Carole Baskins Diary

Who was this beautiful tabby? I drove to work today because I have an appointment with the the creative team at the mall about the space they are giving us.  I saw a cat in the road on Northbridge, so I pulled over to pick him up.  As I was digging around to find a bag and gloves (I carry for this specific purpose) I see a woman pull over on the other side of the road, where the cat laid.  She's screaming at people to slow down because we live in a Latin neighborhood and even though the speed limit is 30 I swear they are usually doing 60 through there.  I don't ever remember a time when someone else stopped to help.   She asked what I was going to do with the cat and I told her that I'm from Big Cat Rescue and that I'd see to it he was cremated with our other beloved cats who pass on.  She noticed that he looked like he'd just been hit, but he was in a huge pool of still wet blood and was definitely dead.  As I cradled him I noted how gorgeous his fur and what excellent condition he was in.  This was someone's beloved pet and probably had just escaped.  He was an intact male, so I'm guessing nature called to him and he made a run for it.  He had no idea what to expect out here.  Tonight someone may well be calling his name, but he won't respond and they will probably never know what happened.   Part of me thinks I should post his fate on a pole nearby, but part of me thinks that may be worse than not knowing.     Later in the day:  I sent this to Haley, Joyce and Patrick at the mall.   Great meeting you guys today and if helpful to your process, I'm happy to tour you around the sanctuary.  You can bring friends or family so you can observe how other's are impacted by the stories of the cats we've rescued.  My contact info is below and I'm here 7 days a week, so I usually only need a day's notice.   Our primary goal is to end cub petting, as that drives the vast majority of breeding, abusing and discarding of big cats.  None of the cats bred for this purpose serve any conservation value because they are all cross bred and inbred.  The latter is because of the public's fascination with white tigers which only comes from severe inbreeding.   The primary message we want to get across in this space is that cub petting, or paying to see cubs on display, is what is actually causing their extinction in the wild.  The cubs aren't taken from the wild.  They are all bred in captivity, but it is the glut of last year's cubs (about 200 per year conservatively) that stimulates demand for their parts, which results in more poaching for tigers in the wild.   This is our animated explainer video that cub petting is causing the extinction of the tiger: https://youtu.be/QFn8mwD757s   It's gotten about 15,000 views in the past 2 weeks on YouTube and 368,000 views on Facebook.  Reading the comments gives you some insight as to the effect it is having.  https://www.facebook.com/bigcatrescue/videos/2246856182261587/UzpfSTEwMDAxMjI3MTcxNDc1MTo2MjE0MzEzMjQ5NDI1ODY/?q=shocking%20truth%20about%20cub%20petting&epa=SEARCH_BOX   It's a tough message to get across without traumatizing animal lovers, but I think we've found the right balance in this piece to make the case.  Showcasing this video in a way that people can both see and hear it would make the best use of the space for our mission.   Our ultimate goal is that people stop paying to see and play with cubs so that places like Big Cat Rescue don't need to exist to clean up the mess.  Our federal bill will be re introduced soon as the Big Cat Public Safety Act, and I think it can pass this session.  It bans cub petting and private ownership of lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs and cougars. That will fix 99.9% of the problem.  Getting people to call their member of Congress is where we are focusing most of our attention at BigCatAct.com and I mentioned that we can make one of the coupons that appears on people's phones, after watching the VidPicAR app video, be "Text CATS to 52886" and it sends people down that path to making the call, but dialing the number for them and giving them a script to say.  Try it and you'll see what I mean.   If you go to ARzoo.me it redirects to our page at https://bigcatrescue.org/ar-zoo/ where you can use the VidPicAR app to look at the images on the page and see the videos that pop up.  It also explains how revolutionary this concept is and makes you guys the leaders in bringing it to the Americas.  We have created these two posters, for our onsite gift shop, that are 24 inches high and 43 inches wide.  That seems to be a pretty good size for a person standing in front of the image to be able to observe the video, even if more than one person is trying to do so at the same time.  That 16:9 aspect ratio for the poster also coincides with the optimal size and shape of the video.   We'd like to have 12 interactive posters.  They all use the same VidPicAR app.  It just plays a different video, based on the image the phone is pointed toward. Afton, our videographer is gathering footage for about 1 minute each, for each species, and we were thinking to do 12 (of 35) species of wild cats.  Because of the potential for overlap of sound, I was thinking to limit the audio on the species videos with just that cat's sounds and ambient noises (birds, splashing, paper tearing if the cat is playing with enrichment, etc.)  I like the idea of information signs, but one reason zoos are such pathetic places for learning is that less than 27% of visitors actually read the signs.  It may work better in this space as parents are just bored out of their minds while their kids play.  If you use the VidPicAR app to look at the Blue Apron image attached, you can see how we can make a window to an outside world in the graphic on the wall, or not, depending on how we want the video to load. (free floating or pinned in place).   As I walked into some of your other spaces, like MOSI, when it was open, I didn't know what I was supposed to do.  I didn't know if there was a fee to pay or some expectation, so I'd like it to be very clear to people that everything inside this space is free to do.  Maybe even tying it to the message like, "Everything here is free for you to experience, because all wild cats should live free."  Having it open all the time and created in a way that is hard to damage, would reach the most people possible.  I'm hiring someone to work weekends and maybe Friday nights.  When the space is manned, I'd like to offer people the chance to see our cats in 360 by trying on our six Oculus Go headsets.  (Only for people 13 and up according to Oculus' warning though) This will be free too.  We have dozens of great videos they can choose from a list and we are having a CGI tiger built right now for an even more immersive look at a tiger up close.  It should be ready by the time the space is.   This is screen grab of the main cub character from the animated video.  I can have the artist do more versions of him for the space if needed.   We would be willing to invest in a large screen TV and some of the decor to make the most of this space.  Below are a few vendors I've been looking at for bamboo trim, thatching, etc.  Most of the wild cat species are from tropical, forested climates.  Only the snow leopard, Canada lynx and Siberian lynx come from colder regions.  You can't go wrong with ferns, vines, bamboo and greenery.   Thank you again for this opportunity.  My hope is that zoos see this as the wave of the future and begin converting their spaces from prison cells to interactive places of real learning.  Sorry if there are typos in this.  I had to bang it out before doing a tour.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Volunteer Appreciation Party Feb 2019   This was an image from the Big Cat Briefing that I do daily for our Alexa app and for our website.  Mary Lou Geis  is talking with Howie and she's most senior volunteer.  She's been here 20 years.  This was the first party that was planned and hosted by our new Volunteer Appreciation Team.  Judging by the smiles and applause, I think the volunteers really liked this new approach.  I wasn't sure it would go over well, because Jamie and I were handing off the appreciating to a team, instead of it being a party that she and I have to plan, host and clean up after four times a year.  Most of that falls to Jamie and she's got so much to do that planning parties and putting on a happy face to volunteers has become a huge burden.     While we are both thankful for the 115 volunteers who do all of the animal care, both of us just can't wait to pass our bill and see the numbers of big cats being bred for lives of abuse plummet.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

How Many Big Cats in the U.S.? In 2004 USDA published the first ever census of tigers in USDA facilities.  This did not include pets, and it was only tigers.  In 2004 there were 4,845 tigers in 666 USDA facilities.   USDA never published another census, so from 2004 until 2019 the only way we could update the numbers was based on news stories where a census was mentioned, or from the websites or social posts of the owners.   We are able to access some counts via ZIMS which is a product used by AZA accredited zoos and Big Cat Rescue.  The service costs $10,000 a year for managing medical records and the census, so it is not used by private owners or backyard zoos.   This sheet represents 15 years of gathering census data and an intensive six month period of organizing it into the best representation possible of the number of big cats in the U.S.  The question on everyone's mind is: How many big cats are in the United States?  The answer is, we still don't know because unless a privately owned big cat makes the news, there is no accurate way to count them.   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_cwMh8PmdRUoYjEIN9EgXsVCATWL5Wo5KPKN1EVPzGY/edit?usp=sharing   The totals as of January 2019 are, according to what we have been able to document in 814 facilities:   Tiger   2642 Lion    393 Leopard 115 Snow Leopard  168 Clouded Leopard   100 Jaguar  10 Cheetah 347 Cougar  277 Bobcat  228 Canada Lynx 69 Caracal 35 Fishing Cat 35 Geoffroy Cat 3 Jaguarundi  10 Jungle Cat  1 Margay  5 Northern Lynx   22 Ocelot  90 Pallas Cat  46 Sand Cat    32 Serval  144 Wildcat 8 Black Footed Cat    37 Hybrid  9 Total cats we know of in cages in the U.S. in Jan of 2019 = 4,826   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Howie responded:   I appreciate your frankness and I will return in kind.   While I did take a liking to you in the course of your visit, the reason I said I would likely hate your story is based on two things.  We have on occasion had media come to us claiming they wanted to "expose" some bad guy and then wright pieces that the bad guy would happily pay for. A writer for Rolling Stone did that to us with respect to Doc Antle a few years ago. Worse than a waste of our time. Some of the questions you asked, and the way you asked them, made me think you were drinking Joe's Koolaid and wanting to drag up all the crap he says about Carole. You spent a large amount of time on things like the disappearance of Carole's husband and what I consider very old crap that is irrelevant to the issue at hand but makes for salacious reading.   Second, based again on the questions you asked and what you spent your time on, I came away at the end of your visit feeling like at best you were going to position this as a "feud," a personal battle between two individuals. We find this characterization both frustrating and inaccurate.  A feud is a personal conflict.  While Joe has for years attacked us personally, including incredibly crude, vile, often sexually oriented personal attacks as you know, we have never responded in kind. Even when I have been with Joe in person, which has been at mediations, I have simply ignored that and treated him cordially.  He even he once said he appreciated that I treated him in a gentlemanly fashion.  We have always focused single mindedly on the issue, which is the treatment of the cats, not on Joe personally. And we have not singled out Joe, we have done the same with many others we view as mistreating big cats. The only reason we spent so much time on Joe is that he was foolish enough to provoke us into the lawsuit which consumed so much time.  We would have had no problem with Joe continuing to operate a zoo if he just stopped breeding cats and doing cub petting.   Also, again being frank here, I thought it was inconsiderate that I got no reply to my email about your book, which I did enjoy. Think how that came across to me - guy is all over us when he needs us, then does not have the courtesy to even acknowledge an email where I show interest in him.  How many of your other interviewees bought and read you book?  Then, many months later when he wants something from me, here he is again with a hollow apology. No one is too busy to send a one line email of acknowledgement.  It was just poor form.  But, please, let's say no more about it.   All that being said, I respect that you have done all the work you describe above and am willing to take you at your word and we can get together after the trial and do so with a positive, upbeat approach to your work.  I do feel you are a very capable writer. - Howard Baskin   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

It was great meeting with you at Synapse.  I'd love to introduce you to the 59 lions, tigers and other wild cats who call Big Cat Rescue home, any time you are in the area.   I wonder if there is some collaboration possible with your students?  I'm looking for AR 3D modelers and though I can't pay a lot, we have 2.5 million Facebook fans and over 700,000 YouTube subscribers so we can offer new talent a huge platform.   Our mission is to end the practice of keeping big cats in cages.  Zoos claim people won't save what they don't love and that they won't love what they can't see.  That thinking brought us to the precipice of extinction for most exotic cat species, so I think we need to find a new way for people to learn how amazing big cats are, why they are important to the survival of the forests, and thus save our own species.   I've stockpiled many terra-bytes of 360 video of the cats on AWS and am adding to that all the time.  I don't know anything about AR development; other than the fact that I know I need someone who does.   Caryn asked if her students could work remotely, to which I responded:   I think most of the work can be done remotely as any actual filming could only be done by my staff or regular volunteers, given the dangerous nature of the subjects.  I just gave you a link to the footage I've been stockpiling and I have a lot more to add.  I've made it all open to the public on AWS so you should be able to download whatever your students want to work on from there, if you decide to get involved.   The Westfield Citrus Park Mall is thinking about giving us Sunglass Hut's space when they move to a bigger one. We will be able to have graphics on the exterior windows of the space and a television running our videos, just like we have now at the mall. This time we can also use the interior of the space.  We are thinking of calling it the Free VR Zoo where everything you do there is free, because all wild cats should be. We are working on an augmented reality experience (see http://vidpicar.com/) and will have our VR goggles there so people can watch our 360 videos.   I think it could legitimately be marketed as the first VR Zoo in the U.S. (China opened the very first VR zoo in January) even with the very limited AR experience of having our oversized cat posters come to life as people hold their phones in front of them.  I bought the URL VR-Zoo.com in anticipation of this being something we could franchise across failing malls all over the U.S.  Westfield is desperate for foot traffic, even though they are one of the newest and largest malls in Tampa.   I don't know what I don't know, and that's where I'm hoping you come in.  I know nothing about what is currently available, except that most of what I have found is pretty primitive when it comes to wildlife.  I think there is much more we can do in VR and AR to engage people with wild cats in a way that zoos will adopt as a model going forward.  There are 233 AZA zoos who are facing public scrutiny about the legitimacy of keeping apex predators captive, and they won't want a sanctuary to get out there ahead of them, so I really think this can create a big buzz and a lot of potential jobs for people who are on the leading edge of VR and AR creation.   Thanks for considering this.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Clifton Strength Finders Results 1. Belief EXECUTING People exceptionally talented in the Belief theme have certain core values that are unchanging. Out of these values emerges a defined purpose for their lives. 2. Futuristic STRATEGIC THINKING People exceptionally talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They energize others with their visions of the future. 3. Strategic STRATEGIC THINKING People exceptionally talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues. 4. Intellection STRATEGIC THINKING People exceptionally talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions. 5. Input STRATEGIC THINKING People exceptionally talented in the Input theme have a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artifacts or even relationships.   Belief   If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics—both in yourself and others.  These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.   Futuristic   “Wouldn't it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.   Strategic   The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.   Intellection   You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the “muscles” of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person's feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus.  The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.   Input   You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing?  At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don't feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It's interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

But I'm exhausted. Today the other half of my mouth had LANAP and it was less painful today, for a number of reasons, but it still wiped me out. I sat on Ben T. Davis Beach for 3 hours trying to re-center myself, but had to be home for a webinar on our data management tool. We are upgrading, and it's going to be great, but it was really hard to focus. As soon as that call ended Howie led a call with Senator Portman's staff about him being our Republican sponsor for the Big Cat Public Safety Act. His staff made it clear that they see Columbus Zoo (ie: Jack Hanna) as their “constituents”, so we are going to have to pull out all the stops to get people in Ohio to come out against cub petting. I think I'll run our new anti cub petting video to Ohioans only and create a petition for Portman's office. Photo was Mike Webber, Tim Harrison and Carole Baskin in the back of a D.C. cab filming for the CONservation Game.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

