Horses are just about as dangerous, killing about 209 people each year in the U.S. Please, let’s confront this issue. Even if animal rights advocates intended to be fair in this, it would still be wrong to ban people from keeping horses or tigers. Our freedoms are worth a lot of risk. This kind of thing teaches that our freedoms are worth taking no risks for.

Lia, how is reptile, cat or primate kept by a trained, licensed, reponsible owner in a safe FWC approved cage or enclosure any more dangerous to a neighbor than the neighbor’s dog is to them? Look at the statistics. For instance….

17-20 people a year (mostly children) die from dog bites.
0 people a year die from an encounter with a primate.

When someone is injured by an exotic it is always the owner or handler or someone who has made the choice to GO TO the facility where the animal is housed. If you are fearful of exotic animals it is very simple….do not go to where they are housed and you will not be hurt. There has NEVER been a case of an ESCAPED exotic killing someone.

If you love animals, please educate yourself to the facts before you make fearful statements like those of the animal rights people. This site has lots of TRUTHFUL information and statistics…..http://www.rexano.org/

Remember, dogs… even horses….cause more injuries than exotics. Support a ban on our freedom to own a big cat or primate and eventually you will be fighting to keep the animal of YOUR choice.

I agree with Zuzana to kill bills and the reasons she stated. I also believe for every bill like this passed Americans are losing their freedom. I believe I have a right to own an exotic animal as long as I take care of it properly and it is not a threat to the neighbors. But unless everyone bans together we will lose one freedom after another till you won’t even be able to own a domestic cat or dog. That is exactly where the AR groups are going with all this. If there’s a group in Florida I’ll join it.

I agree HOWEVER tigers-Venemous reptiles ,primates,etc are a BIG danger to your neighbors . If the animals isnt a danger than by all means have it.

Its none of my business if my neighbor has what she wants just dont keep anything that if it escapes puts anyone in danger. So I agree with you but thats not what she wants she wants ALL animals allowed by the sound of it.
AR is a radical group with a distorted PETA like agenda but on the other hand keeping what you want is absurd.

These bills/laws are weak EVERY venemous reptile/invert should be banned-big constrictors-big lizards and most exotic mammals who can transmit diseases or wound/kill if escape .

Its unreal that anyone with a family would even consider such “pets” . Goes to show how much they “love” their kids and respect their neighbors .

Carole is a private owner who wants the business to herself.

Patricia, what you may not know is that Carole’s ‘Evolution of Thought’ (as she originally called this piece) appeared only after her fraud was exposed by Bay News 9. This was necessary to explain away why Carole stated that cats were ‘born into the pet trade’ when they were actually bred and born at BCR. The website was copied before these changes were made as proof of the changes, and these CMA (cover my ass ) changes continue, some even posted today after reading some of these comments.

When the Bay News 9 expose’ aired Carole rushed to change her web site in an attempt to cover up her guilt. Where her home page used to state that she was a ‘home for abused and abandoned cats” It next stated only that she was a ‘retirement home” for cats. What happened to the abused and abandoned cats? Could it be that they never existed?

Where her web site stated that a cat was ‘born into the pet trade’ Carole rushed to add her “Evolution of Thought’ explaining that she used to be the pet trade, before her thoughts ‘evolved.’ A large number of the cats listed on her website as ‘rescues’ were actually bought for her stated desire to own and commercially exhibit the largest collection of exotic cats in the world. Nowhere does she admit this of course but she finally did admit that “a small fraction” (about one quarter) of her cats were actually bred and born there. One has to wonder why Carole doesn’t simply say that these cats were bred and born at Big Cat Rescue instead of counting on people to click on a link for her new ‘explanation’. My guess is that she would then look like she was trying to hide this fact….which she was….and is.

Many cats were purchased at exotic animal auctions where Carole originally claimed she ‘paid their ransom’ to ‘rescue’ them. Her post expose’ version of this story is that she bought them from auctions because she saw owners bottle feeding them curdled milk (this would ‘explain’ why most purchased were just babies) or because she saw taxidermists clubbing them to death in the parking lot (in front of Carole mind you) before taking them home to mount them.

This is Carole’s most ridiculous cover-up to date. Talk to a taxidermist. You don’t mount a cat that has had it’s face and fur destroyed by a club, and milk always looks curdled when you add the baby cereal. Look for this story and others to change now, if they haven’t already; or at least get a new ‘explanation.’ The truth is, these cats were bought to be re-sold for a profit, bred, or kept by Carole for her collection, and the paperwork supports this.

