In this interview of Carole Baskin by a presenter at WINK news, she speaks eloquently and fluently about her passion, which is to phase out private ownership of tigers in the USA and to end cub handling. She wants to achieve this through her Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA). She has campaigned tirelessly for this important legislation. She presents as a smart and impressive person. As I understand it, it is all her own work to change the law about private tiger ownership in the USA. Of course, her bill has been supported by Senators and other lawmakers to push it through the federal legislature but I believe that Carole Baskin had the idea for the act.
It is an extension of her work at Big Cat Rescue. Big Cat Rescue is a reactive organisation in that it rescues big cats and other wild cats from abusive environments. She clearly realised that the better course of action would be to take proactive steps to prevent the kinds of situations which result in the need to rescue wild cats. Hence this important legislation which I personally very much hope becomes law. She asks people to lobby their representatives to carry this bill through to enactment.
She mentions a website BigCatAct.com where you can support this legislation. I have to say, sadly, that I can’t find this website. Not, in any case, at the date of this post. However, below is a fact sheet about this bill and below that is a short oral description of what it does. And you can see the legislation by clicking on this link.
Carole believes that the tiger will become extinct in the wild in 5 years unless her legislation passes and becomes law. That is probably an exaggeration but the point is well made: humankind needs a new approach to their relationship with the tiger. One not of possession and abuse but of genuine conservation in giving them space and habitat in which to thrive.
Click this to read about the Big Cat Public Safety Act written by Carole Baskin and her team BCPSA-HR-263-S-TBD-Factsheet.
Click the audio file player below to hear what the BCPSA does. It is a very short introduction provided by the US legislature.
Below are some more pages featuring Carole Baskin.
