I made a post about Big Cat Rescue (BCR) 9 months ago. I said I admired the work of Carole Baskin (formerly Carole Lewis) the founder. BCR was called Wildlife on Easy Street (WOES). I have been constructively criticised recently about this post. I am pleased to be corrected when I am wrong. It has given me the motivation to look again at Big Cat Rescue and make my own decision as to whether the allegations that Carole Baskin lies are true. I will try to be as neutral and as objective as possible.
THERE ARE MANY COMMENTS ON THIS PAGE IN TWO SECTIONS. THEY MAKE INTERESTING READING. PLEASE SCROLL WELL DOWN TO SEE THEM.
The Allegations
- A host of allegations are on this page of this site: rexano.org – link broken to specific webpage April 2013
- BCR don’t rescue cats they buy healthy cats and breed them (src: http://web.archive.org/web/20091126013220/http://www.wildliferescueandrehab.org:80/learnthetruth/index.html (broken link) and http://www.metacafe.com ) and then make money from them.
- BCR has suffered 10 USDA violations in April 1999 (src: as immediately above)
- BCR had a litter of cougars born on their property in 2001 (src: http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Big.Cat.Rescue.Corp.813-920-4130/review/list).
Looking at some of the Allegations
I’ll look at some of the allegations from the link in the first numbered bullet (rexano.org – link broken to specific webpage April 2013) as this is the best prepared page containing allegations of deceitfulness and therefore the most likely to be true. I will address the first 5 allegations on the linked page above in the order presented.
- Carole Baskin writes “stupid” letters to the neighbours of people who keep dangerous animals under license to warn them of potential problems if they escape etc.. Comment: a copy of the letter is shown. On the face of it, it is true that she sent the letters. But is it silly or stupid in an absolute sense? No. It might be stupid to the author criticizing and it might seem a bit too forceful to some people but to others it might seem very appropriate. This seems to be a bit of mud slinging from someone who does not like Carole Baskin and her operation. I feel I should say that a lot of people want to possess exotoc wild cats and hybrids for various reasons (status?) but find that they are hard to keep. They don’t have the abilities or facilities. There have been many serval escapes as one example.
- Snow leopards were bought by BCR as pets or breeders (in 1998?). Two invoices and a newsletter are produced as supporting evidence. Comment: These animals were on the face of it bought as stated. They were however, bought from another wildlife sanctuary, MacCarthy’s Wildlife Sanctuary, a non-profit 501-(c)-3-wildlife rehabilitation facility licensed by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal Welfare Act, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior. McCarthy’s are a rescue sanctuary (see this page: http://www.mccarthyswildlife.com/about.html). This would then appear to be a transfer of rescue cats from one sanctuary to another. It could be argued that it should be a free transfer because BCR has to take on the upkeep. One of the cats, Hercules, is stated as being a gift from Don Lewis to his wife. Is it possible to give a gift of a wild cat to a wild cat rescuer and rescue a cat at the same time? It seems the answer must be, yes. Is is possible for the founder of a cat rescue operation to treat one of the cats in her charge as a pet? It would seem, yes. Is breeding captive wildcats contrary to wild cat rescue generally? No, this is now the norm it seems (and in any event BCR claim not to breed from Hercules). Also BCR say that Hercules was rescued because he was surplus to the survival plan of this cat species as declared by someone else.
- Another allegation is that BCR are calling their pet Snow Leopards ‘surplus to the Species Survival Plan‘. Comment: I think that Rexano simply got this wrong. BCR are saying, as mentioned above, that these cats were considered surplus by other sanctuary (McCarthy’s?). They claim to have rescued them from getting into the hands of unscrupulous breeders.
- The next allegation is that BCR had a video on YouTube showing how they bred wild cats and traded them etc. Comment: The video referred to has been removed, “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Carole Baskin .” The allegation in any event would not seem to be automatically contrary to cat rescue.
