Podcasts about global federation

International Wildlife Charity,  Born Free is celebrating its 40th anniversary with an official sanctuary certification from global accreditation body, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). Born Free's Big Cat Sanctuary at Shamwari Private Game Reserve has been officially recognised as a true sanctuary. It is the first big cat sanctuary in South Africa to be awarded the accredited status by GFAS. To find out more about what this means we are now joined on the line by Catherine Gillson, Born Free's Sanctuary Manager at Shamwari 

The search for home is something most people can relate to, at some point in their lives. Regardless of circumstance, that need for the place that is yours, surrounded by the people you love, and the sense of wellness that comes with it, is a universal desire. And it's not just for humans. Animals bred and kept as livestock – or farmed animals – have similar feelings and needs. And one incredible group of people is helping make sure that a forever home exists for those they can help. A Home For Hooves Farm Sanctuary is a haven for animals on Vancouver Island, where pigs, goats, horses, chickens, and other domestic animals can live out their days with love, peace, and serenity. The first Canadian farm sanctuary to be accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, A Home For Hooves was founded in 2017 and cares for over 170 animals. To share the story of how the sanctuary was born, how the location is managed to protect wildlife and the sanctuary animals, and how a big pig named Cyrus led to an even bigger move, Defender Radio is joined by A Home For Hooves founder and director Michelle Singleton. SHOW NOTES: Episode photo shows Sanctuary residents Penny and Buddy. Photo provided by A Home For Hooves. A Home For Hooves website: https://www.homeforhooves.org/ Meet the Animals: https://www.homeforhooves.org/meet-the-animals.html Sponsor an Animal: https://www.homeforhooves.org/sponsor-an-animal.html A Home For Hooves on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ahomeforhoovesfarmsanctuary/ A Home For Hooves on Instagram: https://instagram.com/homeforhooves Want to suggest topics for Defender Radio? Reach out to us at DefenderRadio@Gmail.com, by visiting DefenderRadio.com or engaging host Michael Howie on social media via Instagram (www.instagram.com/howiemichael) or Facebook (www.Facebook.com/DefenderRadio).  Defender Radio is produced by The Fur-Bearers (www.TheFurBearers.com), a charitable non-partisan organization whose mandate is to advocate on behalf of fur-bearing animals in the wild and in confinement, promote coexistence solutions in communities and protect the habitats of fur-bearing animals across Canada. You can follow The Fur-Bearers on Instagram (www.instagram.com/furbearers), Twitter (www.twitter.com/furbearers) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FurFree). 

The journal, Animals, has published a special issue that includes overviews and original research papers that rigorously assess zoo and aquarium behavior, welfare and ethics. One of the papers, The Cetacean Sanctuary: A Sea of Unknowns is written by frequent Zoo Logic guest, Dr. Jason Bruck and concerns the elusive cetacean sanctuary standards put forth by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). Jason methodically asks questions about important aspects of animal welfare arising from these standards, which point to no supportive peer-reviewed citations or a history of best practices as seen in other zoological welfare and husbandry standards such as the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums or the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In the final analysis, it is difficult to reconcile the stated top priority of sanctuary proponents, maximizing animal welfare, with the more likely motivation, the end of cetaceans in managed care. Animal Care Software

Derek is an Advisory Board Member of the African Energy Chamber, a Distinguished Fellow with the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, and retired Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. Be sure to: 1) Like and share! 2)Leave us 5 Stars & a Review on iTunes! Subscribe to The Strongcast on iTunes at: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-…1299887231?mt=2 
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Where are Kimba, Max and Simba Tigers?   Governments move slowly but we are pressing as hard as we can to get the circus tigers out of Guatemala and to their forever homes in the United States.  Our friends at ADI were able to negotiate the release of 9 tigers and 2 lions from a circus in Guatemala after the government had outlawed circuses that exploit wild animals the year before.  We helped make that possible by sending the funds necessary to build a temporary camp at Antiqua Exotic.  We have also been paying for the care of the tigers who will be coming to Big Cat Rescue and trying to get other sanctuaries to do the same.   On Sept 18 ADI was able to secure Health Certificates on Kimba, Max and Simba and have them translated into English so they can travel to the U.S.  Two days later the USFWS issued our request to bring them from Guatemala straight to the Tampa International Airport, instead of the usual Miami airport, which would require our people to be on the road for two days and the tigers to be subjected to unnecessary stress of travel via trucks for five more hours.  It may not sound like much to accomplish, but as Jan Creamer of ADI put it, “It would have been easier to pull our own teeth.”   Meanwhile, Howard has been doing his part to keep the import permit process moving forward by pointing out that the tigers are in temporary quarters which are not ideal and the greater urgency is that the government of Guatemala wants to rescue other tigers still in the illegal circuses but has no place to put them. The lives of those tigers are at risk because the circuses have no motivation to spend money on medical care or even food.  Our government agency says to check back in three weeks to see how it's going, but from what we can tell, it's likely to be the end of the year before Kimba, Max and Simba are on their way here.   ADI plans to take all of the lions to a new sanctuary they are building in S. Africa and they are frustrated that some of the circus cats were sent to a Guatemalan zoo where one has already died.  We were all very disappointed back in June when one circus held back 6 tigers, but now they are ready to give them up.  The problem is where to put them during this ridiculously long process of exporting them to sanctuaries outside of Guatemala.  The Guatemala government's animal welfare division UBA and the wildlife department CONAP are prosecuting all circuses who have refused to hand over their big cats.   This is great, but we don't want the government to halt prosecution for lack of a place to put the cats.  We would like to speed up the transfer of the cats at the temporary camp to S. Africa and the U.S. to free up cage space at Antigua Exotic, but as you can see, there isn't much we can do other than keep the pressure on.   Meanwhile, we are part of the Big Cat Coalition which includes all of the big cat sanctuaries that are accredited or verified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and some that are working on that goal.  Between us we have the cage space in the U.S. for all of the Guatemala circus cats.  All of the sanctuaries feel they can raise the funds to get the cats from a U.S. airport to their facilities, but only one other, non accredited sanctuary, has actually sent money to Guatemala to build the temporary camp and provide food and medical care to the 11 lions and tigers currently waiting there.   We are encouraging other sanctuaries to reach out to their donors to fund operations on the ground.  We are helping them navigate the complex export / import process, even though we have limited experience.  We are doing that so that when governments do the right thing and ban cruel displays they are not left holding the bag.  The tigers who could go to the camp right now, if there were cage space and monthly allowances for their care are Itsa, Bimba, Sombra, Lupe and two cubs.  The faster we can get them away from the circuses, the sooner we can stop the breeding that results in more cubs needing a home.   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

Press Release for Announcement of Joe's Arrest Howie did a great job on this:     Media Contact: Carole Baskin, CEO 813.493-4564 Carole.Baskin@BigCatRescue.org   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Roadside Zoo Owner Charged with Effort to Murder Big Cat Rescue CEO   TAMPA, Fla. – September XX, 2018 – Today Joe Schreibvogel Maldonado Passage, aka “Joe Exotic,” was arrested on various federal charges including “murder for hire” for attempting, on a number of occasions, to hire an assassin to murder Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue (BCR).   “It is important to understand that this is not the isolated act of one crazy bad apple,” Baskin said. “The people who mistreat and exploit big cats at roadside zoos, particularly those who rip tiger cubs from their mothers at birth to charge the public to pet and take photos with them, are universally disreputable people who are dishonest and dangerous. Because BCR has been a leader in working to stop the abuse of big cats and been very effective in our work, I have received multiple death threats for years, including at one point a number of snakes placed in my mailbox.”   Until recently Maldonado ran one of the most notorious cub petting roadside zoos in the country in Wynnewood, OK. Years ago he also operated a traveling exhibit that would bring cubs to malls throughout the Midwest and Southwest. When BCR educated the malls about the miserable life this created for the cubs and the malls started cancelling Maldonado's traveling exhibit, Maldonado retaliated by renaming his traveling show “Big Cat Rescue Entertainment” in order to confuse the public into thinking the show was operated by BCR. In 2011 BCR filed suit for violation of its intellectual property rights and in 2013 was granted a consent judgment for over $1 million. Litigation to collect on the judgment has been ongoing since then in Oklahoma.   Law enforcement officials in Oklahoma warned Baskin of the Maldonado threat months ago and advised on precautions to take. Both Baskin and her husband had obtained concealed weapons licenses years ago due to previous threats and have carried weapons in their vehicles since advised of this specific threat.   About Big Cat Rescue: Located in Tampa, Fla., Big Cat Rescue is one of the largest accredited sanctuaries dedicated to providing a permanent home for abused and abandoned big cats. The nonprofit organization is accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries, is certified by Independent Charities of America as a “Best in America Charity,” and has consistently received the highest four-star rating from Charity Navigator for sound and transparent non-profit management.  Home to more than 60 exotic big cats, the sanctuary's mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care, end abuse of big cats in captivity and prevent extinction of big cats in the wild. For more information, visit www.bigcatrescue.org.   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    

Amazon Exclusives Today I applied for our Big Cat Rescue Amazon store to become an Amazon Exclusives partner.  I think this marks a big day for us.  It's going to cost me 5% more, but given the increased exposure I think it will more than pay for itself.  This was part of my application and the product ASINs we started with:   Big Cat Rescue is a non profit sanctuary to lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cougars, bobcats, servals, caracals, ocelots and other species of wild cats.  We are unique in that we hold the highest accreditation and rankings in the industry by the Global Federation of Animals Sanctuaries and Charity Navigator.  We are held out by GFAS to be a model facility and are often called upon to help educate other animal sanctuaries in methods to increase their viability.   Big Cat Rescue is rated 4 Stars by Charity Navigator (their highest rating) every year since 2011, which only 6% of the thousands of nonprofits they rate achieve, and has the highest overall numerical score of any animal based charity at an amazing 100%!  Big Cat Rescue is in the top 5% of performers in Smile.Amazon.com's program due to our world wide brand recognition.  Our credentials are extensive and listed here:  https://bigcatrescue.org/about/credentials/   Our mission is to end the trade in big cats as pets, props and parts and we have seen increasing momentum toward that goal.  As part of a big cat coalition that formed in 2011 we have been successful in ending the inbreeding in AZA accredited zoos that creates white tigers, which suffer many birth defects.  We were able to have the US Fish & Wildlife Service rescind their generic tiger loophole, which allowed back yard breeders to constantly pump out and tigers for use as pay to play props, and we authored a federal bill, HR1818-S2990 which will end the private possession of big cats and stop some of the most egregious forms of cruelty.  We have been successful in moving USDA to enforce animal welfare act standards to protect cubs from being taken from their mothers at birth to be used as pay to play props.  We still have much to do on these fronts to ensure that tigers and other exotic cats do not suffer in captivity.   We also fund in-situ project to protect wild cats in the wild, where they belong.  We are this country's leading authority on bobcat rehab and release and provide these services at no charge to the community.  Just recently we helped support the reintroduction of two Amur tigers (one had been orphaned and the other shot in the face) back to the wild in Russia.  You can see all of our efforts to save wild places for wild cats at BigCatRescue.org/insitu   We began selling on Amazon as a way to reach more people and give them the ability to fund the rescue and lifetime care of captive bred big cats and help shape our planet by supporting our efforts to preserve entire eco systems which are necessary for big cats to survive.  It is only through protecting our planet that we will all have clean air, safe water and a better way of 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

Beginning of the End for Black Jaguar White Tiger and Eduardo “Eddie” Serio I'm guessing it was sometime in 2015 that I first began documenting Eddie Serio of Black Jaguar White Tiger and by August 11, 2015 he had his own 911 page. I thought that maybe he was just ignorant of how posing with cubs was harming them, so when I was in Mexico in April 2015 Vanessa Thomas had tried to arrange a visit between us, but he refused. Turns out he wasn't just ignorant, but was willfully so. https://911animalabuse.com/black-jaguar-white-tiger In 2016 this blog https://icarusinc.blog/.../with-a-sleight-of-social.../ stated, “...according to Eduardo, there is only one sanctuary, and one person who has been “hating” on him for “the last 9 months”. That sanctuary, according to Eduardo, is Big Cat Rescue, which is internationally renown, accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries (unlike BJWT) a member of the World Society for Protection of Animals, certified by the Independent Charities of America as a “Best in America Charity” and has been Rated 4 Stars by Charity Navigator (their highest rating) and has one of the highest scores of any animal based charity. And the single person Eduardo claims has been persecuting him for precisely 9 months, is Carole Baskin, BCR's founder. Why Eduardo has chosen to fixate on Carole and BCR isn't clear, nor is the very precise description of the “last 9 months” ever explained in his rantings.” The bad guys hate me. I love that. Today, I was happy to update the 911AnimalAbuse.com site with this: Independence Day in the US May Become Independence Day in Mexico for Abused Big Cats The Asociación de Zoológicos, Criaderos y Acuarios de México, A.C. tweeted on July 4, 2022 “Veterinary doctors specializing in felines meet outside the property where the abandoned and mistreated specimens of Black Jaguar -White Tiger are found. @BJWT they do not give us access. We urgently request support @Claudiashein, @PROFEPA_Mx, @blancamendozav, @SEMARNAT_mx The Asociación de Zoológicos, Criaderos y Acuarios de México denounce the owner of Black Jaguar-White Tiger for mistreatment and abandonment of felines. Eduardo Mauricio Moises Serio, owner of the “Great Mexican Black Jaguar-White Tiger Sanctuary” or ” Black Jaguar White Tiger” was criminally denounced before the Attorney General's Office (FGR) for the abandonment and mistreatment of hundreds of felines of various species, several of them in danger of extinction. The Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums of Mexico (AZCARM) reported that at the end of June it filed a criminal complaint against the owner of the sanctuary, also known as “Papa bear”. In 2015, the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation obtained the registration issued by SEMARNAT SGPA/DGVS/03716/15 as a Property and Facility that Manages Wildlife in a confined manner outside its natural habitat (PIMVS) this at kilometer 36 from Picacho Ajusco Highway , San Tomás Ajusco, then Tlalpan delegation, where it housed a population of more than 300 felines including tigers, lynxes, jaguars, panthers and lions of all ages. However, later the foundation lost its registration, so it had to move the animals to another nearby property that does not have permits or security measures to house wild cats. “The foundation also does not have wildlife management plans, legal origin of the specimens, adequate markings or any type of sanitary welfare measures for animals, completely failing to comply with current regulations,” he added. The head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum , announced that her administration has contacted the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) to intervene and rescue the felines. The head of the Secretariat for Citizen Security (SSC), Omar García Harfuch, pointed out that he intuited the Animal Surveillance Brigade of the capital unit so that, in coordination with the Attorney General's Office (FGJ), the Environmental and Territorial Ordering Office (PAOT) and the Government of Mexico, carry out the necessary actions to prevent, investigate and punish any form of animal abuse present in the operations of Black Jaguar-White Tiger. English speaking news outlets, nor advocates were saying anything about it so on July 4, 2022 I posted the following and I did an English voice over for the video by Arturo and Yael for America audiences that I shared on all our social media channels: In 2022 Arturo Islas Allende and Yael Ruiz documented these dire conditions where last year's cute, Internet famous cubs, are now starving to death and eating their own tails saying, “Hell on Earth” These are images of the interior of the @blackjaguarwhitetiger foundation of @eduardoserio the foundation which became a holocaust, a crime. For 2 years @yael__ruiz was working there collecting information, videos and hard evidence about what happens inside. It takes time to share out of fear. I was able to see, record and witness the horror, I have been visiting him periodically for a long time, a complaint was filed with @profepa_mx and other authorities days ago and nothing has happened. They do not react. We don't know what's going on with the inspectors and that was the reason why we decided to release this video to the public. We need the support of society so that the authorities act quickly, this is a call to @claudia_shein. Let's write to her and tag her so she can act as soon as possible. We still have time to save about 100 animals of the 400 that were there recently. Where have they all gone? It is in our hands to save them. Many of the animals are so skinny that their metabolism is paralyzed and they require URGENT medical attention. The images speak louder than words. Also Ajusco is in Tlalpan delegation that you know well. We really have time to save them! @blackjaguarwhitetiger posted a few days ago that he still has 400 animals but it's a LIE; most of them have died, and there are around 100 left. It's time to act; to report evidence and we want to collaborate with the authorities to give them more evidence we have. We invite the brave this coming Tuesday, July 5 to come to @blackjaguarwhitetiger foundation so that you yourselves, with your cell phones, can see and record the holocaust. We will leave at 12 on the day of the entry of six flags Mexico. https://www.facebook.com/arturoislasallende/videos/570744034430855 Poking these two last, huge, alleged cartel "bears" are probably upping the price on my head, as Howie pointed out in the jacuzzi last night. #BJWT   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 stayed home all day, other than going to the event and swinging thru the sanctuary to pick up mail.  Katie was using the Party House for Novak's first birthday party, so I sure didn't want to be around for the awkwardness of family and kids were the perfect excuse for me to stay away.   Maya Cougar's Mom Wrote: Hi Carol,  Thank you so much for the email. Maya is a sweet, loving, wonderful girl. The decision to give her up was a very hard one. I love her very much and thought this was the best decision for her.  I have been having some health issues and had to make the hard decision. I am having knee surgery next month and then depending on how that goes will get the other knee done soon.   I have known of your facility for a long time. I met your late husband many many years ago at Woods and Waters (Wildlife Auction). I know you have a beautiful place and take wonderful care of your animals there. I know that you have a great love for all animals. I know Maya will be well taken care of  and loved.   Maya was born March 19, 1999.  I had her from a week old and bottle fed her. She was used in educational programs for the first couple years she would go to schools with me. She always loved visitors at my home and would greet them with enthusiasm and purrs. She loves to be scratched around her face and under her chin.   I will check out the video, Thank you so much for giving her a great new home. The Florida weather will be so good for her in her old age. I would love to visit one day, it would give me a good excuse to go to FL for some warm weather.  Thank you,  Maryann Nash. Again thank you so very much.   Omaha Zoo Press Release for Manny & Nat   Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium continuously strives to improve the lives of the animals it cares for. This dedication is illustrated by the dramatic change to the Zoo's grounds when African Grasslands opened in spring 2016. The area's large, open habitats with natural barriers as well as holding spaces with improved buildings and infrastructure allow for better animal care, setting the new standard for the institution. This evolution is in line with developing research in the field of animal welfare and trends in the science of behavior.   Currently, the Zoo is constructing a new Asian Highlands area. The Amur tigers will move from the existing cat house, comprised of smaller, moated exhibits, to 18,500 square feet of outdoor natural habitat space, including 2,300 square feet of off-habitat area. This is just one example of how the Zoo's new area will benefit the animals.   As part of the Zoo's master plan, an expansion of its North American habitat will include a new sea lion pool. The sea lions currently live in an original community swimming pool that was built in 1916, and later refurbished to house these marine mammals. The new North American area could potentially be built where the big cat house and moated bear habitats currently exist. Creating a larger, more natural area for the sea lions is another example of how the Zoo strives to improve its care standards.   For progress like this to occur, some of the current exhibits, such as the sea lion pool, which is no longer representative of an optimal environment for the species, need to be replaced. The Zoo has been working diligently to provide new and appropriate homes for the animals that remain in those areas. The Zoo typically works with other institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), as assisting other accredited facilities is standard practice.   However, as most AZA-accredited zoos are also trying to provide larger, more optimal environments for their animals, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has also looked to professional facilities to aid in providing the best long-term options for these Zoo residents. Three well-known facilities, accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), immediately stepped up and offered to provide permanent homes for three of the Zoo's big cats. It was decided that Payson the white Bengal tiger, Manny the jaguar and Nat the Amur leopard will find new homes at two sanctuaries.   They will continue to receive professional care for the rest of their lives in spacious new habitats.   This type of collaboration between an AZA-accredited zoo and a GFAS-accredited sanctuary is not as common as similar facilities working within their own networks.   Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is happy to have this opportunity to work with new teams that also maintain high standards of animal care.   Payson the white Bengal tiger will find her new home at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR) in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. This 459-acre sanctuary is dedicated to providing a progressive, well-managed home for species such as big cats and bears. Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has a strong professional history with TCWR. TCWR has built a strong intern training and development program to aid in the care of their animals.   Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and Wildlife Safari Park, which is operated by the Zoo, are proud to have three full-time keepers within its staff that were trained at TCWR. Payson will have a large outdoor habitat and a quality life with her new family of professional caregivers.   Nat the Amur leopard and Manny the jaguar are both traveling to the Big Cat Rescue (BCR) near Tampa, Florida. BCR is specialized in providing safe, enriched homes for big cats since 1992 and has rescued more than 250 exotic cats. Their sanctuary is 69 acres and is currently home to about 60 exotic cats. They are the largest licensed rehab facility in the state of Florida for wild native bobcats. The sanctuary also has a strong intern development program with a focus on training carnivore care specialists who are represented in facilities across the country.   Both TCWR and BCR are actively involved in improving legislation to address issues that impact big cats and other animals that suffer from trade and human impact/conflict.   The moves to their new homes will provide well-managed professional care and strong relationships between sanctuary staff and the cats.   Visitors that know and love these cats will still have the opportunity to follow their progress at their respective new homes by following the social media pages, websites and newsletters for each sanctuary.   (Photo credits: Ryan Whisney and Corissa Mangus, senior keepers – Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium)   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

