so they could clean more easily and shut them off into the area when they had company or weren’t in the house. The cats weren’t living in filthy conditions, it was obvious they’d been fed as they all looked overweight, the owners recounted stories of them playing on pool tables and with their air hockey game, but it didn’t change the fact that their ignorance had led to the cats living on concrete in these dungeon like settings for over a decade….

 

Of course, life has lots of surprises and circumstances change and the owners are now unable to afford or house the servals any longer…

 

So the rescue began…

 

With the help of the owners, we managed to get four of the five servals into the carriers quite easily, but Doodles wasn’t impressed with these strangers invading his territory and wouldn’t go into the carrier even after we tried using food

Big Cat Rescue could have been Zanesville 

 

Big Cat Rescue could have been Zanesville and it could happen any where.  For years to come people are going to be asking you if the Zanesville massacre was a freak event or if it could happen again.  While the following are not stories I want you sharing, I think it is important for you to understand just how dangerous it is to allow the private sector to keep dangerous wild animals, no matter how well intended the people may be.

 

My previous husband Don wasn't always crazy.  He was always a bit eccentric, thus the passion for collecting boats, planes and later big cats; but it wasn't until 1997 that he showed signs of clear dementia and was finally diagnosed as being bi-polar.  Sundari was born in 1996 and Don sneaked her off the property one day to take her out to yard sales with him to show off.  The reason people get big cats is because they want to show off.  Sundari never would walk on a leash, but rather did a great impression of the Winnie the Pooh character, Tigger, as she bounced endlessly and often over his head, as he would try to walk her.  Apparently he grew tired of her pouncing, biting and flipping out and put her in the van while he walked the neighborhood yard sale.

 

He didn't want her to get hot though, so he left the windows down.  It kind of gives you a sense for just how crazy he had become that he thought a full grown leopard would just sit in the van with the windows down.  I was at home and started getting calls from people saying there was a leopard running loose in their neighborhood.  I didn't know Don had taken her off property so I thought the first caller was hallucinating, but when there was a pattern in the same neighborhood, I began to wonder what the heck was going on.  Somehow Don managed to recapture her and came home and told me all about their adventures for the day and the calls began to make sense.

 

I began locking all of the dangerous cat cages.  It may interest you to know that there is still no state or federal requirement that there be locks on cages.  Don had a fit that I was locking him out of the cages so I made a HUGE ring of keys for him that really didn't open anything.  The ring was bigger than the one I carry now and I explained to him that every cage had to have a different key.  What I was counting on was that if he began trying to unlock a cage one of the volunteers, staff or I would catch him and divert his attention to something else.  He was obviously a danger to himself, to the cats and to the public.

 

This worked for a while, but sometimes he would get frustrated and just take bolt cutters to the cage.  You have surely noticed that there are squares cut out, all over the cages, that are big enough for a person to fit through, that have since been patched, but many of these were Don's handiwork.  Although I was taking him to specialists and trying to figure out what was wrong with him, the fact is that it is almost impossible to protect someone from their own mental deterioration unless they do something criminal.  Back in 1997 it wasn't criminal to take your leopard out for a walk in a neighborhood on a leash.  Any of you who are caring for elderly parents know how hard it was to get their car keys away from them.  Imagine if they owned 100+ dangerous predators how hard it would be to keep them out of trouble.

 

The fact of the matter is that the only people who hoard dangerous animals in their back yards are those who aren't normal to begin with.  When they finally go off the deep end tragedies like Zanesville are inevitable.  The only way to prevent such travesties is to ban the private possession of wild animals outside of accredited zoos and accredited sanctuaries so that there is someone, other than the government, making sure that things don't get out of hand.

 

Photo circa 1996 of Carole holding Sundari Leopard.  We do not display photos of people touching cats after 2004.

