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

nme.com:

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