2019-01-16 Carole Baskin's Diary Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

I Was Arrested   (I took this selfie to send to Deb Quimby to thank her for the socks and the necklace for Christmas)   I woke up thinking about the kinds of questions Joe Exotic would just love to be able to ask me once I am called as a witness in his murder for hire trial.  He's wanted to debate me for a decade now because he believes if he says something people will believe him.  I know he will insist that his attorney ask if I killed Don and will go on and on about it for as long as the judge will allow.  As part of that he'll probably ask if I was arrested, and it turns out that I was actually arrested once.   I think it would have been around 1988, when my mother had told me that Chuck needed my house that they had built for me in Odessa a few years prior.  I had moved out, and Chuck moved in, but the house was still in my name.  Apparently the dog catcher cited Melissa (Chuck's wife at the time) for not having a rabies tag on their dog.  The citation was to Ms. Stairs at 11306 Castleberry Road, Odessa, FL 33556.  When they never acted on the citation, it became a warrant.  See 8/11/1989.   When I buy houses at tax deed sales, and from foreclosure sales, I don't get keys, so I have to break in and change the locks.  People would be astonished how easy it is to wiggle a window for a minute or two to make the latch come undone.  That's what I was doing one day when a neighbor called the police.  When I gave the officer my driver's license the outstanding warrant matched with my last name and the address.  They put me in the back of their cruiser and took me to jail, where I was finger printed and put in a holding cell while Don drove in separately to post my bond and bring evidence that we owned the home I was breaking in to.   I wasn't there very long and I was held alone, so it wasn't as terrifying as it could have been.  I'm claustrophobic so being in a cage and not being able to see out a window had me close to hyperventilating.  Don thought the whole thing was hilarious.  Now he could say he wasn't the only jailbird in our family.     I had my day in court.  Don didn't come, nor did he offer to provide me with a lawyer.  I couldn't afford one.  It wasn't as bad as it sounds, because I represented us pro se all the time in evictions against our tenants and foreclosures because we both thought attorney's were just too expensive and typically mucked things up to have more billable hours.   I was a single mom at the time and Jamie had to go to court with me.  She saw me cry in frustration at the situation.  That made Jamie cry.  I didn't want to throw my brother under the bus so I pled that I'd never had a dog while living there and didn't live at that address at the time, by showing electric bills and such from Lemon Street.  The case was dropped.  I don't know if it was from the evidence or just because the judge didn't want a mother and child crying over such a stupid warrant.    In retrospect, how bizarre that you can be arrested for not having a rabies tag on a dog but no one has ever been arrested for not having a rabies shot on file for their tigers.  The law says that any possessed animal, capable of contracting rabies, must be vaccinated against it.  There are no rabies vaccines that have been tested effective on any wild animal and most places that keep big cats don't vaccinate them at all because there is no evidence that the vaccines are effective.  We vaccinate all of our cats, big and small, but we are held to a much higher standard than the criminals we are trying to shut down.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Judge in Murder for Hire Case has a Sense of Humor On Jan 3 the Judge Scott L. Palk ruled against Joe Schreibvogel's motion to dismiss counts 3-11 of his tiger trafficking charges stating that he owned the tigers before the rule went into effect to restricted the interstate commerce in tigers.  That rule was the Generic Tiger Loophole that we successfully closed on 4/5/2016.  The judge ruled that possession of the tigers, or anything he did with them, prior to that date wasn't at issue as these were all current allegations.   Yesterday the judge ruled against Joe's motion to dismiss counts 1 or 2 regarding hiring a hitman to kill me.     The court summarized:   The Court's references to these counts as “murder-for-hire counts" herein instead of the wordier "use of interstate commerce facilities for purposes of murder-for-hire counts” is not meant to diminish the Government's requirement of proving the use of an interstate commerce facility in relation to the alleged offenses, as well as each count's other elements. care, exhibition, and breeding of tigers and lions that, in February 2013, resulted in a civil judgment against Defendant of more than $1 million. C.B. and related business entities have attempted to collect the judgment from Defendant and his related business entities ever since.   In the first murder-for-hire count, the Government alleges that Defendant inquired of Individual 1 in November 2017 whether Individual 1 would travel to Florida to murder C.B. for a sum of money and that Defendant mailed a cell phone to another State to conceal Individual 1's involvement in their plot. The Government also alleges that Defendant gave $3,000 to Individual 1 in November 2017 in exchange for his agreement to travel to Florida and kill C.B.   In the second murder-for-hire count, the Government alleges that from July 2016 to March 2018, Defendant asked Individual 2 if he could locate somebody to kill C.B. for payment. The Government further alleges that, in December 2017, Individual 2 offered to introduce, and then introduced Defendant, to an undercover FBI agent (posing as a “hitman”) who discussed with Defendant the murder of C.B. for payment.    The Superseding Indictment continues: from December 2017 to March 2018, Defendant allegedly spoke with Individual 2 by cellular phone regarding the murder of C.B. But the Government does not allege that Defendant interacted with the undercover FBI agent directly after a single face-to-face meeting in December 2017 (which was recorded by the Government); all of Defendant's remaining interactions are alleged to have been with Individual 2. Nor did Defendant supply money or anything of pecuniary value to the undercover FBI agent.     The judge then had to chuckle to himself as he wrote this in response to Joe's attorney's best efforts:   Further, Defendant's proposed interpretation of § 1958(a) necessarily fails when the statute's text is evaluated in toto. The “another” referenced in relation to the use of an interstate commerce facility can be per the statute—the intended victim. Applying Defendant's approach to a situation where the “another” is the intended victim, a person could only be guilty of violating § 1958(a) if he or she caused an intended victim to use a facility of interstate commerce with the intent of murdering himself or herself in exchange for payment to the same intended victim. Such a fact pattern is nonsensical. Unless the Court deletes “(including the intended victim)” from the statute—which the Court will not do—Defendant's interpretation cannot prevail without creating an absurdity within the statute.   The judge also referenced this testimony:  The transcript of a discussion between Defendant and the undercover FBI agent excerpted in the Government's response (to which Defendant raises no objection) creates at least a dispute about whether this evidence (and any other evidence presented at trial) will show a violation of § 1958(a) as alleged in Count 2 occurred.? At the face-to-face meeting, Defendant apparently asked about the price of a murder and how much would need to be paid up-front; said “We'll get game with the money” and “[W]e can get 5 [thousand dollars] easy;" and affirmed that he could come up with an up-front payment of $5,000. Resp. 6, Doc. No. 47. Per the Government's transcript excerpts, Defendant also replied “Okay” to the undercover FBI agent's suggestion that he meet him again once Defendant “g[ot] those two phones, and the money together.”   The judge concluded that both counts would be considered and that's good because each can carry a 10 year sentence.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Praise of Big Cat Rescue from Joyce Fitch Carole and Howard,   I can't thank you enough for letting me join the BCR family for a few weeks.  It was such a treat for me!  I learned a lot and had such a great experience being able to spend  so much time with the cats.  Everyone was so nice to me and so many people had fun stories to share.  Thanks to Chelsea, I was able to do every tour and was with lots of difference keepers.  I talked Ted's ear off every night, but he seemed to enjoy my adventures.  I had to miss the night tour because my family seems to think they come first

Florida Bar Animal Law Section Agrees with Howie Today the FL Bar ran Howie's article (See Dec. 20, 2018) and it's all over the Internet now.  Game ON, FWC!   https://www.flabaranimals.org/single-post/2019/01/03/IT-IS-TIME-TO-END-THE-EXPLOITATION-AND-MISTREATMENT-OF-BIG-CATS-IN-FLORIDA?fbclid=IwAR0nHtRkqz6n-NkznJB2tjXM-f2SoEvl04Fj4bNgDDUKjrOYSqhCfuTGan8   Howie has been putting out some feelers, primarily with HSUS to see if they have an appetite for going after the FWC this year legislatively.  Dana Young, a Republican who had been animal friendly lost to Democrat, Janet Cruz, so we don't have a champion for animals in the Republican held FL Congress.     On the federal front, I sent the following to Kim and Lisa at Directive Group who manages our Google ad grant for us for free.  I had asked her to see if we could use our grant for running the ads against cub petting and gave her the following background:   Just as a little background on PPK.  Back in 2003 they donated time to help us change our name and logo when they were with a different firm that is now defunct.  In 2011 we hired one of the team as our PR director (Susan.Bass@BigCatRescue.org).  Michael Schillig has become close friends and a tennis mate with my husband.  PPK donates their art and copy to us every year and they win all kinds of awards with the stuff they have made and donated to us to end the practice of keeping big cats in captivity.   We did a $50k campaign with them last summer as our hail Mary to try and get the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed.  The money all went to ad buy, not to them.  They created this video below and then targeted ad spend to just people in a narrow area around DC, to try and reach the aids in Congress, to see it.  The video performed magnificently, with something like 70% or more watching it all the way through.  We never heard about an aid seeing it though. https://youtu.be/-8Iy3pI9qI8 One of our board members works for Cox media and he's had the audio from that played on the radio on 6 stations for quite a while, but mostly in late night slots that aren't sold.   Since the DC thing didn't work, what we thought we'd try next is to target people who are either in the areas where big cub petting operations exist, like Myrtle Beach, SC., Wynnewood, OK, Thackerville, etc., and target people searching for things to do in those areas, who are also searching cubs, zoos, etc. and show them this video and one that we are having done.  The one we are having done is a longer and better 2.5 minute remake of this one: https://youtu.be/1ewz7AjUz6M If we can reach people before they pay to pet or see a cub, then maybe we can just kill the industry.  We are reintroducing our federal bill and have both an R and D Sponsor in the House.  We think we can pass it there very quickly as the head of the committee was a co sponsor last year, but getting it through the Senate will still be a challenge.  We have a lobbyist working half time for us on it and his goal is an R sponsor in the Senate by the end of February.  Our bill had close to 150 cosponsors last time around and would have passed in the House, if we had been able to get a hearing, but Chairman Bishop had blocked us.   So, to sum it up, PPK is doing all of this for us for free, but we will have to spend money on the actual ads.  I'm trying to figure out ways to leverage their efforts at a reduced ad spend cost.  Anything you know about the non profit Google grants would be a huge help.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk      

an intern from S. Africa asked if there is any undercover work she could do for free while here.  I sent the following:   I've been trying to get someone inside Sue Pearce's place:  http://911animalabuse.com/sue-pearce-animal-adventures/   There is a man, who seems to be sort of related to the place, offers tours to people to come hand feed the cats, but they have to meet him at a place in town first and then he takes them there and back to town.  Kind of creepy.  He says it is because there is no cell signal at the place in case you get lost, but my guess is that they are trying to control access.  At this point he's allowing photos and videos, so we would need to send someone with you to be the "feeders" and you could film them.   I have a couple in mind.  He's a big guy who is proficient in marshal arts and she's an activist, but isn't known by her face or name to the bad guys.  You could drive down together.   None of the other bad guys will allow photos or videos.  Some reporters we are working with got some undercover footage at http://911animalabuse.com/mario-tabruae-zoological-wildlife-foundation-fka-zoological-imports/ last week, but that Mario Tabraue was a convicted felon and if they made him nervous with their questions he may be on high alert for a while.   I'd love to get footage of this guy Vernon Yates:  http://911animalabuse.com/wildlife-rescue-and-rehab/ and you can see a corner of his property from the road, but he's physically attacked me twice and never lets people on his property.  That's why the photos on my page above are the only ones that exist.  He stopped letting the press in a long time ago because of the photos getting out.  He only uses family members to keep his alleged practice of bringing home rescued wildlife to feed to his cats.  The last outsider who was there told me he rescued a bobcat who was injured and fed it, alive, to the tigers.   Another place I am curious about, and no one has ever gotten a photo, to my knowledge is another Sue;  Sue Arnold also in Okeechobee.  https://bigcatrescue.org/sue-arnold/ 14895 NW 30th Ter, Okeechobee, FL 34972-0941 Almost every time we ever rescued a jungle cat and a lot of servals, it was from people who bought from Sue Arnold.  Her website is down now, and all I could find is a Trip Advisor post to get the address.  One person tried for visit, under the auspices of going to ask about volunteering, and she said you could smell the urine from the curb, but Sue wouldn't let her in.   I'll see if I can get the couple to go with you to Sue Pearce's place in Okeechobee if you want. Maybe on the way you could swing by Sue Arnold's to see if you can tell if she's still breeding and selling servals and jungle cats.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Climate Change 1980-2018   Two tigers talking and one is saying, "You can tell humans apart by their fingerprints.  They are as unique as our stripes."  I've been cleaning up and organizing all of my folders and over the year have saved some screenshots that I label “Ideas”.  They are mostly quotes to overlay on beautiful cat images for social sites, so I've created a few, but today had that bizarre stripe / finger print idea come out of nowhere.  I sent it to LaWanna to see if Cindy Arthur, or one of our artists could illustrate that.   Howie is feeling better and decided he's now ready to remake the cartoon I had done to promote our federal bill to ban cub petting.  His edits are great, but now it means pretty much starting from scratch with the cartoonist.  I'm going to give it another day or so, because he will want to change things a few times and no sense paying for work that is just going to have to be redone.  Jamie and Victor went fossilizing for something new yesterday.  It's an old mine where they hit a pocket of fossilized clams.  Jamie says the animal part of the clams turns to crystals and that's what she's digging.  I have crystals in my pockets and on my desks as a reminder that we are all made of light.   I'm continuing to read the NYT piece on climate change.  I found this interesting and wondered if Jamie hopped back onto the planet in 1980 to be a part of the change that was needed to save the earth?     On April 3, 1980, Senator Paul Tsongas, a Massachusetts Democrat, held the first congressional hearing on carbon-dioxide buildup in the atmosphere. Gordon MacDonald testified that the United States should “take the initiative” and develop, through the United Nations, a way to coordinate every nation's energy policies to address the problem. That June, Jimmy Carter signed the Energy Security Act of 1980, which directed the National Academy of Sciences to start a multiyear, comprehensive study, to be called “Changing Climate,” that would analyze social and economic effects of climate change. More urgent, the National Commission on Air Quality, at the request of Congress, invited two dozen experts, including Henry Shaw himself, to a meeting in Florida to propose climate policy.     Two days before Halloween in 1980 Rafe Pomerance traveled to a cotton-candy castle on the Gulf of Mexico, near St. Petersburg, Fla, that locals called the Pink Palace. The Don CeSar hotel was a child's daydream with cantilevered planes of bubble-gum stucco and vanilla-white cupolas that appeared to melt in the sunshine like scoops of ice cream. The hotel stood amid blooms of poisonwood and gumbo limbo on a narrow spit of porous limestone that rose no higher than five feet above the sea. In its carnival of historical amnesia and childlike faith in the power of fantasy, the Pink Palace was a fine setting for the first rehearsal of a conversation that would be earnestly restaged, with little variation and increasing desperation, for the next 40 years.   2015-2018:  The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, starting in the year 2020. The agreement's language was negotiated by representatives of 196 state parties at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. As of November 2018, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 184 have become party to it. The Paris Agreement's long-term goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels; and to limit the increase to 1.5 °C, since this would substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.   Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming. No mechanism forces a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets. In June 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw his country from the agreement. Under the agreement, the earliest effective date of withdrawal for the U.S. is November 2020, shortly before the end of President Trump's current term. In practice, changes in United States policy that are contrary to the Paris Agreement have already been put in place.   In July 2017 French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot announced a plan to ban all petrol and diesel vehicles in France by 2040 as part of the Paris Agreement. Hulot also stated that France would no longer use coal to produce electricity after 2022 and that up to 4 billion will be invested in boosting energy efficiency. To reach the agreement's emission targets, Norway will ban the sale of petrol- and diesel-powered cars by 2025; the Netherlands will do the same by 2030. Electric trains running on the Dutch national rail network are already entirely powered by wind energy. The House of Representatives of the Netherlands passed a bill in June 2018 mandating that by 2050 the Netherlands will cut its 1990 greenhouse-gas emissions level by 95%—exceeding the Paris Agreement goals.  What will we do?  