Still other cats said to have been ‘rescued from fur farms’ were cubs bought to be sold as pets or breeders. If they were ‘rescued’, where are they now? For the first time (since the expose’) Carole’s web site now admits that these animals were indeed bought with the intention of selling them. They were not ‘rescues’ as she claimed for so many years. If she truly wanted to ‘rescue’ cats from fur farms she would have taken home older cats ready to be harvested (killed) for their fur; not 56 little cubs that could be bottle raised, imprinted on humans, and sold as pets. If I remember correctly, after reading this statement Carole then added to her story, claiming that they later rescued the adult cats too. It is hard to keep up with her lies as she has to keep posting new ones to cover up the old.

As late as 2004 a volunteer at BCR tells us he visited Carole at her home and saw that she had a Jungle Cat as a housepet, yet Carole wants to forbid this for everyone but herself. Whether or not you support the responsible ownership of exotics, I would hope that you would not support the lies, deceit, and fraud this woman has been for years perpetrated on the naive animal lovers who financially support her.

Since being publicly exposed, Carole’s web site has under gone some drastic changes. This is why the original version of the website was copied before the expose’….. to reveal Carole’s feeble attempts to cover her a## , which to us is just more evidence of her guilt.

When investigative reporter Chris Hawes asked to copy Carole’s paperwork, her request was denied. Carole said her opponents could ‘zero in on’ parts that could be used against her. If Carole had nothing to hide, that is exactly what could be used against her….nothing.

Remember, Bay News 9 attorneys went over hundreds of documents before allowing this piece to air. Chris Hawes was offered a ‘dream job’ in Texas, in part for the investigative work she did on this story. Carole is married to an attorney, yet no attempt was ever made to sue for what Carole refers to as slander. Ask yourself why.

I hold her responsible for every word that she keeps on her site.

Unfortunately it will be years before you figure out what she is doing to you, how she is using you, Patricia. How far down do you want to let her take you before you let go?

I believe that the person who used the name “Carole Baskin” was either her, someone who works for her, or someone who she put up to it. The thing is, it’s really hard to fake that exact kind of lame attempt at sarcasm.

I’ve been a volunteer at Big Cat Rescue for almost two years. No one who has first-hand knowledge of the Big Cat Rescue as it is today would make the terrible accuastions some have made here. I can honestly say “you don’t know what you’re talking about”!

As far as Carole Baskin’s past actions, don’t we all have things in our past that we wouldn’t do if we knew then what we know now? Please take at look at “History and Evolution” which describes how and why Ms. Baskin’s thinking has changed over the years: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/historyandevolution.htm

There are obviously people posting here who have a deep, personal grudge against Carole Baskin. I can only hope you expend half as much energy on taking care of your animals as you do attacking her and Big Cat Rescue.

YEAHHHHHH!!!!! (Opening song starts)

Even if the animal rights activists fail to take us down that road to banning possession of horses and dogs, and mandatory spay/neuter is pretty close to a ban on possession because where will most families get dogs, it is still wrong because discriminating against the owners of tigers denies them equal protection as guaranteed by that U.S. constitution that some people place beneath their agendas. We tolerate what horses do to people for very good reasons and a lot of that is for the sake of the horses. We can tolerate what tigers occasionally do to humans for the sake of the tigers. Look at the hype really hard because the people who pretend to love tigers keep trying to get people to get rid of them because tigers are allegedly very dangerous. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist. Animal rights activists sell, often enough, the idea that any animal’s life is worth more than a human life, and in a conversation like this they will deny the same thing that is easy to find in quoted material from speeches and pamphlets. Let’s stick with the often quoted lines about a child’s life being the same as a rat’s or whatever.

If that is the case, then the loss of one human’s life only justifies the loss of one animal’s life, if that. Horses aren’t always killed for killing humans. For someone who advocates the worth of animal lives to say that we have to destroy all of a species for being dangerous, something screwy has to be going on.

My position is that captive tigers are only a little bit dangerous. This is just like horses are a little bit dangerous, your car is a little bit dangerous, and life is worth the risks that you have to take to live it. The worth of an animal can be weighed against the worth of a human, and even if you subscribe to the idea that an animal is always worth less than a human, it has some worth. To justify the destruction of tigers because of the risk to humans, one must assume that tigers are worthless. Every organization that wants tigers out of private hands has failed one big test. They have failed to make every possible effort to rehome the displaced tigers. It’s too late now. They’ve already shown the lack of quality of their thought. If animals had rights, then each animal would have the right to an opportunity to continue to live and to reproduce. We have animal rights activists denying the basic rights of animals and telling people that the animals are too dangerous to be around humans at the same time that they say that the animals are worth more than humans are.

It’s better just to throw out the animal rights activists. I believe Carole Baskin when she says that she is out to scam the rest of us. PETA and the HSUS, essentially the same organization, certainly have, and Baskin keeps bringing the HSUS into this stuff in Florida.

