‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin is closing Big Cat Rescue

Tiger King star Carole Baskin is closing down her Big Cat Rescue sanctuary and transporting its wildlife to Arkansas.

• READ MORE: Tiger King 2 review: even more mullets, mayhem and madness than before

The closure was announced in a memo, written by Carole’s husband Howard Baskin and posted on the sanctuary’s website last week (March 27). The couple have also vowed to donate funds to the new sanctuary named Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, in which the wildlife are now headed.

“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,” read the statement.

“[Once the cats are moved,] we will sell the sanctuary property and use the proceeds to fund these species-saving projects in the wild.”

Baskin further explained the closure by referencing the Big Cat Public Safety Act, or BCPSA – a federal law signed last year that prohibits private ownership of big cats including lions, tigers, cougars, cheetahs, leopards or any hybrid breeds.

According to the statement, it was the high costs of maintaining the enclosure that led the couple to sell. “When we had 100 cats, that $1.5m in overhead was $15,000 per cat,” it explained. “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 chosen sanctuary in Arkansas is said to span across 450 acres, and is located in an area where it is still possible to expand beyond that.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge has also announced the partnership on its Facebook page, and confirmed that it will be taking in 35 cats from Big Cat Rescue as part of its “expansion plan”. This aims to build “a sustainable future for animals rescue” and prevent any of the aforementioned species from facing extinction.

Carole Baskin and her wildlife sanctuary both received global attention after being featured in the hit Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. The docu-series put a spotlight on the world of illegal wildlife traders and documented the feud between Baskin and former zookeeper, Joe Exotic.

The latter is currently serving time in prison, after being accused of hiring two men to assassinate Baskin. He was also convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records – in 2022, he was re-sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Last month, it was announced that Exotic will be attempting to run for President in 2024. An online campaign was launched following the announcement, with him stating that he wants “to finally give you a voice and your freedom back without fear of living in a country that thinks they own you”.

In the series, Exotic was openly critical of both Baskin and Big Cat Rescue – labelling the sanctuary as being unkempt and inhumane and accusing Baskin of using the location as a way to make profit from tourists.

Elsewhere, back in 2021, Baskin claimed that Homeland Security had found her ex-husband Don Lewis “alive and well” in Costa Rica. Lewis went missing six years after the couple married in 1991, and was legally declared dead in 2002.

In the docu-series, Exotic, amid others, accused Baskin of murdering her ex-partner, and feeding him to the wildlife.

Addressing the claims in an interview, she said: “I think maybe they should check with Homeland Security, who seem to know where he is.”

In a review of the second instalment of the Tiger King series – Tiger King 2 – NME described the docu-series as “somehow, more insane than anything you saw the first time around”.

The post ‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin is closing Big Cat Rescue appeared first on NME.