Jamie Says Divorce Was Final in October 2018   I think it is Victor's signature and Carolyn Thompson's as witnesses on the marriage certificate.  Jamie's two closest friends.   I went online to see when, but all I find is their marriage certificate.  Since it was amicable, maybe that doesn't result in a filing.  They have certainly both stayed quiet about it and it's been so awkward when I go LIVE because our fans all love the fairy tale marriage between Big Cat Rescue's President and Vet and if Jamie's not talking about it, I can't talk about it.  She says Justin is living with Dr. Green, a vet from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, but neither of them post about it on social sites.  For the first time, I saw Victor say something romantic about Jamie.  Something like, “Hiking with this beautiful girl...”  Jamie says he's the only one who tells her she's pretty.  Maybe he's the only one who realized just how special she truly is.   I don't tell her she's pretty because I hate it when people tell me that.  I don't see physical appearance as something important.  I tell her she's smart, talented, creative and so does everyone else.  I guess we long for what we think is missing or not seen.    I've been trying to move wealth to Jamie over the years and have made sure not to create a taxable event for her by transferring her home over multiple years through percentages of the trust document.  Now I am moving cash to her.  She probably won't invest it as wisely as I would, but it's past time to let her see what she can do.  I had already cut her a check for 5k earlier in the year and she used that to make her PAC donation to support our federal bill.  Yesterday I cut her a check for another 10k but told her I still want to fund her African trip on my credit card that we share.     Howie has been sick but today felt good enough to gather palm fronds in the yard.  I wish he'd just let me pay someone to do that, but he seems to get a lot of satisfaction out of it.  Yesterday Mom said she couldn't “see any folders on her computer any more.”  I couldn't suss out if she was blind or had somehow hidden something from view.     I struggle with PCs since I use Macs but told her I'd come fix it and help her put all her Christian music on a disc drive so she could play it without a laptop.  That led to ripping 9 CDs last night, but now she can enjoy her 151 songs wherever she is.  I'm going to help put them on her iPhone X today too.  I had offered to do that back before Dad died but she said she preferred silence.  Maybe because Dad talked so much.     Howie, Jamie and I all went over the year end raises and then told everyone on our list, each to who we deal with the most, what their increases would be next year.  I'm grateful that we are doing well enough financially to make their lives a bit easier.  

20 Year Plan 2005-2025   It is a working document that was last updated in 2013 so it's time to re evaluate where we are and how to get where we are going.  I inaccurately predicted that by 2014 we would have passed the Big Cat Act.  I originally thought we would have it introduced by 2010, but it was 5/21/2013 before we managed to get in introduced and my new prediction is that it will pass in the 2019-2020 session.   Turns out I was way too optimistic about having Florida, the worst state in the union when it comes to big cat ownership, pass a law to ban private possession by 2009.   The next worst state, Ohio, did pass such a law in 2012 and the third worst state, Texas, finally did require that owners register and be overseen by local authorities, but no one really does that.  Howie has had the facts, for many years, to prove that legislators CAN pass a bill to ban private possession in Florida (despite the Florida Wildlife Commission's claim to the contrary) but we put it on a back burner because the federal ban will make that point moot.  Recently Howie has been working more on the Florida constitution issue by engaging the Florida Bar Animal Section.   My new prediction is that Florida will pass such a ban after the federal bill passes in the upcoming session, just to save face.   I had predicted that the circus would meet with its demise in 2011, so I was off by 7 years if you consider Ringling's closure this year to be the death nell in the U.S.  For the past several years similar bans have been passing in 40 other countries.  I think by 2020 it will be gone everywhere.   I thought we could end fur farming and trapping by 2007 with our campaign that focused on “Fur makes you smell bad and look fat.”  The photo is me in 2005 protesting in front of Westshore Mall on Fur Free Friday (an annual November event).  2018 turned out to be the year that fashion turned its back on the barbaric use of fur and it became a shameful act of selfishness to wear fur.       In some ways, I'm glad to have been wrong in my prophecies, because in 2005 I thought that by 2012 all wild cat species would be in such peril that they would all be on the IUCN Red List.  I thought that the resultant protections for wild counterparts would result in such intensive inbreeding in zoos that they would not be able to breed and exhibit big cats by 2013 or any species of exotic cat by 2015.   Where I was sadly wrong is that I thought people would be so much better educated by then that they wouldn't patronize zoos.     Zoos have been around for 190 years under the auspices of furthering our education and concern for preserving habitat starting with London's Regent's Park in 1828. Zoo attendance had started to decline but lately is increasing.  I'm not too concerned though because I think it's more a matter of zoos changing their business model from jail cells full of languishing wildlife to theme parks with roller coasters and rides to be playgrounds for children to run wild.  I think zoos are uniquely positioned to make the most of 360, immersive, virtual reality and will transition from prisons to edu-tainment meccas.  For big cats; I am going to predict that none will be displayed in zoos by 2023 and smaller cat species will no longer be held captive in zoos by 2025.   Given my overly optimistic projections in 2005, where I thought exotic cats would no longer be held in private possession, zoos or circuses by 2015, I had reasoned that all of them in cages would have died out by 2025.  Now I have to push that back a bit so here is my updated timeline:   2020 - Ban on private ownership results in most captive cats going into sanctuaries where they will die out by 2028.  Fur farming and fur trapping will end because 2018 saw massive adoption of a NO FUR policy across most popular designers and brands, with some cities even passing bans.    2023 - Zoos ditch the last of their big cats to make space for more lucrative experiences on that valuable real estate.  Those cats end up in sanctuaries where most will die out by 2031.  Since there are currently about 800 big cats in AZA zoos and maybe another 1000 in non accredited zoos, there are plenty of sanctuaries who can manage the cast off cats.    2025 - Zoos ditch the last of their small cats to make space for more lucrative experiences on that valuable real estate.  Those cats end up in sanctuaries where most will die out by 2033.   Since small cats are not a big draw in zoos, I believe their numbers to only be about 1/3 of the big cat census.  There are very, very few small cats in private possession and plenty of sanctuary space for them.  Heck, Big Cat Rescue alone could probably take in all of the currently possessed for the rest of their lives.     Hunting wasn't a topic I'd included in the original 20 year plan.  Hunters and anglers combined are 3% of the population and although I couldn't find exact stats, I believe that hunters are only about 1% of our population.  Recent reports based on hunting permits indicate a 1% net loss in hunters as fewer begin hunting and more stop hunting.  What will cause those 3-3.5 million (mostly men) from killing for sport?  Public opinion.  As new fathers fail to introduce their children to the concept of killing animals for fun, it will die out within the next generation.  I think sport hunting for cats will be a thing of the past by 2024.  Yesterday Apple News listed their top 6 stories for the day and one was the public outcry at a hunter killing a cougar.  We are on our way. But will it be in time to save them in the wild?   At our current rate of poaching, tigers will be gone in the wild by 2024.  Leopards will be gone by 2027 and lions will be gone by 2030.  I could begin backdating from those inevitabilities with plans to change the outcome, but climate change may make that all pointless.  Most scientist now concur that by 2030 we will already be experiencing the point of no return, with oceans dying, sea levels rising above coastal cities, and our food sources being wiped out due to the loss of bees, uncontrollable fires and droughts.    The world has warmed more than one degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution. The Paris climate agreement signed on Earth Day in 2016 hoped to restrict warming to two degrees. The odds of succeeding, according to a recent study based on current emissions trends, are one in 20. If by some miracle we are able to limit warming to two degrees, we will only have to negotiate the extinction of the world's tropical reefs, sea-level rise of several meters and the abandonment of the Persian Gulf. The climate scientist James Hansen has called two-degree warming “a prescription for long-term disaster.” Long-term disaster is now the best-case scenario. Three-degree warming is a prescription for short-term disaster: the loss of most coastal cities (Tampa).  Four degrees: Europe in permanent drought; vast areas of China, India and Bangladesh claimed by desert; Polynesia swallowed by the sea; the Colorado River thinned to a trickle; the American Southwest largely uninhabitable. The prospect of a five-degree warming has prompted some of the world's leading climate scientists to warn of the end of human civilization.   If human beings really were able to take the long view — to consider seriously the fate of civilization decades or centuries after our deaths — we would be forced to grapple with the transience of all we know and love in the great sweep of time. So we have trained ourselves, whether culturally or evolutionarily, to obsess over the present, worry about the medium term and cast the long term out of our minds, as we might spit out a poison.  As Jim Hansen said, “From a technology and economics standpoint, it is still readily possible to stay under two degrees Celsius.” We can trust the technology and the economics. It's harder to trust human nature. Keeping the planet to two degrees of warming, let alone 1.5 degrees, would require transformative action. It will take more than good works and voluntary commitments; it will take a revolution. But in order to become a revolutionary, you need first to suffer.   The earth is now as warm as it was before the last ice age, 115,000 years ago, when the seas were more than six meters higher than they are today.  We can't just cut back on emissions to stop the race toward our own extinction.  We have to extract more carbon dioxide from the air than we contribute to it.  Stats from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html     I believe that people will save the tiger when they won't think about saving the planet.  The two are intricately interlinked because healthy wild tiger populations can only happen where there are healthy forests and drinkable water.  Some people may think I have a very limited focus and have mis spent my life protecting exotic cats when our planet may soon be uninhabitable, but I've always believed we have to save the tiger to save our own life support system.

Christmas Bobcat Curse   Photo is Jamie and Victor hiking on Christmas Day 2018 What is it about Christmas and Bobcats? First thing this morning Gale texts me to say there is a dead bobcat in the middle of the road at Gunn Highway and Sheldon.  I texted Kathryn to ask if she can have someone closer run out to make sure the cat isn't suffering and by the time Gale texts back that there is no doubt the cat is dead, Kathryn has already heard from Rebecca that she stopped to pull the cat out of the road but had no way to bring him to the sanctuary.  Kathryn sends Megan to retrieve the body and we will compare him to our photos of previously released rehab bobcats before having him cremated.  He will have dignity in death.   We are all upset at the thought of losing yet one more precious bobcat and it comes the day after hearing about a bobcat who was hit by a car at an airport in Sanford.  The bobcat reportedly had a broken leg and was holed up in the grille of a car for three days before being removed by an animal trapper.  The news reports say that authorities sent the cat to a rehab center, but no one is saying where.  We know there is no place other than Big Cat Rescue that is properly equipped for bobcat rehab so as soon as the place who has him has exhausted their ability to fundraise off him, they will probably call us to take the cat for the hard rehab work, if they care at all about getting the cat back out to the wild.  So many places just love to get “failed” rehab animals to fill their cages of their pathetic back yard zoos.  The whole thing makes me sad.   While I'm wallowing in pity for the cats who have lost their freedom and lives, I start wondering what it is about Christmas and bobcats?  Is there some ancient curse on their clan?  I pull out the sheet used for tracking bobcat calls we get and the earliest entry is 12/25/94 and a cat we named Goetz.  I'd done a lot of bobcat rehab and release since I was 17 but didn't have digital records prior to when I was 31 years old in 1994.   My brother was a deputy with the Sheriff's department and called me in the middle of the night on Christmas saying a bobcat had been hit by a car at Sheldon Road near Meadowview Circle.  When we arrived on the scene there were half a dozen patrol cars, lights flashing, and all of the officers were in a wide circle around the bobcat with flashlights on her.  We crept up on either side of her with nets, using a tactic that cats often use when they hunt together.  One is the “danger” who comes toward the face, while the other is actually the one to do the capturing.  The one from behind has to be so stealthy that the animal being caught never knows what got them.   The bobcat was sitting up, as best she could; pulled up to her highest on her front legs.  She was trying to keep this circle of cops at bay with her low, snarling threats.  If you've never heard a mad bobcat, I really can't explain just how terrifying that sound is.  As I moved into position to take her full attention, I didn't know the extent of her injuries.  If she was able, she'd launch herself to my throat and take out my trachea, to save herself.  She sprang with what she had and let out a blood curdling scream of obscenities at me.  I would have laughed at all those big guys, with guns drawn, running out into the night, screaming in fear, if not for the mission at hand, which was to get a net down over her without causing her further injury.   Her pelvis turned out to have been crushed, so her spring wasn't much and both nets came down over her in an instant. We called for the pet carrier to be brought over and one of the police officers had the courage to bring it close enough that we were able to get her in it.  I'd like to think that was my brother, but really don't recall.  I remember early days of rehab with Goetz, where we would take the top off the carrier and feed her strips of meat from long tongs.  The entire time she'd be hurling threats at us and take an occasional swipe at us but somehow we all got through it in time.  Sadly, her injuries were so severe that she could never run again and she ended up living with us her entire life.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

I Feel Babylon Touching My Face   From time to time I find myself coming back from what seems to be a deep trance, right in the middle of doing something.  I'll be working on a web page and before I know it, my fingers are touching lightly around my nose, and eyes and I realize I'm getting in the way of being able to see and it feels like Babylon doing it.  I felt the same way after my father died.  And after my grandmother died.  And after my grandfather died.  What IS this?   It feels like love.  It feels like reassurance.  But when I awake to doing it, I have to admit, it feels weird.   Today is Christmas and I was so happy to see so many volunteers show up to feed, clean and enrich the cats.  Some even showed up to make sure others got their “big cat fix” today.  The new Vuze XR 3D camera arrived yesterday so I'm going to go play in the yard.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk    