Meet Mark Meyers, the founder of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue (PVDR), who leads the world's largest donkey rescue organization in the world. He was listed as a 2019 Top Ten CNN Hero and manages his own film production company called Peaceful Valley Productions, used to educate the community about wild burros and the environment. Mark has dedicated his life to bringing awareness to an extremely misunderstood animal. Despite the historical fallacious beliefs and misconceptions plaguing donkeys, they are extremely intelligent, loving creatures with extraordinarily close social bonds to both animals and humans alike. He will share true stories of perseverance and resilience, proving that a donkey is one of the best animals around who will touch and enrich your life in a way you never thought was possible. Because Mark rescues donkeys in the United States and internationally, you will learn about the mass slaughter of donkeys in the region of Australia called The Kimberley, where he filmed a documentary called "Without a Voice" to draw international attention to this senseless act. As a result of the eradication of millions of donkeys and other megafauna, Australia erupted in sweeping fires that destroyed far-reaching areas, which placed many animals on the endangered species list. You will get a closer look at this Australian government's massive undertaking to remove these creatures and the "Judas Method" they employed to catch their wild burro population. This eradication began just several years ago and is still going on today. Because Australia is home to 70% of the world's wild burro population, grasping the significance of this story and the resulting consequences will leave you breathless. Mark also shares how he carried out another rescue mission in Hawaii, where he transported 120 donkeys via plane to California. He also collaborates with the federal government on various projects for the protection and conservation of wild burros. These include private ranches along the Mexican border, The Mohave National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, The BLM Sale Burro Project, NASA, and the US Army. He will give us a glimpse of how he rescues donkeys in the wild and the way they are processed, vetted and rehabilitated. All animals are branded via a painless method called "freeze branding", which is used to keep tabs on the animal, along with a microchip and ear tag. (A video demonstration of freeze branding is provided on in this episode and on PVDR's main website). He even goes as far as to fit two donkeys with prosthetic legs to save their lives. PVDR is a non-profit (501c3) organization and is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. This rescue has been operating for 21 years and currently has over 3,000 donkeys under its care distributed throughout 75 locations in America and the Caribbean. Please share in this mission to rescue the wild burro population by DONATING to PVDR at: DONATIONS: www.donkeyrescue.org You can also watch the documentary, "Without a Voice" on the main rescue page or with the link below: www.withoutavoice.movie

Dear Thomas and Feld Family,   I am so thankful that you have decided to end the use of big cats in your acts.  I was surprised, as I would have thought the show would go on, but more as entertainment by human entertainers.  Regardless, it ends many years of strife between your company and those of us who believe that wild cats are not meant to be bred for life in cages.   Articles are saying you are considering "suitable homes" for the cats, but the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries has not been alerted to the need for these homes, and I can assure you that there are no suitable homes outside of GFAS oversight.   Back in 1999 when we contracted with you to take all of the big cats as they came off the road, our understanding was that you were getting out of the big cat business.  We held up our end.  As you know, the 18 cats you retired here lived much longer, richer lives than anywhere else.   We felt it was a breach of contract for Feld to then go and contract acts who owned their own cats, but your lawyers were better than I was at crafting language and we spent the next 16 years feeling like we had been used.  While you did pay for the upkeep of your cats, the primary purpose of the agreement was to end the use of big cats in your acts, from our perspective.   We were grateful that you did retire the cats here, and we loved every one of them until the end.  We'd really like to see a complete end of the use of wild cats in all circus acts and would like to talk to you about providing a retirement home for the cats you've used but this time with a contract that better seals our agreement; that you and those surrendering the cats, will never possess exotic cats again.   I remember sitting in the parking lot of our sanctuary with Kenneth Feld, all those years ago, and he said that he didn't like being in the animal business and that as soon as the public didn't want to see animals in circus acts, he wouldn't have animals in circus acts.  I appreciate that he and his family have made this momentous decision to end the use of wild animals and we want to help assure that you are able to give the proper "cradle to grave" support that you have claimed as your mantra.   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.  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 all zoos are created equal. Let's talk about the difference between AZA-accredited zoos, roadside zoos, and sanctuaries.Stumble Safari Zoo Checklisthttps://stumblesafari.com/aza-and-roadside-zoos-whats-the-difference/Turpentine Creek Real Sanctuary Checklisthttps://www.turpentinecreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/TCWR-true-sanctuary-checklist.pdfWorld Nomads*https://www.worldnomads.com/Turnstile/AffiliateLink?partnerCode=stmblsfri&source=link&utm_source=stmblsfri&utm_content=link&path=//www.worldnomads.com/travel-insurance/Skyscanner*https://skyscanner.pxf.io/c/2349834/1027991/13416?associateid=AFF_TRA_19354_00001*affiliatesSourcesAbout GFAS. (2022). Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. https://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/about-gfas/ Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations. (May 2019). USDA. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/bluebook-ac-awa.pdf FAQ. (2022). Association of Zoos and Aquariums. https://www.aza.org/accred-faqWhat is a Sanctuary. (2022). Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. https://www.turpentinecreek.org/sanctuary/Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/stumblesafari)

Think that your rough childhood is an excuse not to succeed? Have you given up on being rich because yours was not a silver spoon? Is there any hope for you? On this week's Get Your FILL, Financial Independence & Long Life podcast, the amazing leadership speaker and coach, Pegine Echevarria, shows us, in graphic detail, why that sad story is just fuel to power your rocket! Listen to the podcast Visit Pegine's website Watch the video About Pegine Known as a maverick leader Pegine is pioneering, irreverent, and entrepreneurial. As a Keynote speaker on leadership and business in a diverse world, she is motivational, inspirational, hilarious, authentic, and relevant. Pegine believes in the power of people. The power to change themselves and become the leaders they want to be. Pegine knows that the power to change, to grow and go after their dreams is inside. She knows because she found her power, she shares her power with you. { Some of PEGINE'S ACHIEVEMENTS } Named by Macy's and Minority Business Entrepreneur Magazine as their Women who Rock in Business Founder and President of the 880 member Power Women of the National Speakers Association. A group of female professional speakers, authors, and experts who are paid well to speak worldwide. Served on the National Speakers Association board and the executive committee of the Global Federation of Speakers, a federation of speakers associations in 22 countries. Is one of 712 Certified Speaking Professionals worldwide, awarded for expertise, eloquence, enterprise, and ethics. Presented at the Pentagon, keynoted with two US Presidents, two Secretaries of State, and authors John Maxwell and Suze Orman. Selected by Clorox as the spokesperson for their Dream Without Limits campaign Is one of 100 The Society of Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Global Thought Leaders on Diversity and Inclusion Is the only Latina and one of 8 female inductees into the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame  Named the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Women in Business Champion of the Year for the State of Florida Named the SBA's Entrepreneur of the Year for North Florida Testified before the Military Leadership Diversity Commission about diversity among white men Honored by GI Forum for her work on behalf of Hispanics in the military and their families

Have you ever wondered what sets apart one animal sanctuary from the next? It can be hard to decide which to support when they all seem to work towards the same goal. Kathy is joined this week by Jessica Harris - the Farmed Animals Program Director at the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). In this informative conversation, they discuss:Jessica's path to working in animal rights, and particularly in her current role to support the work of farmed animal sanctuariesThe important work of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries to certify well-practiced organizations around the world as top animal protection charitiesThe unfortunate path of some sanctuaries that become hoarding situationsThe invaluable lessons gained in her unique job, and how she applies those lessons to her workRaising a vegan child and bringing her to CAS, where she met and fell in love with many different animalsTo learn more about the work of GFAS, follow them on Instagram and Facebook.Connect with Kathy Stevens:Facebook: Kathy Stevens, Catskill Animal SanctuaryTwitter: @CASanctuaryBooks: Where the Blind Horse SingsWebsite: CASanctuary.orgInstagram: @catskill_animal_sanctuaryYouTube: Catskill Animal Sanctuary

Snow Leopard Letter to the Editor kvalnews, Cat In this story:  bandon-animal-park-welcomes-endangered-snow-leopard-as-its-newest-addition   your reporter Jessica Waite, did a fluff piece that promotes cub petting which is currently under USDA review for a rule change due to the fact that the only way these backyard breeders and roadside zoos can use cubs is to pull them from their mothers when they are only hours or days old.  More about all of the abuse that entails at bigcatrescue.org/cubs   But the bigger story might be how West Coast Game Park Safari got their hands on a $10,000 snow leopard cub?  If you contact Oregon's Dept. of Natural Resources, or Fish and Game Dept. to ask to see the USDA import permit for such a rare and thus expensive cat, I'm pretty sure you will see the cat originated in California, Florida or Nevada as there are no known snow leopard breeders in Oregon.   It's my understanding that an endangered species, like a snow leopard must have approval by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be transported across state lines.  The requirement for issuance of a Captive Bred Wildlife Permit and transfer is supposed to be predicated on that activity enhancing the species in the wild.  Using a cub for pay to play sessions is NOT conservation.   Given the young age of the cub, it is apparent that the breeder had to have broken this new USDA mandate of leaving the cub with their mother for at least the first four weeks.  Any cub left with their mother that long would not allow humans to chain them and pass them around as if they were toys.   4/3/2016 USDA cracks down on abuse of cubs under the age of four weeks.  In response to a 2012 legal petition filed by The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, Detroit Zoological Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free USA, Big Cat Rescue, Fund for Animals and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance making clear that exhibitors violate the Animal Welfare Act by allowing members of the public to handle or feed infant exotic cats like tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars or leopards.  Read more http://bigcatrescue.org/usda-announces-partial-cub-petting-ban/   Every year they have plenty of cubs to pimp out, but then they disappear.  Cubs are only valuable until they are about 12 weeks old and too old, by USDA guidelines, for public petting.  Where do all of those cubs go?  Legitimate sanctuaries don't take cubs off the hands of abusers, just to allow them to continue the abuse.   Please follow up this fluff piece with a real story about how this sort of thing is happening, despite laws and rules to the contrary.  My guess is that you will see Donation checked on the USDA form and no one gives away snow leopards.   For the cats,  Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue "Judge me by the enemies I have made."  - Franklin D. Roosevelt Author of Big Cat Care - How to Start a Sanctuary 12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625   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.  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 grateful for my son in law, Dr. Justin Boorstein   He works all day at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, where they are low cost, high volume.  His pay is minimal for a vet, because if he can survive on reduced pay, for 10 years, working for a non profit then his student loans, which are in the hundreds of thousands, are reduced.  He comes to the sanctuary after work and on his days off to care for our cats. Two days ago he saw The Great Pretender.  The bobcat was 24 years old and had stopped eating.  We figured it was just the end for him, but Justin found 9 bad teeth.   It was a long shot but he had to try removing that source of bacteria and discomfort to see if there was any more life left to go. He came back out to check on him last night, as he wasn't recovering from anesthesia, and it was clear that Justin was upset; thinking that maybe he could have worked faster…There really was nothing he could have done, but it plagues him any way.   This morning Gale woke, Jamie, Justin and me to let us know that Pretender had died in his sleep.   Precious and The Great Pretender were the next cats to arrive, after our founder, Windsong the Bobcat. For a time they lived in a cage in our home, and Pretender would jump and spit at me every time I walked by to get to my desk. When we did the huge fur farm rescue in 1993, and had bobcats and lynx kittens running wild through the house, we had to cage my desk, so I could work without them peeing all over everything. Precious and Pretender first moved to a porch and then to a concrete slab with a 12 x 24 foot dog kennel on it and then finally to Easy Street where my Dad built them their own spacious 1200 sf enclosures. I always loved and admired The Great Pretender for never even trying to pretend that he was OK with the idea of being caged. I vow to him, and every other wild cat who was bred for life in a cage that I won't stop until that barbaric practice ends.   I am grateful for Gale and the fact that she shows up, almost every morning, at 7:00 am to get ready for the onslaught of volunteers who will begin filing in at 7:30.   I am grateful for “Bernadette Juarez, the Deputy Administrator, Animal Care (AC) Program at USDA/APHIS. She seeks to improve regulatory practices and develop training and educational resources.  Prior to being named Deputy Administrator in February 2016, Ms. Juarez served with APHIS' Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES), first as Deputy Director for nearly 5 years and then as Director beginning in 2013.  As Director, Ms. Juarez was responsible for leading investigations of alleged AWA and HPA violations, as well as all other APHIS-administered statutes and regulations, and pursuing enforcement actions where warranted.  Ms. Juarez's experience enforcing the AWA and HPA began prior to her joining APHIS as a trial attorney in USDA's Office of the General Counsel from 2002 to 2009.  In over 6 years, she represented APHIS in numerous AWA and HPA administrative enforcement proceedings.”   This is why and what I posted yesterday on our front page:   USDA Reopening Comment Period on Legal Petition Submitted by Big Cat Rescue and Coalition to Prohibit the Public Contact with Big Cats and Cubs   The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it is reopening the comment period on a legal petition submitted by Big Cat Rescue, the Humane Society of the United States and a coalition of organizations (HSUS, World Wildlife Fund, Detroit Zoological Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free USA, Fund for Animals and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries) to completely prohibit exhibition facilities from allowing members of the public to come into direct contact with dangerous wild animals.   https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDAAPHIS/bulletins/1512904   https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-14976.pdf   Big Cat Rescue and the coalition applaud USDA for taking this action to solicit information that would support a regulation prohibiting these inhumane and unsafe interactive experiences with big cats, bears and nonhuman primates. “We are very pleased that USDA is requesting further input from the public and see it as a positive sign that USDA is considering taking the action requested in our petition”, said Carole Baskin, founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue.   The action follows a determination by USDA in April 2016 that public contact with infant exotic cats violates the Animal Welfare Act, making clear that it is illegal for cubs to be immediately pulled from their mothers after birth to be hand-reared and bottle-fed by members of the public before their immune systems have even developed.   [http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2016/04/usda-tiger-cub-abuse-roadside-zoos-040416.html?credit=web_id93480558]](http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2016/04/usda-tiger-cub-abuse-roadside-zoos-040416.html?credit=web_id93480558%5D)   Comprehensive action to eliminate this dangerous practice is essential – for example, Dade City's Wild Things in Dade City, Florida is currently under USDA investigation for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including stress on infant and young tiger cubs handled and forced to swim with the public.   In addition, PETA yesterday filed an intent to sue Dade City's Wild Things under the Endangered Species Act. PETA contends that prematurely separating infant tigers from their mothers, forcing them to interact with members of the public, and confining them to nearly barren concrete pens all constitute unlawful “takes,” defined by the Endangered Species Act as harming, harassing, and/or wounding an animal. http://www.peta.org/blog/nightmarish-tiger-sweatshop-gets-notice-petas-intent-sue/   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.  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

Teisha Tiger Euthanized Even with the steroid therapy, recommended after seeing the results of her MRI, Teisha Tiger continued to worsen.  On May 24 she nearly choked to death because she wasn't mobile enough to cough up small chunk of meat.   We began cutting her food into even smaller pieces, and feeding her on a stick to make it easier on her, but on Friday, the 27th she took her last walk.  She walked out to her pool, where she could lay in the misting breeze of her fan, and look out over the lake.  She continued to eat and took her meds but her body was failing and she could no longer walk.   When I saw that she was unable to get our of her own waste, I asked Dr. Wynn to come ease her to the other side. Her transition was peaceful and her suffering has ended, but I will miss her gentle spirit.   Final Report on Teisha Tiger My hands were shaking, all the way up my arms and vibrating my torso.  It was the emotional tension of what was going to happen next and the physical tension of holding the Y pole in such a way to ensure that the vet wouldn't take a bite to her face and making sure that the touch against Teisha's neck was only feather light.   She had been sedated twenty minutes earlier and appeared to be completely unconscious but you just never know when a big cat will wake with no warning or if some muscle spasm might cause them to chomp at the air. Usually this was Jamie's roll, but she was inbound on a flight from St. Kitts, where she and Dr. Justin Boorstein, her husband and our other volunteer vet, had been lecturing to the 200 vet students there.  Gale is much more experienced as a vet tech, and was assisting by holding off a vein to cause it to bulge enough so that Dr. Wynn could inject the pink liquid that would ease Teisha to whatever comes next.   The needle was thin, so I could see Dr. Wynn successfully struggling against the thick fluid.  She was trying desperately to make this last moment that Teisha had on this planet one that was filled with peace and a feeling of being surrounded by souls who loved her.  As usual, when cats are sedated, I was breathing in rhythm with her and watching every heart beat, in its tiniest movement of her thick fur and whiskers.  If you have ever had to euthanize a beloved pet, or sat by the bedside of a loved one who was dying, you know that mere seconds feel like an eternity.  A wash of memories flooded over me.   Years ago when Ohio finally outlawed the private possession of lions, tigers and other big cats, in the wake of the Zanesville massacre, there were a couple of loud mouths who vowed they would never comply with the law.  The reasons they gave, in the ensuing legal battles, was that there was no where for their cats to go.  I always assume these big cat breeders and exploiters are lying, but give them the benefit of the doubt and contact them to let them know that there are accredited sanctuaries who will make sure the cats will find permanent homes.  I contacted Stapleton but he didn't return my emails or posts to his social pages.   When the Ohio Department of Agriculture enforced the law in 2015 I let them know that we and other sanctuaries, who are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, were standing by and willing to help.  Having dealt with us before, ODA knew that we were the best equipped to deal with the health issues they were seeing in one of Stapleton's five tigers.  At the time of confiscation they noticed that she did not stand, even when darted.  When they asked if she was suffering some sort of disability, it's reported that her owner casually said that she couldn't walk because her cage mates beat her up all the time.   Once back at the state holding facility they treated her for deep punctures to her neck and back that appeared to have been from the other tigers biting her.  They noticed that she couldn't walk and would lay in her own waste.  Because their temporary enclosures were cement floored, ODA asked if we would take her.  They knew that we have soft earthen floors, an amazing vet team, an abundance of professional animal care givers and the funding provided by our donors that would give Teisha every chance at recovery.  On October 21, 2015 our rescue team set out on the 15 hour drive to bring Teisha Tiger to Florida.   It's been seven months, but it feels like it was yesterday that our team rolled Teisha out of the transport trailer and up to the side of the area that would be her new home. It took Teisha 3 hours to stand up and make it down the ramp we built from her rolling cage, which was only about 20 inches off the ground, to the deep soft sand of her 1200 square foot home.  She was exhausted from the ride and 60 pounds overweight, from getting a lousy diet and no exercise, for who knows how long.  Our first goal was to bring her weight down and see if that would enable her to walk.   As the pounds came off Teisha was able to go from dragging her back legs to actually standing on them and taking a few steps.  As she got stronger she was able to pull herself into and out of her pool and delighted everyone with her antics.  She would hold her breath and try to catch the little fish and would blow bubbles out her nose.  I remember Teisha getting her first Halloween pumpkin.  I loved seeing her enjoy a life, free from the abuse that had surely been inflicted on her by people and cage mates in that tiny, barren cage she lived in her 13 years prior.  All was seeming to progress well, albeit slowly for her, but then she began to relapse.  She walked less and less and by the end of April had begun to drag her back legs.   We had done X-rays that showed a narrowing of the spine, but couldn't find a veterinarian who could do such delicate work without the benefit of an MRI.  On May 2, 2016 we found a vet who said she could do the surgery, and wanted the MRI to be done at her local facility in Gainesville.  We had reached the end of our ability to help Teisha.  As much as we hated the idea of loading her up for the 2.5 hour trip to the University of Florida's Large Animal Hospital, we knew it was her only chance.  I never expected her to return from that trip as the stress of the MRI and surgery, either one, could be the end of her.   What the MRI showed was that there were 15 places along her back that had bulging discs and defects pinching her spinal cord.  The vet said they were so bad and had been going on for so long that there was nothing she could do surgically.  We thought that would be the end of it, but she encouraged us by suggesting that treating her with steroids could reduce the inflammation enough to give her relief and make it possible for her to walk again.   Teisha seemed game to try so we gave it our best.  She was a champ; always taking her meds (no easy feat as cats are notoriously hard to pill) and eating well.  Her keepers tried to use feeding time as physical therapy time to get her on her feet and maybe take a step or two so that her muscles wouldn't atrophy.  Like before, she had a modest gain, but then relapsed again.   On May 24, 2016 she nearly choked to death because she couldn't keep herself upright while eating.  Once she fell on her side, she could barely breathe well enough to cough the little square of meat back up.  We had to cut her food into tiny, tiny pieces to keep that from happening again.   On Friday she made her last tumbling, dragging walk from the side of her enclosure where she and the cat next door would chat, to the pool area lakeside.  Teisha laid there in the misting breeze of her fan, and looked out over the lake. She continued to eat and took her meds but her body was failing and she could no longer walk.   When we saw that she was unable to get our of her own waste, we called the vet to come assess her condition.  Dr. Wynn was torn between knowing that euthanasia was the humane thing to do and the concern that Dr. Boorstein, who had been tending to Teisha during most of this, might feel that he should be here; but he was on a plane somewhere east of Cuba.  Teisha couldn't bathe herself and flies were gathering.  I didn't want even one more fly to land on this precious tiger.  I told her Dr. Justin would be fine with our decision to end the suffering.   So here we were.  It's one of those awful decisions that has to be made because an animal just can't go another hour or another day, but it fell on Memorial Day.  Like Simba Tiger, all those years ago on Thanksgiving, a holiday just makes the situation worse because you are sure to re live it every year on that day.  As hard as it was for everyone involved here, we all loved Teisha too much to make her wait.   Her breathing stopped, and I found myself holding my breath, until I realized that it was her last.  Dr. Wynn checked her heart with the stethoscope, but I could see there was no more gentle thumping beneath the fur.  Teisha was gone and the only thing that kept me from breaking down and sobbing over her lifeless body was the anger I felt at a society that allowed her abuse.  Teisha's passing furthers my resolve to end the private possession of big cats.  No tiger should ever be bred to be used as an ego prop and then relegated to a nasty backyard cage to be denied everything that makes tigers the regal, untouchable creatures they were designed to be.   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.  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

