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TAMPA, Fla. – Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue sanctuary is not going to be what it once was in the Netflix “Tiger King” documentaries, as it is merging with a wildlife refuge based in Arkansas this year.

The rescue said Monday that it is preparing to move most of its cats to the Arkansas accredited sanctuary Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. Baskin’s husband, Howard, also shared in the news release that they will sell their Tampa, Florida, property when there are no cats left.

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“For thirty years the mission of Big Cat Rescue has been expressed as having three prongs: to give the best life we could to the cats in our care, to stop the abuse, and to avoid extinction of big cats in the wild. For those same 30 years we have always said that our goal was to ‘put ourselves out of business,’ meaning that there would be no big cats in need of rescue and no need for the sanctuary to exist,” the news release reads.

Howard Baskin is 72. Carole Baskin is 62, the release said.

Looking ahead, Big Cat Rescue said its cat population has “becoming increasingly geriatric” and they’ve had cats die, going from 200 a few decades ago to 41 now.

In the news release Howard also outlined that costs for the animals’ upkeep and real estate are also factors for the merger.

“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,” the release reads. “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.”

Big Cat Rescue said it plans to house its famous tigers first in Arkansas and then bring in other smaller cats and those with medical issues next. The news release also noted the wildlife refuge will eventually have access to livestreaming and the facility is open to the public for tours.

Howard Baskin said Big Cat Rescue has heavily focused on federal legislation in recent years to advocate for the animals.

“During the eleven years that it took to get the (Big Cat Public Safety Act) passed, due to our efforts and the effort of others, this cub petting industry gradually declined. In particular, some of the ‘stars’ of the Netflix series ‘Tiger King’ have fallen from the sky, so to speak. Largely as a result of Big Cat Rescue’s efforts, Joe ‘Exotic’ Schreibvogel and his successor Jeff Lowe no longer have big cats. Lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act brought by PETA and action by the USDA, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Department of Justice and efforts of other animal welfare organizations shut down others.

“Getting a federal bill passed is incredibly difficult. In the 2021-2 two-year session of Congress, only 2% of the bills that were introduced passed. We spent 11 years and an enormous amount of time and money slowly but steadily building support for the bill in Congress, session after session, until it finally passed and was signed into law on December 20, 2022.

“The BCPSA does two simple but critical things. First, it ends the cub petting, putting the final nail in the coffin of this abusive industry. Second, it phases out private ownership in backyards by people who do not have a USDA Exhibitor’s license. Facilities that allow the public to visit must have this license. The cats currently owned by these unlicensed individuals as of December 20th are “grandfathered in,” meaning the owners can keep them. But these private owners are forbidden by the law from breeding or acquiring more cats. The penalties in the law are severe, including up to five years in prison for each violation. What this means, importantly, is that over the next decade almost all of this privately held population of cats will pass away. Within a few years after that they will all be gone and there will be no more cats living in miserable conditions in backyards.

“There will still be some ‘roadside’ zoos and circuses which, despite regulation by USDA, will have cats in conditions we view as inhumane. But 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. The closing of the Ringling Circus is a strong indication that this will happen. With the exception of a few diseases that have been conquered, like polio, there are not many nonprofits who can say that they solved the problem they were formed to address. We have come very close.”

Howard Baskin ended the announcement with this: “We hope that the donors whose generosity has made it possible for us to accomplish so much over the last 30 years will help us fund this transition that is a win-win in terms of supporting our cats in larger enclosures at lower cost while allowing us to do more to save big cats in the wild from extinction. To help us fund the new homes for our cats at Turpentine Creek please visit BigCatRescue.org/TC.”

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