I Always Run Out Of Time I am almost never on time because I always think I can cram just one more thing into whatever I'm doing before I have to go and then I'm down a rabbit hole and miss appointments, deadlines, and of course holidays.  I've always despised Christmas.  Weirdly, as a kid, I felt bad that my parents would give me stuff because I didn't need or want for anything material.  As an adult I despise the commercialization and the expectation of gifts to the point where you have to buy stuff and give it to people even though you have no idea if they are even going to like it or have any use for it.   Maybe I'm just not terribly thoughtful and that's why I can't come up with time determined gift ideas.  I prefer to give gifts as I see something and think, “they are going to love this!”    I offered to give Jamie a $17,000 trip to study snow leopards in the wild with the Snow Leopard Trust and she says she's considering it.  I don't know if her reason for not jumping at the idea was because of the cost (so she said) or if she thinks that's a lot to spend to freeze your extremities off and never actually see a cat.  I bought a paper wallet for Howie a long while back, thinking, “he's going to love this!” and I don't think he's even opened it yet.  I was so sure it was going to be one of those technological break throughs in men's wear, that I bought a much fancier one to give him for Christmas...which is going to be a pretty stupid gift now, so I'll probably hang onto it.   I've been spending an inordinate amount of time editing this diary and exporting copies for security reasons.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

I Registered for the Synapse Innovation Summit   Which is to be held Jan. 23-24 at the Amalie Center in Tampa.  There will be 300 speakers, 5000 attendees and 300 exhibitors in the realms of virtual reality, AI, robotics, health advancements and more.   I printed special business cards talking about what we have to offer in the way of 360, 3D & VR big cats and then made a hat with the same info on it to make the most of my time there.    Today Howie wrote our Commissioner, Kimberly Overman:   Kimberly thanks for spending time with me on the phone this week.  Attached is an aerial showing the location of the apartments that may be seeking approval at some point.   One possible issue with the land is that the owner of one of the parcels brought in massive amounts of dirt to raise the low portion of the property, possibly without a permit, and with no regard for the resulting water flow to our property. The second enclosed document shows this.   We are meeting with the developer and their engineer next Thursday and my hope is that they will be willing to seriously seek to address our concerns in their plan.  Those concerns include water flow to our property, securing the common perimeter with an additional wall to deter people, particularly youths, from entering our property, having the buildings far enough from the wall that children could not shoot paintballs or worse at the cats from the tall building windows, and provisions in land records and leases that preclude owners or residents to objecting to our presence.   The address of the main parcel is:  8610 Gonzalez Lake Dr,  Tampa, FL 33625-3764   I will keep you posted on the results of our discussion with the developer.  Thanks very much!  - Howard Baskin   I wish I had noted the time frame when Cuesta, the hog farm owner, was doing all that filling.  I think it was around the time that we were building Vacation Rotation because my dad was having a fit over the amount of water that was being diverted onto our property in that area.     Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Howie Asks HSUS to Help Us Write a State Ban He addressed it to our friends, Anna Frostic, Nicole Paquette, Lisa Wathne, Tracie Letterman, Jocelyn Ziemian, Laura Bevan, Kate MacFall, Sara Amundson and Kitty Block:   I don't recall to what extent I have acquainted each of you with my work over the last few years on a Florida big cat law so I'll review it here leading up to a question as to your ability to assist with drafting one.   It has been generally accepted  or assumed that because the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has been granted powers by the FL Constitution that the FL legislature could not pass a big cat ban.  In 2008 an FWC attorney wrote a memo to that effect.   Some years later I got around to reading the cases she cited and I did not believe they supported her position. (As you all know I am not a "lawyer" but did attend law school so I can at least read cases.) So I wrote up my reasoning and took it to the very good law firm who won the judgment against Joe for us, Johnson, Pope. I made clear that if I was wrong I wanted to know. But if they agreed with my logic, I wanted them to do a proper job of research and write a proper memo, which I cannot do.  They concurred and wrote the attached legal memorandum.   I did not feel the memo was going to be enough to convince a legislator that the legislature could indeed pass such a law.  It would just be FWC's lawyer vs. ours and I felt a legislator would defer to FWC.   One of our supporters is a prominent, wealthy and very politically active Republican businessman. He has a very good State lobbyist for his business interests (beer). He was a major supporter of Atty Gen Pam Bondi. So we made a run at getting her to endorse this legal conclusion, figuring that would have the credibility to convince a legislator.  Her staff basically did not want to touch the issue.  So, my effort lay dormant for a few years until this year.   A few months ago Marcia Cohen, a member of the Florida Bar's Animal Law Section, approached me and asked if there was a topic related to big cats that would merit an article in their Paw Review publication. The Section is fairly new, I think before it was a formal Section it had a lower status, like a Committee. The significant difference is that a Section can endorse legislation, a Committee cannot.   Long story short, after months of work and editing, the attached article I "ghost" wrote will soon appear under her name as author in their online version of Paw Review and a few months later in the print version. Meantime, Marcia organized a visit to the sanctuary of 18 members of the Section for a tour and presentation I made about the issue.   The result of all this goes beyond the article. There was unanimous enthusiasm among the visitors and some others who could not attend. Marcia is working through the process of seeking to get the Section to (a) concur with the legal conclusion that the legislature CAN pass a law and (b) take the position that the legislature SHOULD pass such a law.  Armed with that, I feel we could convince a legislator that FWC's self serving position is incorrect and that the legislature can pass a law.   Although I know it has proven very problematic in your other state efforts, my initial thought would be to return to a simple AZA exemption and take on ZAA because of the huge grass roots effort I think we could muster in Florida. But the details of the bill is something that could be discussed.   Soooo, my question is to what degree would HSUS be willing and able to provide resources to help with the next step, which is to draft a bill based on amending FL Statutes that I could take to the Section for their endorsement before approaching a legislator?   Would it be possible to discuss internally and let me know by next week so I know if I have to look elsewhere for drafting help?     Howard Baskin | Advisory Board Chairman | Big Cat Rescue He included the article in full from Nov. 14, 2018 diary entry.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Going after a beloved and well financed figure, like Jack Hanna means we will have to prove our beliefs beyond a shadow of a doubt, not only to avoid a slander lawsuit, but also in order to not turn ignorant animal lovers against us when we reveal that their childhood hero was one of the most influential characters in the war against protecting wildcats from being used as pets, props and parts.  I think this film will have the Blackfish effect on the cub petting industry and no one will be able to justify ripping cubs from their moms to use this way any more.    I searched my hard drive for an image of Jack and found this 2000 photo of him and Diana McCourt.  Here is the story I wrote after we rescued 4 tigers and 2 lions from her in 2007:   It took the combined efforts of USDA, undercover agents and concerned citizens seven years to shut down Diana McCourt (aka Cziraky) and her Siberian Tiger Foundation. It wasn't until her landlords, Donnalynn and Christian Laver were able to evict her from the property that Knox County was able to seize the six cats who had been used for years as props in Diana McCourt's “tiger training” scheme.   By the end of the ordeal eye witnesses said that the cats were starving and they still have inadequate shelter from the elements.  Even though McCourt lost her USDA license to operate the tiger-tamer camp in 2000, and permanently in 2006, she still continued to charge people to come into her back yard in Gambier, OH and pet the adult lions and tigers.   The cats would often be chained down so that people could touch them or have their photos made with the cats.  To make the cats more pliable McCourt had their teeth and claws removed. (Joseph still has his canine teeth) Despite the abusive violations to their bodies and mobility, the USDA investigation included eight allegations of attacks on visitors in an 8 month period.   Most cases that 6 years or more to prosecute so animals suffer most or all of their lives waiting for help to arrive.  The only way to put an end to the suffering is to end the private possession of big cats and eliminate the USDA loophole that allows people to keep big cats if they have a $40 USDA license.  It is too easy to get and too hard to lose to provide any sort of enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Howie Responsible for First State to Ban Circuses Yesterday Nosey's Law was signed into law in New Jersey and NJ Senator Raymond Lesniak, Jr. wrote Bill Nimmo and Kizmin Reeves, of Tigers in America to say:   From: Raymond Lesniak To: William Nimmo  Sent: Friday, December 14, 2018 4:45 PM Subject: Re: NJ Nosey's Bill signed into law- RAY   You got me started on animal welfare