How many owners has she separated animals from who still don’t know that she sucks up to the HSUS and that she is doing this as part of an “animal rights” agenda?

“The toes you step on today, is on the foot that will kick your ass tommorrow”

Her strategy changed. Instead of making a living off the animals she breed, she decided to call herself a sanctuary which houses the many animals she has breed or bought. Carole uses deception to obtain funds from the unsuspecting public by claiming abuse of animals that she herself has puchased. Some of her animals she claims were abandoned, but the tuth is she is being paid large sums of money to house these animals. She didn’t rescue them, she is boarding them.

She is not an advocate for animals, her desire is to be the only facility standing in Florida where the public can view these animals up close and personal for a fee. She doesn’t care that thousands of animals may be in jeopardy of euthanasia by the Reptile Bill she diligently pursued to have passed.

For those of you readers that don’t know of Ms. Lewis Baskin, please be careful of supporting a facility that is financially rich. Monies came from her deceased husband who was reported mssing and never found, and from the poor unsuspecting public that give donations based on false abuse claims of animals.

Screw you guys, I’m going home!

To penalize individuals who take excellent care of their exotic cats by asking them to now carry insurance is grossly unfair. Ms. Baskin’s facility has a history of maulings–she and others like her are the ones who should suffer the consequences of their inability to care for exotic cats.

Since this bond is payable to FWC and not a ‘victim’ if in fact there were one, it does nothing to insure public safety or compansate someone for an injury. All it does is impose still another financial burden on people who choose to love and care for exotics.

To learn more about the ’scamtuary’ that is Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue view the expose’ at http://phoenixexotics.org/BigCatonBayNews9.wmv and read Ms Baskin’s ad below in which she clearly supported private ownership of exotic cats and mentions that they make loving and trusting housepets. What changed her mind? Could it be that she found a way to have others support her private collection of cats by becoming a non-profit and speaking out against the very people she sold these cats to? Only the wesite address anad phone numbers have been updated. The advertisement is Carole’s.

IF YOU ARE WILD ABOUT CATS check out Wildlife On Easy Street at their new address: http://bigcatrescue.org/ Meet our 100+ wildcats, join our membership or volunteer program and learn about exotic cats and more. To help fund this much needed Sanctuary we offer the video “Big Cat Companions” $28.00, the book “Exotic Cats As Housepets” $35.00, Bed & Breakfast at the refuge in Tampa, FL $75.00 per night, and these special cats to the right person: Serval trio or caracal trio, proven $5000, cougar pair $600, cub $450 and 3/4 wild but 100% tame! Bengal F1 male kittens. Sire: Amurian Leopard Cat and Dam: F1 Bengal, raised in the house and too gorgeous for words $1000. 12802 Easy St., Tampa, FL 33625. 813-920-4130 or 813-493-4564

New Cat Video! Big Cat Companions is an informative and entertaining two-hour tape from the same people who brought you “Exotic Cats As Housepets.” More information on the most frequently asked questions such as caging, teaching not to bite, leash training, diet and health care for tigers, leopards, cougars, lynxes, bobcats and more. (13 species) How to get the most enjoyment out of your feline

EXOTIC CATS AS HOUSE PETS VIDEO! Two hour tape depicting the trials and rewards of sharing our home with Bobcats, Servals, Caracals, Cougars, Ocelots, Margay, Canadian and European Lynx, and more (14 species). Learn bottle-feeding, litter training, bathing, leashing and how to raise an exotic cat into a loving and trusting house pet. Great tips on out door cage construction, play yards, feeding, worming and vaccinating. $28 12802 Easy Street, Tampa, Florida 33625. 813-920-4130 or 813-493-4564

Regarding “safety” simply look at Florida’s statistics. Only handlers and owners have been injured and they chose as adults to take that risk. There may be a few incidents where the public was hurt but it was BECUASE THE LAW WAS BEING BROKEN. THOSE are the people who should lose their licenses and animals, not me or others who have never had a violation or incident of any kind and have given shelter ourselves to unwanted animals. If mine are taken from me, I promise there will be Hell to pay!

I’ll give you an example. If they were really concerned with people dumping their unwanted animals, then they would try to pass a law that punishes people who dump their animals. Instead, they try to paint a false picture that breeders all keep their animals starving in filthy cages with no water so that is becomes easier for the masses to support them in passing laws that restrict or prohibit breeders. For one, animals that are not properly cared for usually do not breed well so most breeders do in fact take very good care of their animals. They try to take away peoples right to keep and breed animals by brainwashing everyone into passing laws that stop people from breeding animals. They have done a good job at this so far. They have added new terms to the dictionary (puppy mill). They might not be able to take away your right to keep animals, but they might just be able to make animals no longer be available to be kept.