Zanesville Timeline

10/18/

DesPurrado Bobcat Dies It seems like it is always raining when we have to euthanize a cat and today was no exception. DesPurrado has been battling renal failure as well as dealing with thyroid issues for a long time, and with a change in meds recently we saw great improvement and had hoped he would be able to have a little longer with us. We always supply supportive care for as long as a cat has the will to live, and we try to watch the cat closely for signs that they are telling us that it is "time." Just a few days ago, DesPurrado was chasing lizards and showing his usual zeal for life, but when he refused his favorite meal in the whole world - whole prey rat, we knew he was giving up. On Wednesday, he didn't even get up to come for his rat, even though rat night is the highlight of his existence. At dinner time, even cats who are great buddies by day will threaten each other viciously over their favorite treats. Little Dove would ordinary grab her rat and run, but this week when she saw that DesPurrado wasn't feeling well enough to come get his, she sweetly carried her prize over to him and offered it up. He seemed to appreciate the gesture, but did not feel like eating it. Yesterday, when a bunch of us were in Moses and Bailey's cage next door; that would have been of the utmost interest to curious cats like DesPurrado, but he just laid in the grass, staring off into space. Where ever he was going, he was already on his way. Jamie and I decided to see if he would eat Thursday night, but he wouldn't and he refused his meds in favorite treats. We knew he would never get better, but had hoped to give him a quality of life worth living for a little longer. Like his response to Little Dove, he seemed to appreciate the gesture, but he was ready to go. Not wanting to make his last moments here those of being put into a carrier and carted to the vet, I asked if Dr. Wynn would come to his home today to help him cross over into whatever is waiting next for him. Jennifer helped and we all sat with him in the rain as he drifted away. They noted the huge and gorgeous butterfly that floated about his enclosure, in between the downpours. I wonder who had come to guide him on? Could it be Hercules or Catera who were living in my bedroom with him and Cleo-cat-tra bobcat back in 1997? Or Windsong coming to gather him back into her "pride" and the realm of the unknown? I don't know, but I do know that we will miss him and his great love of life. Tribute to Esmerelda Serval My favorite memory of Esmerelda was captured in a photo that I haven't seen in a while. It was long before digital images so it may not have ever been scanned. We had just built a big enclosure on the lake bank that was fenced on three sides and then extended far out into the water so that she could swim. The lake bank was steep and tiered in flowers and plants to prevent erosion. Esmerelda stood on the bank over looking the lake and her unfettered view of the land beyond. While there was a fence in the lake to keep her contained, she could stand on the bank and look out over the top of it and perhaps pretend that it was not there. She manifested all that is regal; all that is powerful and all that is capable of seeing a better future than the current reality. 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

Why We Quit Breeding in 1997

What most of you probably do know is that PurrFection and PurrSistence the ocelots were litter mates who were born here in 1996.  What you may not know is why.

 

Back then we believed zoos and breeders who said that ocelots are endangered and should be bred for conservation purposes.  AZA zoos were starting up something called the Brazilian Ocelot Project and member zoos were purportedly paying $3,000 to Brazil for each ocelot they took from the wild there to be part of this breeding program.  Their goal was to breed ocelots in zoos and send some of them to TX to re-establish the populations that had been wiped out by hunters.

 

We had healthy ocelots already and wanted to do our part to re-establish these lost TX populations and did not want cats to be taken from the wild, so we offered to help.  What was soon discovered by the zoos though is that ocelots have regional instincts.  In Central and South America ocelots eat snakes because most of them are non poisonous.  When these ocelots were released into TX they went after rattlesnakes, and the project was over almost instantly upon release.

 

That's why PurrFection and PurrSistence still live here and part of why we quit breeding.  Even with the smaller species of wild cats, there is too much risk in trying to breed for release when the real answer is in protecting habitat and enabling native populations to rebound.  You will hear a lot of nonsense by tiger breeders these days claiming they are breeding for conservation.  Now that the US Fish & Wildlife Service is about to rescind the generic tiger loophole, the bad guys are getting even more outrageous by claiming that they are breeding extinct species of tigers and that their tigers are purebred.  This is not true.  The only purebred tigers who can be used in Species Survival Plans are in AZA accredited zoos but even then, there is no legitimate release program for captive bred big cats.

 

I thought you might also find interesting some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes here involving exotic cats that your hard work is helping to save, even though you may never see the cats.

 

What prompted me thinking about the ocelots was a recent request we got from a woman who was upset that an AZA zoo was keeping an ocelot in a tiny, barren, indoor cell and breeding her every year for more kittens to put in cages.  The reason she was not allowed to be outside where the public could see her is because when she was born her father reached her from under the fence, pulled her into his cage and chewed her leg off.  Not wanting to lose a potential kitten machine, but not wanting to answer the public as to why she was missing a leg, this ocelot was kept in solitary confinement.  She was apparently so traumatized by the events that she would try to kill potential mates, so they bred her using artificial insemination.  We offered to take her.  The zoo didn't want the cat to go to a sanctuary so they quieted the complainant by giving the ocelot some outdoor space.  It's not a very happy ending, but better than the life she's had.

 

Since the last newsletter there have been several cases where people have reported bobcat and cougar sightings.  One was a mother bobcat trying to get her kitten across a busy 4 lane highway in Lakeland.  We drove out to make sure no one got killed.

 

Someone in AZ found a baby bobcat who had been left for two days by her mother as the people stayed back and watched for her return.  After a storm nearly drowned her they decided the mother wasn't coming back, brought her in and began searching for a local rehabber.  No one was calling her back and every where she turned Big Cat Rescue appeared as the authority on rehabbing bobcats so she called us.  We talked her through the emergency care and who to contact at the AZ Dept. of Wildlife to find a rehabber to help make sure this little one ends up back in the wild, where she belongs.

 

Another bobcat sighting was in th

7 Tigers Get a 3rd Chance

Today I’d like to tell you about seven tigers who are getting a third chance at life thanks to you.  In 1996 a couple was lured into a tiger breeding facility where the owner had convinced herself and those who visited that she was breeding tigers for the purpose of saving them from extinction.  There are no legitimate breeding programs sending tigers back to the wild and no reason to breed tigers in captivity as they breed very easily and their populations bounce right back as soon as they have protected forests with plentiful food.  This couple took several photos of themselves with the cubs back in 1996 but I don’t know if they had any ongoing contact with the facility.