- BCR is no longer (at 28th April 2008) a charity accredited by BBB because they mishandled complaints and they cannot use the BBB seal. Comment: The three complaints that they dealt with were answered on the BCR website. BCR criticised the complaints as false. This did not meet the standard of BBB. This is standard no. 20. There are 20 standards and the remaining 19 were passed by BCR. The seal is voluntary by the way. BCR are not seal holders (as at Nov 2009). BCR is listed on the BBB website (Nov 2009 – http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/#B). The list is of “enrolled charities”. The BB Wise Giving report expires Oct 2009. I presume that this means that the problem expires too.
Is Big Cat Rescue a Sham? No, not on this evidence. OK to recap the above. I do not see malpractice or evidence that tells me that Big Cat Rescue is anything other than stated:
Stated Purpose: “to provide a good home for the limited number of cats that the sanctuary can afford to take in … and reduce the number of cats that suffer the fate of abandonment and abuse by educating as many people as possible about the conditions that lead to the plight of these animals. ” (BBB website – this page)
What I do see is some mud slinging. This is probably because Carole Baskin is a forceful women who has made some enemies. Although controversial, I think it fair to say that there may also be a sexist problem. Some men and women don’t like women who behave like men.
She has certainly alienated wild cat hybrid breeders because she is firmly against the practice. She has tended to be too outspoken against wild cat hybrids and made generalizations about them which have on occasions been misconstrued and which have not furthered her cause. But these are simply her views and she is entitled to declare them on her website. Alone, a declaration of a deep distaste of wild cat hybrid breeding is not sufficient to say that Carole Baskin is a liar and runs a sham of an operation.
I welcome comments. But please, comments should be supported by sound evidence if critical.
Jo Singer
It’s funny that you use BCR as a source of information when they have been caught in so many lies. Anyway, my acquaintance conducted a poll on many sanctuaries and it takes a yearly average of $4,000 to care for one cat. Half of what BCR says which isn’t surprising.
About food, in this country nonprofits can get meat donated for free, and most do. Beef, chicken, turkey, all free for the asking, and many sanctuaries work together to pick up and distribute meat. Since they have many die hard supporters like you they must be receiving a lot of donated goods.
About veterinary care, many vets give nonprofit sanctuaries discounted services and not to mention BCR does have volunteer vets so shouldn’t that save quite a lot of money as well? http://bigcatrescue.org/about/our-staff/#Volunteer_Vet_Staff
As for enrichment, I guess throwing christmas trees, boxes, and pinatas really is expensive….
As for construction, they used to have 140 cats and many other animals and they are now down to less than 100 animals so why would they spend money on building new cages when they have many empty cages? I do wonder why Carole asks for donations when she is a multimillionaire.
Really? You think repairing their cheaply made enclosures would be expensive?
Please stop trying to make excuses for them. When they had over 200 animals their expenses were less than $500,000 and now that they have less than 100 animals their expenses are over $2,000,000. How in the world does that make sense?
You toured their facility twice, good for you. So there is nothing exploitive going on? Not even the various tours they offer all year round from day to night? Why would a ‘sanctuary’ for abused animals offer Day Tours, Night tours, Kids Tours, Feed the Cat Tours, Private Tours, Keeper Tours, Photo Tours, Group Tours, Weddings, Parties, Field Trips, and Kids’ Camps? I thought the cats are supposed to find peace and not have tens of thousands of visitors gawking at them all year round. A lot of the cats don’t even get peace when they die since many of their cats were taken to a taxidermist to preserve their remains so they can be displayed in a museum she made in the Lion Party Pavilion. Not even PETA supports the money grubbing tours (commercial activity) at BCR.
“While it appears that direct contact between visitors and the animals has been eliminated, the cats are still subjected to daily tours, during which visitors encroach upon the animals’ feeding times, as well as shows that display the “operant conditioning” used to train the cats. (…) As you can see, there is much work to be done. Please write a polite note asking that Big Cat Rescue close to the public and spend every minute attending to the complex needs of the animals it keeps:” – PETA
Accredited? BCR wasn’t even an accredited sanctuary by The Association of Sanctuaries since they didn’t meet all the standards for one. The GFAS is an animal rights controlled ‘accrediting’ club. They have board and staff members from the HSUS and other RR organizations. BCR gave the HSUS $25,000 to become a diamond level sponsor for them which I assume was a waste of money since the HSUS had to pay over $10,000,000 in a racketeering lawsuit.