I Forgot My Password I have one password to open my computer and then password service to open the 500+ programs and secure sites I use.  A couple years ago it crashed and I had to reset its password and most of those other sites, so I did the old lady thing and wrote down the main password on a sticky note and put it in my top desk drawer.  Stupid.  I know.  But I thought it would be worse not being able to access the world.     Yesterday I walked in sat down, and just stared at the computer.  I could not remember my password to save my life.  I couldn't even remember the sticky note Plan B.     I decided coffee might help and made a cup, took my vitamins, confessed my memory loss to Howie, tried to get consolation from Pearlie, and finally I saw it in my head and was able to start my day.  That led me to seeing if I'd ever created a page of help for everyone if I die or become incapacitated and I had created such last year, so I updated it to yesterday's date.     Knowing that my mind is going, or at least having some pretty significant shut downs, I'm even more compelled to finish this diary.  I discovered a folder full of emails between Howie and me and have been putting those in order and in this book and falling in love with him over and over as I do.  All of the beautiful things I thought and said about him during our meeting and falling in love are even more true today.  Thankfully there are better ways to store passwords than on a sticky note now, so no more of that nonsense.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Tiger Trafficking in America       Government authorities will often say they can find little or no evidence of the black market trade in tigers in America which just tells me they aren't looking.  A fan of ours sent the following to me and Howie sent it to the USFWS agent Matt Bryant and the next day, after nothing had been done, I sent to the FWC.    Go to: www.estatesalesinorlando.com, go to "Our Next Estate Sale", second listing down, address:  1205 Forest Circle, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714, pictures #93 - 95. Phone  407-256-ssss.   I've attached copies of the tiger skin (which is being marketed as lion paws, but there are distinct stripes further up the legs) and copies of the county records showing the owner of the home, where the items are being sold to be David Sweeney.   https://estatesales.org/photos/27453141?from=https://estatesales.org/estate-sales/fl/altamonte-springs/32714/estate-sale-in-altamonte-springsestate-1600949/gallery   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Invited Erik Mathais of Immertec to Collaborate His company films doctors in 360 and 3D in real time to use as course material for training doctors using Medoptic Virtual Surgical Observation.  He's based in Ybor, possibly at the Blind Tiger Cafe, according to the news.    Hi Erik,  Congrats on the piece in the Tampa Bay Business Journal.  I'm sure you are being slammed with fan mail right now so I'll be brief:   Big Cat Rescue's goal is to end the barbaric practice of holding wild cats in cages for amusement and we are investing in virtual reality as a way to change the demand for real lions and tigers in cages to virtual experiences.  We have over 7 TBs of stored 360 video that has been shot on the Insta360 Pro 2, GoPro Omni, GoPro Fusion, Insta360X and Insta360 One that we are happy to share, for free, to those who are willing to promote this technology and demand further.   We have an aging population of 60 exotic cats, and an onsite hospital where we mount both LIVE cameras and 360 cameras, and our two vets are already accustomed to having everything they do (except euthanasia and necropsies) being filmed in real time.  You can see some samples of our edited videos at:  360BigCat.com and 360BigCats.com   We just started messing around with 3D last week and think that's going to be a hit too.  I'd love to have you and your staff or family come see Big Cat Rescue and see if there are ways we can help each other.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Fur Trade is Ending   25 Years ago we bought out 56 bobcat and lynx kittens from the Fur Farm in LeCenter, MN because when I learned cats were being killed for their fur, I thought I could put a stop to that.  (Those kittens were about the size and color that Pearlie is in this photo taken today with Howie)  That led to saving 28 bobcats and lynx the next year, 22 bobcats and lynx the next year and with that the fur farms in America were no longer killing cats for their fur.  Tiger Lilly the Bobcat is the last of those cats.  The following 2 years we were working on emptying the fur farm cages in Canada.  Apollo the Siberian Lynx is the last of those cats.    Just this year scores of clothing designers and retailers around the world have banned fur from their products—including Coach, Burberry, Versace, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Donna Karan, Armani, Hugo Boss and Gucci, to name just a few. Even major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles are banning the sale of fur outright.  Indiana and Ohio have yielded to public pressure to scale back bobcat hunting and other states are seeing similar changes coming.   Today I woke up thinking about that and the first email I opened turned out to be PETA talking about ending the fur trade permanently for all animals, especially rabbits.  That was even more coincidental because I'd been laying in bed thinking about how PETA gets a bad rap, even in animal lover circles, because ignorant people believe what the bad guys tell them without doing any research on their own.  That's the same way so many of our supporters used to talk about us, until they learned who we really are, so I was thinking to do a LIVE Facebook cast today talking about that.  It's pouring rain and there is a tornado watch in the area, so this will have to do.    I remember back in the 90s PETA was saying some mean things about us, that weren't true, but it was understandable that they would suspect us of animal abuse because they knew back yard breeders and dealers in big cats were bad news.  They had no way to know that we were different.  When I was alerted that “PETA is here!” I didn't run them off.  I welcomed them.  I figured they would actually like us if they knew us, so I introduced them to the cats, told their rescue stories and more importantly offered to take them anywhere and show them anything they wanted to see.  Suspicion grows in the absence of transparency.  It was my first experience with opening our books and back rooms to outsiders so they could decide for themselves who and what we are.   Over the years we've worked with PETA for better laws to protect the cats.  I know a lot of people who have worked there over the past quarter of a century, and a lot who still do.  They have some truly brave, intelligent and dedicated staff who do the dirty under cover work others fear.  They are some of the most tender hearted souls, but they bear witness to unbearable animal cruelty.  (The kind of things you'd scroll past fast on social sites because you can't stand to see it)  They put themselves in harm's way in order to gather the footage and evidence necessary to bring to justice some of what we consider the worst abusers, like Dade City's Wild Things.  They have some of the best animal lawyers in the industry who use the pathetically inadequate laws we currently have to enforce the endangered species act where the government just chooses to turn a blind eye.     Many times we have worked with PETA, who chose to stay in the background, because of the people who would regurgitate untruths about them in an effort to derail the real objective.  People who abuse animals don't have a story that resonates with the public, so their only defense is to try and discredit those who are bringing them to task.  We've experienced a lot of that ourselves and often we have to work in the background, so that the abusers can't divert the narrative away from their misdeeds.     I can't vouch for every single person who says they are a part of PETA any more than I can vouch for every single person who claims to be our advocate, but the people I've worked with there have been some of the most animal loving people I've known.  I doubt that I'd agree with every statement or policy, but I'm not sure there is any organization that I would.  If you want to learn about them there are real charity evaluators like Guidestar and Charity Navigator https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4314     Don't be misled by statements and sites like PETA Kills Animals.   http://www.petakillsanimalsscam.com/ states that: “PETAKillsAnimals.com is run by the disingenuously named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a front group that's funded by KFC, Outback Steakhouse, Philip Morris, cattle ranchers, and other enterprises that kill millions of animals every year, not to end suffering but to turn a profit. The CCF's clients fear the impact that PETA has made in educating consumers about cruelty to animals in the meat, circus, and experimentation industries and in changing people's buying habits. That's why the CCF devotes a tremendous amount of time and money to attempting to mislead caring people and divide the animal-protection movement by deliberately mischaracterizing PETA's work.”  I found that by just searching the word PETA.  If you look for the truth, it isn't hard to find.    Like most animal abusers the critics take some element of truth and turn it into a lie that people will believe.  PETA does operate a shelter and they do euthanize animals who can't be adopted, so it makes it easy for people who don't want to think about the alternative to accept that as proof PETA is evil.  “No Kill Shelters” have found that the public will support them over shelters that euthanize because the public wants to believe that every animal can find a happy forever after.  It just isn't true.  The only way no kill shelters can exist is to only take in the most adoptable animals and turn away the rest.  The whole shelter system is broken because our laws don't prevent people from doing the irresponsible things that result in unwanted pets, but that's a mission I hope to pursue once the exotic cat crises is ended.   In some ways, Big Cat Rescue, faces a similar dilemma.  We can only take in the animals we know we can provide lifetime care to because all of our current population depends on us making hard decisions to ensure their survival.  Because of the work to change laws that we, and IFAW, HSUS, ADI, AWI, Born Free, PETA and others have done, we don't see nearly as many big cats in private hands who end up in need of rescue.  The big influx of cats into the collective of sanctuaries comes from all the places that “can't say no” and breeders who never took into consideration what their actions would ultimately mean for the cats in their facilities.     Cat hoarding is no different from big cat hoarding.  It's a life of misery, for the animals and when they are rescued from their daily hell, their long term options elsewhere are dubious, unless they are taken by those who commit to that animal never going hungry, or without water or vet care again.  Good intentions aren't enough.  The rescuer has to have the resources to back up that commitment.  I am always dismayed when someone tells me they've donated to some other sanctuary because they are rescuing big cats, and they want to be part of a rescue, or because they think we are doing well financially and don't need it.     I read the 990s of these places and I know they can't afford to keep those cats long term because they don't have money set aside for that care and they don't want to commit resources to building that pension plan for their animals, because that is a lot harder to do, than doing a rescue.   Most of these places have only enough money in the bank to last a couple months, or maybe a year.  Big Cat Rescue has a pension fund set aside that would carry our cats to the end of their lives.  We'd have to stop all of our advocacy and educational efforts but we could make sure our existing exotic cats never go without care.    I think another way that PETA and Big Cat Rescue are alike is that we really would like to put ourselves out of business.  We make the hard choices, the often unpopular choices, because we believe we can actually end the suffering.  Neither of us gets much, if any support, from other non profits who claim to have the same objective, because those organizations would cease to exist if the problems truly were ended.  They would lose their status, jobs, and sense of self if there were no more animals in need of rescue.  They would never admit that; not even to themselves, but if it weren't true they'd be taking the hard stand beside us to end the abuse at its root.     Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”  The work to end the cub handling and private possession of big cats is the hard, non sexy work that people want to avoid because they “don't like politics” but it is crucial to ending the abuse of big cats in captivity and saving them in the wild.  In the next five years the tiger could disappear in the wild due to poaching.  That poaching is increased by the demand for tiger parts that is caused by tiger farming because people want the wild tiger.  China, Thailand and other African and Asian countries are growing their tiger and lion farms.  When the U.S. tries to combat this farming they point at the U.S. and say, “At least we know where all of our tigers are.  You don't.”  Anti-poaching is made hard to enforce when it's legal for people to possess tigers because you can't tell wild tiger parts from captive bred tiger parts.  Ending cub handling and private possession are the first and most necessary steps to saving tigers in the wild.   The next time you want to make a difference I'd encourage you to look beyond the surface and find out if you are only making a temporary difference for one or two animals, or are you making a lasting difference that will save them all and ensure a future that includes wild cats living free.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Howie Summarizes Cub Petting for Ad Campaign CUB PETTING PROJECT   BACKGROUND   Growing public awareness of captive animal issues. In the last few years we have increasingly seen that public awareness of captive exotic animal issues has been growing at an accelerating rate. It has become widespread enough to impact businesses that exploit animals by reducing attendance to a point where they had to either close down like Ringling or change their ways dramatically like SeaWorld.   For more on this accelerating trend see an article I wrote for Encyclopedia Britannica at http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2018/10/how-is-the-struggle-for-womens-suffrage-100-years-ago-like-the-battle-to-stop-abuse-of-big-cats/ .   Cub petting drives the breeding. The vast majority of the breeding, particularly of tiger cubs, is to create a steady stream of cubs in order to charge the public to hold and pet them, take photos with them, even swim with them.  The cubs are only useful for a few months so a steady supply is needed.   This cub petting trade is a horribly abusive treatment of these animals because:   • Cubs are ripped from their mothers at birth to make them more manageable because if they are left with the mothers for even a month they become the equivalent of feral cats and not useful. This separation at birth is a torment to any mammal mother and offspring. • The cubs are physically punished in order to diminish their natural tendencies to play roughly, which nature builds in as part of their training to be successful tigers in the wild. • The cubs are deprived of the mother's milk that has immune qualities that bottle formula cannot duplicate. The cubs' immune systems are further impaired by sleep deprivation, because the cubs, who normally would sleep the largest part of the day, are kept awake as long as there are customers willing to pay. They are often awakened from sleep in order to be used for petting. • These tiny cubs with weakened immune systems are then exposed to being handled by hundreds of people who may be carrying disease either themselves or from pets at home. Cubs with raging diarrhea and ringworm have continued to be used by the cub petting operations. • There is no tracking of how many cubs die in the process. There is no tracking of how many that survive are raised until big enough to slaughter to supply the illegal trade in their parts because there is no tracking of what these few breeders do with the cubs once they are too big to pet. The ones that can be tracked end up with miserable lives with the females being unhealthily bred constantly instead of the natural 2-3 year cycle that occurs in nature because it takes that long for the mother to teach the cubs to hunt and for the cubs to reach sufficient maturity to be on their own.   There are about a half dozen significant cub petting breeders in the country. Some are in relatively small markets, at least one in the larger SE Florida market.  However, their customers come from all over the country, particularly if they are in vacation destination areas. The rest of the country's zoos operate without cub petting.   Our goal is not to put any zoo out of business. Our goal would be to create such awareness of the misery caused by cub petting that people would (a) Not patronize it and (b) Call out those few zoos who do it to a point where the reduced revenue and negative publicity would cause the zoos to change their ways and join the vast majority of zoos who are successful without doing cub petting.   BCR Financial Position. We have had a series of good years that has allowed us to (1) fully fund the “pension liability” that insures we can care for the cats to the end of their lives if another 9-11 or other event caused donations and visitors to stop and (2) we have made most of the major capital improvements needed on the sanctuary property. The puts us in a position where, if we thought we could have a meaningful impact on public awareness of cub petting that would cause people not to patronize it we could spend as much as $1 million over the course of a year.   Digital marketing. I asked Liz that we consider all kinds of traditional media, not just digital, and expressed some reservations about digital based on our one experience. The cub petting video PPK produced and geo-fenced to the Capitol area was off the charts successful in terms of 70+% of people who viewed it watching it to the end, versus the norm of only a few percent. But, despite the geo-fencing, in our limited questioning of congressional aides, none had seen it. So it did not accomplish its primary purpose.   QUESTION FOR PPK   The question I discussed with Liz is whether with this kind of a budget we could have a meaningful impact, i.e. build awareness to a point where patronage dropped, and if so how. Below are the bullet points I took away from our half hour conversation taking notes as fast as I could while we talked, so they may not be accurate.   • Budget too small to have national impact. • Newspaper is older demographic. • Circus is a much more broadly known issue. If I understood correctly, Liz felt many people do not even know there is cub petting, so it may be harder to educate them. My subsequent thoughts: We do get a lot of calls at the sanctuary from people asking if we have cubs to pet. Even if people have not heard of it, it is a simple concept captured in two words pretty vividly. And in the case of the circus, this is a practice that was widely accepted by our society for over 100 years so the advocates had to reverse people's thinking. Therefore I might argue that people having not heard of cub petting gives us the benefit of no preconceived bias to overcome. Also, “tiger selfies” have been pretty broadly in the news and social media, with Tinder instituting a policy against them, so I am not sure there is as much lack of awareness as Liz seemed to think, if I understood her correctly. • Should strongly consider digital & social media (I am not sure if there is a difference unless digital is referring to having info on a website we send people to?). • With our budget we could do enough to have impact in a smaller market like Myrtle Beach, SC by geo-fencing and filtering. If it worked in one market, we could over time replicate in others. • Probably not use banner ads like we did in DC because it requires people seeing them 8-9 times before they click. Use more interruptive digital techniques that send people to a web page. Our current page is bigcatrescue.org/cubs. It is very thorough, but very long. So I am thinking we need a video at the top that concisely and compellingly covers it. Because people may not want to see any vivid mistreatment of cubs and we have limited undercover video to show, Carole came up with the idea that for this page and what we push on Facebook we might use animation to tell this story. She is experimenting with that. • Not sure if I got this right, but I think she said that with Facebook ads we could set a filter for people who had done Google searches on terms like “tiger cub petting” or “cub petting.”  So could capture people in Myrtle Beach who had searched for cub petting before coming.  However, if people coming on vacation bought tickets in advance it would be too late. Subsequently it occurred to me that if our goal is to catch people who search on cub petting and get them to a website, we could we do that by pouring money into keywords so our website comes up when they search. But, when I do that search, the top results already are people like us opposing cub petting. Despite this, the cub petting operations still thrive. • Liz talked about using Facebook to create material that people would want to repost, gaining exponentially more unpaid views and having people who “get it” influence others. So the alternative to Google ads based on the searches would be boosting these posts hoping to reach a lot of people and have them repost to others.   NOTE: in contrast to Carole, I have limited understanding of the Facebook marketing so some of my notes above my reflect that.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Justin came to give Maya Cougar some pain meds and steroids as a last ditch effort to save her after she's had 5 seizures in the past day.  Maya Cougar only spent a year at Big Cat Rescue but she was such a special cat that she touched our hearts.   There was only 35 hours from the onset of the seizures until she died and she was under the care of two vets and on anti seizure meds, pain meds and steroids.  We have had other cats who lived for years after having seizures, so we were hoping she could shake it off if we gave her a couple days to stabilize.   Two hours later she was dead.  I was watching the first shift of Nest Cams after everyone left for the night and she died about 5 minutes after Kathryn, Afton and Aleesa left.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Howie was asked to speak at an International Conference to 4000 people Our speaker, Howard Baskin, is the Advisory Board Chairman of Big Cat Rescue, the only accredited sanctuary in Florida devoted to big cats and one of the largest sanctuaries in the world. In this talk he will explain from experience on the ground why the U.S. regulatory scheme cannot work, how it increases the likelihood of extinction of the tiger, and propose the solution.   He wrote the following as the draft for the theme of his talk:   THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF US TIGER CUB PETTING ON PREVENTING EXTINCTION OF TIGERS IN THE WILD   As recently as 1990 there was an estimated 100,000 tigers in the wild. Today there are less than 4000. Preserving endangered species around the world from man induced extinction requires the cooperation of all nations. This is largely managed through the international treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, or CITES (pronounced sigh tees). The nations of the world meet every two years at CITES Conventions to make decisions that fall largely on each nation to actually implement. The United States plays a leadership role in proposing positions and urging other nations to support those positions. In contrast, some countries seek to “farm” tigers and legalize the trade in tiger parts that drives the poaching that threatens the existence of tigers in the wild.   What is not well known is that the impracticality of enforcing the current regulatory scheme in the U.S., which results in these iconic animals living in miserable conditions in roadside zoos and in tiger cubs being ripped from their mothers at birth to use for cub petting and photo ops, impairs the credibility of the United States in its effort to oppose tiger farming and save the tiger.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I am losing my teeth   Dear Mom,   On another note, I left your house for my first dental appointment in 10-15 years.  I only ever had one cavity, and that was 38 years ago while carrying Jamie.  It was in a wisdom tooth that was coming in at the same time, so they just pulled it.   I went yesterday to have my teeth cleaned, but they discovered that most of my molars are loose because of bone loss caused by periodontal disease.  My gums have bled my whole life, but I didn't know how serious it was to retaining my teeth.   Now I am being referred to a specialist and will probably have to get implants for at least 8 of my back teeth.  Until Dr. Delatorres pointed it out, I never even noticed that I can actually wiggle all of my back teeth with my finger.  Since I never had any pain, I didn't think I had a problem.   I am copying Chuck and Jamie, since we share the same genetics.  Maybe they can halt any bone loss by staring earlier to get their teeth cleaned regularly and to floss.  I know Dad had some awful teeth, but don't know what the inside of your mouth looks like.  I've never heard you complain.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

A “note” passed from Babylon to Pearlie for me   I have a daily routine where I come home from work, remove all of my jewelry except my wedding ring, and get into my pajamas.  Babylon would frequently pick out my earrings to play with, and as long as they were big enough not to wash down the sink, I'd let him think he was getting away with something.   Two days after Babylon died, I did the same routine, but the next morning one of my blue cat's eye earrings was missing.  I thought maybe I'd accidentally caught it on some item of clothing, so I emptied the laundry bin and went through all of the clothes, and the path from my sink to the closet.  I searched everywhere I could have gone between coming home and waking up the next morning, including my office.  The more I searched, the more strongly I believed this was a message from Babylon.  Where I would find it would be the message.  I could not find the earring anywhere and we had no one else and no other pets in the house.     I chalked it up to one last caper for Babylon from the other side of the veil.  One day it would appear and I'd get the point.   2 weeks later.  Because Pearlie is so timid we don't want to condition her to staying under the bed, so we haven't given her access to the bedroom, my bathroom or the closet yet.  This morning I let her into my office for the first time, and while I was making coffee I heard her growling in there.  I went to see what was scaring her and there on the floor in front of her was my missing earring.    I put on both earrings and took this picture.  I can't stop crying.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

