Carole Baskin is closing down her Big Cat Rescue sanctuary that was featured in the Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, her husband Howard Baskin revealed in a memo.
“Big Cat Rescue has entered into an agreement with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an accredited sanctuary in Arkansas, to move most of Big Cat Rescue’s cats to Turpentine Creek where we will continue to fund their care for the rest of their lives,” read the memo posted on the Big Cat Rescue website.
Howard also stated that once all the cats are moved, “we will sell the sanctuary property and use the proceeds to fund these species-saving projects in the wild.”
The memo continued, “Supporting our cats in larger enclosures at Turpentine Creek, at much lower cost per cat than we incur by continuing to operate Big Cat Rescue, will free up resources to let us do much more to save big cats in the wild. Having ended most of the abuse of big cats via the [Big Cat Public Safety Act], focusing on the third prong of our mission, i.e., maximizing the amount we can donate to in situ projects to save the cats from extinction, is the best way to fulfill our mission and impact the most cats going forward.”
It was in 2021 when Congress passed the BCPSA bill that would ban unlicensed individuals to owning wild animals.
“With the passage of the BCPSA we expect the need for rescues to decline over the coming decade. If the need were going to continue at the pace we saw up until a few years ago, we would be making a different decision,” read the statement.
Howard also mentioned that it was “time to be thinking about a transition to younger management to bring new energy to the organization to allow the sanctuary to continue into perpetuity” citing his and Carole’s ages.
The memo also mentions that Big Cat Rescue will help fund the building of the enclosures at Turpentine Creek which “is expected to cost $1.8 million.
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge announced on their Facebook page that they “will be taking in 35 cats from Big Cat Rescue as part of our expansion plan, building a sustainable future for animals rescue.”
