Carole Baskin’s animal sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue, is closing its doors after 30 years.
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The animal sanctuary has been in operation since 1992 and is home to more than 50 big cats including tigers, lions, bobcats, and cougars. However, the ‘Tiger King’ star’s husband, Howard Baskin, confirmed the news in a statement last week, and said they will donate funds to a new sanctuary named Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. Once the animals are relocated, the couple plans to sell the sanctuary property in Florida and use the funds to support the rescued animals care as reported by NME.
“Big Cat Rescue has entered into an agreement with Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, an accredited sanctuary in Arkansas, to move most of Big Cat Rescue’s cats to Turpentine Creek where we will continue to fund their care for the rest of their lives. We will sell the sanctuary property and use the proceeds to fund these species-saving projects in the wild.”
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Baskin also noted that the Big Cat Public Safety Act contributed to the closure and the high costs of maintaining BCR.
“Operating a sanctuary involves a significant fixed overhead expense. Even with the skeleton staff we have operated with since COVID forced us to reduce staff by 50%, the overhead runs over $1.5 million per year. A large part of that overhead is made up of non-payroll. These are expenses like grounds maintenance, building maintenance, electricity for all the buildings and wells and tiger pool pumps, phones, insurances, technology updates, and equipment maintenance, to name a few. About the only expense that is “variable,” i.e., declines as the number of cats declines, is food. Medical expenses do not necessarily decline because they increase as the population ages. Payroll does not decline because most of the cat care is done by our volunteers.
When we had 100 cats, that $1.5 million in overhead was $15,000 per cat. At 41 cats, it is over $36,000 per cat. As the population declines, it becomes an increasingly inefficient use of donor funds per cat to operate a facility like ours.”
The collaboration was also confirmed by Turpentine Creek Wildlife in a Facebook post and said they will be taking in 35 cats to build a “sustainable future for animal rescue.”
Recently, Carole Baskin said her ex-husband Don Lewis is reportedly “alive and well” after much speculation that she was involved in his disappearance in Costa Rica despite him being declared legally dead in 2002. Baskin’s rival, Joe Exotic, accused her of murdering Lewis and feeding him to her big cats.,
“And for everyone who still wants to believe that Carole killed Don, then please explain to us why you think armchair detectives, or you are better informed than the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI in this Homeland Security Document which says ‘Don Lewis is currently alive and well in Costa Rica.“