A two week vacation how nice. It’s too bad the big cats have to wait almost an entire year for another turn which they might not be able to get. It’s even worse for the smaller cats because they will have to wait longer than a year for a turn. I feel bad for the cats that are last in line.
No garbage, mudslinging, or lies here, just facts. If you want more information just visit my site. http://beyondthinking.weebly.com/big-cat-rescue-formerly-wildlife-on-easy-street.html
I’m not questioning the quality of care the cats receive, I’m questioning the lies told and the facts omitted to dupe the donors into paying for that care.
For instance, Carole posted a picture of Frosty the Serval today on Facebook. Nowhere in the description does she mention that he was born there of parents that were bought as breeders. There may be some folks who would choose not to donate their money for a cat Carole bought to breed, but Carole cleverly omits the facts. It’s not like many people ever do research.
Sources, USDA papers, 1997 Inventory, WOES Safari Guide
Frosty the Serval
Frosty was born at BCR of breeders Daisy and Mufasa
on 1/1/95 along with littermate Purrsonality. Mufasa
was bought at Lolli Bros Auction for $2000.Daisy was
purchased for $2200 from breeder John Aynes of OK.
Frosty, Purrsonality, Mufasa, and Daisy were not rescues.
Frosty was then bred to Nairobi, bought from a pet shop
for $1,000, to produce white servals Kongo and Tonga. A
white serval named Pharoah was also born at BCR in 1999.
Nairobi, Kongo, Tonga, and Pharoah were not rescues.
http://beyondthinking.weebly.com/the-changing-cat-stories.html
A person doesn’t have to visit BCR in person to tour their facility. Google maps offers that for free through their street view. You ask me if I have visited BCR. I ask you, have you read the information on my website? No intelligent person could view the truth and still insist this is an ethical operation.
Jo Singer,
Have you examined the evidence (green links) on Juan’s website? It is offensive to me to see the words Big Cat Rescue and ethical sanctuary in the same paragraph, so I suspect that you have not.
The garbage and mudslinging you speak of are actually legal documents, USDA papers, Newspaper and TV interviews, and first hand reports from people who actually lived and worked at BCR. Do you not want to know the truth about an organization before you donate?
True sanctuaries do not exhibit their exotic cats for money or claim that they rescued cubs that were then declawed and turned into a commercial enterprise, forced to sleep unsupervised with paying guests. They started with 144 of their own cats and when the B&B failed they simply converted them to rescues and changed their name. Would you call this ethical?
All in the past you say? They’ve changed you say? View the recent April 2014 video and listen carefully to the story Carole tells. Then click on the links in the rebuttal to see what she said in an interview in 2007. If she is transparent and upfront as she says she is, why is she lying…not 20 years ago, but in 2014!
Lies are not made true just because the majority of people believe them. Some just don’t know better, and some just don’t want to know better.
http://beyondthinking.weebly.com/big-cat-rescue-formerly-wildlife-on-easy-street.html
Thanks Ken. Did you read about the two week vacations the cats get on their new property site with a lake in which they can swim. It is awesome.
Oh, and before I forget (forgive me for posting so many comments. Juan, how many times have you visited the facility??
By the way Juan, it takes !0,000 annually PER CAT to be taken care of, fed, veterinary care, enrichment, etc. That doesn’t factor in the cost of running the facility either- the construction, repair, insurance etc.
So.. you go figure out how much it costs to run this facility- and wonder why Carole asks for donations?? Please give me a break.
I have been to Big Cat Rescue twice! I have seen nothing exploitive about this Sanctuary. There is nothing “off” about the work they are doing. This is an ACCREDITED facility- the largest in the world. Everything is done with the utmost of care, done correctly- and these cats are LOVED- enriched- even each cat has a two -week vacation on a huge protected area within the facility- out of their enclosures- to enjoy. All this garbage and mud-slinging is disgusting, in my opinion. This is a highly ETHICAL sanctuary where many things have changed over the years. Please stop posting these unfounded lies. It is unfair to the Sanctuary but mostly to the cats who are living there peacefully under excellent care.