“Tiger King” star Carol Baskin announced Monday she is selling Big Cat Rescue and moving the cats to a wildlife refuge in Arkansas, according to a memo.
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge will be the new home for all of the small cat enclosures, both of the medium size cat enclosures, and seven of the 15 big cat enclosures, Howard Baskin announced in a memo on Big Cat Rescue’s website. Baskin cited overhead costs and age being reasons for selling and transporting the cats.
“The plan is to help fund the building of enclosures there and move most of our cats there. We will then provide financial support for the care of our cats there at lower cost than if we kept them here,” Big Cat Rescue wrote on Facebook.
“The threats to many species of big cat in the wild are not off in the distant future. They are very real right now. Once we have no cats at the sanctuary, we will sell the sanctuary property and use the proceeds to fund these species-saving projects in the wild,” Howard Baskin wrote in the memo.
The Baskins were heavily involved in the Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA), which passed at the end of 2022. The bill ends cub petting. Big Cat Rescue focused a lot of resources on passing the BCPSA, and not as much on taking in new cats. As a result, the organization writes that it makes more sense to transport the cats to the Arkansas sanctuary, where funds will be used more efficiently. (RELATED: REPORT: ‘Tiger King’ Star May Have Cancer And Is Refusing Treatment)
Big Cat Rescue rose to fame through Netflix’s hit docuseries “Tiger King.” “Tiger King” debuted on March 20, 2020, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and had over 34 million viewers in the first 10 days, according to Variety.
The main star, Joe Exotic, is in federal prison after being convicted of attempting to hire two different men to kill Baskin, according to Fox10. Most recently, Exotic made news after announcing his run for 2024 president while in prison.
Big Cat Rescue did not immediately respond to Daily Caller’s request for comment.