There are 2 Reasons Why Zoo Keepers Are Killed by Tigers 1 There has been a failure in the safety measures to keep tigers and zoo keepers apart, or   2 The zoo keeper doesn't understand their relationship with tigers or any other big cat.   There is a lot that can go wrong, from failing latches, to not having a clear line of sight between the cat and keeper to the mishaps that are caused by a keeper purposely entering the cats' space. Even if the cats are not killed, for doing what comes naturally, they are doomed to life in prison.   Night Houses seem to often be part of the human / big cat mauling or killing scenario and maybe it is because it is such a cruel practice. Cats are most active at night, but for liability reasons are shut in prison-like, windowless, cells by zoos when they are closed. The cats hate it, so they have to withhold food to force them in at night.   Big Cat Rescue does not lock cats up at night and thanks to our mild climate in Florida, does not utilize any sort of indoor housing for the big cats. Because there are no solid walls or doors, the keepers at Big Cat Rescue can always see where the cat is before approaching the enclosure. Caregivers at the sanctuary do not enter the enclosures of any big cat, unless that cat is safely locked into another portion of the cage by the CEO or President and the Operations Manager.   Exotic cats are spectacularly intelligent creatures and have years to plot their escape or revenge.   The second reason keepers are killed by big cats is that they think they are “tiger whisperers” or they think they have some super natural bond with apex predators that makes them special.  Anyone who espouses such nonsense shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a captive big cat, because they clearly do not understand exotic cats.  It is just a matter of time before it ends in tragedy.   Cats in cages may be solicitous of their owners or keepers, but that's because they have to beg for everything. It's sad to see it, when you think about how majestic these animals are meant to be.  Humans mistake their temporary power, ensured by the strength of the cage, for having a bond or relationship with the big cat.  Tigers have their own agenda and it doesn't include pleasing people.  Some may not be overtly nasty about it, but given a choice will escape and never look back. At Big Cat Rescue our caregivers are trained to feed and clean small cats, like bobcats, servals, caracals and lynx for 6 months before they can graduate to cougars.  We are a NO TOUCH facility; no, not even their fingertips, may touch the cats!  If they prove themselves trustworthy around the smaller cats, they can graduate to cougar keeping.  They are with us about two years before they are even allowed to be in the sections where lions, tigers and leopards are housed.  That two year process allows us ample time to weed out the delusional people who think they could get away with touching a big cat and live to tell about it.   More Resources on the Captive Big Cat Issues   Just like the better zoos are accredited by AZA, the better sanctuaries are accredited by GFAS. http://SanctuaryFederation.org   These are the big cat standards for GFAS:  http://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/gfas/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/FelidStandardsJuly2013HA.pdf   The state of Florida does not allow contact with big cats over 40 lbs., but may have some exemption for employees. http://myfwc.com/license/captive-wildlife/   Never Pay To Pet Cubs   USDA has enforced actions against facilities that allowed public contact with big cat cubs over the age of 12 weeks, as they can take off a finger at that age and just recently announced they will cite facilities for pimping out cubs under the age of 4 weeks. AZA zoos don't do that, but there are plenty of backyard breeders that do.  https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/big_cat/big_cat_q&a.pdf   April 3, 2016 USDA cracks down on abuse of cubs under the age of four weeks. In response to a 2012 legal petition filed by The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, Detroit Zoological Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free USA, Big Cat Rescue, Fund for Animals and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, theU.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance making clear that exhibitors violate the Animal Welfare Act by allowing members of the public to handle or feed infant exotic cats like tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars or leopards.    April 5, 2016 USFWS announced that they are rescinding the generic tiger loophole. Big Cat Rescue has been pressuring the USFWS since at least 2007 to rescind this loophole and on 8/22/11 after a meeting with the USFWS the Generic Tiger issue was published to the Federal Register for public comment and got over 15,000 comments in support of our request to ban the breeding of non purebred tigers.     According to their Q&A it sounds like the USFWS may still rubber stamp activities that really don't help tiger conservation, but it's a step. USDA only banned the contact with cubs under four weeks, but that is a step too.   So What Can You Do to Stop the Abuse and the Killings and Maulings?    As long as big cats are privately owned and used as photo and ego props, the fantasy that they can be handled safely will prevail and accidents will continue to happen.   Regulations can't work, because USDA and USFWS don't have the resources nor apparently the will to enforce the weak rules they have, so that is why we need an all out ban on the private possession of big cats. You can help get that done at http://BigCatAct.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.  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

United States Department of Agriculture Cracks Down on Abuse of Tiger Cubs by Roadside Menageries In response to a 2012 legal petition filed by The Humane Society of the United States, World Wildlife Fund, Detroit Zoological Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Born Free USA, Big Cat Rescue, Fund for Animals and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidance making clear that exhibitors violate the Animal Welfare Act by allowing members of the public to handle or feed infant exotic cats like tigers, lions, cheetahs, jaguars or leopards.   “We applaud USDA for taking this first step to put roadside zoos and the public on notice that federal law prohibits using infant cubs for photographic opportunities and interactive experiences,” said Anna Frostic, senior attorney for wildlife & animal research at The Humane Society of the United States, “but it is imperative that the agency take additional action to prohibit public contact with big cats, bears and nonhuman primates of any age.”   As documented in the petition, dozens of facilities across the country routinely breed and acquire exotic feline species – all of which are listed under the Endangered Species Act – to produce an ample supply of cubs for profit. “Both animals and people are put in harm's way when big cats are used for public contact exhibition – young cubs are particularly susceptible to disease, especially when deprived of necessary maternal care, and cubs quickly grow into dangerous predators that can cause serious injury to adults and children,” said Jeff Flocken, North America regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.   In contrast to zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, “there are thousands of big cats in private menageries in the U.S., and these facilities do not have the resources or expertise to safely and responsibly care for dangerous wild animals,” said Ron Kagan, executive director and CEO of the Detroit Zoological Society. Conservation professionals agree that endangered and threatened species like tigers, lions, and apes should not be bred for commercial purposes.   “The insatiable demand for cubs and baby primates used at interactive exhibits fuels a vicious cycle of breeding and exploitation. It is standard in this horrific industry to separate babies from their mothers, and then discard them when they grow too big for handling,” explained Adam Roberts, CEO of Born Free USA.   The mass propagation of tigers in the U.S. has resulted in a captive population that is nearly twice the number of tigers that exist in the wild. “Cubs used for petting, if they survive, typically spend many years living in substandard facilities and the few who are lucky enough to eventually end up at good sanctuaries typically arrive with medical issues caused by deficient care,” said Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue.   In addition to these animal welfare, public safety and conservation concerns, “the surplus of exotic animals in roadside zoos and other substandard facilities puts an enormous financial burden on the accredited sanctuaries that provide lifetime care for abandoned and seized animals,” according to Michael Markarian, president of The Fund for Animals.   Investigations have revealed that using tiger cubs for photo ops and play sessions can yield over $20,000 per month for a roadside zoo, fueling demand for more and more cubs – but once the cats mature, their future is uncertain. “There is just not enough space or resources at accredited sanctuaries to support the demand created by this irresponsible breeding,” said Kellie Heckman, executive director of Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.   Further, “the fate of captive tigers in the U.S. has serious implications for the conservation of tigers in the wild,” said Leigh Henry, senior policy advisor for Wildlife Conservation at World Wildlife Fund, “strengthened regulation of U.S. captive tigers will help ensure that captive-bred tiger parts don't enter the black market and stimulate the demand that drives the poaching of wild tigers.”   While there is still much more work to be done to fully address the coalition's petition to completely prohibit public contact with big cats, bears and nonhuman primates of any age, this is a significant step forward for the U.S. to improve its oversight of captive tigers and lead by example to encourage other countries, like China, to reduce the demand for tigers and tiger products.   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.  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

Raising Cubs documentary by Stephanie Holt  wrote saying:  Hello,  My name is Stephanie Holt and I work for Offspring Films. We are a wildlife TV production company and we are currently finishing a landmark series about the evolution of the cat family, featuring well-known big cats, such as lions, tigers and cheetahs as well as the more uncommonly known cats such as pallas, clouded leopards and margay.   We are currently developing an exciting new series, in which we hope to follow young cubs from new-born or newly orphaned to one year old.  Over the course of the year, with a maximum of four visits, we want to show viewers the main trials and challenges faced by those rearing young cubs, helping fight against the extinction of some of our most stunning felines.   Through this series we will answer questions such as, what are the pivotal moments for their early development? When are the riskiest periods during which a cub's health can turn for the worst? When do they become more dangerous or feisty? And other techniques for rearing a big cat for its potential release back into the wild.   I would love to hear if this may be something you would be interested in being involved in, and if you have or know of any cubs coming in to any rescue centers or due to be born in the next six months. I would be happy to phone and chat further about any ideas you may have on this and options for our possible star cubs/kittens?  All the best, Stephanie Holt OFFSPRING FILMS LTD   Susan Bass responded to Stephanie saying:   Stephanie, your current project sounds interesting. Your developing project sounds horrendous if you are indeed talking about showing your viewers how captive cubs -- bred by breeders and exhibitors in order to make money off  of them, with cub handling schemes when they are very young, and then sentenced to a lifetime in a cage when they become too large for direct contact with the paying public -- are exploited and abused by their owners/breeders/exhibitors. There is absolutely nothing educational or species-saving about watching these cubs and there is currently no way to release captive-raised cubs into the wild. Please take a few minutes to educate yourself on the issue of cub abuse:  http://bigcatrescue.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/FactsheetBigCatsHandling_rev.1.pdf - Susan   Hi Susan,  I'm afraid perhaps I haven't made myself clear enough, we are mostly looking for rescued wild cubs and how they can be reared and returned to the wild. And indeed the hardships people face in the decisions they must make when rearing these helpless cubs. We are already in contact with rescue and rehabilitation centres in Asia and Africa and I was more aiming towards any rescued cubs in America that you may know of, or indeed good people to contact.  Our passion is towards conservation and certainly not towards breeding for the exotic pet trade.  All the best,  Steph   Susan to Steph:  America has no wild tigers or lions, so there would never be wild cubs needing rescue. And even in Asia and Africa there are extremely few wild cubs that are rescued. I have read one or two articles about orphaned cubs found In the tiger reserves in Asia who were temporarily taken to zoos and then released. In Africa you need to be very careful about the lions bred for canned hunts. The owners of these breeding places will happily lie and tell you the cubs in their care were orphaned or abandoned, when in fact they were purposely bred and then socialized with humans before being sold off to canned hunt facilities.   I wrote them both and said:  Usually once a year we will have orphaned bobcats who are raised for release back to the wild, but we are hands off, so most of their care is monitored via CCTV as we have to stay completely away from them to keep them wild enough for release.  We have no bobcat kittens in rehab right now.  Spring / Summer is usually when that happens.  For the cats,  Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue   "Judge me by the enemies I have made."  - Franklin D. Roosevelt Author of Big Cat Care - How to Start a Sanctuary Carole.Baskin@BigCatRescue.org 12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625 Office 813.920.4130 Cell 813.493.4564 Fax 885.4457 Celebrating 23 Years (1992-2015) of Caring for cats ♥ Ending the trade YouTube:  Watch us on BigCatTV.com More than 95 million views Facebook:  Join more than 1,000,000 Big Cat Rescue fans http://www.facebook.com/BigCatRescue   Hi Carole,  Oh that sounds fantastic and we would certainly love to show the hands-off approach to rearing wild cats through to release. Where are you based? At what age do you usually release the cats? And would you be willing to share some CCTV footage with us seeings as we wouldn't be able to film them.  All the best, Steph   Carole wrote:  We are always happy to share footage and may even have some stuff already that you could use. Bobcat kittens seem to be anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months old when they arrive and we release the following spring, if possible, because that is when there are baby prey animals available.  This is a play list of our more polished bobcat rehab footage:   http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsmHBgbkKIERnTfb6_SdLzR6krmHcfeCu   This is a search for our more long form footage of our rehab work:  https://www.youtube.com/user/DailyBigCat/search?query=rehab   You can use a downloader to grab these in high res, or we can try to find the original files in our on site archives, if you see something you want.  Our only caveat is that we ask:   Big Cat Rescue is the largest accredited sanctuary in the world dedicated to rescuing and caring for abused and abandoned exotic cats. Located in Tampa, Florida, we are home to about 100 big cats, including tigers, lions, panthers, leopards, and bobcats.   It is Big Cat Rescue's dual mission to provide (1) the best possible care we can for the cats at our sanctuary and (2) to educate the public about the plight of big cats both in captivity and in the wild. It is our goal to end abuse of big cats and to avoid extinction of exotic cats in the wild.   Big Cat Rescue agrees to the terms of this release provided that the media production in no way condones, promotes or otherwise glamorizes private ownership, use as entertainment or sport, or breeding of captive exotic cats. Further, we allow the use of photos, audio, video and interview quotes you acquire at Big Cat Rescue, subject to these terms.   Date:______________________________   Organization:____________________________   Authorized Representative:______________________________   Signature:__________________________________   March 1, 2015. Hi Carole,   How are you? I hope you had a lovely weekend! I was just wandering if I could borrow a bit more of your big cat rescue expertise?  Could you possibly point me in the direction of some good cat rescue sanctuaries in the US as I am trying to find some other great places for our documentary as we would love to feature some other big cat rescue sanctuaries alongside conservation projects. I'm a bit worried that some places I search which call themselves "sanctuaries" may not always be what they say they are!  All the best, Steph   Carole wrote:  The only legitimate sanctuaries are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.  http://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/gfas/about-gfas/gfas-sanctuaries/   There is an a group that says they are accredited by the American Sanctuary Federation, but they do not do not have sanctuary standards, site inspections or renewals and their board hasn't met in a decade.  Any place that tells you they don't want to be accredited by GFAS has something to hide.  People will often say:   1. It's too expensive.   That is a lie.  It is free and GFAS will often even award grants to the applicant to help them bring their facilities up to standard.   2. It's a club.   That is a lie.  The organizations who run GFAS are some of the largest and most respected in the world and spent years developing standards for animal care that take into consideration the fact that some facilities have access to better funding than others.  It is global and thus has to consider all manner of differences in access to resources, while still insuring appropriate animal care.   3. I don't want anyone telling me how to run my business.   So that makes me wonder what it is that they want to hide or what they are doing that they think GFAS would revoke their accreditation for doing.   Hi Carole,  Fantastic thank you so much for that, that helps a lot!  All the best, Steph   Later Note: 10/26/2021 I looked online and it seems they did do this film for Discovery, France 5 and SkyOne but I can't find clips.  https://www.offspringfilms.co.uk/life-first-steps It was also promoted as Wild Animal Babies.    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.  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.

DejaVu is all I can say   It happens over and over, like a recurring nightmare for the wild animals suffering through it; only the names and places change.   Someone wants to “rescue” wild animals because that seems like glamorous work, so they buy animals (and just prolong the problem) until the really bad guys find out there is a new place to dump last year's photo cubs, and then the “rescues” become more legitimate, in the eyes of the “rescuer” because at least they aren't paying for animals any more.   Usually the big cats who need rescuing are the cubs who just outgrew the ridiculous 8-12 week window, in which USDA condones the use of cubs for photo and pay to play sessions. All it takes to fix this mess is for USDA to acknowledge that it is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act to take cubs from their mothers for this inhumane, unethical, albeit lucrative exploitation… But I digress.   This video was shot in 2009 at JnK's Call of the Wild and the dangerous conditions, lack of respect for the powerful nature of these wild animals and lack of understanding of their physical and emotional needs was evident.  The cats were thin, but not starving yet at that time.   Five years go by, and citations pile up for not providing sufficient shelter, not having an attending vet, not willing to provide documentation of where the cats came from or went and having a perimeter fence that was only 2 feet above the 6 feet of snow.  This article from 2009 detailed the illegal purchase of a leopard that resulted in seizure and a fine, as well as a number of other violations, and yet the media treated it like a puff piece.  http://bigcatrescue.org/lions-tigers-and-bears-find-refuge/   So, every few weeks more litters of lions, tigers, primates and bears are bred, used and discarded into these pseudo sanctuaries. But then the animals grow up into 500 pound apex predators who require thousands of dollars in food & vet care each year and before you know it, the “sanctuaries” have collapsed under the collective weight and debt. Then other sanctuaries, of varying financial stability, are called in to clean up the mess; but most of those are not in much better shape than the facilities they are being asked to bail out.   Big cats are bounced around from breeder, to photo booth operator, to the public as pets, who then dump them into the hands of backyard hoarders, who collapse and then the bigger sanctuaries come and move them to their fourth or fifth home, where they may stay until they die, but even then will sometimes end up in yet another rescue situation when the bigger places fail as well.   The second worst part of all of this is that the animals suffer from the time they are only a few hours or days old, when they are ripped from their mothers and thrust into this dismal cycle, and begin the years of suffering as the legal processes wind through the courts.  The worst part of this scenario is that it would be so easily avoided by a ban on public contact with cubs.  Help do that here:  https://www.votervoice.net/BCR/Campaigns/30111/Respond   That's what happened at JnK's Call of the Wild.   In 1997 Ken and Jackie Wisniewski started “rescuing” big cats, bears, wolves and a variety of other wild and domestic animals. Before long they were in over their heads. Feeding the animals wasn't a problem because there is a lot of roadkill in Sinclairville, NY. We counted half a dozen dead deer, a duck and raccoon, in just two days visiting this sleepy little town. Maybe the locals drive too fast, or maybe it is all of the grape vineyards and farms that attract so much native wildlife.   The problem was that the rotting carcasses were just left to fester, along with the piling excrement, in the tiny, barren cages. The lions and tigers, who are the most fastidious creatures on earth, were forced to live in these abysmal, fly infested conditions while USDA went through the tedious process of citing the facility year, after year, after year with no improvements.   Finally after many years of failing to to provide vet care or clean and safe caging, USDA revoked the license, which is a multi year task. The state of NY had previously banned the private possession of big cats, bears and wolves, but in all but 4 states (KY, OH, WA & WV) a person could circumvent the ban if they held a USDA license.   Now JnK had lost their USDA license and the animals could have been seized years ago, but as is often the case, the violator will just have a family member or friend get a USDA license issued in their name and then the whole process starts over. When Ken and Jackie Wisniewski lost their USDA license, they just had their daughter, Kristy Wisniewski, get one in her name. It's easy: a one page form, name, address and phone and $40 and you can get around any ban, just about anywhere.   So, the long legal battles had to start over again until the daughter had a falling out with her mother and decided not to renew her USDA license. What usually happens is that there would now be no government agency checking in on the animals and conditions. These kinds of places would then enjoy the luxury of doing as they please with no one looking over their shoulder, and that would always lead to worse conditions for the animals.   By this time Terry Thompson in Zanesville, OH had set free 56 lions, tigers and bears in 2011 and state agencies awakened to the fact that it could happen in their states too. The NY state attorney's office decided to send a message to all of the backyard breeders, dealers and pseudo sanctuaries that they would no longer turn a blind eye to the danger that these facilities pose to the public and launched the biggest seizure of wild animals in New York's history.   USDA contacted the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and asked if they could place the JnK animals. GFAS made arrangements for all of the animals to be rescued, but then Jackie Wisniewski decided that she didn't want to give them up and would wait and see if the NY Department of Environmental Conservation really would take action, or if they would, like they do in most places, just ignore the situation until someone was mauled or killed.   On May 27, 2014 at 7:30 am Jackie Wisniewski found out the state of NY wasn't bluffing.   What she couldn't know, and we couldn't tell you, is that the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, had taken the lead and arranged for the 11 tigers, 3 lions, 3 bears, and 2 wolves to be picked up and transported to Big Cat Rescue in FL via Loving Friends, Safe Haven Wildlife Rescue Zoo in NV, Wild Animal Sanctuary in CO, In-Sync Exotics in TX, the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in IN, and Animal Lifeline would transport the wolves to a facility in PA.  On July 3rd IFAW reimbursed the transport costs of $4,409.03 for Big Cat Rescue.   We couldn't let the cat out of the bag until after the last animal was rescued from the site for fear of starting a media circus that could propel the owner into doing something dangerous to the animals or the rescue crews. We know that most people who will donate to help big cats want to fund a rescue, but once the cats are safe, they are off to the next exciting rescue.   We hope that you are different.   We went out on a limb because these cats were literally starving to death, and one tiger, Sasha, had died before we even arrived. (We had agreed to take four tigers, but when we got there Sasha was no longer alive and no one seemed to know anything about why or when she died.  Some said she was alive last summer, others said she was still alive in Feb of this year and others said she had been dead for years)  We had to give up the chance to involve everyone in the excitement of a rescue because these cats depended on us keeping quiet so the owner wouldn't do anything foolish. We were able to load our tigers by 1PM on Tues. May 27, 2014 but had to maintain silent mode until all of the animals were safely on their way to other rescue sites.   What we saw during the rescue was unimaginable suffering and conditions that clearly threatened everyone in the area. No agency had been able to inspect the animals since December 2013 (nearly 6 months ago) and at that time they said the cats were well fed, but that the rotting carcasses, piles of feces and ramshackle cages were reason enough to seize the animals.  “Well fed” appears to be a judgement call because the 2009 video of the tigers showed them to to be far too thin 5 years ago, in our opinion.  JnK had a pile of citations for not allowing inspectors onto the property, but in many cases those are considered by the bad guys to be far less incriminating than actually answering the gate and letting inspectors see what they are doing.   The cats were starving to death!   Their ragged fur, which was missing in places from laying in their own excrement, was stretched taut over protruding bones. Kimba the tigress, (born 8/94) seemed to have just given up and laid, unresponsive, in her den. Former volunteers there said she had been bred to Zeus for 4-6 litters of cubs in her life. It wasn't until she saw that there was the promise of food, in exchange for pulling her aching body up into the transport wagon, that she came to life. Big Cat Rescue President, Jamie Boorstein, had locked Kimba in her den so that we could push the wagon up to the rickety door. As soon as she was released and given the scent of beef on a stick, she followed it right into the foreign transport box without much hesitation.   Zeus the tiger, (born 9/96 to Kimba) has limited vision and it looks like his retina may be separated in his eye, which can be extremely painful. Other tigers there had the same strange looking eyes, where the golden part of the iris has almost completely covered over the lens.  As soon as Zeus saw food, he RAN down the length of his cage, chasing Big Cat Rescue's Operations Manager, Gale Ingham, who was racing  (outside the cage) toward the beast wagon that had been affixed to a hole that was cut into the side of his cage. Zeus was the largest tiger and the hole wasn't really big enough, but metal piping made it impossible to make the hole any larger. Zeus didn't care. He wanted that life giving morsel of food so bad that he squeezed, like liquid tiger, through the opening into the circus wagon. Jamie dropped the door and Zeus was on his way to a life of luxury that he couldn't possibly imagine.   The cages were rotted to the point of falling apart. Rusty screws held ragged sheets of plywood together for the dens and doors. If the tigers had any strength left in them, they could have burst through. This made for some tense moments, especially when it came to loading Keisha the tigress. (born 5/00 to Kimba and Zeus)   Apparently, the way cats had been fed, back when they were being fed, was they were locked out of their dens, the food tossed into the dens via a back door, and then they were let back into the den.   The part that has to be explained here is that the dens were made of crumbling plywood. Citations went back to 2012 for these unsafe conditions.  The doors had deteriorated over time to the point where a makeshift system was rigged to keep the tigers from just pushing the doors out of their rotted frames. It was made of curtain rod hooks that were shaped in a semicircle and screwed with tiny, and now rusted screws; one on either side of the door opening. Then 2 pipes were passed through the hooks to hold the doors shut. Jamie took a handful of the material and it turned to shards and dust in her hand.   The first attempt at capturing Keisha was to shut her in the den, then hook up the transport to a hole that was hastily cut into the side of her prison cell. With the other cats, Rescuers had been able to shut them out of their dens and lead them into the wagons, but Keisha still had life enough left in her to be frantic to eat, so as soon as her den door shut her out into the yard, she began clawing frantically to get back into the den where she thought the food would be. When a cat is focused on something, there isn't much you can do to get their attention. Gale was waving the chicken and beef chunks on a stick and trying to get Keisha to forget about getting back into the den for food. It wasn't working.   The area where Rescuers were working was so tight that the rope holding the transport door open had to be threaded into a vacant, nearby cage and operated from there by Big Cat Rescue's CEO and Founder, Carole Baskin.  Jamie decided to pull the den door open and hold it open so that Keisha could see for herself that there wasn't any food in there, but Keisha was afraid to climb into the hay filled beast wagon and sensed it was a trap.   In typical cat style, she would stretch her neck and one paw as far toward the juicy meat as she could, without committing her back legs. Gale let her come in and get a piece or two, to see that nothing would happen, and on the third offering Keisha was emboldened to climb all the way in.   Keisha only has half an ear and a little bobbed tail. We think she lost them to the lions next door.   All over this compound the bears and big cats shared common walls of a material never witnessed by Big Cat Rescuers for housing big cats. The openings in the metal cattle panels were 8 inches wide and 6 inches high. It is incomprehensible that no human ever lost their life or limbs working so close to such dangerous wild animals, with nothing to prevent the animals from reaching the full length of their arms out to grab the passerby.   In the 2009 video Jackie Wisniewski reaches her arm, all the way up to her armpit, to pet the cats and talks about how her staff and volunteers have to earn the cat's trust to pet them this way, but then admits that the cats are always looking for a way to pull you into the cage.   In some places a new barricade fence had been erected (where previously there had been none) and it was so tight against the cage that there was NO safe way to walk around the enclosure. All of the animals had shared walls which must have led to some intensive fights and quite possibly the deaths of animals along the way. No one seemed to know exactly when or how Sacha the tigress had died.   The only cage to have a double wall (one with a space of about 3 feet between the walls) was the one between Keisha and 2 lionesses. Keisha and the lionesses both had common walls with Zeus, but it would appear that after Keisha lost her ear and tail, someone finally installed a double wall between the lions and Keisha. That one small measure has probably saved her life, but her tail healed in such a scarred and unusual way that it's doubtful she had a vet attend to her wounds.  In the video you can see that her tail was missing as far back as 2009.   As each of the cats were loaded into their transport wagons they were rolled up into Loving Friend's transport vehicle where they probably experienced air conditioning for the first time ever. Even though they loaded quite easily, they were all stressed out by the move and the chaos of the day, so the lower temp helped take some of the edge off. Within minutes Kimba was sound asleep in the deep, soft hay.   If anyone wouldn't survive this trip, it would be Kimba. She just had so little spirit left in her. I checked on her several times to be sure she was still breathing, and seemed blissfully asleep.  Update:  17 Days later we had to euthanize Kimba because she could not recover from the ailments brought on by being kept in such filth and starved.  More here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/euthanize-tiger/   Zeus gulped down water before laying down in his big fluffy hay bed. These cats, like so many others across the country, were kept on rocks. There was no place for them to feel the soft earth, nor roll in the grass, nor enjoy the shade of trees or bushes. The only shade, or escape from the sharp edged rocks, was in their smelly dens and on a small table in each cage, but these cats didn't look fit enough to jump up onto them. Zeus had been a big and powerful male tiger at some point in his life, but now you could see the remains of his wasted muscles and protrusion of his ribs and hips.   Big Cat Rescuers loaded tigers for 2 hours and the officer in charge commented that we worked together like a well oiled machine. Despite the rush to load the tigers and move out of the way for the next rescue group, there were some heart breaking moments. The worst for cat lovers was the owner said her cat had died, so she had thrown the cat into the cage that housed the 4 youngest tigers, who appear to have been born at JnK in 2004 and were probably considered favorites.   As hungry as those tigers must have been; something must have registered in their heads that this was just too awful to consider. Time may have finally caused them to overcome their disgust at being fed another cat, had they not been rescued today, so the bloated body of the domestic cat laid there in a haze of flies.   As soon as the tigers were all loaded and their transport cages were strapped down for the 22 hour trip, Big Cat Rescuers and JT and Laura Taylor of Loving Friends were on their way back to Tampa.   The cost of the transport and rescue was approximately $7,000, but that is just the beginning. Getting these tigers back on the road to health will mean vet care, and specialists for the eyes. It means a lot of high quality food, vitamins, joint supplements and probably a good deal of pain management. Just one healthy tiger costs Big Cat Rescue $10,000 per year, just for food and vet care and these neglected tigers will need much more intensive care. Even though they are safe and will never go hungry again, it is only because people like you will open your hearts to these precious creatures. Please let them know that you are there for them, for now and forever, with a monthly gift of whatever you can afford.   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.  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.

