2014-10-16 Carole Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

French Big Cat Documentary

Letter from Susan.Bass to me and Mathieu: Hi, Mathieu. Thank you for reaching out to us for your documentary. I've copied Big Cat Rescue's founder Carole Baskin as she will know how often we are called to rescue cats and has more knowledge than almost anyone in the U.S. about big cats.

The issue of private owners having big cats as pets is still a big one in the U.S. We continue to work on Federal legislation that would phase out the private ownership of big cats with just a few exceptions such as GFAS-accredited sanctuaries like Big Cat Rescue and AZA-accredited zoos. If you're not familiar with our pending bill before Congress -- the Big Cats & Public Safety Protection Act -- I can give you more info. One website with good info is www.StopBigCatAbuse.com.

When we are called upon to rescue cats, we usually take video footage at the rescue site of the deplorable conditions the cats were living in, and then more footage of them arriving and adjusting to their new lives at our sanctuary. Perhaps you could use some of our video. There are no statistics on how many people are trying to buy tigers. Our government doesn't even track how many are currently owned by private owners. We can only estimate between 5,000 and 10,000 big cats are currently in the hands of private owners. We do know that hundreds of tiger cubs are bred each year in this country; but again it's impossible to really track what happens to them.

On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 10:25 AM, Mathieu BENOIST wrote:

Hello, I'm a french journalist working for the main chanel in France TF1. I'm working on a documentary about big cats in the US the idea is to show the problems caused by owners who wrongly thought that big cats would make good pets.

I'd like to know :

• is it still a big issue ? How could we show it?

• Is there lots of people still trying to buy tigers as pets ?

• Where do they buy them ?

• How often people are calling you because the want to get rid of a big cat ?

In this documentary we'd also like to show how big cats are Abused by owners in order to force them to perform. Thank you for your help. Best regards, Mathieu BENOIST Journaliste

My letter to Mathieu: Hello Matthieu, is it still a big issue? Yes.

How could we show it? That is pretty hard to do because most people have figured out that the general public thinks it is cruel to keep big cats in basements, garages and back yard jail cells. Most won't let you in. Some sanctuaries will let you in, but most of the overcrowded, underfunded places aren't going to let you in for the same reasons. You could come here, but our cages are 10 times or more larger than most and our cats have a great life, so it really doesn't show how horrific the problem is.

Is there lots of people still trying to buy tigers as pets? The problem isn't that there are a lot of people out looking to buy a tiger. The problem is that there are a lot of people who will pay to pet a tiger cub, or to swim with a tiger cub, or to have their photo with a tiger cub, or to see cute cubs on display.

They don't stay small and cute very long, so the abusers are constantly breeding or buying more, but taking care of an adult tiger costs $10,000 a year, so the abusers will often give away their juvenile cubs, who have outgrown their cute stage, to unwitting people who think that just because they can walk that cub on a leash today, they will still be able to do it a year from now. When the cat is about a year old and over 200 lbs is when those owners often start looking for a sanctuary.

Sadly there are pseudo sanctuaries, like Tiger Haven, in my opinion, that has 300 tigers, who let the same bad actors breed cubs each year and then dump them straight onto them. When we take a big cat we make the owners sign a contract that they will never possess another wild cat, but most sanctuaries don't take that precaution and are just enabling bad behavior.

Where do they buy them? We think two of the biggest suppliers of cubs are GW Zoo in Wynnewood, OK and T.I.G.E.R.S. in Myrtle Beach, SC, but it is nearly impossible to prove. USDA asks for a census, but it is up to the owner to say how many cats they have, because no one really counts them.

How often people are calling you because the want to get rid of a big cat? 2003 was the worst year. We had to turn away 312 big cats, but that same year a federal law passed that made it illegal to sell a big cat, over state lines, as a pet. Since then nearly a dozen states have passed bans on possession of big cats so the number we have to turn away is decreasing. Now the largest problem are all of these pseudo sanctuaries that fail after taking in more big wild animals than they can afford.

In this documentary we'd also like to show how big cats are Abused by owners in order to force them to perform. You are never going to see this because training is done behind closed doors and the abusers know that the public would put an end to their trade if they ever saw what they really do to train big cats. You can see the tricks they use to make the cats think that they have the electric prods in the circus ring though. These prods are usually a couple feet long and they wrap them with ribbons, so the cat knows that if they don't do the trick, they will zap the cat and sometimes even shove the hot-shot down the cat's throat. In the circus ring they carry a stick, wrapped with the same kinds of ribbons, usually in a back pocket, and whips in their hands, to make the cat think they still have the cruel instrument of torture on them.

Attached is a list of the tigers we know of, but it doesn't include pet tigers, because no one counts them.

Remember: “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” Albert Einstein

Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue

Author of Big Cat Care - How to Start a Sanctuary

Celebrating 21 Years (1992-2014) of Caring for cats ♥ Ending the trade

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