A Kitten Warms Howie's Heart   Five days after we lost Babylon, on Nov 20, a tiny voice cried out from under the Keeper Cafe.  It took Keepers two days to trap the frightened little blue cream kitten.  She's been living in the office with Afton caring for her during the day and yesterday she got to play with the kittens in the Kitten Cabana and really loved it.  Afton asked to bring her to the staff meeting today and the kitten was passed around from Keeper to Keeper until Howie got up, walked across the room and took her.     I knew then they'd found each other.  I sneaked a few photos across the table of them cuddling and wondered if it was too soon for him.  At the end of the meeting Howie said, “Is it too soon?”  My eyes filled with tears that I tried hard to blink back.  I haven't told anyone about Babylon dying, except Jamie.  I said, “It's up to you.”  Everyone started clapping and the kitten bolted out of his arms and had to be retrieved by Afton and Kathryn.     He just called asking what kind of food he should pick up for her and trying to be matter of fact about her needs, but then broke down crying that he misses Babylon so much and the house is so empty without him.  That's true.   I hope this tiny, timid little soul can heal his broken heart.  She reminds me of a short haired version of Pearlie Mae.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I blow into Big Cat Rescue on a tornado   I used to be part of a family.  I had a mom and a family who loved us.  They had read us the story of the Wizard of Oz.  I even dreamed about it.  I thought this was a dream, until it turned into a nightmare.      The tornado hit so fast and furious and without warning.  My life was turned upside down, literally.  It was like being in the spin cycle of the noisy, shaking washing machine that had scared me so often as it rumbled and shook in the corner.  When the winds let up, I was alone and wet and cold.     I called and called for my mom, but she didn't call back.  I walked for what seemed miles, along a wall of fences, looking for the one to our yard.  The paved trail next to it was walked by dozens of dogs every day, so I didn't dare venture out of the woods that separated their path from the fence line.  Days passed and there was water in the ditch to drink, but I was SO hungry.     Mom had told me about hunting, but we never got to do any of it together.  The things I can eat all seem to be so much faster than me, but I've got to keep trying.  I've got to find my family and make sure they are alright.    The stuff I could catch did NOT taste very good and I missed the warm milk that had always been so plentiful.  I missed being loved and kissed and even bathed by my mom.  I've just got to find her!   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Dave Welling Told Me to Stop Caring for Animals Back in the 90s Dave Welling came to do a photo tour at Wildlife on Easy Street and I was his guide.  I was his guide, because I was our only Photo Tour guide.  Throughout the day I learned that Dave had been involved with and on the board of directors at the Wildlife Waystation since 1987.  As evening approached I told him we'd have to call it a day because I had to feed the cats.  I had to feed the cats because back then, it was often only Jamie and me and maybe one other volunteer to feed 100 big cats.  It was a three hour chore every day.   Dave said the sanctuary would never succeed if I was the person feeding cats, cleaning cages and giving tours.  As founder, I needed to be out in the community, building relationships with lawmakers and donors.  At the time, I just laughed.  There was no way I could tell Jamie, “Sorry kid.  It's all on you.  I gotta go schmoozing.”   In the mid nineties, the Wildlife Waystation was in its prime and was the model to emulate though.  What Dave said stuck with me and I began looking for ways to get the animal care done by volunteers so that I would have some free time to attend public meetings involving wildlife.  I would much rather have cared for the cats all day, because I love them and that was my comfort zone, but it was selfish.   If I wanted to ensure these cats would never go hungry, never be abandoned, never go without vet care, I had to figure out ways to let the public know about their plight.  I had to do things I hated; like talking to strangers, asking for help and becoming the person the media came to whenever there was a slow news day or an attack by a privately owned big cat.  If I really cared for cats, I had to stop being their daily care giver.   I had to create a system and structure to enlist the help of volunteers that I could trust and give them the power to make decisions.  Jamie and I built the Volunteer Committee as the ultimate authority over all volunteer matters.  The group of 5-7 people always included Jamie and me, but decisions had to be unanimous, and that led to great thought in every protocol and disciplinary measure.  That body of work became the “sanctuary in a box” that we share with other sanctuaries so they can make the most of their volunteer force without having to reinvent the wheel.     That led to a volunteer force of over 100 people and a staff of 14 who put in the equivalent hours of 52 full time staff and has enabled us to increase our net assets by about a million dollars a year.  It's enabled us to be the leaders in the political actions to end private possession of big cats and cub petting.  https://bigcatrescue.org/2017-annual-report/   I looked him up and found his email addresses:  and saw that he'd reached out to me after Hurricane Irma, but I was so busy then, I'd only written back to say we were fine.  Today I sent him the above.     Jamie is such a good story teller.  This happened last night and she posted this on her Facebook page:   We found a good fossil hunting spot on the river and stayed a little late leaving us not much time to make it back to the launch. Then just as the sun set the battery for the motor died! It got dark quick and we had to paddle like mad, but were making no progress because of the current.    We killed ourselves for every inch gained up the river. Several times we actually were going backwards despite heroic efforts. At times we got out and waded in the darkness dragging the boat behind. This on a day we had seen the biggest alligators ever in the river.    Where it was too deep we tied a rope to the boat and pulled it along the shoreline as we walked the steep banks but it kept beaching. We got stuck in some quicksand and slid down a few muddy clay banks.    Eventually we made it to a place near the launch but the rest of the way was treacherous by water so we beached the boat and hiked through the thick forest in the pitch black back to the truck, our path lit only by a cell phone.    What should have taken 20 minutes took over an hour, but we laughed the whole way.   YouTube Text for Podbean   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

33 Cats Left I sent the following to Howie and Jamie because I know they are both dealing with the stress of wondering how long this ordeal is going to last.  While I know there is much sadness ahead, as we lose cats, I am encouraged that there are fewer and fewer exotic cats in cages every year.    On the Cat Census spreadsheet is a tab called Pension where we calculate the average age at death of our cats, and then figure out who is under that age, by how many years, times the annual care cost.  We originally did this to determine how much money we would need to put aside in our endowment fund and came up with 3.5 million back then (circa 2005?)   Now that figure is $799k based on the cats left who are under our average age at time of death.  It's 33 cats, including the 4 ODA cats and the 3 Guatemala tigers (although I haven't calculated their cost in that figure because I don't know how old the ODA cats are and the Guatemala cats aren't here yet)   None the less, only 33 of our cats are younger than our average age of death for each species.  I calculate that average based upon how long our cats have actually lived.   34 of our cats are already older than our cats usually live to be.  When you look at the ages left for each of our cats, it averages out to about 6.5 years.   I've been captured by strangers!   I've been sneaking into Big Cat Rescue at night, and eating some of the left over food.  I just have to keep a wary eye out that Hoover Tiger doesn't catch me.  He's the biggest tabby I've ever seen!  If I told you how big he was, you'd say I was exaggerating.     I slip in and out of the sanctuary under the fence along the dog path.  There is a great place to hide there, under the porch of the Keeper Cafe.  The smells that waft down between the boards are fantastic at lunch time.  I remember those foods and I really want some, but so far, I've managed to keep my thoughts to myself.  I don't know those people and I remember momma always said, “Don't speak to strangers.”   They stopped leaving food out overnight for Hoover Tiger, and I'm really hungry.  Today I just feel like I'm going to die if I don't get something to eat, so I call up through the planks asking them to drop a little lunchmeat down to me.  Well, that was a mistake!   Apparently big cat keepers are crazy about little cats too.  They spent two days trying to reach me and finally decided they might have to rip up the porch to do it.  They keep temping me closer for the food, and I'm so tired and weak, that I am not fast enough to get it and get away before they grab me.   As I'm pulled out I wonder if this is the end of me.  I hiss and spit and do all I can to look formidable, but I'm only three pounds of skin and bones.  Stephanie and Afton are all smiles at my capture and my facade isn't having the desired intent.  Instead they're saying things like, “She's so cute.  Awwww.  She's so scared.”  I decide that actually biting or scratching them would be just too rude, but I keep hissing.    I wouldn't have hissed, or waited this long, if I'd had any idea what was in store for me.  Afton acted like she'd just adopted me at the baby store and there was so much food, I thought I'd burst.  Toys!  OMG!  There were catnip toys, toys that jingled, toys you could hide in, toys that you could chase and so many soft, safe places to nap.  I thought I'd sleep a week, now that it was finally safe to shut my eyes.      Afton says I lack “people skills” so she takes me to the Staff Meeting where I'm handed around the table.  I just nuzzle into the arms of each person who doesn't respond to my hisses (none of them do) and then I hear them discussing my fate.  Karma says they are going to take me to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to be evaluated.  I'm wondering what THAT means, when Howie asks out loud.  Wow.  It's like he read my mind.   Karma explains that they will see if I'm tame enough to be adopted, or if I'm too feral.  Howie says that people will think I'm tame, because I can be held, but when they get me home, and I spend all my time hiding under the bed, they won't want me any more.  He's afraid I'll keep getting sent back to the shelter, until I'm grown, and then no one will want me.  He sees that I'm right here and can hear all of that, right?     Thing is, he's probably right.  As much as I want to trust these people, those weeks on my own have really had a toll on my psyche.  I do default to staying hidden and I just can't help but hiss at everyone, to try and keep some space between us.  At this point, I don't think I can ever get past that.  Howie says he can wait as long as it takes.  Howie looks across the room at Carole and says, “Is it too soon?” And she says, “It's up to you.”   They are crying.  I think they must have had some big sadness recently.  I'm not at all sure about this move to another place, and getting to know Howie and Carole but I really don't want to be abandoned over and over again.  Howie said he's in this for the long haul and Carole is apparently the mother cat to all of those giant cats at the sanctuary, so it's probably my best bet.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk    

Not one Thanksgiving photo Jamie and I have been on a scrapbooking binge and have dragged out every physical photo we own into one spot to reorganize them into books with pages of themes. Last night I did a page on my mother and the theme was eating meals together. Since it was so close to Thanksgiving, I was on the lookout for common holiday foods and can't tell that any of the meals were centered around Thanksgiving, or Christmas, for that matter. More than 60 years of pictures and no one took one of a holiday meal? Seems so odd. It also seems odd for it to be Thanksgiving and family not be at the center of it this year. Our emotions were just too raw the Thanksgiving after Chuck and Mom announced they were leaving us last summer for Jamie, Howie and I to want to be with them. My mother had texted me on the evening of Thanksgiving last year, asking for a pre nuptial agreement because she believed Fred was going to propose. This year she and Fred are having a big shindig at the Keystone lake house and we were all invited but Howie said he can't stand to be around Chuck so he's going to celebrate with his college friend, Willow Houben and her kids instead. He said he'd come with me, if I insisted, but I don't want him to have to pretend he's not hurt. Jamie wouldn't say if she and Victor were coming until I pinned her down yesterday. She looked so sad, but said she really didn't want to be with them, so I told her I totally understand, because I do. My stomach has been in knots for weeks about this. I really don't want to have to put on a smiling face and act like my heart isn't broken. I was listening to a podcast yesterday where Jesse Itzler said, “You don't have as much time with your loved ones as you think you might. If you're thinking that your parents could live another 10 years, but you only see them twice a year, you don't have another 10 years with them. You have 20 visits. “ That really hit home for me. I used to see Mom a couple times a day and now I see her a couple times a year. Today will be hard. I'm crying already, but I can't miss out on what little time I have with her. Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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. These are my views and opinions. 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. You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

I worked too late last night, running out of light to bike by, and had to hitch a ride home with Jamie.  She showed me texts she'd sent to Justin and I was impressed with her frankness, her meekness and the way she took ownership of the situation.  This was my response to her today.   I don't know the details of your break up, but I was impressed that you took ownership of it in your text to Justin.  When things go wrong it's easy to want to cast blame.  That's what most people do and that's what kills most relationships.       I know how hard it is for you to be open about your feelings too, because keeping things inside feels like self preservation, but I think it just leads to self torment.  You will have hundreds of “conversations” in your head, trying to come to a better outcome, but that can't happen.  Those conversations have to be with the one you are trying to work something out with and they have to be from a position of inner strength.   That inner strength comes from not being vested in changing the other person but rather understanding that you are both on a journey.  You've come into each other's lives for reasons that aren't clear to either of you, but are always the same; to be better, stronger, more enlightened and thus happier people in the end.  I think the same is true of the animals we meet along the way too.  You know that I believe Babylon and I last crossed paths thousands of years ago, and we knew each other the instant our eyes locked across the room.   Why would my soulmate from so long ago come into my life as a cat?  Maybe because I was in a loving relationship with Howie and it wouldn't have served his purpose to rock that boat.  I learned a few lessons from him.     • Never be afraid to hug someone or show your love. • Be watchful over those you love and try to protect them and serve them. • Look beyond the obvious.     I was so sure I knew his medical condition and his lizard habits so well that I wasn't alarmed at all at the fact that he was always sharing my water with me, even though he had plenty of fresh water daily.  He would always be pukey for a few days after eating a lizard, so this didn't seem any different, until he started acting like he couldn't see well.  Even then, that didn't seem life threatening.  Your grandfather's heart failure was due to untreated diabetes too.  Maybe I missed the message Babylon came to deliver about that.     You and I are genetically predisposed to diabetes so Babylon's message to me is that there isn't any sugar or carb that is worth dying for.  I have a mission to accomplish here and I have to be healthy enough to see it through.  I hope you will take his warning seriously as well.   As hard as it's been to find him in all the millions and millions of shared souls out there, we did find each other, and we were better for it.  I think I helped him overcome the anxiety of being alone to an extent, because when ever I traveled he could count on you and that had to give him some sense of security.     Your text to Justin was the first step in the healing process.  Who knows how it will go, but I'm proud of you for taking that first step.  It doesn't matter if you end up back together so much as it matters that you become comfortable  with your eternal nature.  I want you to be able to see relationships for what they are.  They are not final.  Not even in death.  I think in between lives we get to see the whole picture and then we grant the Universe the right to obscure it to us so that we have the great pleasure of learning and growing each time around.      I am at peace because I know that everyone around me is doing the best they know how at this point.  I love my brother, regardless of what he's done, because I know we both came into each other's lives to learn important lessons.  I love my mother, even though she's always loved Chuck more, for the same reasons.  I can't say that I love Joe, but I actually don't harbor any ill will toward him.  Had he not been so outrageous in this treatment of animals, and in flagrantly breaking the law, it would have been much harder to bring society forward in their recognition that animals are not for us to use for our own egos.     I hope you can achieve that same level of peace by accepting the fact that whatever is happening now really is leading all of us to be better, stronger, more enlightened and thus happier.  I love you!   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk    