 

By 2003 the breeder was in way over her head and had somewhere between 24 and 50 tigers living in filthy, over crowded conditions.  No one cared or did anything about it until a tiger was shot roaming the neighborhood.  Wild Animal Orphanage agreed to take the tigers and the International Fund for Animal Welfare agreed to help fund the transportation.  24 tigers went to WAO in 2003.  I don’t know why news reports listed 50 tigers, what happened to them, or if they just didn’t know how many were there.  The problem is that no one tracks tigers.

 

Fast forward to 2010 and the Wild Animal Orphanage’s board, led by the daughter of the husband and wife founders (Carol Asvestas),  decided to throw her parents off the property and off the payroll.  There were allegations of fraud, and the Attorney General was involved, but I don’t know the details.  By the fall of 2010 the board decided they were not going to be able to keep the facility going and they contacted the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries to help them place 400 animals, mostly tigers and primates.  We agreed to take all of the bobcats, lynx and cougars, but they had already sent the bobcats and lynx elsewhere and only had 4 cougars.

 

Jamie and Justin drove to San Antonio to see about picking up the cougars and were turned away by the staff who said that they didn’t want to get involved in “politics.”  Whatever that meant.  The number of cats there varied wildly.  Staff originally told us there were 200 tigers, then they said there were 75 tigers then 50 something.  The facility went into bankruptcy and WAO dissolved and there have been many lawsuits and counter suits and now there are two or three women and a man who are taking care of 200 primates and the remaining 28 tigers.

 

Meanwhile, the couple who had taken photos of the cubs back in 1996 had set out on a quest to find the tigers they had known so many years ago.  They knew the tigers had gone to WAO and knew WAO was in trouble.  They wanted to make sure that these tigers didn’t end up being bounced around from failing facility to failing facility...or worse.  In their research they discovered that Big Cat Rescue and the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in TX were the only accredited sanctuaries that house tigers.  The husband, who wishes to remain anonymous, came to Big Cat Rescue last month to check us out.

 

I gave him a tour and found him to be very knowledgeable about the the plight of captive cats.  He told me that they were trying to find the cats they knew, but were having trouble getting anyone to return their calls.  

 

(This paragraph is from the future ((7/10/2021)) because it was pretty funny, but probably not recorded anywhere)  The man had scheduled a $700 Founder Tour, but I had been called away and my husband offered to take the tour.  The man insisted it had to be Carole Baskin.  That made people nervous because animal abusers had made many threats against my life and this guy was acting pretty sketchy.  I managed to rearrange my schedule to meet with him and the volunteers sequestered him in the backyard tour waiting area, so I could get a look at him to see if he was a known threat.  He looked to be about 80 years old, tall, thin and frail, so I decided that if he was an assas

Response to Notary Board Complaint Presumably Filed by Bobbi Corona

I would like some evidence that Bobbi Corona actually filed this complaint because it is not signed and the person responsible for the bulk of these kinds of frivolous attacks is Joe Schreibvogel who operates under a number of aliases.  I suspect that he is actually the one to have filed this complaint.  He has filed numerous other false complaints with the USDA, the Florida Wildlife Commission, the EPA and other state agencies.

 

It is a slanderous assertion by the complainant to suggest that my parents "have a record of IRS misdealings" or that "It has long been suspected that Carole Baskin has been frauding the public."  It is this last line that leads me to believe that this complaint was actually penned by Joe Schreibvogel because it is typical of his poor grasp of grammar and spelling and a phrase he often uses in his ranting.

 

It is also untrue to assert that real estate holdings are funneled through non profits.  The fact of the matter is that I had real estate that I donated to the non profit, Big Cat Rescue, so that it could provide the income needed in the early years of the sanctuary to feed and maintain 100+ big cats.  I put the land, rental properties and mortgages into trusts so that they would pass through my estate to the sanctuary.  I do not benefit from any of the properties that I have put in trust for the sanctuary and have not drawn a paycheck from the non profit.

 

The reason these attacks are being made is because I have been very successful in lobbying for laws to end the abuse and trade in big cats as pets, props and for their parts.  The largest contributing factor to the thousands of lions and tigers who are now being kept in basements, backyards and warehouses across America is from the exploitation of cubs who are trotted out to malls, flea markets and fairs for use as photo and petting props.  Our campaign to end this abuse has outraged those who make their living from such abuse.

 

Now, as to the specific complaints:  Perhaps I am misunderstanding the intent of the law, but I have understood this section to mean that  I could notarize a parent or child's signature in the course of business in which I was employed as long as doing so was not deriving a financial benefit to me.  I am self employed in the real estate business and employed by Big Cat Rescue as the CEO, although I take no pay or benefit from my role there.  I have been the CEO or President since its creation in 1995 and have never been paid by the non profit and never derived a financial benefit from the organization.  I donated my home and the 40 acres it was on to the non profit and moved off property so that it would be clear that I was not benefitting from the sanctuary.  I have arranged these in chronological order as it will make more sense to see the actual flow of transactions.

 

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.