Letter to Jamie Pickup at the BBC
Dear Jamie Pickup at the BBC, Here are some more links and issues that you may want to consider for your documentary. We have hundreds of hours of video that we can share with you and you are welcome to visit and film. We do not charge for our participation when it is a well known group who could actually help us end the trade in cats.
I was on CNN's Headline News Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell this past Friday about Tony the Truck Stop Tiger we have been trying to rescue. http://www.bigcatrescue.org/FreeTony.htm
As we discussed, Karl Mitchell, who is in Fatal Attractions, playing with a tiger and in the news having guests play with tigers, was sent to jail on a bad check charge. That was the only way the animal abuse ended there for a time. Shaquille the black leopard and Dara the cougar were rescued by us prior to his conviction and he had told my husband that the crushed skulls they suffered from was because he had to beat them with a bat to make them perform.
Here are the links to the info on the Robert Baudy, Savage Kingdom cats we rescued where one man was killed, another lost his leg and a teenager was mauled by an escaped cougar before USDA revoked his license. FL law is so lax that they never did revoke his state license. We rescued the last four tigers who had been abandoned at the facility. Their names were Modnic, TJ, Bella and Trucha, but Trucha has since died from mammary cancer, which is likely from the incessant breeding done at these tiger mills in order to produce cubs that can be used as Karl Mitchell, Joe Schreibvogel, "Doc" Antle, Kathy Stearms, Vernon Yates, Larry Wallach and others do to support themselves.
Robert Baudy's autobiography http://www.amazon.com/Baudy-Animal-Man-Biography-Robert/dp/1568250339
Siberian Tiger Rescue / Diana McCourt: This made 20/20 because 6 people had been injured at Diana's tiger training camp before she lost her USDA license. OH had no permit restrictions until this year on big cats, so she just kept on operating sans the USDA license and no one did anything to stop her. It wasn't until she was evicted for non payment of rent that the county was able to seize the cats and release them to us.
Black Leopard from Karl Mitchell: Shaquile's Story: If you don’t jump through hoops at work,
does your boss smack you in the face with a baseball bat?
Think your job is stressful? Shaquille had to jump through flaming hoops, as part of a Las Vegas night club act. And when he didn’t perform as well as expected, his boss beat him bloody with a baseball bat.
As a result, this 150 lb. black leopard bears lots of scars. His face was so badly beaten that his eye sockets were permanently shattered, causing the eyelids to roll in. His eyes will always tear as a sorrowful reminder of the abuse he endured. Perhaps they are also tears for all those other animals who are still made to perform for man’s entertainment.
Big Cat Rescue may have saved Shaquille from further pain, but this majestic black leopard will always carry physical and emotional wounds. For years he would leap at the cage and hang there snarling whenever a man came into view for fear of being tortured again. Over time, however, he has become much more comfortable with his surroundings. Now Shaquille lounges the day away and enjoys room service provided by loving care takers at the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary. With his new found care and trust, men don’t even draw so much as a second glance from him any more.
Dara the cougar, also from Karl Mitchell, died from a brain infection caused by the massive trauma to her head. When I complained to USDA about the condition of these cats upon arrival, they said that their standards on training did not preclude beating the cats with a bat. I later got in hot water with USDA when I went on national television back in 1998? about Tiger's Eye Productions owner beating his cats with sticks. I said USDA wasn't doing their job. They said there was nothing wrong with beating cats with sticks. They slapped me with a bogus lawsuit, but I was able to get the court to throw it out.
This is the link to the story about the cougars we just rescued yesterday where the man had been killed by his pet lion in 2004 and the wife committed suicide last week abandoning these elderly cougars. Her sister said she had a bobcat, a couple more cougars, some wolves and other animals, but she didn't know what had happened to them. We couldn't find them anywhere. http://www.bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2010cougarrescue.htm
We have 116 big cats here and enough sad, but true stories to fill your program needs. We are the #7 Most Viewed Non Profit on YouTube because of all of the excellent HD footage we post of our cats, their rescues and their lives at Big Cat Rescue here: http://www.youtube.com/user/BigCatRescue We are happy to share this in order to let the world know that there is no good reason to keep big cats in cages. For the cats, Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
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.
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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.