2013 Annual Report   With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled each year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were “only” 37 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned. We were able to take in 9 wildcats plus 2 rehab bobcats. We offered to take 10 of the cats who were leopard size or smaller if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat.  The cats we did not take were those whose owners refused.   There is no point to our taking in cats just so an owner can go buy another cute cub and later discard it.   We did not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the ones we have.   Animal Care:  Rescued 9 exotic cats, including Nala the Serval, Skipper & Gilligan the Canada Lynx, Ginger the Serval, Mary Ann, Thurston & Lovey the Bobcats, JoJo the Caracal Serval hybrid and Reise the Cougar.   Rehabbed and released 4 native bobcat kittens;  Gator, Copter, Khaleesi and Fencer.   Newborn kittens who are brought to Animal Control are routinely killed because with their immature immune systems they do not survive in the shelter environment.  So we began a foster kitten program with our interns as the fosters.  We have saved more than 70 kittens from being killed.  We raise them until they are 2 pounds and healthy, then bring them to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay to be fixed and adopted out.  See some very cute kitten video here:http://youtu.be/4yMMudueBow and see cute cats meeting the vet here:http://youtu.be/lfXyynkYmfc Bought 9 more acres for quarantine and native wildlife rehab.   Installed a new solar systemhttp://youtu.be/leiZPwsd1sA By the end of this year, 92 of our 111 exotic animals are over the age of 12; 76 of those are over the age of 15; and 19 of those are over the age of 20. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats. This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   2013 was a big year for expanding our big cat enclosures.  We built our largest ever enclosure and dubbed it the Vacation Rotation Enclosure.  This 2.5 acre cat-a-tat includes a pond, fountain, trees, forts and three safety areas for storms.  We had to construct a number of above ground tunnels to move cats to and from nearby enclosures so they could “rotate” through the new enclosure, and we had to make significant improvements to those nearby cages. Two of them being were torn down and rebuilt from scratch so that all of our tigers, no matter how frisky, could be cycled through the Vacation Rotation area safely.   Sadly we had to say “goodbye” to these great cats:  Willow the Siberian Lynx who was 18, Ty the Serval who was 20, SARMOTI the Tiger who was 20, Rose the Caracal who was 16, Shaniqua the Jungle Cat who was 19 and Bella the Tiger who was 17.   We never gave up on Precious the Bobcat after her strokehttp://youtu.be/ZY3IQuKAWwM Award Winning Sanctuary     • Top Rated Non Profit at Great Non Profits • We have received this award every year since they started awarding it in 2010 due to the many great reviews we get from visitors and donors each year. • We again received Charity Navigator's highest four star rating. • Dalton Agency Contest • We won a cash prize and pro bono professional video in this national online voting contest thanks to our dedicated supporters who voted daily. • WEDU Nonprofit of the Year awards • We are a finalist in the Best Use of Video category for this annual contest held by our PBS Station thanks again to our passionate supporters voting online.  The winner will be announced in late February.   Education:  Added audio story telling to the bio of every cat at the sanctuary and created a free virtual tour app in both iTunes and the Google Play Store.  This app is being integrated into our guided tours to insure that every tour is accurate and relevant.   Also new this year was the use of the Vox tour system, where guests can listen via a headset to the guide or recorded tour.  The benefit to the guest is that everyone can hear and can adjust their own volume.  The benefit to the cats is that when using the recorded tour the guests move silently through the sanctuary.   We were presenters at the Big Cat Workshop hosted by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and the International Fund for Animal Welfare where more than 20 big cat sanctuaries converged for a weekend of learning, networking and sharing.  http://bigcatrescue.org/2013workshop/   We were presenters at Animal Grant Makers in Austin, TX in November on the topic of sanctuaries that fail, and how not to.   BigCatRescue.org gets about 1.5 million unique visitors per year with 1,498,422 in 2013. Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 224,835 worldwide and 66,562 most visited website in the U.S. in 2013 which was a doubling of our site's popularity over 2012. We have 866 other sites linking to us.   Some of the pages that were the most popular each showed increases of 1,500% – 3,500% and these were: • #4 Why it's wrong to buy big cats had 119,418 visitors • #7 Why it's wrong to breed white tigers had 97,833 visitors • #8 Why it's wrong to breed ligers had 81,303 visitors • #11 Why it's wrong to breed domestic cat hybrids had 57,164 visitors • #12 Why it's wrong to breed Savannah Cat hybrids had 56,346 visitors (which should probably be combined with #11)   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 9,400 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S. The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction and helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded.  Those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.   We gave 195 field trip tours to the sanctuary and outreach visits this year.   We gave 8 free tours and 12 discounted school field trip tours this year to groups for whom the modest price of the visit was not manageable. Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their buses, so we maintain a fund where contributors can support big cat education by donating the bus fee.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to widespread abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 nine more states have passed some level of ban.   Internationally, El Salvador, Slovenia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses.  It is time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   Orchestrated our first Fly In to DC for 17 AdvoCats to talk to nearly 20 Legislators about supporting the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act HR1998/S1381:  images here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/dc-fly-2013/  International Fund for Animal Welfare revealed that 75 percent of polled voters across the country support the bill's passage.   The Library of Congress offers this guide to global laws regarding the private possession of exotic cats.  Late in the year after the bills were introduced we resumed inviting our on site guests to call their Senators and Representatives asking them to support the Big Cats and Public Safety Act this year.   Through our CatLaws.com site, powered by Voter Voice, 8,324 of our 88,877 supporters sent 143,918 messages to 1071 recipients.  While we wish that more than 10% of animal lovers on our mailing list would take the time to speak up for the animals, the ones who did were awesome.  The 3 most popular letters sent were these:   1. Letters in favor of the Big Cats and Public Safety Act, which would ban the private possession of big cats and ban cub handling. 2. Letters opposing the exhibition of exotic cats and their cubs at fairs. 3. Letters opposing a football player posting that he owned a tiger.   Some of the wins from these campaigns were:   1. 86 Senators and Representatives joined the 3 bill sponsors by co sponsoring the Big Cats and Public Safety Act (HR1998 & S1381) 2. Darnell Dockett turns out to not actually possess a tiger despite his claim that he was going to bring it to practice. 3. Hillsborough County, FL enacted an ordinance that allows them to seize assets in animal abuse cases and enacted another ordinance to protect feral cats and their caregivers.   Imagine what we could have accomplished if just 20% of our mailing list were to take action for the animals?  This is an easy, no cost way for us to have a huge impact collectively.  If you have not yet been active in taking action when we send alerts asking you to email a legislator, regulator or venue hosting an abusive animal exhibit, please make 2014 the year you join in.   You CAN make a difference – the many supporters who do send these emails have proven it!  The most vivid example is our having gotten owners of over 200 malls to agree not to allow cub petting exhibits, saving all those cubs from a miserable life on the road and being sleep deprived as they are handled or restrained for photo opportunities hour after hour.   You can make ending big cat abuse part of the legacy of your life with just a few emails each year.   Wins for the Big Cats in 2013:  Ft. Wayne, IN:  Bears, wolves, lions, tigers, alligators, and venomous snakes are prohibited within the city limits of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Unfortunately 2013 was noted by a Wall Street Journal poll to be the worst congress ever for a number of reasons, but most noticeably for animal lovers not one animal protection bill made it through the process.  This article published in the Vegan Health and Fitness magazine gives some great examples of how parents can guide their children to treat animals by avoiding “traditional” animal attractions that we've come to learn are usually abusive, such as circuses and zoos. www.VHFmag.com   Fundraising and Marketing:  Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 225 times in 2013.   Some of our national press has included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.  Big Cat Rescue has been in the press in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   YouTube and Revision 3 were the big news this year.  Revision 3, which is owned by Discovery, contacted us and asked us to be their first animal themed channel in 2012.  Thanks to this partnership and cross promotions with Animal Planet, we are experiencing more than 1.5 million views of our YouTube videos per MONTH!  By 2013 year end we had 405 videos with 130,011 subscribers and 71,633,898 views.   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 4,574 subscribers and 748,688 views.  Facebook:  We surpassed 109,444 fans on Face Book  Google +:  This is a new social site for us in 2013 and we have already reached 30,000 fans on this new venue.   Big Cat Rescue has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  Periodically the Community Foundation offers a matching program where the nonprofit sets a fundraising goal and when 75% of the goal is reached, the Community Foundation provides the remaining 25%, which effectively is a 33% match of the funds provided by donors.  We set our most ambitious goal ever, $400,000, which is the maximum allowed.  We had three years to reach the $300,000 that represents our 75% target, but thanks to our generous donors reached the goal in 9 months and received the $100,000 grant from the Community Foundation in 2013.  We continued to build our affinity credit card program with Capitol One under which you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases is donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   To build awareness of our federal bill we signed up to be the top level Diamond Sponsor for the Taking Action for Animals Conference in Washington, DC in June, 2014 where more than 1,000 animal activists converge to learn more about legislation to protect animals.   Selected by Body Shop for their Dragon Fruit Lip Butter campaign which resulted in representatives from popular beauty magazines visiting the sanctuary and writing about our work to stop big cat abuse.http://youtu.be/j3kD84iFPms Started the Cat Chat Show, a weekly podcast where we interview cat experts from around the world about all kinds of cats, from Tabbies to Tigers.   The Halloween “Haunted Trail” event was a lot of fun and a financial success!  See some of it here:http://youtu.be/BseKW0QzbAU Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats   In 2013 Big Cat Rescue donated $3,883.91 towards four conservation programs in the FL and in other countries on behalf of our volunteers.   1. $1533.91 to Panthera to save corridors for wild cats to travel safely 2. $1000.00 to the Florida Panther Refuge to help protect the Florida Panther. 3. $850.00 to the Snow Leopard Trust to cover the cost of camera traps and snow leopard monitoring. 4. $500.00 to the Tiger Trust to protect tigers in India by providing better legal assistance and training for game wardens.   Helping Others:     1. Big Cat Rescue was recruited to offer our expertise and guidance in the development of a rescue center in Spain that will be broadening their focus from primates to now include big cats.  AAP Primadomus is located on more than 400 acres in Villena and currently houses a variety of primates that have been rescued from private ownership, circuses, and laboratories. They are now expanding their focus to also rescue countless lions and tigers that are in need across their country.  In an effort to prepare for this project nearly a dozen experts were invited to a symposium that focused on sharing information regarding the proper care of big cats in captivity, emergency protocol development, and enclosure design. Big Cat Rescue President Jamie Veronica and volunteer veterinarian Justin Boorstein travelled to Spain and joined experts from Italy, South Africa, France, Austria, the Netherlands and all across the United Kingdom.   Over the course of three days the team worked tirelessly to provide as much information as possible to the members of not only AAP Primadomus, but its origin center Stitching AAP. Stitching AAP is a rescue center for apes, monkeys and small exotic animals in the Netherlands that was founded more than 35 years ago.  The symposium was a huge success. Big Cat Rescue will continue to work with AAP remotely throughout the development process. We are so pleased to provide assistance to organizations that are saving big cats across the globe! See a digital rendition they did from the plans submitted:   2. Created 8 Intranet sites, which are sort of a sanctuary-in-a-box site, for other sanctuaries to use.  These came complete with every training video, training manual, chart and idea that we use to run Big Cat Rescue.  We do this for free for sanctuaries that do not breed, buy, sell, trade nor allow contact w/ wild animals. 3. Loaned one of our Green Level Keepers (Kathryn Quaas) to Wildcat Sanctuary for 5 weeks of brutal winter weather to help while they were hiring & training new staff. 4. Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on the subject of TNR.  Trap, Neuter and Return.  We similarly supported Be The Way Home effort in Hillsborough County that protects feral cats from being rounded up and killed.  The Board of County Commissioners responded with ordinances to protect feral cats and their caregivers.http://youtu.be/o1ve94nYbP4 5. Presented at Tigers 4 Tigers which is a coalition of all colleges that have tiger mascots who are working to save the tiger.  It was also the last place for the good friend and world famous and much beloved tiger expert Ron Tilson to make a presentation before his untimely death this year.   6. Hosted 2nd annual SkipAHolics reunion tour to thank the many people who help us keep an eye on our cats via the webcams.http://youtu.be/IuKXK4r7PEo 7. We were a sponsor for Animal Coalition of Tampa's Stride for Strays, as we are every year.   Then and Now:  Below are the audited financial statements of Revenue and Expense for the past five years. We pride ourselves in keeping our fundraising and administrative total expenses below 20%. Because our tour revenue exceeds our fundraising and administrative costs, 100% of donations go to Program Expense.   The majority of the increase in Program Expense in 2012-2013 was the cost of lawsuits we filed in furtherance of our mission against what we believe to be one of the most notorious exploiters of tiger cubs.  We won a million dollar judgment against this breeder/exhibitor for violations of our copyright and trademark in 2013.  He filed bankruptcy personally and on behalf of his zoo.   However, by consent agreement his personal debt to us is not to be dismissed in bankruptcy, and the zoo bankruptcy has been dismissed.  So currently we are working through the process of seeking to recover our judgment against whatever assets we can.  Without the generous support of our donors we could not have sustained this successful effort. Thank you!   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2013 and meetings (2/23, 7/9, 9/24 & 12/17): • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR for her role as Director) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) • Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) • VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) • Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) • Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR) • Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR) • Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR) • Kim Mahoney (not compensated by BCR) These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 4 times in 2013.   Paid Staff and Contractors: 1. CEO and Staff Manager:  Carole Baskin 2. President, Editor & Creative Director: Jamie Veronica 3. Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator: Gale Ingham 4. Videographer and Social Networking: Chris Poole 5. Director of Donor Appreciation:  Jeff Kremer 6. Gift Shop Manager:  Honey Wayton 7. Project Manager: Chelsea Feeny 8. Education Director:  Willow Hecht 9. Cage Builder and Maintenance:  Vernon Stairs 10. Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance:  Scott Haller 11. Grounds Keeper, part time: Jarred Smalley 12. Bookkeeper:  Barbara Stairs 13. Assistant Bookkeeper:  Katie Nikic 14. Guest Services, part time:  Valerie Stockton 15. CFO:  Howard Baskin 16. Public Relations:  Susan Bass 17. Web and Social Media: LaWanna Mitchell   All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 89 volunteers at the end of 2013 who clocked in 40,547 man-power hours, in addition to 54 interns who clocked 32,400 man-power hours, plus 4,793 Volunteer Committee member hours. In total this amounted to 77,740 man-power hours provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 37 more full time staff.  Between paid staff, part time staff, contractors and volunteers we averaged the equivalent of 52 full time staff.  Interesting breakdown of volunteers: We have 89 volunteers; 69 women and 20 men. The youngest 18 years old, the oldest 76 years old.  Between January 1, 2011 and September 10, 2013 Big Cat Rescue had 99 interns from 10 countries and 21 states.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  Several of our staff attended the Safe Capture Course, as we do any time they are in Florida.  Began turning our volunteer training classes into video classes.   Get our Financial Reports:  See our IRS 990 and audited financial statement for Big Cat Rescue at http://bigcatrescue.org/finances/   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.  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.  

3 Days in North Carolina at IFAW's Big Cat Workshop Dear Carole,  On behalf of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), I would like to invite you to the first-ever Big Cat Sanctuary Workshop to be held in the fall of 2013! This unique and interactive workshop aims to encourage and foster networking and collaboration among sanctuaries and promote best practices for animal care and sanctuary stewardship and sustainability.   The first two days of the workshop will consist of guest speakers and activities, including new approaches for sustainability and growth, brainstorming enrichment methods, and creating effective communication through various media, fundraising approaches and more. The third day will involve of a tour of Carolina Tiger Rescue, which will include an interactive discussion on conducting effective, educational, and mission-oriented tours for sanctuaries.   Workshop Objectives: This interactive workshop has a primary objective of bringing people together to build collaboration, networking, and trust that will help others excel. Working from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries standards, the workshop will help sanctuaries to: Identify leadership strengths and areas to improve Identify and try new approaches needed for sustainability and growth Value and recognize the accomplishments of others; reflect and share experiences   Apply best practices to animal care and sanctuary stewardship Dates: Friday, October 25th – Sunday October 27th 2013  Location: Hilton Garden Inn at Research Triangle Park, 4620 S Miami Blvd, Durham, NC 27703 with site visit to Carolina Tiger Rescue in Pittsboro, NC.   Participants: This workshop is by invitation only for sanctuaries providing lifetime care to big cats. We encourage two representatives, such as an executive director and a board member, from each facility to attend this event.   As a sanctuary committed to the long-term care of big cats and ending the perpetual trade that leads to displaced and unwanted animals, we feel your presence and participation in this workshop will be a mutual investment for all! Please find more information regarding the workshop, including an outline of the agenda, attached to this email. We ask that you kindly RSVP by August 1st 2013 using the attached form or by returning the postcard you'll be receiving in the mail shortly.   Again, IFAW and GFAS are extremely excited to co-host this event, and we hope that you will be able to participate as a vital member of the sanctuary community! Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.  Sincerely, Kelly Donithan | Wildlife Rescue Program Officer IFAW - International Fund for Animal Welfare World Headquarters 290 Summer Street - Yarmouth Port, MA 02675   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.  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.

