2011-08-22 Carole Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

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 assassin, I could take him. I put him on a golf cart and started my usual tour talk about how we started and he cut me off and said, “Just show me the tigers.” I asked, “Why are you really here?” He confessed his search for these tigers he had known, but said every where he went they shut him down and wouldn’t tell him anything. I asked for the names of the cats he was looking for and he gave me a list. I called the person managing the placement of cats in the bankruptcy and asked if those names were on their list and they were. Now back to the 2011 recording of the story.

I contacted IFAW and asked for the names of the tigers who had been rescued in 2003 and photos. IFAW and WAO staff graciously provided these to us and Jamie began the long, tedious process of comparing stripe patterns.

The problem was that in some of the photos from 1996 only a corner of a face was visible where cubs were playing and piled up on each other. If the tiger photos that were emailed to us were not that exact same ¼ of the face, it was impossible to know if they were the same cats. On the trip back from taking Able the Cougar to NV, Jamie, Gale and Honey visited WAO to take more photos of the seven cats who had been rescued together in that group of 24 tigers back in 2003.

Jamie was able to find absolute and probable matches on 6 of the 7 tigers. The couple who had known the cubs back in 1996 agreed to help rescue and support all 7 tigers so that they could stay together in groups of three and four. Their 3 favorite cubs (who are now 15 yrs old) will be coming here so they can visit more often and the other 4 will go to another good facility. Because of the bankruptcy court involvement, and those who hate us getting in the middle of this and the transportation issues, this rescue is taking a while to bring about. We are racing against the clock though because the bankruptcy court is taking possession of the property next month and don’t want the tigers there.

The tigers who will be coming here are Misha, Apotha and Andre (Later renamed by the donors to Amanda, Arthur and Andre) and they will live together in the four tiger Cat-a-Tats that you guys have been joining together in the outback. To keep the BCR haters out of the process we have to be very guarded, so only the info on this page is to be shared: http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/tiger-rescue-2/

Now you have the chance to end the generic tiger loophole that has enabled the abuse that leads to so many tigers ending up in peril. http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=53173501

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.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.