It seems like a decade since Tiger King took the world by storm but one of its most notable subjects is about to close up shop. Carole Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue, who was featured prominently throughout the series, has announced she will close her sanctuary. In a post on their official blog, Big Cat Rescue confirmed that “most of Big Cat Rescue’s cats” will move to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an accredited sanctuary in Arkansas. The closure by Baskin and her husband Howard is noted as being primarily because the number of animals in their care has gone down, and that most of their focus as a rescue for the past few years has been making sure that the the Big Cat Public Safety Act was passed by congress.
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Featured in the Tiger King series, the Big Cat Public Safety Act was finally passed in 2022. This legislation now prohibits the possession of tigers, lions, and other big cat species except by qualified entities. It also ends “the unsafe and unethical use of big cats and their cubs for commercial photo-ops, petting, and activities that undermine animal care and welfare, encourage exploitation, and incentivize unscientific breeding for strictly commercial reasons.” This practice, known as “the cub petting industry” and which is seen first hand in Tiger King, will come to a standstill.
Big Cat Rescue writes in their post, “We believe that the BCPSA ending the cub petting and phasing out private ownership will eliminate 90% of the mistreatment experienced by big cats in captivity. Hopefully the growing public awareness of the plight of big cats will, over time, take away the market for these remaining activities and end them that way.”
They add, “When Big Cat Rescue was founded 30 years ago, the 67 acres that Big Cat Rescue occupies now was rural. Today it is surrounded by development. In contrast, Turpentine Creek sits on 450 acres in an area where expansion even beyond that is possible. Because Turpentine Creek already has the fixed infrastructure in place to house its existing 80 big cats, once enclosures are built, adding 30 or so more cats only adds the variable costs of keeper care, food, and medical care. This means donor funds are used much more efficiently by consolidating the cats at Turpentine Creek.”
Why didn’t Carole Baskin return for Tiger King 2?
Despite that positive development hidden within the sequel series, Baskin herself did not make an appearance in Tiger King 2, and even attempted to sue Netflix to stop its release.
“My family would absolutely not have participated at all if they knew that we were going to be betrayed that way,” Baskin previously told ComicBook.com. “But I feel like everything happens for the good, and that even though it was really hard to live through so much of that right after Tiger King because people were so misled, they felt like they had the absolute right to make things right because they thought that I was this horrible person that should be brought to justice and that Joe should be freed.”
What do you think of this new update surrounding the whereabouts of Carole Baskin’s ex-husband? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