2012 Annual Report    Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 79,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.  We are Caring for Cats and Ending the Trade   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled every other year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were “only” 85 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned.  Note that 69 of them came from failed pseudo sanctuaries.  We were able to take in 7. We offered to take all of the cats who were cougar size or smaller, if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat, but the rest refused.  We just do not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the three we took this year.   Volgistics became our new time tracking service on Jan 1, 2012 and has replaced our use of Freshbooks.  Everyone seems to like the big buttons and easy check in and check out process.   Animal Care:  By the end of this year, 96 of our 101 exotic cats are over the age of 12;  80 of those are over the age of 15; and 19 of those are over the age of 20. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats.  This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   We use operant conditioning to enable much of our vet care without the necessity of anesthesia, which is very hard on the cats, but despite that, 43 of our animals had to be sedated for vet care in 2012.  We also performed 6 Necropsies:  (most performed for interns, all with Dr. Justin), had 4 high ticket Special Surgeries at Blue Pearl, had 2 intricate specialized surgeries by Dr. Hay, 4 on-site dentals by Dr. Peak and vaccinated 84 cats, in addition to countless trips to Ehrlich Animal Hospital to have the cats treated by our volunteer vet, Dr. Liz Wynn.   Rescues:  With the help of some very special donors we were able to rescue 4 bobcats, two Savannah Cat hybrids and two kittens that were reported to be bobcats, but who turned out to be tail-less Manx.  One of those bobcats was Rufus who came in to a Rehabber on Dec 5 weighing 4 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.  They figured he had been hit by a car, but at 4 lbs couldn't believe that he survived.  After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.  They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine. He appeared to be blind and was having bad and frequent seizures, that ultimately cut his life short, but he touched all of us deeply.   On 12/12/12 we had another perfect USDA inspection.   3 of our Cat-a-Tats were expanded with room additions, four of them had major renovations and five tunnels were installed to join cages to give the cats more room, including our first overhead tunnels.  We constructed new Outdoor Recovery Cage and made major renovations to the Hospital Recovery Cage.  We provided emergency rescue for a fox and a hawk, in addition to the bobcats.   Education:  Our website, BigCatRescue.org underwent a painful renovation from a static html site to a WordPress CMS site during 2010 and 2011.  All of the page names had to be changed to fit the new system which meant a huge drop in traffic and initially a huge drop in inbound links, although, by the end of the year we had gained more than a thousand more inbound links than we had before, so it is going to prove a worth while move.  The site has suffered some major issues and has had to be moved to larger and more powerful servers as our traffic is back up to about 1.5 million new visitors per year.  Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 445,200 worldwide and 102,750 most visited website in the U.S.  in 2012.  We have 1,110 other sites linking to us.   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 9,213 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos.  In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S.   The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction, helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded and those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.   We offer about 200 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have given 18 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department has been writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Big Cat Rescue has been in the press 125 times, in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   Award Winning Sanctuary:  Great Non Profit 2012 at Great Non Profits.  We have received this award every year since they started awarding it in 2010 due to the many great reviews we get from visitors and donors each year.  Named as Top Day Trip for Families.  2012 CBS Tampa ranks BCR as one of the top “Day Trips for Families” http://tampa.cbslocal.com/top-lists/best-day-trips-for-families-around-tampa/  Best Place to Work:  Big Cat Rescue was nominated to The Tampabay Business Journal as one of the best places to work.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to massive abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 nine more states have passed some level of ban. Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses-it's time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   Wins for the Big Cats in 2012: Ohio Bans Private Possession of Most Exotic Cats: On June 5, 2012 the state legislature banned the private possession of dangerous wild animals, including most exotic cats. Those who have the animals must register them but cannot buy or breed more. The only exemptions for breeding are AZA accredited zoos (and ZAA for now, but that needs to change) and sanctuaries that are accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries can continue to rescue wild animals. Up until now Ohio was second (behind FL) in the nation for the number of killings, maulings and escapes by big cats.   • Oprah Announces No Fur in Her O Magazine: The October 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine announced its decision to never feature real fur in the magazine and only use cruelty free materials in its stories, including no leather or exotic skins. This decision was broadly embraced by the readership. • CA, West Hollywood Bans the Sale of Fur: West Hollywood, CA became the first city in the nation to ban the sale of fur. With a three to one vote (with one abstention) the City Council approved the ordinance. The rule faced opposition from the local Chamber of Commerce, whose main trade group, The Fur Information Council, happens to be based in West Hollywood. Nearly half of the 200 stores in town sell at least some fur items and it is estimated to account for approximately $2 million in revenue each year. The measure will take effect on Sept. 21, 2013. • NY, New York City Bars Ban Fur Clad Customers: Bar owner Johnny Barounis, a vegetarian, refuses to allow patrons wearing real fur to enter his trendy bards in Manhattan. His bards include Revision Lounge and Gallery in the East Village, the Back Room on the Lower East Side, and Auction House and Fetch, on the Upper East Side. ”We tell people, you are welcome to come in, but the fur stays out” said Barounis. • Holland: The Holland Circus will no longer include wild animals in their shows. Here is a link to the dutch article: http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2992728/circus-renz-stopt-met-wilde-dieren.html • UAE Ajman: Jan 2012 became the first emirate to ban the keeping of dangerous animals in private homes. Last July, a two-year-old girl was attacked by a lion cub in Ajman and had to be rescued by a maid. • Greece: Feb 3, 2012 The Greek Government has banned the use of all animals in circuses following a campaign by ADI and the Greek Animal Welfare Fund (GAWF), backed by over 50 local animal protection groups across Greece. The new animal protection law also addresses a number of important issues concerning stray animals. • Bogata, Columbia and Paraguay Ban Wild Animals in Circus Acts June 2012: Hot on the heels of the news last week that the Colombian capital Bogota is to ban all animals in circuses, Paraguay has announced a nationwide ban on wild animals in circuses. Animal Defenders Intenational (ADI) applauds Paraguay for becoming the latest country to ban the use of wild animals in circuses under Resolution 2002/12 passed this week by the Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente). Since ADI launched a major undercover investigation of animals in circuses in South America in 2007, a series of bans have swept across the continent as Governments have acted decisively to end the suffering of these animals. Bans are in place in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and now Paraguay. Legislation for a ban passed its second reading in Colombia earlier this year and legislation for a ban is well advanced in Brazil. • China July 20, 2012: Wildlife conservation and forestry departments of northeast China's Heilongjiang province announced that visitors will soon not be allow to pay for pictures with Siberian tiger cubs in a tiger park.   When our CapWiz account came up for renewal on Dec 31, 2012 we switched to VoterVoice for our CatLaws.com site.  At the time of the move we had 73,503 supporters in our AdvoCat database.  We loved CapWiz, but VoterVoice promises all of the same great tools for half the price so we are going to try them out for 2013 and see how they compare.   Animal Abusers Exposed, Shut Down and / or Fined:  Big Cat Rescue enabled several under cover operations to gather evidence of exotic cats being abused, bred without regard for where they may end up, violations of the Animal Welfare Act that pertains to the cruel treatment of big cats and endangering the public.  This information was presented to the authorities along with affidavits and supporting evidence that we hope will bring an end to much of the suffering in the facilities we selected as being the worst abusers.   • Dade City's Wild Things had complaints about shoving 8-12 week old tiger cubs in the pool and forcing them to swim with patrons who pay 200.00 that resulted in the Florida Wildlife Commission initially taking the position that it was not safe, but then the FWC reversed themselves and said DCWT may continue, what many people find to be cruel abuse, as long as they didn't shove the cubs back in the pool if they climbed out.  Now DCWT staff hold the poor cubs by their tails so that they cannot reach the side to climb out, but the FWC, despite numerous complaints, has failed to shut down these activities. • Inside Edition exposed Joe Schreibvogel of GW Park and the fact that at least 23 tiger cubs died at his facility. • The BBC's Show called America's Most Dangerous Pets with  Louis Therous suggested their show should have been named, America's Most Dangerous Pet Owners. • Animal Planet's Fatal Attractions interviewed Carole Baskin in Tigers Unleashed about dangerous exotic animal owners including Savage Kingdom's Robert Baudy and Lost Creek where Haley Hilderbrand was killed by a tiger while posing with the cat for her high school yearbook photo.   It appears that USDA did not pursue any of the exotic animal abuse cases to conclusion in 2011 or 2012.     Fundraising and Marketing:  Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 125 times in 2012.   Some of our national press included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   YouTube and Revision 3 were the big news this year.  Revision 3, which is owned by Discovery, contacted us and asked us to be their first animal themed channel.  Thanks to this partnership and cross promotions with Animal Planet, we are experiencing more than 1 million views per MONTH!  By year end we had 359 videos and they received more than 15 million views in 2012.  We ended the year with appx 53,000 subscribers and 53 million views.  Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 3,200 subscribers and 434,000 views.  We surpassed 79,000 fans on Face Book.   2 of 363 million If you search “big cats” our site comes up in position 2 AND 3 out of 363 million competing sites.  We also enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We now have 500+ contacts in our LinkedIn presence here:  linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue Our MySpace account now has 7,418 friends. myspace.com/1BigCatRescue  Mavrix Photo began using our photos in Dec. 2012   Google awarded Big Cat Rescue a grant of $40,000 per month in free AdWords. People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  In 2008 Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community but in December of 2012 the underlying provider discontinued the free service.    Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  We initiated a program with Capitol One so that you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases will be donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   We were the Diamond Sponsor for the Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, DC where more than 1,000 animal activists converged to learn more about legislation to protect animals.  We were a sponsor for Animal Coalition of Tampa's Stride for Strays, as we are every year.   One of Jamie Veronica's photos was accepted by the Fish and Wildlife Service for publication in their 2013 calendar.   We were interviewed by Animal Planet and featured as experts in their series, Fatal Attractions – Tigers Unleashed and another upcoming episode.   An article on Hope the bobcat was featured in Nat Geo Kids Magazine, with a teaser on the cover.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  In 2012 Big Cat Rescue donated $1500 towards Panthera conservation programs and outfitting rangers in other countries on behalf of our volunteers.   Helping Others: After delivering a couple of free webinars for the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), and hosting their first in person 2 day Workshop in 2011, Patty Finch asked if the board of GFAS could use our facilities for their meeting. We were delighted to meet the members of the board that we had not met before and were proud to show off Big Cat Rescue to all of them.  Howard Baskin presented on our fundraising streams and the history of Big Cat Rescue and I shared how we use google Apps and how we manage over 100 top notch volunteers.   Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on the subject of TNR.  Trap, Neuter and Return.   As with every year we supplied Free Passes, Certificates for Feeding Tours and Keeper Tours, and Two For One Passes to many other animal causes to use in their fundraising efforts.  We donate primarily to those organizations that are providing services to cats of all sizes.  We do donate to some human related fundraisers as well, but animal causes make up 3% of all charities and yet compete for less than 1% of all donated dollars.   Then and Now: Below are the audited financial statements of Revenue and Expense for the past five years. We pride ourselves in keeping our fundraising and administrative total expenses below 20%. Because our tour revenue exceeds our fundraising and administrative costs, 100% of donations go to Program Expense.   The majority of the increase in Program Expense in 2012 was the cost of lawsuits we filed in furtherance of our mission against what we believe to be one of the most notorious exploiters of tiger cubs. We prevailed in the lawsuit in early 2013. Without the generous support of our donors we could not have sustained this successful effort. Thank you!   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2012 and meetings: • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) • Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) • VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) • Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) • Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR) • Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR) • Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR) • Kim Mahoney (not compensated by BCR) These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 4 times in 2012.   Paid Staff: • Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Gale Ingham • Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica • Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton and Kim Dever • Project Manager Chelsea Feeny • Education Director  Willow Hecht • Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance • Scott Haller Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance • PT Operations Manager and Videographer and Social Networking Chris Poole • Director of Donor Appreciation  Jeff Kremer • Assistant to Operations Manager and Staff Relief Person Jennifer Flatt • CFO Howard Baskin • PR Susan Bass • LaWanna Mitchell is an independent contractor who works remotely on web issues. All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 93 volunteers at the end of 2012 who clocked in 37,715 man-power hours in addition to staff, 25 interns (12,700 hours) and 5,658 Volunteer Committee member hours. Volunteers and interns provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 24 more full time staff.  Interesting breakdown of volunteers: We 93 volunteers; 75 women and 18 men.  The youngest 20 years old, the oldest 84 years old.  Between January 1, 2010 and September 10, 2012 Big Cat Rescue had 77 interns from 10 countries and 22 states.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats.  Several of our staff attended the Safe Capture Course, as we do any time they are in Florida.   Get our Financial Reports:  See our IRS 990 and audited financial statement for Big Cat Rescue at http://bigcatrescue.org/finances/  

What Makes Big Cat Rescue the Cat's Pajamas? Big Cat Rescue is the largest accredited sanctuary in the world dedicated entirely to abused and abandoned big cats.  The nonprofit sanctuary began in 1992 and is home to more than 100 exotic big cats.  The cats at Big Cat Rescue are here for a variety of reasons, including:   • Abandoned by owners who wrongly thought they would make good pets • Abused by owners in order to force them to perform • Retired from performing acts • Saved from being slaughtered to make fur coats • Rescued as babies after hunters killed their mothers   Big Cat Rescue has many species of cats, many of whom are threatened, endangered or extinct now in the wild, including: Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Cougars, Bobcats, Lynx, Servals, Ocelots, Caracals   Big Cat Rescue's mission is to provide the best possible home for the animals in our care and try to stop the flow of exotic cats needing sanctuary by educating the public about the plight of the animals and supporting stronger laws to protect them.  This award winning sanctuary is situated on 55 acres in the Citrus Park area of north Tampa.  Our IRS Federal ID# is 59-3330495.  Our 990s are available online at GuideStar.org with a complete breakdown of how your donations are spent.   We are: • Accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries • Certified by Independent Charities of America as a “Best in America Charity” • A Member of the World Society for Protection of Animals • Rated 4 Stars by Charity Navigator (their highest rating) and has the highest score of any animal based charity   The high profile good that is being done by Big Cat Rescue has inspired awards such as:   PC Magazine Names Big Cat Rescue in Top 12 Favorite Charities 2011   Big Cat Rescue, which takes in retired circus lions and tigers, also rescues other big cats from people who tried to keep them as pets, and otherwise offers sanctuary to large cats that are not eligible for release into the wild. It's focused on educating people about the unsuitability of the animals as pets, working toward passing laws against roadside zoos, and shutting down breeding programs like the exotic pet trade. They also take in injured wild cats and rehabilitate them for release. The group has a video cam set up in the sanctuary, and they regularly post videos of the big cats. The cats eat a massive amount every day, naturally, so Big Cat Rescue relies on donations and paid tour groups to support them.—Arielle Rochette  PC Magazine   Thanks to all of you who voted for Big Cat Rescue, we won the People's Choice Award at the WEDU Be More Awards!  Big Cat Rescue won against 90 contenders for the People's Choice Award. WEDU has a viewing audience that includes 16 central Florida counties. Big Cat Rescue has won this award three years in a row, validating to us that many of your share our vision.   2011 Winner in Toyota's 100 Cars for Good  Big Cat Rescue was given a beautiful Toyota Tundra for being the top voted charity during their competition week.   9/2/2011  The Tampa Bay Business Journal awarded Big Cat Rescue in 3 categories:  Best Black Tie Event  Favorite Retreat and Team Building Venue and Second Best Fundraiser   With awards and recognition like these Big Cat Rescue has enjoyed the support of celebrities from all walks of life.  They have either visited, donated, helped further our mission or have done all three!  A few you might know are:   Animal Planet's Ms. Adventure, Jane Goodall, Bill Murphy, County Commissioners, Congresswoman Castor, NY Yankees, Sue Zelenko, Arch Deal, Tim Harrison, Jethro Tull, 2008 Pageant Queens, Bo Derek, Tippi Hedren, Tampabay Bucs, Harrison Ford, The Lightning, Kate Walsh, Jim Fowler, Paul Parmar, Jack Hanna, Doug Williams, 717 South, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Harris, Hell's Kitchen, Mary Poppins, Jersey Boys, Barbara Niven, Donna Vivino of Wicked, & Chadd & Kristi   The sanctuary receives no government support and relies on its educational activities, such as tours of the facility, and the generosity of donors for support of the cats. Donations are tax deductible. Because non program expenses (i.e. administration and fundraising) are funded from tour income, 100% of your donations go directly to support the cats.   Use of technology, which not only saves time, increases our ability to track a multitude of things and improve the health checkups the cats get by updating that information on a daily basis. 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.  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.

July 2012  Carole presented this at the Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C.   One person can be the cat-alyst for change. If you are sitting in this audience, YOU might be the kind of person who has the passion to overcome the impossible in order to help save thousands, or millions of animals. Rose Church is one of those people.   How many of you have heard about Tony the tiger who has been kept at a Louisiana truck stop for the past decade?   How many of you have heard of, or recognize Ian Somerhalder from the Vampire Diaries?   Ian Sommerhalder   Rose Church is a pro bono attorney for the Ian Somerhalder foundation and she wanted to get Ian involved in freeing Tony the tiger. Ian has 2,300,000 followers on Twitter and she thought that getting him to Tweet about Tony might help raise awareness about Tony the truck stop tiger. She contacted me to ask what Ian could ask his followers to do.   Even though we get more complaints about Tony than any other single situation and have been working to free him for the past decade, we had exhausted our ability to do anything. We had hired the tiger a lawyer and had shown up with plenty of supporters to testify, but it had become obvious that the state of Louisiana was not going to do anything. USDA has revoked the license to display the tiger, but that rarely seems to stop exhibitors from exhibiting.   The ALDF (Animal Legal Defense Fund) had continued the fight in the only venue left, which was the legal system. Court cases wind their way through the system like a river of molasses so there wasn't much anyone could do. It seemed like the whole world already knew about Tony, so having Ian Tweet his audience didn't seem like a terribly productive thing to do. If we had the help of a celebrity we told Rose that he could make a far great impact for thousands of tigers like Tony by educating his fan base about the issue that causes so many tigers and other big cats to end up being bred, exploited and discarded.   The underlying cause for almost all of this suffering is cub petting.   I explained to Rose that it was big business in the U.S. for breeders to charge the public to pet or pose with big cat cubs. One claims to have made $23,000 in a single weekend at a mall, charging people to have interaction with the cubs and / or have their photos made with the cubs. The breeders and dealers were doing these pay to play sessions with older lions and tigers up until the death of a high school student named Haley Hildebrand.   Thanks to pressure from the media and then the public, the USDA issued a FAQ sheet suggesting that cubs under 8 weeks should not be used this way. In a separate appellate court case the judge ruled that cubs over the age of 12 weeks were too dangerous for such interaction. The unintended result was creating a loophole whereby breeders could still charge customers to touch cubs who were between 8-12 weeks old. That resulted in massive breeding in order to have profitable cubs to use. Since their shelf life was only 4 weeks, breeders decided to produce lion and tiger cubs every month so that they would always have “legal” age cubs to use.   Rose could hardly believe her ears. First of all, she had never seen these mall exhibits where tiger breeders set up shop and offer cubs as photo props all day over a four day weekend. Second, she couldn't believe that USDA hadn't done something to close that 4 week window they had created.   It can be anything from fixing a broken toy to curing some social ill; have you ever had one of those moments where you see a situation and think to yourself, “I can fix this.” This was Rose's moment. She said to herself, “I can do something about this!”   Rose figured there at LOTS of animal protection groups out there and if they all worked together they could fix this thing. But, she doubted that anyone would listen to her if she made the suggestion that they do so. She took the information to her professor from Law School, Diane Sullivan because she knew that Dean Sullivan had her own animal law television show and a lot of clout in the animal protection community. She figured that if Dean Sullivan were to ask the big animals groups to come together that it might actually happen.   Rose asked me who the big players are that care about tigers. That was an easy question because I had been part of a team of more than 40 such organizations who worked together as the International Tiger Coalition. The ITC had been formed primarily to end the tiger farming in China, but time and again the hurdle was that China would resist our suggestions by pointing out the fact that the U.S. doesn't even know how many tigers we have nor where they are nor how they are being housed. I gave her the names and contact info for the people who I felt had been most involved in the ITC and who could work well together.   Rose contacted IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and went over the list to get further input on who would be willing to work together on the tiger issue. The result was a round table meeting in D.C. at IFAW in July 2011. At the table were the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Humane Society of the United States, Born Free, the World Wildlife Fund, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Wild Cat Conservation Legal Aid Society, World Council for Animal Rights, the Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Ian Somerhalder Foundation, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and Big Cat Rescue. Combined we represent more than 18 million supporters.   I've been a part of other animal welfare coalitions but this group has worked better together than anything I've ever seen before. The meeting was hugely successful and we got to the root of the tiger problem: cub petting. In your conference bags you will find a four page summary of the Tiger Handling Crisis. There is another page of citations used for the document that we are providing online at BigCatLaws.com   What the group concluded was that we can't save wild tigers as long as there is such unregulated trade in captive tigers who provide a legal smoke screen for illegal activities such as poaching. China has made the argument that they should be allowed to farm tigers for their parts to fill the demand, but there will always be a demand for the “real” tiger; the “wild” tiger and expanding the market through farming tigers will only result in them being exterminated more quickly in the wild.   Right now there are more tigers in back yard cages in America than are left in the wild. It is thought that there are less than 3200 tigers left in the wild and at last count, by USDA, there were about 5000 tigers in USDA facilities. Only about 200 of those are AZA zoos, so the rest are in roadside zoos, circus acts, and back yards; and that is just the ones who voluntarily reported and who hold USDA licenses. For those who are not licensed by USDA, the people who own them as pets, there has been no census done.   As the group looked at the situation in the U.S., it became apparent that the number one cause for so many tigers to end up in deplorable conditions was the very lucrative cub petting industry. Two factors made this abuse possible.   Back in the 1980s white tigers became all the rage. White tigers would sell for $60,000 because the public was so enamored with seeing this freak of nature. What the zoos kept quiet was the fact that the only way to create that white coat was through purposely inbreeding, father to daughter, mother to son and brother to sister. Over time the cubs became more and more genetically impaired, suffering from club feet, open spines, crossed eyes and badly formed bones and teeth. Before long the Bengal tigers were so inbred that they were no longer reproducing or cubs were being born dead. But the public demanded to see white tigers, so the zoos started hybridizing Bengal tigers and Siberian tigers to continue the inbreeding a few generations more.   So many zoos and backyard breeders were cross breeding tigers that the USFWS decided it wasn't worth their time to process the captive bred wildlife permits that are required for endangered species, so they created the “generic” tiger loophole. What this did was allowed zoos and private owners to breed non purebred tigers with no oversight and the tiger population exploded in the U.S.   The other factor that made it so easy for tigers to be bred and used as photo and petting props was that even though USDA had inadvertently created a four week window, between 8 and 12 weeks when cubs could be petted by the public, they had no way to enforce it because they do not require any sort of registration of tigers and rely almost entirely on what the tiger owner tells them as to the age of the cub or why the cub was taken from their mother. The same person who claims to make over $20,000 in a good weekend at the mall had 23 tiger cubs die over the span of just a little over a year, but to date the USDA has done nothing about it.   So, the coalition decided on a three prong approach to ending the abuse of tigers:   Close the generic tiger loophole at the USFWS   Ask USDA to close the 4 week window of cub petting   A federal bill that ends the breeding and trade in big cats outside of AZA zoos   Only a year has passed since one person arranged for a bunch of animal protection groups to work on this and we have good news so far:   The USFWS has put the suggestion of closing the generic tiger exemption out on the Federal Register for public comment and more than 14,000 commented in favor of doing so. The rule hasn't been made final, but the government moves slowly.   We met with USDA, presented the Cub Handling Crises flier you have, along with the citations and the concurrence of 20 zoo vets who agree that cub petting should be banned. Unfortunately, the USDA has taken the position that they do not have the power to close the window. They made it; they should be able to close it, but they are unwilling, so we are still working on that one. For the most part their attitude seems to be that they don't think it is a big enough problem because they don't hear about it much. With your help we can fix that!   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.

