Thank you for caring enough about the lioness, Dane to share her story. It is sad to lose a big cat.
I noticed that you referred to Kay Rosaire's circus as the Big Cat Rescue and that is probably because she used the name to describe herself, but our name is copy right protected to keep bad places from profiting from our good name. I have been in the big cat world for 15 years and have never heard of Kay doing a real rescue. She breeds and trades with her other breeder friends and may call some of those trades rescues, but if you are just enabling people to continue behaving badly, you aren't a part of the solution. We frequently get complaints about her Big Cat Habitat which, again was renamed, I believe, to mimic our name and try to confuse visitors. It works and then they contact me, all outraged at the tiny enclosures, dirty water, etc. that they saw in Sarasota and I have to keep explaining that we are only in Tampa, and not affiliated with Kay at all.
I was at a USDA sponsored symposium on big cat care where they asked Rosaire to teach a class on how to manage big cats. She said, "you poke 'em real hard with a pitchfork a time or two and show 'em who's boss." I knew then that USDA had no business being in charge of enforcing the Animal Welfare Act. People like her lie to the public and say they are rescuing animals when the fact is the animals are supporting them. If you choose to do a deeper investigation into what it is like for these great cats to be shipped all over the world in boxes so they can be exploited for photo ops you will find much more about Kay and Clay here:
To find out more about our past and who we are today:
http://bigcatrescue.org/historyandevolution.htm
The questions I would really like to see exposed are the following:
Why is is that "sanctuaries" and those who profess to "love" the big cats are so violently opposed to legislation that would end the private trade in them as pets and collectibles? My goal is that places like Big Cat Rescue no longer need to exist and my path to that goal is by asking for legislation that bans the breeding, sale, trade and collecting of these great cats. As a result, I may be the most hated person in the big cat "industry" and yet most of the people who spend so much time trying to discredit me with their lies and insinuations claim to be in the rescue and sanctuary business. Why isn't ending the abuse the most important goal of those who claim to be saving big cats from abuse?
Why are big cats being born in sanctuaries when there isn't enough sanctuary space for all of the unwanted big cats?
—
For the cats,
Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
an Educational Sanctuary home
to more than 100 big cats
12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL 33625
813.493.4564 fax 885.4457
http://www.BigCatRescue.org MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org
Sign our petition to protect tigers from being farmed here:
http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=9952801&type=CU
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