Babylon died today.     He left almost as quickly as he arrived back in my life.  He's been acting pukey, which is normal after he eats a lizard.  Monday he vomited and usually that makes him feel better until the next time he eats a lizard.  Instead he started walking around hunched over, and disoriented.  In the 15 years he's been here, I only dewormed him once, I think, so I gave him 0.6 ml of Proziquantel to kill any flukes he may have gotten.  He seemed better the next day, but last night he started acting weird again.     This morning Howie called me into the kitchen because he wanted to show me that Babylon was really disoriented and had walked up and laid down in a corner of the kitchen with his nose tucked under the lip of the cabinets.  We called the vet and got an appointment for 11 am.  He didn't appear to be in distress, so Howie started to work in the yard and I went about my morning chores.  When I popped back in to check on Babylon, his head was down flat on the floor; something he never does, so I reached down to pet him and was horrified to feel him so near death.     I scooped him up as I turned to Howie and said, “I think he's dead!”   Then I heard a breath and felt it.  I rushed him to the carrier Howie had prepared for later in the morning and Howie drove him to the vet at 8:48 am.  I was still in my PJs and didn't want to slow them down.  When Howie got there they put Babylon on a heating pad, an IV and oxygen, but at 10 am Dr Wynn called to say that Babylon had diabetes and was only being kept alive due to life support.  His heart rate was dropping as she spoke and she didn't see any way he was going to recover from this.  I told her to let him go peacefully.   We never had any idea he had diabetes.  We were managing his urinary track crystal issues all these years with a dry diet called Royal Canin Urinary SO.  Babylon wouldn't eat raw meat diets, or wet cat food.  He'd have an occasional bite of tuna or salmon, and had drank a bowl of salmon juice last night that he really enjoyed.  He wouldn't make a meal of fish either though.  Had I known he was diabetic, there wouldn't have been anything we could do to manage him so I guess ignorance was bliss.    Babylon was dumped at Big Cat Rescue's front gate, in a pet carrier, at the edge of death from a blockage back in 2003.  I suspect his owner couldn't afford the vet costs, nor the expensive diet he required. He was black and white tuxedo cat, but clearly had Siamese genes due to his loud and continuous vocalizations.     He got his name because the first time I saw him I exclaimed, out loud, "I haven't seen you since Babylon!"   Everyone in the room turned to look at me, wondering what the Hell that outburst was about.  I didn't care.  I was just so happy to see my precious soul mate all these eons later.  He was laying on the corner of a desk, with an IV hanging from above giving him fluids.  We had locked eyes the minute I walked in and in addition to not knowing what I was babbling on about, the people in the room noticed their patient seemed to have emerged from death's door to raise his head.   Howie and I already had Sidney and Garfield and I resisted asking to bring Babylon home...briefly... I was so thankful that Howie was OK with it as he's the one who always feeds the cats, cleans their litter boxes, and is home with them all day.  We were remodeling the gift shop by taking the remaining offices and turning them into display space.  That meant Babylon couldn't stay in the office any longer.  I didn't have any office space that wasn't in the middle of all that chaos, so he needed to find a new home.  He made that home with Howie and I on the island.    Today, as I was digging his grave, overlooking Rocky Creek near where Catera Bobcat used to live, I reached out across the ether to him and vowed we would meet again and again and again.      

The predecessor to the FWC (the agency name has changed over the years) was established in 1942 by an amendment to the Florida Constitution which became current Article 4, Section 9. It originally gave the Commission power over “birds, game, fur bearing animals, and fresh water fish of the State of Florida.” In later amendments to the Constitution this phrase was changed to “wild animal life and fresh water aquatic life.”   The FWC originally interpreted the 1942 language to give the agency power over captive wildlife in addition to Florida's native free wildlife. In 1960 their attempt to regulate captive animals ended up in the Florida Supreme court with Barrow v. Holland, 125 So.2d, 749, 751 (Fla 1960).  The Court ruled that the amendment did NOT give FWC power of captive animals. As a result, the Legislature stepped in and passed currently numbered Florida Statutes §§ 379.303, 379.304, 379.3761, and 379.3762 to add regulatory authority over captive wildlife to the agency's powers.   In 2007 in house counsel for FWC produced a memorandum arguing that FWC's powers over captive animals comes from BOTH the statutes and the Constitution. To the extent the power comes from the Constitution, their argument is that the agency's powers cannot be altered by the legislature except in the very limited way provided for in the Amendment, which states “The legislature may enact laws in aid of the commission, not inconsistent with this section.”   The basis for this FWC position in the memo is that changes to the Amendment language since 1942 have rendered Barrow no longer applicable law and that references to the Constitutional powers in certain subsequent cases support this interpretation.   An analysis of those changes in language in the amendments to the Constitution and of the cited cases by attorneys at Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns, LLP and concurred with by University of Florida Constitutional Law Professor Joe Little reveals that the FWC argument is flawed and that FWC's power over captive animals comes entirely from the statute, not at all from the Constitution (see https://www.jpfirm.com/news-resources/constitutional-authority-florida-legislature-ban-private-ownership-exotic-animals/ ). What the Legislature giveth, the Legislature can take away. Therefore it is clear that the Florida legislature has the authority to ban private ownership of big cats as other state legislatures have done.   WHAT CAN FLORIDA LEARN FROM OTHER STATES AND WHAT SHOULD THE FLORIDA BAR RECOMMEND TO ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM? https://vimeo.com/222234998/ There are only four remaining states that have no laws regarding ownership of dangerous big cats. Until 2011 Ohio was one of those known for having a very large population of unregulated exotic animals.  Then, in a horrible incident known as “the Zanesville massacre” that made national news, Terry Thompson, an exotic animal owner, intentionally released 56 dangerous animals including 18 tigers and 17 lions and then committed suicide. As dark approached law enforcement officials were forced to shoot to kill 49 of those animals. Subsequently Zanesville's Sheriff Lutz has become a strong advocate of national legislation to limit private possession of big cats (see his moving video at 4991058dae ) and the National Sheriffs' Association has endorsed a federal bill severely limiting ownership of big cats (Big Cat Public Safety Act, H.R 1818/S.2990).   What renders almost all of the state laws largely ineffective is that they operate much like the Florida law that only prohibits owning the animals as pets.  I.e. they exempt anyone who has a USDA license.  This includes all of the roadside zoos who continue to keep these animals in conditions that are unnatural and cruel given what we know about how intelligent and sentient these animals are. The animals endure these conditions because, as described in detail above, trying to enforce regulations intended to protect the animals is simply not practical given the cost limitations associated with inspecting, investigating and prosecuting violators.   Fortunately the trend in state law has been NOT to exempt USDA licensees, but instead to recognize that both animal welfare concerns and public safety concerns dictate banning ownership outside of (1) the major zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, who operate under much higher animal welfare standards than the FWC or USDA standards, and (2) sanctuaries who are needed to care for the discarded or seized animals and do not add to the problem by breeding more cats. The trend toward not exempting all USDA licensees is evidenced in the laws in Washington State, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia (although the latter grandfathered in past USDA license holders who keep their licenses in force).   One logical provision common in these laws is a grandfather clause allowing current owners to keep their cats but prohibiting them from breeding or acquiring more. As a practical matter, sanctuaries have very limited capacity and there would be no place for confiscated cats to go if they were taken from all the private owners. The lifespan of these cats is 10-20 years depending on the conditions in which they are kept.  Given the average age of the current big cat population, a law prohibiting further breeding outside the Species Survival Plans managed by the AZA zoos would result in most of the privately owned cats having passed on within a decade after the passage of a law.   Awareness is rapidly growing that the often cited biblical reference to “dominion over animals” does not mean they are like inanimate objects subject to our whim to be used for entertainment or exploited for gain without concern for their natural needs. It means we have responsibility for them. Trying to regulate a large number of private owners is simply not practical. It is time for Florida, once a stronghold of inhumane roadside zoos, to catch up to the growing understanding in our society that these iconic animals do not belong in tiny cages for someone to exploit by charging the public to gawk at them, handle them, or swim with them. Florida should follow the lead of the more forward thinking states that have banned private ownership and breeding outside of the AZA zoos and sanctuaries while grandfathering in existing owners who then have years to transition out of their big cat exhibition activities.   Howie is a genius! He wrote this for Marcia to present to the Animal Law Section so they can start the wheels moving to allow for a state ban on big cats in Florida.     Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Shaquille O'Neil Supporting Cub Abuse? We asked XX to look into how we can best approach Shaq to convince him it will destroy his brand to be part of Jeff Lowe's new version of the GW Zoo. The last thing big cats need is for someone as prominent as Shaq, with his 13-million plus online followers, to be openly endorsing cub-petting, roadside zoos, or "pet" tigers. And even worse is that Shaq has deep ties with many major celebrities, corporations, and media companies, and he seems to be leveraging that into promoting Lowe's scheme. Since Shaq was brought onboard, Lowe appears to be getting much more business and publicity, with Shaq being filmed at the zoo for an upcoming episode of a "very popular TV show", news outlets running stories about his visits, and rumors that "one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country" has booked his tiger cubs for photo shoots (Lowe is being very cryptic about that last one to avoid protests). I believe Shaq was involved in the ‘90s with David McMillan of Tiger's Eye Productions in Oviedo, FL. (I'm pretty sure west coast tiger exploiter Brian McMillan is David's brother. Brian trained under Gunther Geble-Williams at Ringling and has many Gunther stories, including that he was a horse training genius. Brian, now retired, also owned and ran an animal film rental business which he has since passed on to an East Coast guy he trained.) One of Shaq's shoes was displayed on the mantle in David's home and he said Shaq was a friend and frequent visitor to his tiger training camp. The only legal trouble I ever had with USDA was when I went on camera as a rebuttal witness to USDA's position that beating a lion, in a transport wagon, with a baseball bat was "standard training procedures" and thus not a violation of the Animal Welfare Act. That landed me in court facing a bunch of bogus allegations, which were all thrown out and the case dismissed. Even though he has a long history of bad judgment when it comes to captive big cats, I think we can apply enough pressure to put an end to it. Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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. These are my views and opinions. 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. You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion. Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Back on iTunes!   I am all about working efficiently and having services where I can post to one place and have it syndicated to others.  I set up our iTunes podcast for our videos as soon as iTunes and podcasts were a thing and we had tremendous reach on that platform as it has 800 million users.  What I didn't know is that Blip.TV went out of business and it was providing my RSS feed to iTunes, so for the past three years we were not reaching anyone via iTunes.  Fixing that has been on my To Do list for many months now because it is such a convoluted process.   Yesterday I figured it out, made the changes, and today I'm live in iTunes and downloads are already starting to roll in.  40 yesterday and 60 today, but soon that will be in the thousands.  Deep sigh of relief.   Yesterday Jamie and I worked on scrapbooking together for the first time.  She's so creative.  I was thinking you just buy some fancy paper, stick four pictures to a page, and call it a day.  No, no, no!  Jamie has all kinds of tiny embellishments and then makes many of her own with detail work that is just amazing and way beyond what my shaky hands can do.  I ended up buying about $300 in embellishments instead last night.  Jamie said if I did this project I'd be hooked.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Why We Can't Rescue Some Cats This is being written for our supporters who think all they have to do is say, “Go rescue X!” and that we will be able to swoop in and bring a cat to safety.   I hate the abuse as much as you do.  I wish it was as easy, as so many people seem to think, to just walk in and free the cats, but it's never easy.     Several times a day someone will contact me asking me to save a big cat they've heard about online.  Even our volunteers will frequently do so which leads me to believe they don't know what is involved and why we often cannot do it.  Thankfully, in our case, money isn't the issue.  We've been blessed with strong support and it is what enables us to do the more important work, of ending the abuses that cause cats to need rescue, even if we cannot rescue the individuals.   Several cases all came up in the past month:   We've been trying to rescue 3 tigers from Guatemala and there are several more in need of rescue.  We helped ADI build the temporary holding camp for the lions and tigers the government has seized from the now illegal circuses.  We are in the legal process of importing them, which started in May and won't end until late this year or early next year, if we are lucky.  Meanwhile we can't bring more of the cats to the camp because there is no space and no one on this end who will pay for their expensive care during the many months they are waiting for their permits to be issued.   We are hesitant to send more money to Guatemala until we are sure we can get the first three cats into the U.S.    10/9/2018  Avni Tigress and her cubs were in peril in India because she had been deemed a man eater by the authorities and villagers were screaming for her blood.  We launched into the fray and began trying to get a handle on the facts because, believe it or not, you can't trust everything you see on the Internet.  We offered to take or find homes for Avni and her cubs if the government would tranquilize her rather than kill her.  We generated more emails (221,243) to the 17 officials in charge there than any other alert we've done.  We coordinated with our friends at Corbett Tiger Reserve about funding a $40,000 study they can't afford, which they hope will find solutions for these situations.  In the midst of these efforts, Avni was shot and killed and no one has seen her cubs.     10/18/2018 Mufasa the white lion and his mate Soraya were in the process of being sent from a rehab center to a permanent sanctuary, after winning a case against Mufasa's illegal owner. The rehab center immediately sought permits to move both lions to the sanctuary, but the rehab center was told by authorities that Mufasa would not be going to any sanctuary – instead he would be sold to the highest bidder in a public auction!  We stepped in and asked everyone to send emails to the 14 officials who could prevent this action.  It resulted in 111,707 emails, but the South African government treats captive-bred lions like Mufasa as a commodity. The North West Province (where Mufasa resides) is ground zero for South Africa's lion hunting industry and reportedly accounts for 80% of lions hunted there each year.  We don't know what they will decide, but there is already a sanctuary ready and waiting for Mufasa and Soraya, if we can just get the government to back down from auctioning him off as a trophy.   10/27/2018 Lyka the blind lioness suffering in cramped conditions in a privately owned Philippine's zoo came to our attention.  We looked into the matter and found there was already a sanctuary willing to take Lyka, her father and the two tigers.  They had invited the zoo owner, who is also a government official, to see the sanctuary and had been working on negotiating their release.  We said we would see how it went and if they were not successful, we would see if there was anything we could do.  We just learned that the sanctuary had to back away from the rescue because the zoo owner was not willing to let all the cats go and would not agree to quit buying or breeding big cats for life in cages.  Our policy is to require the owners not do such bad things to future cats or we can't help either.  It does no good at all for sanctuaries to enable bad actors.     11/5/18 someone asked me to rescue Zena the tiger in the Russian circus who collapsed from a seizure during a performance.  The video was heartbreaking to watch and I understand the urgency people feel to do something, but we have no channels to reach out to a Russian circus and even if we did, they have no reason to stop buying and breeding big cats to torture for their performances, unless we give them a reason.  That reason is all about money.  When people stop paying to see big cats in captivity no one will keep them in cages.     THAT is where we are spending our time, money and energy:  Changing hearts, minds and laws, so there is no more cruel confinement of big cats for public amusement.  We are only able to succeed, and thus rescue cats like these from a future of abuse, through YOUR voice.   That's why it is so important to sign up for our alerts by taking action on any one of them at CatLaws.com    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk  

Regrouping for next session and the Big Cat Act Our call today was for brainstorming and next steps not decisions.  Only Jocelyn from HSUS was on so we did not get the benefit of input from your other colleagues.  That being said, there was a general consensus that one thing that impaired our bill was that it was complicated and comprehensive and that we might be better off with two much simpler bills.   We talked about one bill that just addressed "private ownership" which pretty much means exempting USDA licensees.  Maybe in that bill we try in some way to address the fact that so many pet owners just obtain a USDA license without being exhibitors.   The second bill would focus just on cub petting and photo ops, perhaps using the language in the current bill about contact and 15 foot distance.  We talked about whether we want to continue to try to accommodate AZA to get them on board despite Jack Hanna / Columbus Zoo influence there or just throw in the towel given their very slow and waffling consensus process and instead go with language we like and just seek support from the more progressive AZA zoos like those who signed on to one of our past letters (this latter part obviously strategy not legal, just context FYI because it affects drafting).   The other possibility I brought up but we left subject to my chatting with you is a bill focused on breeding.  As we have discussed, FWS does no enforcement of the breeding permit requirement we thought were created with the rescission of the generic tiger rule. Separately FWS interprets the requirement to show a conservation purpose as pay to play.  So I wondered whether with legislation we could correct this by mandating enforcement of getting a breeding permit, establish a definition of conservation purpose (or whatever the term is) that we like instead of pay to play, and perhaps by definition establish that mixed subspecies have no conservation value so cannot pass the conservation purpose test.   Soooo, was wondering if you might have time maybe in the coming week for you and I, perhaps Carole join us, and just bat around the issues these ideas raise within your area of expertise like thoughts on how to draft, if possible to draft, relative constitutional strength, if the third idea of going after breeding in the way I mention above or any other way is possible from your standpoint?   Sound like fun?