Christopher Vane co-founded Little Bear Sanctuary, a nonprofit farm animal sanctuary in Punta Gorda, FL, in honor of his late mother Ursula (which translates to “little bear” in Latin). They shared a common passion for animals and Ursula often dreamed of providing neglected, once-abused animals a safe haven.https://littlebearsanctuary.orgRandi Seltzer Bonica is a vegan mama, a high school guidance counselor, an animal advocate, and a jewelry maker. She lives with her husband Steve, her son, Murray, and her six rescue cats in Rockaway Beach, New York City.2021 Goat Game Sanctuaries:Global Federation of Animal Sanctuarieshttps://www.sanctuaryfederation.orgBarn Sanctuaryhttps://www.barnsanctuary.orgCatskill Animal Sanctuaryhttps://casanctuary.orgHeartwood Havenhttps://heartwoodhaven.orgKindred Spirits Sanctuaryopher Vane.Goldylocks Productions presents Live from Little Bear Sanctuary with Christopher Vane.Today, Friday, 13 August 2021 at 1 pm ET.Christopher Vane co-founded Little Bear Sanctuary, a nonprofit farm animal sanctuary in Punta Gorda, FL, in honor of his late mother Ursula (which translates to “little bear” in Latin). They shared a common passion for animals and Ursula often dreamed of providing neglected, once-abused animals a safe haven.While originally from New York, Chris surprisingly started off with a career in human healthcare, eventually landing in Florida working as a real estate broker. When he met Randy, everything changed…for the better, that is! Their relationship sparked a new passion to live each day with purpose. After they got married, their desire to provide a better world for farm animals was greatly amplified. Together, Chris and Randy followed through on Ursula's dream and established the Little Bear Sanctuary in 2017. Now, 160+ rescued farm animals call Little Bear Sanctuary home, and – thanks to Christopher's compassion and dedication – each animal has been given an opportunity to experience love and freedom.Little Bear Sanctuary provides a permanent home for farm animals that have been abandoned or can no longer be cared for by the owner in order to allow them to live out the remainder of their lives in a cruelty free environment. We are committed not only to a vegan lifestyle but the essential education of pigs as pets. Our animals are never kept in cages or pens and are free to roam in their natural habitat.https://littlebearsanctuary.orghttps://www.facebook.com/littlebearsanctuaryDonate to this Show and Non-Profit Organization. Thank you! https://account.venmo.com/u/LittleBearSanctuaryAdd us to your Amazon Smile account: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/82-2180440Special Guests: Randi Seltzer Bonica and Members of the Goat Games Sanctuaries.Randi Seltzer Bonica is a vegan mama, a high school guidance counselor, an animal advocate, and a jewelry maker. She lives with her husband Steve, her son, Murray, and her six rescue cats in Rockaway Beach, New York City.2021 Goat Game Sanctuaries:Global Federation of Animal SanctuariesEvery day, the world over, wild and domestic animals are abandoned, displaced, or injured by humans and natural causes. The sole purpose of The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) is to ensure that these animals receive the highest standards of care during rescue, rehabilitation, and the rest of their life.We are the only globally recognized organization for certifying that a facility meets the GFAS Standards of Excellence and recognizes those as a true “sanctuary.” As such, facilities around the world, large and small, come to GFAS for guidance and support in achieving and maintaining GFAS-accredited status.Our Vision: A world in which sanctuaries provide lifetime humane care to all animals in need. Our Mission: To continuously improve the quality of care for animals requiring sanctuary by Accrediting sanctuaries based on worldwide standards of excellence, Facilitating operational and financial support, and Enhancing effectiveness, recognition, and collaboration.https://www.sanctuaryfederation.orgBarn SanctuaryBarn Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating farmed animals who have been abused and neglected. We show farmed animals in a new light, highlighting their individuality by sharing their unique stories and educating the public about the treatment of animals raised for human consumption. We operate on all levels from a position of kindness, mutual respect, and belonging, welcoming everyone to participate in our mission to spread compassion for farmed animals everywhere.Dan McKernan is the co-founder of Barn Sanctuary and star of the popular Animal Planet series Saved by the Barn. In 2015, Dan left his tech job in Austin, Texas, to transform his family's 140-year-old farm into a safe haven for farmed animals. That safe haven is Barn Sanctuary. Author of a forthcoming children's book, “This Farm Is a Family,” Dan's mission, through the work of Barn Sanctuary, is to change the way the world views farmed animals and help lead society towards a more compassionate and plant-based lifestyle.https://www.barnsanctuary.orgCatskill Animal SanctuaryCelebrating 20 Years! Founded in 2001, Catskill Animal Sanctuary is a non-profit, 150-acre refuge in New York's Hudson Valley. It is home to eleven species of rescued farmed animals with between 275 and 400 residents at any given time. In addition to direct animal aid, the Sanctuary offers on-site tours, vegan cooking lessons, and educational programs that advocate veganism as the very best way to end animal suffering, improve human health, and heal an ailing planet.https://casanctuary.orgHeartwood HavenHeartwood Haven is located in a park-like setting in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. We are on a mission to end animal cruelty against farm animals in the PNW. We primarily work with local animal control to rescue animals coming from cruelty and abuse cases. These animals are typically former cock-fighting roosters and pigs. Through our successful adoption program we are able to save hundreds of animals every year. In addition to our rescue work we also fight for a more compassionate world through our education and advocacy programs. Your generosity and support allows us to continue the fight for the most vulnerable among us.https://heartwoodhaven.orgKindred Spirits SanctuaryKindred Spirits is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to ending the abuse and suffering of farm animals through direct rescue, advocacy, and education. We seek to provide a place where people can connect with these sentient beings and discover their unique (and often humorous!) personalities. At Kindred Spirits, farm animals are our friends, not our food. We are passionate about helping others form bonds with these remarkable animals, and gladly give tours on scheduled days! The Sanctuary is located on just under 75 beautiful acres in Citra, Florida. The 166 sanctuary residents receive around-the-clock care, high quality diets, spacious barns, and green pastures in which to laze and graze. Most importantly, they are treated as individuals and given a loving, peaceful environment where they can live without pain, hunger, or fear of exploitation for their natural lives.https://www.kssfl.orgPiedmont Farm Animal Refugehttp://piedmontrefuge.orgWildwood Farm Sanctuaryhttps://wildwoodfarmsanctuary.org

2011 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 54,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  Big Cat Rescue's dual mission is to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care and educate the public about the plight of these majestic animals, both in captivity and in the wild, to end abuse and avoid extinction.  We are Caring for Cats and Ending the Trade   Advances:  With your help we are winning in the battle for compassion! Up until 2003 the number of requests for rescues we had to turn down due to lack of space or funds had roughly doubled every other year, to 312 that year. We feared it would double again to over 500 in 2004. Instead, it has steadily declined since then thanks to the passage of a federal bill and several state bills that restrict the ownership of exotic cats. This year there were only 15 big cats who came to our attention as being abandoned and we were able to take in 10. We offered to take all of the cats who were cougar size or smaller, if their owners would contract to never own another exotic cat, but the rest refused.  We just do not have enough Senior Keeper staff to take on more lions or tigers than the three we took this year.   Volgistics became our new time tracking service on Jan 1, 2012 and has replaced our use of Freshbooks.  Everyone seems to like the big buttons and easy check in and check out process.   Animal Care:   By the end of this year, 106 of our 119 animals are over the age of 12 and 89 are over the age of 15. This is well beyond how long they are designed to live in the wild and much older than most zoo cats.  This is a testament to the excellent animal care we provide, but we are dealing with many more age related illnesses and are losing more of our big cat friends every year.   Rescues:  With the help of some very special donors we were able to rescue Amanda, Arthur and Andre; 3 tigers who had been rescued in 2003 from NJ and sent to Wild Animal Orphanage in TX, which collapsed in 2010.  Max the baby bobcat came to us after the RI DNR seized him from an illegal owner.  5 servals, Zoul, Zouletta, Zimba, Santino and Doodles, who had been kept in a NY basement for 14 years were rescued.  Another serval named Kricket was also brought in from VA when her owner could no longer keep her.  We were also able to help with the placement of another serval, a bobcat and did a lot of rehab consultation work via phone and email.   One of those bobcats was Rufus who came in to a Rehabber on Dec 5 weighing 4 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.  They figured he had been hit by a car, but at 4 lbs couldn't believe that he survived.  After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.  They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine. He is now about 7 lbs, is eating solids on his own and doing much better but appears to be blind.  He was having bad and frequent seizures, but those have almost subsided.  They have asked if we can give him a forever home if his eyesight does not return and we stand ready to help.  On 12/21/11 we had another perfect USDA inspection.   Education:  Our website, BigCatRescue.org underwent a painful renovation from a static html site to a WordPress CMS site during 2010 and 2011.  All of the page names had to be changed to fit the new system which meant a huge drop in traffic and initially a huge drop in inbound links, although, by the end of the year we had gained more than a thousand more inbound links than we had before, so it is going to prove a worth while move.  The site was completely down in the Spring and Summer, but has been stable since August 2011 now.   Our website is primarily an educational tool and according to Alexa we are ranked 464,891 worldwide and 128,777 most visited website in the U.S.  We have 1,104 other sites linking to us.   Our web site addresses local and global concerns about environment and has over 8,347 pages of information, movie clips, sounds, safe interactive online games with a conservation theme and photos. From 1/1/2011 until 12/31/2011 the site was visited 338,715 times, resulting in 764,943 page views.  In any given week the visitors will be from more than 200 countries outside of the U.S. as you can see from this breakdown:  United States 279,011, Canada 17,495, Poland 7,679, United Kingdom 7,610, Australia 2,848, India 2,123, Germany 1,578, France 984, and the Philippines 858 to name a few.   The information provided has helped wildlife rehabilitators identify animals and obtain proper care instruction, helped officials in smuggling cases to identify rare species of exotic cats being illegally traded and those are just a few of the ways that we know the site has had an impact this year.  For search engine optimization reasons we launched BobcatRehab.com  to make it easier for bobcats in trouble to find us.   We offer about 200 outreach and field trips per year and have committed to offering 12 of them for free each year to lower income schools, but have given 18 such free tours this year and expect that demand will continue to rise with the cost of transportation.  Even when we offer the tours for free, many schools cannot come because they cannot afford the $200.00 fee for their busses.  Our Education Department has been writing grant proposals to raise the money needed for the buses.   Big Cat Rescue has been in the press 326 times, in 42+ states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, FL, HI, IA, ID, IO, IN, IL, KY, LA, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI & WV and dozens of programs of national or international coverage or in countries other than the U.S.   Award Winning Sanctuary:  PC Magazine Names Big Cat Rescue in Top 12 Favorite Charities 2011.  “Big Cat Rescue, which takes in retired circus lions and tigers, also rescues other big cats from people who tried to keep them as pets, and otherwise offers sanctuary to large cats that are not eligible for release into the wild. It's focused on educating people about the unsuitability of the animals as pets, working toward passing laws against roadside zoos, and shutting down breeding programs like the exotic pet trade. They also take in injured wild cats and rehabilitate them for release. The group has a video cam set up in the sanctuary, and they regularly post videos of the big cats. The cats eat a massive amount every day, naturally, so Big Cat Rescue relies on donations and paid tour groups to support them.”—Arielle Rochette  PC Magazine   • 2011 Winner in Toyota's 100 Cars for Good  Big Cat Rescue was given a beautiful Toyota Tundra for being the top voted charity during their competition week. • 9/2/2011  The Tampa Bay Business Journal awarded Big Cat Rescue in 3 categories:  Best Black Tie Event  Favorite Retreat and Team Building Venue and Second Best Fundraiser • The Tampabay Business Journal selected Big Cat Rescue as a semi-finalist for Non Profit of the Year for 2011.   Legislation/Education:  The steady increase in legislation banning private ownership represents recognition by our society that private ownership leads to massive abuse.  Social values evolve.  It took decades to ban slavery in England and for women to win the right to vote in America.  Those ideas started out as “radical” and were held by a small minority.  Gradually more and more people understood and agreed until they became a part of our value system that we take for granted today.  The same trend is happening with private ownership of exotics.  Gradually more and more people are realizing that this simply leads to widespread abuse of these animals.  The best evidence of this is the accelerating trend in state laws.   Just since 2005 eight more states have passed some level of ban. Sweden, Austria, Costa Rica, India, Finland, Bolivia, Greece, China, the UK and Singapore have all banned or restricted the utilization of big cats in circuses-it's time for the U.S. & South Africa to do the same!   14,539 new subscribers joined as an AdvoCat to speak out for the cats at CatLaws.com in 2011 bringing our total number of AdvoCats to  54,447 who sent 134,431 letters to lawmakers and decision makers to protect big cats.   Animal Abusers Exposed, Shut Down and / or Fined:  Big Cat Rescue enabled several under cover operations to gather evidence of exotic cats being abused, bred without regard for where they may end up, violations of the Animal Welfare Act that pertains to the cruel treatment of big cats and endangering the public.  This information was presented to the authorities along with affidavits and supporting evidence that we hope will bring an end to much of the suffering in the facilities we selected as being the worst abusers.   • Inside Edition exposed Joe Schreibvogel of GW Park and the fact that at least 23 tiger cubs died at his facility. • The BBC's Show called America's Most Dangerous Pets with  Louis Theroux suggested their show should have been named, America's Most Dangerous Pet Owners. • Animal Planet's Fatal Attractions interviewed Carole Baskin in Tigers Unleashed about dangerous exotic animal owners including Savage Kingdom's Robert Baudy and Lost Creek where Haley Hilderbrand was killed by a tiger while posing with the cat for her high school yearbook photo. Many of the worst breeders, dealers and tiger-tamer-wanabees were finally shut down between 2008 and 2010 but it appears that USDA did not pursue any of the exotic animal abuse cases in 2011.     Fundraising and Marketing:  We overhauled (OK, Jamie overhauled) our online stores at http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/ and on eBay and greatly increased our sales by doing so.  We currently operate 300+ social networking sites.   Big Cat Rescue was reported favorably in the news 326 times in 2011 which in a 19% increase over 2010.   Some of the national press included shows on  CNN,  MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery and the History Channel in addition to such publications as USA Today, National Geographic and the New York Post and major media coverage in several other countries as well.   Google awarded Big Cat Rescue a grant of $40,000 per month in free AdWords. People who love animals love to share their photos and stories.  In 2008 Big Cat Rescue unleashed a Chat Big Cats community.   Members can post their own blogs, or join in our forums and contests. It is a YouTube/ MySpace styled community made up entirely of animal lovers. By year end there were 2,847 members and 34,359,740,539  videos, songs, photos and blogs posted to the site.  (blows my mind too!)  Get in on the action free at http://www.chatbigcats.com   Best Viral Video Award:  YouTube.  We ended the year with 35,442 subscribers and 37,492,151 views.   By year end we had 323 videos posted on YouTube and other popular sites like google, Blip, MetaCafe, Revver and others.  http://www.youtube.com/bigcatrescue   YouTube Mini Clip Site:  DailyBigCat was launched Nov. 20, 2010 to provide a channel for the mini clips we upload directly from our iPhones.  By year end this site had 2,563 subscribers and 166,724 views.   Our MySpace account now has 7,551 friends. myspace.com/1BigCatRescue We surpassed 54,000 fans on Face Book .  We also enhanced our presence on Care2.org and many other such sites.  We now have 500+ contacts in our LinkedIn presence here:  linkedin.com/in/BigCatRescue Big Cat Rescue now has an Endowment Fund to provide a secure future for the cats. The Fund resides at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.  We initiated a program with Capitol One so that you can choose one of our beautiful cats for your credit card image and 1% of all of your purchases will be donated to Big Cat Rescue at no cost to you.   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  Big Cat Rescue funded a $5,000 GPS tracking collar program that will be monitored by researchers with the Snow Leopard Trust. Founded in 1981, the Snow Leopard Trust is the world's leading authority on the study and protection of the endangered snow leopards. This collar will allow researchers to track a wild snow leopard in order to study its habits and territory needs.  A GPS tracking collar has been placed on one of the cubs of Khashaa, a female and mother snow leopard, within the study area. The cub, a male, is already pretty big at one and a half years old. We find this so exciting because it will help us begin to answer some of the unanswered questions about snow leopards, including information about dispersal patterns.   Big Cat Rescue has been working with WildTracks this year to provide images of our tigers' paw prints for entry into their computer program which can determine who a cat is by their tracks when there are enough tracks submitted to use for comparison.  Learn more and see photos of the print collection at http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/today-at-big-cat-rescue-sept-22   Big Cat Rescue offered to sponsor the first ever Florida Panther Festival if they agreed not to use any live cats at their exhibits.  They did not take us up on the offer to sponsor the event, but did assure us that they would not exploit cats this way.  Our camera traps have been set in various locations to monitor wildlife populations and poachers in the area.   Helping Others: After delivering a couple of free webinars for the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS), Patty asked if we would host their first in person 2 day Workshop. Howard Baskin presented on our fundraising streams and the history of Big Cat Rescue, Jeff Kremer presented on donor recognition while giving the group of 20+ attendees a tour, Chris Poole spoke on social marketing and networking, Patty Ragan shared the value of hiring a coach, Kari Bagnall illustrated how to get the most out of a tabling event, Patty Finch taught grant writing, teaching your board how to be helpful and how to avoid “founder's syndrome” and I shared how we use google Apps, how we manage over 100 top notch volunteers, why it is important to have a plan and stick to it.   Big Cat Rescue later hosted HSUS Sanctuary CEO's for their annual retreat and gave them an inside look at how we operate.  In both the GFAS and HSUS workshops we shared our Intranet site along with all of our training documents and all of the assets to create a “sanctuary in a box.”  All of these tools are included on our website behind a $1.00 pay wall so that anyone who wishes to improve their facility has access to everything we do.   Big Cat Rescue also helped the Humane Society Legislative Fund in their work to end puppy mills because the same laws would protect cats and kittens from use in kitten mills as well.   Big Cat Rescue provided our CatLaws.com service to Animal Coalition of Tampa in their efforts to send a powerful message to the Hillsborough County Commissioners on two subjects.  1. Was to fund the voucher program for spaying and neutering dogs and cats for low income owners.  2. Was to ban the cruel practice of chaining dogs.   As with every year we supplied Free Passes, Certificates for Feeding Tours and Keeper Tours, and Two For One Passes to many other animal causes to use in their fundraising efforts.  We donate primarily to those organizations that are providing services to cats of all sizes.  We do donate to some human related fundraisers as well, but animal causes make up 3% of all charities and yet compete for less than 1% of all donated dollars.   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2011 and meetings: CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director) Secretary & Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR for his role as a Director) VP Director Lisa Shaw (not compensated by BCR) Director Mary Lou Geis (not compensated by BCR) Pamela Rodriguez (not compensated by BCR), Darren Kipnis (not compensated by BCR), Vincent Pavese (not compensated by BCR), and Keith Lawless (not compensated by BCR).  These members met for quarterly board meetings at the sanctuary.  The board met 5 times in 2011.   Paid Staff:  Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Gale Ingham Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton Intern Recruiter & Data Management Chelsea Feeny Education Director Dr. Beth Kamhi and her assistant Willow Hecht Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance Scott Haller Cage Building Apprentice and Maintenance Videographer and Social Networking Chris Poole Director of Donor Appreciation  Jeff Kremer Assistant to Operations Manager and Staff Relief Person Jennifer Flatt, CFO Howard Baskin, PR Susan Bass and  LaWanna Mitchell is an independent contractor who works remotely on web issues. All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 96 volunteers at the end of 2011 who clocked in 37,556.09 man-power hours in addition to staff, 25 interns (12,700 hours) and Volunteer Committee member hours. Our interns came from 9 states and 6 countries. Volunteers and interns provided roughly the equivalent workforce of 24 more full time staff.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff & volunteers who have just completed their 10th year of service to the cats.   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.

7 Tigers Get a 3rd Chance Today I'd like to tell you about seven tigers who are getting a third chance at life thanks to you.  In 1996 a couple was lured into a tiger breeding facility where the owner had convinced herself and those who visited that she was breeding tigers for the purpose of saving them from extinction.  There are no legitimate breeding programs sending tigers back to the wild and no reason to breed tigers in captivity as they breed very easily and their populations bounce right back as soon as they have protected forests with plentiful food.  This couple took several photos of themselves with the cubs back in 1996 but I don't know if they had any ongoing contact with the facility.   By 2003 the breeder was in way over her head and had somewhere between 24 and 50 tigers living in filthy, over crowded conditions.  No one cared or did anything about it until a tiger was shot roaming the neighborhood.  Wild Animal Orphanage agreed to take the tigers and the International Fund for Animal Welfare agreed to help fund the transportation.  24 tigers went to WAO in 2003.  I don't know why news reports listed 50 tigers, what happened to them, or if they just didn't know how many were there.  The problem is that no one tracks tigers.   Fast forward to 2010 and the Wild Animal Orphanage's board, led by the daughter of the husband and wife founders (Carol Asvestas),  decided to throw her parents off the property and off the payroll.  There were allegations of fraud, and the Attorney General was involved, but I don't know the details.  By the fall of 2010 the board decided they were not going to be able to keep the facility going and they contacted the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries to help them place 400 animals, mostly tigers and primates.  We agreed to take all of the bobcats, lynx and cougars, but they had already sent the bobcats and lynx elsewhere and only had 4 cougars.   Jamie and Justin drove to San Antonio to see about picking up the cougars and were turned away by the staff who said that they didn't want to get involved in “politics.”  Whatever that meant.  The number of cats there varied wildly.  Staff originally told us there were 200 tigers, then they said there were 75 tigers then 50 something.  The facility went into bankruptcy and WAO dissolved and there have been many lawsuits and counter suits and now there are two or three women and a man who are taking care of 200 primates and the remaining 28 tigers.   Meanwhile, the couple who had taken photos of the cubs back in 1996 had set out on a quest to find the tigers they had known so many years ago.  They knew the tigers had gone to WAO and knew WAO was in trouble.  They wanted to make sure that these tigers didn't end up being bounced around from failing facility to failing facility...or worse.  In their research they discovered that Big Cat Rescue and the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in TX were the only accredited sanctuaries that house tigers.  The husband, who wishes to remain anonymous, came to Big Cat Rescue last month to check us out.   I gave him a tour and found him to be very knowledgeable about the the plight of captive cats.  He told me that they were trying to find the cats they knew, but were having trouble getting anyone to return their calls.     (This paragraph is from the future ((7/10/2021)) because it was pretty funny, but probably not recorded anywhere)  The man had scheduled a $700 Founder Tour, but I had been called away and my husband offered to take the tour.  The man insisted it had to be Carole Baskin.  That made people nervous because animal abusers had made many threats against my life and this guy was acting pretty sketchy.  I managed to rearrange my schedule to meet with him and the volunteers sequestered him in the backyard tour waiting area, so I could get a look at him to see if he was a known threat.  He looked to be about 80 years old, tall, thin and frail, so I decided that if he was an assassin, I could take him.  I put him on a golf cart and started my usual tour talk about how we started and he cut me off and said, “Just show me the tigers.”  I asked, “Why are you really here?”  He confessed his search for these tigers he had known, but said every where he went they shut him down and wouldn't tell him anything.  I asked for the names of the cats he was looking for and he gave me a list.  I called the person managing the placement of cats in the bankruptcy and asked if those names were on their list and they were.  Now back to the 2011 recording of the story.   I contacted IFAW and asked for the names of the tigers who had been rescued in 2003 and photos.  IFAW and WAO staff graciously provided these to us and Jamie began the long, tedious process of comparing stripe patterns.   The problem was that in some of the photos from 1996 only a corner of a face was visible where cubs were playing and piled up on each other.  If the tiger photos that were emailed to us were not that exact same ¼ of the face, it was impossible to know if they were the same cats.  On the trip back from taking Able the Cougar to NV, Jamie, Gale and Honey visited WAO to take more photos of the seven cats who had been rescued together in that group of 24 tigers back in 2003.   Jamie was able to find absolute and probable matches on 6 of the 7 tigers.  The couple who had known the cubs back in 1996 agreed to help rescue and support all 7 tigers so that they could stay together in groups of three and four.  Their 3 favorite cubs (who are now 15 yrs old) will be coming here so they can visit more often and the other 4 will go to another good facility.  Because of the bankruptcy court involvement, and those who hate us getting in the middle of this and the transportation issues, this rescue is taking a while to bring about.  We are racing against the clock though because the bankruptcy court is taking possession of the property next month and don't want the tigers there.   The tigers who will be coming here are Misha, Apotha and Andre (Later renamed by the donors to Amanda, Arthur and Andre) and they will live together in the four tiger Cat-a-Tats that you guys have been joining together in the outback.  To keep the BCR haters out of the process we have to be very guarded, so only the info on this page is to be shared:  http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/tiger-rescue-2/   Now you have the chance to end the generic tiger loophole that has enabled the abuse that leads to so many tigers ending up in peril. http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=53173501   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.

The Big Cat Coalition Formed in DC Rose Church a pro bono attorney for the Ian Somerhalder Foundation contacted Big Cat Rescue asking what Ian could do to help Tony the tiger be saved from the truck stop in Grosse Tete, LA.  Ian Somerhalder is the star of the Vampire Diaries and from Louisiana and had a Twitter following of 2.3 million fans at that time.   We had been working to save Tony since 2009 and so had the Animal Legal Defense Fund and there wasn't anything more that could be done at the time as these things drag out through years and years of appeals, so Howard Baskin and I suggested that if Ian really wanted to make a difference for big cats that he help us stop cub handling.   Rose couldn't believe that such abuse actually existed in this country and contacted her law professor, Diane Sullivan, to see what could be done. They thought that bringing together the big non profits who work on big cat issues together for a round table would be a good idea and asked if I knew anyone.  I gave her the contacts we had in the International Tiger Coalition and she managed to get representatives from a number of them to come to a meeting on July 25, 2011.   Attendees were:   ALDF  Stephan Otto from the Animal Legal Defense Fund   BCR  Howard Baskin and Carole Baskin from Big Cat Rescue   BF USA  Adam Roberts and Tracy Coppola from Born Free   GFAS  Patty Finch from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries   HSUS  Debbie Leahy from the Humane Society of the United States   IFAW  Jeff Flocken, Nathan Herschler & Gina Miller from the International Fund for Animal Welfare   ISF  Rose Church from the Ian Somerhalder Foundation   MSL  Dean Diane Sullivan, from Massachusetts School of Law, filmed the Plight of Tigers further down   WCAR  World Council for Animal Rights   WCCLAS  Wild Cat Conservation Legal Aid Society   WWF  Leigh Henry from the World Wildlife Fund   Combined we represent more than 18 million supporters.   Each of us had come there to decide how we could end the big cat crisis.  Each person around the table said what they thought the biggest contributing factor to big cat abuse and extinction was.  No one mentioned cubs and I was the last or next to the last to speak. I said that if we end the cub handling, all the other abuses fall away; circuses, private ownership, illegal trade and the smokescreen for illegal trade which was causing extinction in the wild.  We agreed on a three prong approach that day:   1. Rescind the generic tiger loophole with USFWS. 2. Force USDA to enforce the Animal Welfare Act  which should already be interpreted to not allow cub handling. 3. A federal ban on cub handling and private ownership.   https://bigcatrescue.org/big-cat-coalition/   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.

2007 Annual Report   Big Cat Rescue is more than just a place that provides permanent care for big cats.  It is a movement;  a change in the tide of human perceptions and is the combined effort of more than 74,000 supporters.  If you are one of them, you are a Big Cat Rescuer and the following is the great work YOU did!  If you haven't helped yet, you can do so now at the top right of the screen or here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/donate.htm   Big Cat Rescue's Mission Statement:  To provide the best home we can for the animals in our care and to reduce the number of cats that suffer the fate of abuse, abandonment or extinction by teaching people about the plight of the cats, both in the wild and in captivity, and how they can help through their behavior and support of better laws to protect the cats.   Advances:  Combined Federal Campaign Best of the CFCIn late November we conquered the web site issues that have made our site inaccessible to all browsers other than Internet Explorer resulting in a 33% increase in the number of pages viewed by the 2,510,255 visitors to our bigcatrescue.org site in 2007 and 1,147,174 visitors to our www.CatLaws.com site for a total of 3,657,429 online visitors in 2007.  Big Cat Rescue is increasingly listed in world wide publications as a “must see” in Tampa.  Began the permitting process for the wall we have been raising money to build for the past 4 years.   Big Cat Rescue has been accepted into the federal version of the Combined Federal Campaign. Where we could only be in the local books in years past, we will be in every book that goes out to government employees as a choice for their auto deduction giving. Not only were we accepted, but we were also awarded with the Best of the CFC seal. In the local market we receive upwards of $7,500.00 in donations, so we are hopeful that we will do even better by going national. We are extremely grateful for this opportunity and thank those of you who are participating   For the first time in our history, Big Cat Rescue offered a reward for information. When a tiger was found shot to death along side an apartment complex and busy highway in Dallas, TX on Christmas day, we announced a $5,000.00 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of the people involved. The police and animal control authorities told us that they cannot offer such bounties and that our doing so greatly enhanced their ability to pursue the case. See the video plea http://bigcatrescue.org/video/b42008/5000reward.htm   Animal Care:  Rescued four tigers left to die at the now defunct Savage Kingdom.  (TJ, Bella, Modnic & Trucha) Watch this dramatic rescue here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/b42008/savagekingdom.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued two lions (Joseph & Sasha) and two tigers (Nikita & Simba) from the now defunct Siberian Tiger Foundation which was nothing more than a thin guise for Pay to Play with tigers.  Read about that rescue and see the video here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/rescuelionsandtigers.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued four native bobcats in four weeks.  (Ace, Chance, Kennedy & Will)  Read about their rescue and what is being done to send them back to the wild here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/rehabbobcats2007.htm  Built & remodeled cat-a-tats for them.   Rescued a Savannah cat (Diablo) who was abandoned and living in an animal shelter that was not designed for long term care of exotic cats.  Assisted in the rescue of another Serval and Bobcat and another two Tigers, finding them permanent homes in facilities that meet the guidelines set out at  http://www.sanctuarystandards.com/   Vernon Stairs finished all of the new safety entrances to cages.  He built tunnels on the lions cages, Precious Bobcat and The Great Pretender Bobcat, and others to enable easy shifting and introductions.  Vern doubled the size of Jumanji the leopard's cage and added a cave and mountain.  He joined a number of cages to each other to provide more room for the cats to roam.  Catera Bobcat got to move in next to his mom and dad in a huge double sided enclosure.   Began renovations to Auroara the tiger's 1 acre, lakefront home to provide better drainage and a hurricane room.  Began work on a hurricane shelter for Nyla leopard after moving her next to her brother, Simba after years of them being separated.   Moved Bailey Bobcat in with Anasazi and Moses the Bobcats.   Moved Rose Caracal to a double cage and introduced her to Cachanga Caracal.  Moved the African Civets to Bailey's old cage after it was civet-ized.  Reintroduced Dances with Wolves and Shatia the Canada Lynxes.  Our cats are altered so that no accidental births will occur from these groupings.  Spayed Zabu the white tigress and Bella the tigress.  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00143.htm   Raked the entire park before freezing weather to try and kill fleas and eggs and may switch products again as efficacy is fading.  Refurbished all 18 pools and one of them twice thanks to TJ the tiger being an absolute maniac when it comes to chasing fish.   Every year the cats get pumpkins to smash after Halloween  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00062.htm, but this year they also got Christmas trees  http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00162.htm.   Staff and Volunteer Training:  In addition to our monthly, on site volunteer training courses, Tiffany Deavor took several online training courses, Scott Lope and Dr. Liz Wynn are scheduled for Safe Capture course, Sharyn Beach, Howard & Carole Baskin and Susan Mitchell attended D.C. conference on effective grass roots efforts.  Carole continues to take online courses and audio seminars to enhance her efficacy in legislation and leadership.  Fine tuned some of our training methods and tracking.   Education:  Joined the International Tiger Coalition with the mission of preserving 10,000 tigers in the wild in the next ten years.  More about that here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/internationaltigercoalition.htm   Assisted WNET and SeaStudios.org in ascertaining the number of big cats in the U.S. for their film about a world without humans.  As there is no government agency responsible for tracking these animals, it falls to anecdotal evidence that we have been compiling for many years.   The illegal portion of the 15 billion dollar trade in exotic pets is second only to the market for illegal drugs. In 2005, some 210 million wild animals were brought legally into the U.S. and many more were smuggled, because there are just 120 USFWS inspectors to cover 39 International airports and all of the border crossings. In just the legal importations, that means each inspector must view and approve the health of almost 15,000 animals per day, every day of the year.  Big Cat Rescue provided the photos and resources for an eBay guide to let buyers and sellers know that it is illegal to trade in many exotic cat furs.     We also provided this information to the World Wildlife Fund in Poland to enable them to train their border guards to recognize endangered cat species that are frequently smuggled through customs. Provided bobcat and Canada lynx photos and info for a scientific training / educational presentation on wildlife awareness for Environment Canada.   Cambridge University Press selected Carole Baskin's article on Cause Related Marketing for their Professional English in Use Series textbooks called Professional English in Use – Marketing.  It is a new addition to the Profession English in Use Series that is a self study reference book that will be used for classroom work and tutoring. Cambridge included Baskin in their 2008 Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women “Honors Edition.” as well.   We implemented our first Artificial Intelligence V-host on a page called Ask the Cat where you can type in any question and the virtual cat will answer you in an intelligent way:  http://bigcatrescue.org/askthecat.htm  All of our species information pages were recorded and now each page offers the visitor the opportunity to read and/or listen to the information.  This can be downloaded onto mP3 players as well.   Jamie Veronica's photos of cougars were requested by wildlife biologist Anna Huckabee Smith, AWB for use in her 5 year status report for USFWS and Wildlife Trends which will be covering the topic of captive cougars being turned loose when they are no longer wanted as pets.   We harnessed the powerful mapping technology available with google maps and posted online, interactive maps that show the accredited and non accredited facilities (mostly back yard pet owners) who keep dangerous big cats.  It took four maps to hold all of the information, but they can all be accessed online here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/map.htm  This was offered to the FWC as they had stated they would be releasing this data online soon, several months ago, and this saved them the time and effort.  It will be helpful to the media when tracking maulings, killings and escapes and to emergency response personnel in the event of natural disasters.  Until now, this information has not been immediately accessible to fire fighters, the police or animal services.   Visitors:  In 2007 Big Cat Rescue had 26,497 visitors for guided tours.  16,424 were adult tours that generated $409,587.03 which is up 2.62% from last year.  Our biggest leap was in our kids tours for families with children under the age of 10 and with 3,271 participants that was up 44.31% and generated $54,668.60.  All of our tours are guided and are educational.  Our Education Program also convenes camps, special field trips and such and those were attended by 4,969 and generated $66,309.71 which is an increase of 15.37%.  In keeping with our desire to give back to the community we provided 27 free field trips for Title One schools and others on a needs-based application.   Prices:  Because we were nearing  capacity at the end of 2006 we raised our prices considerably in 2007.  This slowed our growth sufficiently to keep the sanctuary a serene home for the cats but increased our bottom line.  Prices were raised from $20 to $25 for adults and from $12 to $15 for children under ten.  All of our specialty tours were raised to $50 from $25.  Our supporters understand that as word spreads about Big Cat Rescue being such a magical experience people have been flocking here, and that we had to raise the prices in order to keep the number of guests down to a reasonable roar.  The added benefit is that people who visit really are committed to the animals and we are not just another tourist attraction.   Legislation/Education:  Presented testimony, statistics and charts to the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commissioners in Destin, Key Largo and St. Petersburg, asking to ban contact with big cats and their babies and to allow counties to enact more restrictive rules to protect the animals and the public.  Presented testimony, statistics and charts many times to their staff at planning sessions before and after the Commission meetings.  Provided the same to the Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking.   Testified at a Congressional briefing about the need for Haley's Act, a bill to ban contact with big cats.  The International Fund for Animal Welfare liked the presentation materials so much that they asked permission to reproduce them for their own legislative use, which was, of course, granted.  Presented a slide show on using the secret, the law of attraction, to assist in lobbying efforts in the exhibit hall at the Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, DC.  There were 950 registrants and many more visitors throughout the two day exhibit.   Through our online video marketing we are educating more people in a week than we have visit the sanctuary in a year!  We are changing the way people think about animals and as a result they are acting more compassionately.  The recent outcry at Michael Vick's involvement in dog fighting shows that people care about animals more than ever before.  As wonderful as that is, however, it isn't enough.   Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Legislation can't change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.”  Knowing this to be the case, we are using our online marketing to change legislation too.   In December 2003 we had to turn away more than 300 unwanted big cats and every other year that number was doubling.  That same year a new law, that we helped pass, banned the sale of big cats as pets across state lines. The following year, for the first time ever, the number of abandoned big cats dropped to 160.  We decided, then and there, the only way to stop the suffering and abuse was through the creation of better laws that would ban the private ownership of lions, tigers and cougars as pets.  Thanks to the laws enacted below, the number of abandoned big cats in 2007 has dropped to 72.   By December of 2004 we launched a new section of our website www.CatLaws.com that would enable people to learn about pending bills and enable them to connect to their lawmakers to ask for laws that would protect our communities while ending the suffering and abuse of big cats.  We believed that if people knew what was happening and knew how to help that they would.   Directing the traffic to the legislative sections had to be more creative however, because by and large, people don't want to think about politics.  The cat's stories and their photographs had to be compelling enough to overcome this typical aversion to legal matters and we feel that we have had considerable success in doing that since we have been able to track 1,147,174 visitors to our legislative pages in 2007.  The combined number of visitors, between our main web site bigcatrescue.org and our legislative website, is now 10,020 visitors per day with an average of 4 pages viewed by each visitor or roughly 40,000 page views per day.  Our peak day in 2007 was March 15 with 55,184 page views.   The next step was to get a person to take action by composing a letter to their congressman and that is even harder yet, but we believe the numbers speak for themselves:  33,596 letters were successfully sent from the legislative site asking for better laws to protect the community and to end the suffering and abuse of big cats kept in backyards and basements.  The Legislative Action Center report shows a steady, quarterly increase.   The results are measurable in more than just statistics however.  In the past 2 years seven states banned the private possession and barter in big cats and the numbers we have to turn away continue to drop. The USDA has issued policy statements against the private ownership of big cats and against heretofore accepted practices such as walking a 500 pound cat on a leash in public and allowing people to pet big cats at fairs, malls, parking lots and schools.  Details on these here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/lawsbigcatbans.htm   USDI issued their new rules that went into effect in September 2007 that ban the transportation of big cats across state lines by non USDA entities.  They also defined a sanctuary as a place that provides a permanent home and does not breed, sell, trade nor allow public contact with the big cats.  Before now there was no definition of a sanctuary and many places that were adding to the problem were doing so under the guise of being sanctuaries.  The language used by USDI is practically verbatim from our web sites at bigcatrescue.org and SanctuaryStandards.com.  http://bigcatrescue.org/laws/lawscaptivewildanimalsafetyact.htm   In 2007 the Florida legislature unanimously agreed to impose a $10,000 bond on anyone in the state who exhibits big cats.  This bond is used as a surety in the case of injury to the public and can be used by the FWC to care for dangerous wild animals when they have been abandoned.  Big Cat Rescue had been a strong proponent of this bond and our supporters, via our CatLaws.com site had made their wishes known to their legislators.  On July 2 Governor Charlie Crist signed the bond requirement into law and the FWC drafted the rules to enforce the new law in 2007.   The Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission put together a task force to review their policies that still allow the breeding and selling of big cats in the state with only the addition of a $40.00 USDA permit.  Public opinion polls on our web site indicate that  76% of those polled would support a ban on all exotic animals as pets.  That same percentage also agrees that hunting should be outlawed.  Florida's Wildlife Conservation Commission is funded almost entirely by issuing hunting permits and permits to people to own exotic animals so the fact that they are reviewing their own policies in view of changing public opinion is certainly measurable  evidence of Big Cat Rescue's impact on this very serious situation.   The FWC staff announced that they are making recommendations to the Commissioners that include proposed rules:   1. Raise the classification of a cougar from a Class II pet to a Class I animal that may not be kept as a pet. 2. Prohibit contact between big cats and their babies in accordance with the new federal bill that is pending which would ban the practice. 3. Prohibit transport of big cats to flea markets, parking lots, etc. 4. Require that exhibitors have all of their animals on exhibit as there is a current issue of meeting the letter of the law by exhibiting one animal while warehousing dozens more in minimum size cages that would appall the public. 5. Require Class II owners to secure a $10,000.00 bond as is now required for Class I.   As mentioned above, there is a federal bill called Haley's Act HR 1947 that is gaining momentum in the U.S. House and is expected to pass this session.  This bill is being broadly marketed by Big Cat Rescue because it will ban contact between the public and big cats, including their babies.  Baby tigers and baby lions are bred to be used as photo props and for petting sessions and then are discarded when they get too big.  This bill would stop the unscrupulous breeding for this industry and ultimately would end the biggest cause of the over abundance of big cats in captivity.   Using the email targeting feature of the CatLaws.com site we were able to convince the Medieval Fair to not allow a shabby traveling circus to set up shop by having our supporters write Hunsader Farms, the owner of the property, and telling them how they feel about such abuse.  3,236 of our online supporters sent letters to the Chinese government urging them to ban the farming of captive tigers for their fur, bones and organs.  All of these advances have been made possible by getting our message out to the people who can make a difference.  See below how we got the message out.   Fundraising and Marketing:  We were in the press 85 times.  Howard Baskin was featured in the Nov. 5th issue of U.S. News & World Report for his charitable work with Big Cat Rescue. http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/aboutbcr/usnewsandworldreport.htm   Scott Lope was quoted in Newsweek about the escape of Tatiana the tiger from a zoo where she mauled three young men and killed a teenage boy. http://www.newsweek.com/id/82067/page/1   Awards:  In January of 2007 Big Cat Rescue was awarded the People's Choice Award by WEDU, our local PBS affiliate. We won again in Jan. 2008.  More than 80 charities competed in a 16 county radius for this award, but Big Cat Rescue took 31% of the vote.  Next year the contest is going national.  Won Parenting Magazine's Best of Tampa Bay Award.  In August Big Cat Rescue was Change.org's Pick of the Month.   TV:  Animal Planet show called Ms. Adventure aired our episode in March and Real Strange aired in Europe.  The first episode of “Big Cat Rescuers” ever aired on: April 11, 2007 cable channel 19 7:00 PM and April 15, 2007 cable channel 20 6:30 PM.  This one hour episode was created by our own Jamie Veronica, Brian Czarnik and Honey Wayton, and features several of our keepers, partners and of course, Scott Lope our manager. Our big cat expert Scott Lope was interviewed on the History Channel's MonsterQuest‘s search for the elusive big black cats that are frequently reported roaming wild all across the U.S.   Roar and Rolling:  Lindy Melendez with EGS Printing has generously donated a van “wrap” that is valued at $5000.  See the stunning artwork here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/images/EasySt/van/index.htm  The wrap was done with a lot of love from everyone at ESG Printing.   Memory Lane:  Our cemetery was transformed from a pitiful little hodgepodge of cage placards to a wall of memories created in stone and inlaid with marble headstones that feature a laser inscribed image of the cat, his or her date of birth and death and the sponsor of the plaque.  This was done as a fund raiser for the living cats and in its first year generated enough money to support a tiger for a year.  Thanks to Babs Riddle the grounds were luxuriously sculpted to include gardens, a shell path and benches where our volunteers can rest and reflect on the lives they have known who continue to inspire them.  Great marble lions that were donated to us now flank either side of the impressive entrance.  http://bigcatrescue.org/foreverremembered.htm   Google:  In today's fast paced environment we have to stay quick as a cat and be as entertaining as a basket full of kittens.  We have found mini videos, or podcasting, to be our most effective way of marketing our message.  On July 8, 2006 we launched our first video on google.  We now have 195 live videos playing and have had 183,514 viewers.  Our most popular video is an hour long film about all of the plights faced by exotic cats in the wild and in captivity and it has been played 51,357 times.  None of our tracking can tell how many times people play our videos on their iPods after downloading them.   YouTube:   (the fastest growing web site in the world) In August of 2006 we launched our YouTube account and have 72 of our videos playing that have been viewed 1,752,846 times.  We have 881 subscribers to our videos with more joining all the time and are the #2 Most Viewed (All Time) – Non Profit and #9 – Most Subscribed (All Time) – Non Profit.  In late December we launched two additional sites dedicated to our Educational Department and our Animal Communicator.   MySpace: myspace.com/1BigCatRescue In August of 2006 we launched our MySpace account and are one of the top ranked sites as we have 221,617,683 in our network who have visited our profile page 22,928 times and we have 4,276 subscribers to our videos there. MySpace has become such a popular portal that it now ranks in the top 10 list of referring sites that send visitors to our main website at bigcatrescue.org.  That ranks our own MySpace account just behind such powerful referrers as the google, yahoo and aol search engines.   VEOH:  In 2007 we began posting our videos to Veoh.com   We have 143 videos playing and these videos are getting thousands of plays each.  Veoh is the next generation in T. V. viewing.  Videos can be watched in low resolution for free, or for a fee can be downloaded in high resolution and watched on a television set or computer.  We post most of our videos as a free download, but post PSA's in high resolution so that the media can get b-roll from us instantly for less than the cost of mailing a disk.   We now film, edit and post 1-2 videos each week.  Our videos have been so popular that they have been picked up for use on Current TV and many online content providers.  In addition to our online video marketing we have been in the press 427 times and if you haven't heard of the Fur Ball, you don't watch TV, listen to the radio or read the papers.  We have been blessed with complimentary ads from all of the biggest media outlets such as Cox Radio, The Tampa Tribune, The Tampabay Business Journal, the Maddux Report and the St. Pete Times to market our biggest annual fundraiser each year.  We also have Public Service Announcements running on Brighthouse cable TV and nationally on Animal Planet.   Search Engine Ranking:  Our goal was to increase the number of web visitors by increasing our web site's visibility on the Internet.  The most dramatic breakthrough was in revamping the underlying html so that browsers other than IE could view the site.  The second more important feature was implementing navigation that enabled visitors to see every level of our 12,000+ file site.  Even though this was not accomplished until November the pages viewed increased 33% in 2007 when the even though the number of new visitors only increased by 12%.  For the first time in history we have risen to the top page of google's search page for the keyword “tigers” and are number 18 of more than 43,000,000 competing sites.  To see the ranking on our most important key words visit:  http://bigcatrescue.org/get_more_hits.htm   Party of the Year:  That's what a lot of people in the know call it.  The Fur Ball netted more than $120,000.00 with a sell out crowd of 700 people.  That's up $80,000.00 over last year!  See the entire recap including photos of Bo Derek and our colorful, cat themed guests here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000archives/2007FurBall.htm   Saving Wild Places for Wild Cats:  The Jaguar Trust.  Trapping is the furthest thing from our mission, except when it comes to camera traps for tracking and aiding wildlife. Our own Big Cat Rescue president Jamie Veronica went to Guyana, South America with a fellow volunteer on a mission for the sanctuary. Jamie and Justin Boorstein were in Guyana for ten days setting new digital camera traps with video to track Jaguars, Ocelots and Pumas. Our partner, Foster Parrots, tells us that with the recent import ban of all birds into Europe, Guyana now finds herself in a position to change the long practiced wildlife export industry there. Many trappers are finding that there are no markets for their “products”! Many of these trappers now find themselves unemployed and the government may start to look at the potential revenues of eco-tourism to fill the gap. If we can make a concerted effort with our conservation project we hope to serve as an example and to garner the support of Guyana to create the world's premier rainforest destination. Our plans include the promotion of our project here in the US and a marketing strategy to heighten the visibility of this important move in Guyana.   Visitors to Guyana will have a choice of tour itineraries ranging from an ambitious 3 and 4-day Kanuku Mountains hike that will bring them to the realm of the Harpy Eagle, to more leisurely tours that will encompass sightings of Red Bellied, Scarlet, Red and Green, Blue and Yellow Macaws, Giant Anteaters and a wide variety of primates.   Horseback and canoe excursions will let tour groups experience the wilds of Guyana at an intimate level.  Visitors can also travel to Kaeiteur Falls to witness one of the world's tallest single-drop waterfalls of 741 feet.   Construction on the first of two planned lodge complexes, located in Nappi Village, has been completed by the local tribes with funds from Foster Parrots and Big Cat Rescue. Contact SaveTheCats@bigcatrescue.org to spend your vacation dollars saving the wildcats in the rainforest.   Africa:  President Jamie Veronica and volunteer Barbara Stairs also toured Africa to see the issues first hand that have resulted in game parks being virtually the only lands left that house wild cats.  She will work with relatives there to check out sources for offering handmade products in our gift shop that could help preserve wildlife there as we currently do in the Jaguar Trust.  (Barbara Stairs funded this excursion)   Since 2005 Big Cat Rescue has provided both funds and volunteers to the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya .  Lewa relocates problematic wildlife to protected areas and provides education to children in the area who would not otherwise be able to read or write.  In addition to the funds that Big Cat Rescue donates, we also provide a U.S. market for Kenya ‘s craftsmen and send clothing with our volunteers to distribute when they visit.  Our volunteers take their skills and attitudes of compassion for all life into these barren regions and share a message of hope.   China, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Pakistan:  Every year since 1997 Big Cat Rescue has donated to the countries that are home to the Himalayan mountain range where the elusive snow leopard is found.  One whole corner of the gift shop explains how the sale of items made by the villagers helps save the snow leopard in the wild.  In 2006, Dr. Tom McCarthy, the Conservation Director for the Snow Leopard Trust, came to Big Cat Rescue to explain just how crucial each sale was to protect these exquisite cats.   The snow leopard lives in regions where the average person makes the equivalent of $1.00 per day.  Most of the people who share the same highlands with the snow leopard are herders and to them, the loss of one sheep or goat can mean the difference in their survival.  Most of the snow leopards that are killed are retribution killings; meaning that the cat has been blamed for killing one of the herd and the herdsman has killed the next snow leopard he saw.  The herdsman can eat the cat and sell the hide for 25.00 which for them is a month's wage.  There are many other middle men along the way who are anxious to get their hands on a snow leopard pelt or penis for the Asian medicinal trade or for the black market.   The pelt dramatically becomes more valuable as it goes down the line and can cost $5,000.00 or more to the final buyer.   The Snow Leopard Trust members in China, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Pakistan work closely with the local people to find out what they need.  In some cases, they can create handicrafts like those we sell and make five times what they can make from herding.   The programs are structured with reducing reliance on Snow Leopard Trust funds for each consecutive year and to remain in the program the community must ensure that no snow leopards are killed.  If anyone in the community kills a snow leopard, the entire community risks losing their right to participate in the program for a year and that is enough to keep everyone watching out for the snow leopard.  Their claims of protection must verified by the game wardens and governmental agencies who actually have incentives to discover poaching because they are often paid a portion of the confiscation if they can catch a poacher.     Big Cat Rescue is the second largest retailer for Snow Leopard Enterprises.   We collected fecal samples from our captive snow leopards for the Snow Leopard Trust to use in training dogs to be able to tell one wild snow leopard from another just by sniffing the scat left behind.  This will greatly enhance conservation efforts and is a cost effective method as well.  The video we produced is being aired on our sites, and also being used as a marketing tool for the new program and the Snow Leopard Trust.   The U.S. State Department enlisted our help in saving the critically endangered Amur Leopard because of our ability to reach so many people who care about wild cats and their habitat.  You can learn all about what is happening with the Amur Leopard & Tiger here:   http://bigcatrescue.org/cats/wild/leopard_save.htm. For more details on our International work visit:  http://bigcatrescue.org/000archives/2007AttachmentAInternational.htm   Other:  Big cat breeders, dealers, collectors and exploiters hate us because as we educate the public about the truth behind their abusive practices such as breeding white tigers, ligers or babies for photo booths their profiteering opportunities are drying up.  There is no justification for their activities so their only recourse has been to file a plethora of false complaints with authorities who regulate us and to make false accusations to anyone who will listen.  The only gain they could expect was to keep us busy proving ourselves so that we would be diverted from our mission of ending the abuses that result in so many unwanted big cats.  Now the regulators are on to them as we have proven time and again our integrity which is illustrated in our perfect inspection reports and our continued accreditation by The Global Federation of Sanctuaries and the Better Business Bureau.  Only one media outlet in 2007 repeated their slanderous accusations, but the article went on for many pages explaining that the reason such libelous statements are made is likely due to our success in exposing the activities that result in Florida having the highest incidents of maulings, killings and escapes by big cats.   Created pages devoted to the cats who have live and died in cages here with tributes from the keepers who loved them and who work ceaselessly for their freedom:  https://sites.google.com/site/bigcattributes/home  Thanks to the work of our AdvoCat LaWanna Jones we added hundreds of new e-Cards here:  http://www.bigcatfun.com/ecards/  and added hundreds of new online puzzles, new bookmarks and hundreds of new free online games here: http://bigcatrescue.org/game/games.htm.    Then and Now  Our CFO, Howard Baskin, compiled a ten year snapshot of the sanctuary and its growth.  This is just a comparison between 1996 and 2007.   Wildlife on Easy Street to Big Cat Rescue   1996            2006 Visitors                                                                              85                26,497 Total Expenses                                             $1,686,386           *$708,607.00 Total Income                                                                     $0           $1,236,237.00 Total Net Assets                                       $148,455.00           $2,419,227.00 Spent on Program Services                               100%            91% ** *funded by Founder        **4% spent on Management and 5% spent on Fundraising   Officers and Members of the Board of Directors in 2007 and meetings: • CEO and Founder  Carole Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • President and Chairman of the Board Jamie Veronica • Vice President & BOD Cathy Neumann (not compensated by BCR) • Secretary Jen Ruszczyk (not compensated by BCR) • Treasurer Howard Baskin (not compensated by BCR) • Director Dr. Liz Wynn, DVM  (not compensated by BCR for her role as a Director)   Paid Staff:  We went from 3 paid staff to 7 and now provide worker's comp insurance.  We still can offer no other benefits than the peace of mind in knowing their work is changing the world. • Operations Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Scott Lope $35,000.00 incl. bonuses • Staff Manager, Editor & Creative Director Jamie Veronica $24,700.00 (compensated but not for her work as a member of the board) • Social Science Director Brian Czarnik $18,400.00 (leaving for Chicago early 2008) • Gift Shop & Guest Services Bridget Czarnik $18,400.00 (leaving for Chicago early 2008) • Gift Shop & Guest Services  Honey Wayton $22,800.00 • Intern Director & Lead AdvoCat Tiffany Deavor $25,000.00 • Education Directors Dr. Beth Kamhi & Coleen Kremer $14,000.00 combined • Vernon Stairs Cage Builder and Maintenance $35,600.00 All of our animal care is done by volunteers or by staff who also volunteer time before & after work.   Volunteers:  Big Cat Rescue had 107 volunteers in 2007 who clocked in 57,302 man-power hours in addition to staff and Volunteer Committee member hours.  Roughly the equivalent workforce of 27 more full time staff.  Created the S.A.V.E. award for Scratch's Award 4 Volunteer Excellence.  The recipients were January – Julie Hanan, February – Cathy Monroe, March – Tiffany Deavor, April – Glen Yancey, May – Kym Marszal, June – Merrill Kramer, July – Barbara Frank, August – Marie Schoubert, September – Edith Parker, October – Babs Riddle, November – Anne Canterbury and December – Angie Gabor (the first Red Shirt to ever win)  Winners of the S.A.V.E. award are allowed to direct $500.00 to the cat project of their choice.  Created pages devoted to our dedicated volunteers at:  http://bigcatrescue.org/hero/000hero.htm and our 2007 Volunteer of the Year is Barbara Frank.   I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/   I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.     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.

Vanessa Puerta, Head of Operations, talks about 10 year celebration GFCC The Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, free upcoming "Frame The Future" online global event: innovation, partnership, resilience, inclusiveness, sustainability www.thegfcc.org www.linkedin.com/in/vanessapuerta

It’s been 12 months, but did you watch Tiger King on Netflix? We’re going to talk about Animal Rights and Captive Animal Law Enforcement with Brittany Peet, PETA Foundation’s Deputy General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement from PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-peet-84763b1b/https://www.peta.org/Calls:book suggestion: A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement by Ernest Freebergowning a deer in Mississippi?Zoos that meet Global Federation of Animal Sanctuary standards or Association of Zoos and Aquariumscan't own a while tailed deer but can own a red in MSPETA rescue practices https://www.peta.org/about-peta/learn-about-peta/helping-animals-in-hampton-roads/email about chaining dogsDiscussed:what is a captive animalTiger King series Animal Welfare ActEndangered Speicies actIditarod See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bobbi Brink is the Founder and Director of Lions Tigers & Bears, a globally accredited big cat and exotic animal sanctuary in Alpine, California. Bobbi has been working with and advocating for captive big cats, bears and other exotic animals since the early 90s, after witnessing firsthand the abuses and neglect inflicted on captive animals victimized by the exotic animal trade. Bobbi has made it her personal life's mission to end the abuses that stem from this heinous industry, one animal at a time. Bobbi plays an active role in managing all aspects of Lions Tigers & Bears' daily operations, from daily feedings to resource development and office management. She is a prolific fundraiser and tireless advocate for abused and displaced big cats, bears and other exotic animals. Bobbi has worked across the country to coordinate the rescue and relocation of hundreds of big cats, bears and exotic animals - providing them an opportunity to live out their lives at reputable sanctuaries, including Lions Tigers & Bears. Bobbi has testified before Congress, helping to advocate for legislation that would regulate the trade of these animals at both the state and national level. She is also very active in national-level advocacy groups and committees, including the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance and the Bear Alliance. Under Bobbi's leadership, Lions Tigers & Bears has positioned itself as a model sanctuary for the care of big cats and bears. The sanctuary is one of very few sanctuaries in the United States with the highest level of accreditation from the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and the American Sanctuary Association. Both she and Lions Tigers & Bears have won multiple awards and recognition for leadership and public service, including the Carol Noon Award for Sanctuary Excellence by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, and numerous accolades from the local Chambers of Commerce, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and the California State Assembly. Presented by Attorney King Studios with Coexist on IQ Podcasts. https://www.lionstigersandbears.org

Episode 7507 - PT V - The Road to a Global Federation Pastor John Torell www.eaec.org Recorded 7-13-2020 on OMEGAMAN omegamanradio.com

Episode 7507 - PT V - The Road to a Global Federation Pastor John Torell www.eaec.org Recorded 7-13-2020 on OMEGAMAN omegamanradio.com

Carolina Tiger Rescue is the only federally accredited and Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries accredited in North Carolina. They are currently home to 50 animals including 17 tigers. Many of their animals have come from private owners when they became too dangerous, roadside zoos, or failing facilities. One of their tigers, Rajah, was found on the road outside of Charlotte, NC when he was 6 months old with another cub, back in 2005. He is just one of their many incredible and unbelievable animals they have rescued.

In this episode, Kathy and Valerie discuss: The many species of animals cared for by accredited sanctuaries around the country GFAS’ role as the sanctuary movement’s “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” The process used by GFAS to give “two thumbs up” to the country’s best sanctuaries Signs that indicate a sanctuary might be in trouble GFAS plans to foster collaboration between sanctuaries Key Takeaways: Scores of wonderful sanctuaries are dotted around the country, but even the best need support It’s far too easy to become a sanctuary; 50% of sanctuaries fail in the first 3 years   There are important distinctions between “true” sanctuaries and others that Valerie labels “illegitimate”   This show is brought to you by Catskill Animal Sanctuary

Dr Thando Sibanda is a Professional Speaker, author and Interventionist. A trained expert in personal and professional development; he offers keynotes, strategic Interventions and workshops to corporate audiences. Dr Thando’s value add to organisations is to develop their most prized resource – People.As Africa’s Premier Mindset expert, Dr Thando is a Mastercoach certified through the Lets liveCoaching Institute and is affiliated with the GLOBAL Federation for Spiritual Mentors and Coaching Professionals (GFSMCP), Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA) as well as the Federation for Neuro Linguistic Programming Coaching Professionals (NLPCP). He is also a qualified leadership Coach certified by the John Maxwell Company, Africa. Dr Thando holds a PHD in Leadership and Management and currently heads up Ideal Traits PTY LTD, an international people development company.SubscribeApple | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeartResourceDr Thando Sibanda – Check out his website to grab a copy of Dr Thando Sibanda’s book, The Winning Mindset!The Power of Your Print - There are 7.3 Billion people on the planet today. What makes others stand out and others fail? It’s their ability to make an impression in their sphere of influence. Everyone is born with a blue print, fingerprint, thumbprint and footprint. These prints carry your purpose, significance, value proposition and influence. In the Power of your print intervention, Dr Thando deconstructs the 4 major prints of your life to unleash unlimited potential in both personal and business context. The progressive life axis in summery below:)* 0-20 The struggle phase (trying to find yourself, who you really are...)* 20-40 Discovery phase/find yourself (add value, to who you are...)* 40-60 Significance phase (gift in demand, places significance...)* 60-80 Legacy phase (building other guys who will run the race you have run, but run it much better...)3 Value Seeds1) A healthy Church exists as a result of healthy people. Not just healthy is terms of physical health, but holistically.2) Some people in their lives don't need prayer, but need a strategy for life. It of very interesting that organizations have strategies on how they can be effective, yet human beings don't have strategies for themselves. 3) Most people define who they are based on their profession, not so much so about who they are. When your gift is placed under demand it creates significance.Enjoy your journey with God!Nkosinathi I. Maibuko | Nomsa Wabanie-MazibukoFounders | www.journeywgod.comEmail | info@journeywgod.comSupport the show (https://www.journeywgod.com/podcast)

Food assurance labels come in all sorts of forms, appearing on all sorts of ingredients available from shops across the UK. Their logos promise certified standards in a range of production attributes - from environmental impact to animal welfare to safety to chemical usage. But how well are these schemes understood? What does the general public really want to be assured about? How much impact can assurance labels have, in a world where we're eating more and more processed food? And what could such schemes contribute to a post-Brexit UK food system? Sheila Dillon is joined by an expert panel to discuss some of the questions around food assurance labels: Dr Siobhan Mullan, a Senior Research Fellow in Farm Animal Science at the University of Bristol Veterinary School, who's currently helping to develop a new food standard, the Global Federation of Higher Animal Welfare Assurance; Erik Millstone, a Professor of Science Policy at the University of Sussex, whose work focuses on how we structure our food system; and Phil Brooke the Research and Education Manager at the animal welfare lobbying organisation Compassion in World Farming - which has an ongoing 'Honest Labelling' campaign. Presenter: Sheila Dillon Producer: Lucy Taylor

"As we say here in Boston... plant-based diets are wicked healthy and are healthier than omnivorous and carnivorous diets." On this week's episode of the Eat Green Make Green Podcast, I sit down with the extraordinary Allan Kornberg, MD, MBA.  Allan has a very impressive life resume as a physician and health care executive, and currently serves as Chair of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries which provides funds, support, and accreditation to animal sanctuaries around the world.  He is also Chair of the Animal Defense Partnership which provides pro bono legal work for animal protection agencies.  We talk about Allan's journey from a meat-eating Brooklyn kid to a vegetarian and ultimately a vegan, the enormous health benefits of a plant-based diet, why the notion that we need cow's milk and protein from animal products to be healthy is simply wrong, the lack of nutrition education given to doctors, the future of food and medicine, and Allan's future plans of a non-profit focused on plant-based diets for children, and much more.  Allan is an amazing guy and possesses a very approachable combination of both optimism and pragmatism. This is an outstanding episode loaded with valuable insights! Show Notes Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries Site:   https://www.sanctuaryfederation.org/ Animal Defense Partnership Site:  https://www.animaldefensepartnership.org/ Allan's LinkedIn Account:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-kornberg-ba4ba85/

In this episode Marty interviews “Little Tony” Pecenski, 3rd degree BJJ black belt and Co-founder of the Jiu Jitsu Global Federation (JJGF)

On the 28th Cat Chat Show, Carole Baskin, the Founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue interviews Patty Finch, the Executive Director of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) as they discuss Patty's love of birds and the benefits of being accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.  More at SanctuaryFederation.org Video here:  http://youtu.be/5BW7rVj2m4g Show Notes here:  http://bigcatrescue.org/cat-chat-28/

In 1787 a group of 12 men, met in a Quaker bookstore in London. Nine were members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and three were Anglicans. These men were determined to abolish the slave trade and through their diligence and dedication the British Parliament passed a law in 1792 banning the slave trade. In 2003, 39 Quakers met in Wallingford Pennsylvania to consider the moral challenge posed by the global economic system and the heedless destruction of the Earth's ecosystems and failing to serve the well being of hundreds of millions of people. Listen to a compelling story of a New Vision of the Earth, looking at a Global Federation that will emerge from the grass roots up, and will draw on the aspirations of all of humanity. Based on "Right Relationship" the "Commonwealth" that is life, on "Fairness" and why Ecology needs to in many ways, set the boundaries for the Economy. Hear of many interesting and staggering insights to what has gone on and what inspiring things are been put into motion. Dr Robert Howell, CEO of the Council of Socially Responsible Investment in NZ. On Right Relationship, Building A Whole Earth Economy. A bold Quaker initiative for a Just and Flourishing Earth. www.moraleconomy.org You can purchase the book Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy from Fishpond in New Zealand.