FWC Witch Hunt

Public Records Request :: W031112-092915. Lt Loren Lowers called me just now and said the reason the cost is so high ($10,153.35) is that there are 1,142 emails and over 12,000 trackers with my search terms in it during that year and a half span.

Trackers are what they call each interaction on a subject.

He said they have to redact everything that is sensitive information, so that's why the fee is so high. He says they can only charge based upon the hourly rate of the lowest paid person in the agency, which is 10.00 an hour.

I'm inclined to make them do it, just so they think twice before discussing us again.

Clearly, they don't want us to have the information.

I asked him how the bad guys managed to get their hands on the "wrong" version of their witch hunt (I didn't call it that) and he said that it was on their sharepoint as both the original and the corrected version so when someone asked for that report specifically, they got both. He further explained that because they got it by email, there are now 4 copies of it that would come up in a search. 2 copies of the original and 2 copies of the corrected one.

Future Note: 12/16/2021

It occurs to me as I’m reading this that I never wrote about what it was the bad guys got their hands on from 11/7/2014. This was our rebuttal to the FWC and they corrected their report to accurately report that we were NOT in violation despite them having characterized us as being so in their first report. I would also like to point out that the FWC has figured out who the bad guys really are and has stopped harassing us on their behalf.

“The exotic animal exploiters who attack Big Cat Rescue online due to our efforts to end the mistreatment of exotic animals in private hands have posted an inspection by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) conducted on November 7, 2014. This was a very unusual inspection in which three officials went in different directions and spent 6 hours each examining the sanctuary in extraordinary detail.

The version of the report the attackers have reported was the initial report which erroneously characterized their observations as violations. The final report, which the attackers also have but of course chose not to publish, clearly stated that none of the findings were violations. They were recommendations for maintenance which, if they were not attended to, at some point could become violations. See the final language below:

The recommendations were primarily items that are dealt with in our normal ongoing maintenance of the sanctuary. All were addressed in a timely fashion. A USDA inspection, as usual, no violations, and the next FWC inspection, as usual, found no violations. Big Cat Rescue has a near perfect inspection record over the years and never had any comment by any official that related to care of the animals.

The report noted some areas that showed signs of rust. We live in humid Florida, and some rust is a fact of life. We deter rust using brown Rustoleum paint and we repaint cages on an ongoing regular maintenance program.

The attackers, who have no regard at all for the truth, falsely post repeatedly that the brown color of the Rustoleum on the cage wire is all rust. One refers to BCR as a “jungle of rust.” If all the cages were totally rust like the lies of the attackers claim, don’t you think FWC would have noted that?

Rust is, in fact, not a violation of any rule. The relevant rule is that the cages must meet certain strength requirements. This makes perfect sense – the cages have to be strong enough to contain powerful animals. The concern with rust is that if you use the minimum gauge wire and it rusts, the strength could diminish below the minimum requirement. That is why Big Cat Rescue uses cage wire that is FAR in excess of the minimum. Even with minimal amount of rust that may appear before the next painting cycle, our cages far exceed the required strength.

One of the inspectors commented that he was not an engineer and had no way to know if some rust brought the wire down below the strength standard. So we assisted FWC to remove any uncertainty by having an engineer test one of our older cages that is right by the lake so is most exposed to moisture and had been through repeated cycles of having any rust scraped off and being repainted. The engineer pulled on the cage with a bobcat machine with a tension gauge connected to the chain that the bobcat pulled. As you can see in the video below, the cage far exceeded the required strength.

The individual who posted the erroneous initial report had in his possession the final report stating there were no violations. But, of course, he knowingly posted the incorrect initial report and falsely claimed there were dozens of violations. Then others in the small band of animal exploiters who constantly attack Big Cat Rescue picked up the same false information.

Big Cat Rescue is the leader in working to end the private ownership of big cats by individuals and road side zoos. The animal abusers and exploiters have no arguments to justify their selfish mistreatment of animals. So their only recourse is to try to discredit Big Cat Rescue, and the only way they can do that with lies. Posting the incorrect version of the FWC report and falsely claiming it contained violations is just one more of their lies.”

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.

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You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

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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.