Malise Turner Says Chris Hansen is Out to Kill Me Matt, last night we got a call from a woman we do not know named Malise (sp?) Turner. She said she was calling out of concern for Carole's safety despite Joe being in jail. Much of the conversation was rambling about Chris Hansen. She claims Hansen told Joe that if he would provide her with the drugs (presumably tranquilization but she mentioned stabilizer), she would "shoot Carole in the butt, put her in the trunk of my car and bury her on my 14 acres" (or something close to that). Turner said that Joe gave Hansen a bottle of Ketamine, the drug used to immobilize. Not sure, if provable, if that would be a drug violation.. What Hansen wanted in return from Joe was a monkey. According to Turner, while Joe was here in FL, before his arrest, Hansen was displaying a new monkey on Facebook. Turner initially had a positive relationship with Hansen that began over a $5000 laptop Turner offered on Craig's list that Hansen inquired about. Hansen offered to pay for the laptop by giving Turner a monkey. Turner already had one monkey. At first they had a positive relationship, but over time Turner observed the constant GoFundMe efforts, checked with the IRS and says Hansen is not a non profit, feels monkeys in Hansen's care were mistreated, says Hansen and her "group" try to get monkeys taken from owners so they can get them and sell them, calls Hansen crazy and a very good con artist. Turner says Hansen is still passionately supportive of Joe, feels Carole is responsible for his being in jail, attended Joe's wedding with a monkey named Emily and told people she and Emily intended to go on the road with Joe as his singing career blossomed and Emily would be a star. Turner mentioned having talked to Jackie Thompson, former wife of Marc the sniper, and something about Jackie talking to authorities (Marshalls). So it is not clear to me if Turner really has any first hand knowledge, or is repeating something from Thompson, in which case it may be information you already have. I am confident if you already knew and perceived a threat you would have alerted us. Meantime, Turner says Hansen moved to Bartow, FL which is only an hour from us. Turner said she would be willing to speak with you if you wanted. In the past we would not have taken a conversation like this as seriously as we do now. So if you have any knowledge that would give comfort, or alternatively are able to do a better job than Carole could in sifting through what Turner says to see how credible it is, we would appreciate it. Later, in a text, Malise reminded me that Jackie Thompson had called me back then, right after Joe shot the blow up doll of me, and played a recording of their plot to kill me. She said, her ex husband, Marc the sniper, told Joe they'd have to wait a while after he blew up the doll because it would be too obvious that it was them if anything happened right then. I asked her to send me the recording. She did but it was so difficult to make out that I didn't save it myself, although I probably turned it over to Matt Bryant at the time.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Today is our 14th Wedding Anniversary I met Howard Gene Baskin on November 1, 2002.  A year later, on the same day, we were engaged.  A year later, on the same day we were wed.  We haven't had our first fight yet.  He's just the sweetest person ever and has changed my life in so many ways.  He's changed the trajectory of the sanctuary and enabled us to see the light at the end of the tunnel.   Today we decided to do something we've never done before.  We are taking the day off.  No cell phones, no computers, no fires to put out.  Just a day of being together at home and relaxing.  I haven't taken a day like this since our honeymoon on St. Johns, but even then I banged out our 25 year strategic plan, so that might not count.     Howie gave me a cute little magnet of a tuxedo cat taking a selfie that says, Love Your Selfie.  He knows I despise magnets on refrigerators, but I have a couple on file cabinets, so I put this one at eye level, at least until I break out of this funk.  I'm still depressed and even more so after yesterday.     Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode have been working on their documentary for years and she just asked, again, for any photos of me as a teenager.  When Mom moved to Chuck's house she left all of the family scrap books with me, saying she didn't have room for them.  I decided to go through them yesterday to see what old photos of me I could dig up and found a dozen or so.  What I noticed was that from volumes and volumes of family photos, vacations, visitation at family members homes,  parties, reunions, and all...I was conspicuously missing.  I was at work.     As I poured over the photos, I saw smiling faces; some posed for the classic group shots, and others more candid.  I realized that I wasn't missing because I was taking the photo.  I was missing because I wasn't there at all.  Over the decades of images I watched Jamie grow up.  I saw her grow up with her cousins and her grand parents.  Sometimes she looked happy and I was relieved, but so often she looked sad and it breaks my heart.      Some of the photos sparked memories to rise to the surface, and if I can't sit still today, I might fill in some of those gaps in my past on these pages.  None of those memories are going to do anything to raise this veil of gloom though.  May as well get it down on paper while I'm already feeling low.  I know this is just a fleeting feeling and I'll be riding that wave of excitement for the future where all wild cats live free soon.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Whittier Bobcat was the last to leave home So many times these stories unfold to me and I can't tell if I am making them up, or if the cats are sharing them with me.  They just flow and so I'm going to write it like I hear it.    His mom had done an excellent job of raising him in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management area south of Kissimmee St. Cloud and north of YeeHaw Junction in south central Florida.  Unlike most wild bobcats he was in excellent weight and condition.  Clearly, even though his mother was likely raising her next litter of kittens, Whittier had held back from launching out on his own, and had enjoyed the benefits of her hunting skills, as well as his own.   But her spring litter was now taxing her abilities to feed them all and it was time that Whittier find his own territory.   There was another lake and good hunting ground just the other side of the four lane Turnpike.  Whittier's mom had led him there before, but she had done it in the middle of the night, when their were fewer cars on the road.  Whittier's mistake was to try it at rush hour.     Meanwhile a woman named Anastasia, who said she knew us from social media posts, and had actually gotten engaged at the sanctuary in 2014, called to say that she was from out of town and didn't know the area, but she saw a bobcat on the side of the road.  She said it was dead.  She said she saw spots and that was how she was sure it was a bobcat.  Florida bobcats don't look very spotted, except for their bellies, so I was doubtful that it really was one.     There was no way I was going to get there before dark, and the Turnpike isn't lit, so I knew I'd never find a cat in those conditions.  I reached out to Facebook and posted an alert asking if there was anyone in the area who could drive out there to at least confirm that it was a bobcat.  If so, I'd go.  I sent an email to our Bobcat Rehab Team at Big Cat Rescue but accidentally sent it to xxx@bigcatrescue.org which was wrong, and went no where.  The email address was different than that, but I'd remembered it wrong in my panic about the bobcat.    The next day I rode my bike into the sanctuary and asked a member of the Bobcat Rehab Team how it went.  That's when I discovered my mistake.  I loaded up the rescue truck and headed out across the state.  Google maps said it would be 2.5 hours to the mile marker Anastasia thought it was.  What I did not calculate into driving time was the lack of exits so when I entered the Turnpike I turned south, which turned out to be wrong and added 84 miles to my trip, just to get back to that exit.  Then I went north, knowing that when I spotted whatever it was, I'd have to go up to the next exit to turn around, which would be many more miles.   On high alert the whole way, I counted dead on the highways; a dog, a coyote, a turtle, a rabbit, a raccoon, two animals I could not identify, but weren't bobcats...and an alligator.  Only in Florida.     Hope against hope was, that this would NOT be a bobcat.  I can't explain why one animal is so much more important to me than another.  It's not logical, but it is what it is.  There was a center railing between north and south bound traffic, so I had to ride in the fast lane and lean way up over the steering wheel to scan the far side of the south bound lane for a shape that didn't belong on the shoulder.  Due to heavy traffic, I kept having to move out of the fast lane to let semis fly past, and each time wondered if I'd missed seeing the bobcat during their time going by.     At the 228.5 mile marker, right where she said the cat would be, I saw the unmistakable curve of his hip, and the little fluff of his bobbed tail.   He'd almost made it.  He'd bounded across two lanes of northbound traffic, through the median and cleared the guard rail on the southbound side.  Probably just that split second of visual impairment with the rail caused him to mis judge the velocity of his path with that of oncoming traffic.  His face was pointed toward a new life on the other side.  A place where he would reign supreme, and be the hottest guy in town with the female bobcats, because he was so strong and handsome.  He was so ready for this and nature needed this infusion of strength and virility.      My heart sank.  I was pretty sure that if he'd been laying there this long he wasn't going to be alive, but all I could do was hope.  I had to go up to the next exit at the Canoe Creek station and turn around to get on the right side of the road.  As I drove up to him, I saw the spotted belly fur that had signaled to Anastasia that this was a bobcat.  Jumping out of the truck, I ran up to him.  I could smell that he was dead before I could see that his head had been crushed beyond recognition in the impact.  I had a moment with him; seeing his last few moments of life; feeling both his exhilaration and his hesitation in starting this new life without the ever present mother who had raised him so well.     I wrapped him in a sheet and put him in a carrier in the back of the truck, so the blood wouldn't seep into the carpets.  He wouldn't be left to rot on the highway.  He deserved so much better.  I couldn't give him the life that should have been his, but I could give him some dignity in death.  I couldn't do even that, if not for all of you who support our cause and share our videos and information.  How many hundreds of people drove right past him and yet the one who called was someone who had found us on social media.  Thank you Anastasia and everyone else who made it possible for Whittier to be laid to rest at the sanctuary with the others of his kind.    Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Wander, Rendever and Parklane Interactive I don't remember what led me to the info@parklineinteractive.com website, but it culminated in a call today with Tom Neumann who is one of the co founders (Kyle Rand).  They've been around for 2 years and are a team of 7 based in Boston.  Tom says they filmed at Big Cat Rescue a couple years ago to get what they could from the tourist side of the barricade and he follows our videos and is a fan.     They have a $5.99 app called Wander that works off of their licensing agreement with Google maps.  It's pretty ingenious, as you can go any where in the world, by clicking the spot on a map or typing in a place, like Big Cat Rescue or Disney World, and if Google Earth has mapped it, you can see it in 360 degrees.     They have a package they offer to senior living facilities because seniors often suffer depression once they are no longer able to travel.  The homes purchase the headsets and laptop that operates as the hub for playing all the same thing at the same time.  Rendever then is a subscription model for new content, support, etc. They have 70 communities in 30 states and are trying to expand.  They were named one of The Top Seven Startups For Souped-Up Senior Care by Forbes.   They have bootstrapped the business and because of a lot of good press are getting offers from VCs but don't want to give up their mission for profits.  I told them I'm not a whale, but I want them to keep me apprised of what they do when it comes to fundraising, as I may want to be a part of it.     Below was my email to him before the call.   Looking forward to our call in a couple minutes.  I tried out your Wander app.  Great concept!   I'd be happy to have you include 360 photos of Big Cat Rescue there too.  We had a google maps thing done many years ago, and are in the process of updating it, but here are some of those older ones:   https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x88c2ea858f4fb1c7:0xc8ca2ca0a5f3d52!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4s/maps/place/big%2Bcat%2Brescue%2Btampa/@28.0597189,-82.5724042,3a,75y,226.5h,90t/data%3D213m4211e1213m2211slEJQLcM74jJHzBsLaUxFKg212e0214m2213m1211s0x88c2ea858f4fb1c7:0xc8ca2ca0a5f3d52!5sbig+cat+rescue+tampa+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e2!2slEJQLcM74jJHzBsLaUxFKg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWwJSIh6LeAhVRmVkKHXbrDnkQpx8wHXoECAgQDg   This is a list of our 360 videos stored on Amazon's S3 for easy retrieval:   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Howie's Financial Report to the Finance Committee Attached please find our 9 month year over year comparison.  We are having a record year.   Donations are up $320k largely due to two new large donors ($105k and $25K) and the Facebook fundraisers supporters initiate and the donate button on our Facebook live broadcasts.   The number of visitors is only up 2% but revenue is up $93k partly due to a price increase implemented late last year and due to a push to do more of our higher priced keeper tours and private tours.   Rental income is up $80k.   Total expenses are up only 2% with some up, some down.   The result is YTD net of $870k, with only $21k in bequests, vs $383k this time last year, up $487k.   With less than $200k in capital expenditures this year so far, most of this has gone to increase our cash position to $3.5 million.   I look forward to seeing you Thursday morning and review this in more detail.   Howard Baskin Advisory Board Chairman   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk

Howie's article in Encyclopedia Brittanica  http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2018/10/how-is-the-struggle-for-womens-suffrage-100-years-ago-like-the-battle-to-stop-abuse-of-big-cats/   HOW IS THE STRUGGLE FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE 100 YEARS AGO LIKE THE BATTLE TO STOP ABUSE OF BIG CATS?   By Howard Baskin | October 22, 2018    — We are pleased to publish this essay by Howard Baskin, Advisory Board Chairman of Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary for abused, orphaned, rescued, and formerly exploited big cats, including tigers, lions, leopards, cougars, bobcats, and others. Big Cat Rescue also works to end the private possession of and trade in exotic cats through legislation and education. For more information about the work of Big Cat Rescue, see the Advocacy for Animals article Big Cat Rescue.   Frequently we at Big Cat Rescue post on our website individual stories about victories in the war against exploitation and abuse of big cats. There are reports of a local, state or federal law that passed, or reports of how supporters e-mailing a company or a venue caused the venue to stop allowing cub petting on their property or to stop using big cats in an advertisement for their products. In this article I'd like to take a moment to stand back and look at what is happening from the “30,000 foot” level, because what is happening is very exciting, and it is easy to get lost in the weeds of the individual victories and not think about the bigger picture.   Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and 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.  These are my views and opinions. 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.     You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile! Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile   You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org   Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue   Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk