UPDATE: I'm adding new material to the top. I added some keywords to original article. Original article May 1, 2009. I've known Carole since maybe 2001. I learned of Joe after I met Carole.
2018 and 2019 USDA inventory of animals. Animals are missing. Did they die? Were they sold?
Pg 2 of 2018 report. 66 animals. 2019 report shows only 51. 15 are missing in one year. The missing are as follows, 7 tigers, 3 cougars, 1 AG, 2 serval, 1 lion and 1 Canadian lynx. 22% of her animals went missing in one year.
Tigers 8 -7
Puma/mountain lion/cougar 3 -3
Abyssinian genet 0 -1
Serval 10 -2
Lion 1 -1
Canadian lynx 1 -1
Tigers 8 -7
Puma/mountain lion/cougar 3 -3
Abyssinian genet 0 -1
Serval 10 -2
Lion 1 -1
Canadian lynx 1 -1
This site has done a fantastic investigation into Carole Baskin and Big Cat Rescue. Carole Baskin and/or her volunteers do threaten to kill anyone who dares say anything negative about the organization. I got the same when I stated they were not rehabbing bobcat kittens legally or properly. The attacks were worse when I stated there was no reason to feed live ex pets to the big cats who would never be released. Ex pets aren't even a main part of wild big cat diets. If you've watching the disgusting videos the ex pet bunnies and rabbits walk up to the big cat like it's their friend. Then the big cat slowly tortures them to death.
https://www.bcrwatch.com/abuse.html original website is gone but check out the web archive
This doesn't mean much but Carole has an account on ancestry. She listed Don dead in Tampa, Florida in 1997. She knows he died in Tampa in 1997? He died at home? This was her ancestry account 11 months ago. This is before the documentary was released.
Carole in her book teaches how to steal kittens from their mothers. Yes, she misspelled her own name in her own website. This came from Wildlife on Easy Street website. I have saved copies of her old websites.
"Free Spirits in Captive Cats by Carole Staris Lewis, is 100 pages of useful information on the care of exotic cats in captivity."
"we would
recommend that the kittens be pulled as
soon as their eyes open, which again, is
usually around ten days. Most cats are not
going to let you waltz in and carry out her
offspring, even if she is temporarily
distracted. There is no substitute for good
planning and this should have been
thought of before she ever conceived. We
have a trap door on the back of the den
box and a drop door on the front entrance
to the den. While the mother is out eating
or getting a drink, we shut her out of the
den and then open the trap door on back
to get to the cubs. We usually take the
kittens at night, when we feed, so that it is
not obvious to the mother that something
is up. If you wash your clothing in a
different detergent before taking the kits,
then it will not be obvious to the Dam that
you were the one who raided her nest.
This could be important in your continued
relationship with her."
Some background info on Don and Carole. Don's father was John Henry "Jack" Lewis. He married Myrtle Dewey and had three children, Glen Thomas Lewis 1934-2011, Patricia Grace Lewis 1935-2012, and Donald Jack Lewis 1938-1997. Myrtle Dewey Lewis divorced her husband is 1940. Her husband John Lewis died of tuberculosis back at his hometown in Indiana in 1944. He supported the family and family up until he died. I don't know if he made provisions for her after his death. He knew he was dying.
Carole Baskin has had four husbands that we know of, i.e. Jones, Michael Murdock, Don Lewis and Howard Baskin. She has one daughter, Jamie.
Carole's current husband is Howard Gene Baskin born 1950. I searched all Florida bar associations. I don't see that he passed the bar or was ever a lawyer in Florida. He allegedly went to law school in Florida.
His parents were Herman Baskin 1917-1974. He was a butcher and died of coronary heart disease. His mother was Allene Jane Braw Baskin 1924-1976. His two siblings are Harriet b. 1954 and Richard "Rick" b.1953. His paternal grandparents were Samuel Baskin 1885 - 1966 and Rebecca Libou Baskin 1885-1953 from Poland. His great grandparents were Chaim and Minnie Kasovitch Basin from Poland. Howard's maternal grandparents were Benjamin Braw 1898-1956 and Hattye Lorber 1899 - 1947. Howard Baskin graduated from Jewish studies in 1967. His ancestors were Russian Jews fleeing violence and oppression in Russia.
Pic is from Poughkeepsie High School 1966, sophomore.
2018 and 2019 USDA inventory of animals. Animals are missing. Did they die? Were they sold?
Pg 2 of 2018 report. 66 animals. 2019 report shows only 51. 15 are missing in one year. The missing are as follows, 7 tigers, 3 cougars, 1 AG, 2 serval, 1 lion and 1 Canadian lynx. 22% of her animals went missing in one year.
Tigers 8 -7
Puma/mountain lion/cougar 3 -3
Abyssinian genet 0 -1
Serval 10 -2
Lion 1 -1
Canadian lynx 1 -1
Tigers 8 -7
Puma/mountain lion/cougar 3 -3
Abyssinian genet 0 -1
Serval 10 -2
Lion 1 -1
Canadian lynx 1 -1
https://www.bcrwatch.com/abuse.html original website is gone but check out the web archive
Here are some pages and files from BCR Watch.
BCR Watch main page. Exposing lies, fraud and controversy
BCR Watch. Cats bought and sold.
BCR Watch. Inventory sheets.
BCR Watch. Finances.
BCR Watch. The Makings of a Roadside Zoo.
BCR Watch. Jack Don Lewis.
This doesn't mean much but Carole has an account on ancestry. She listed Don dead in Tampa, Florida in 1997. She knows he died in Tampa in 1997? He died at home? This was her ancestry account 11 months ago. This is before the documentary was released.
Carole in her book teaches how to steal kittens from their mothers. Yes, she misspelled her own name in her own website. This came from Wildlife on Easy Street website. I have saved copies of her old websites.
"Free Spirits in Captive Cats by Carole Staris Lewis, is 100 pages of useful information on the care of exotic cats in captivity."
"we would
recommend that the kittens be pulled as
soon as their eyes open, which again, is
usually around ten days. Most cats are not
going to let you waltz in and carry out her
offspring, even if she is temporarily
distracted. There is no substitute for good
planning and this should have been
thought of before she ever conceived. We
have a trap door on the back of the den
box and a drop door on the front entrance
to the den. While the mother is out eating
or getting a drink, we shut her out of the
den and then open the trap door on back
to get to the cubs. We usually take the
kittens at night, when we feed, so that it is
not obvious to the mother that something
is up. If you wash your clothing in a
different detergent before taking the kits,
then it will not be obvious to the Dam that
you were the one who raided her nest.
This could be important in your continued
relationship with her."
Some background info on Don and Carole. Don's father was John Henry "Jack" Lewis. He married Myrtle Dewey and had three children, Glen Thomas Lewis 1934-2011, Patricia Grace Lewis 1935-2012, and Donald Jack Lewis 1938-1997. Myrtle Dewey Lewis divorced her husband is 1940. Her husband John Lewis died of tuberculosis back at his hometown in Indiana in 1944. He supported the family and family up until he died. I don't know if he made provisions for her after his death. He knew he was dying.
Carole Baskin has had four husbands that we know of, i.e. Jones, Michael Murdock, Don Lewis and Howard Baskin. She has one daughter, Jamie.
Carole's current husband is Howard Gene Baskin born 1950. I searched all Florida bar associations. I don't see that he passed the bar or was ever a lawyer in Florida. He allegedly went to law school in Florida.
His parents were Herman Baskin 1917-1974. He was a butcher and died of coronary heart disease. His mother was Allene Jane Braw Baskin 1924-1976. His two siblings are Harriet b. 1954 and Richard "Rick" b.1953. His paternal grandparents were Samuel Baskin 1885 - 1966 and Rebecca Libou Baskin 1885-1953 from Poland. His great grandparents were Chaim and Minnie Kasovitch Basin from Poland. Howard's maternal grandparents were Benjamin Braw 1898-1956 and Hattye Lorber 1899 - 1947. Howard Baskin graduated from Jewish studies in 1967. His ancestors were Russian Jews fleeing violence and oppression in Russia.
Pic is from Poughkeepsie High School 1966, sophomore.
1995
Below is Joe Exotic's family tree. He is Joseph "Joe" Allen Schreibvogel aka Maldonado-Passage..
August 30, 2018 Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, pg W12 "BigCatRescue's Keeper Tour doesn't come cheap but the 67-acre animal sanctuary calls it the 'most exclusive behind the scenes experience you can find in the animal world that is respectful to the animals and safe for the guests.' "It's unlikely there's another place where you can see such a variety of exotic cats at one time."
This video came out right after Carole said I lied about the animals being bred there by her. This video shows she's a liar. Since then Carole has tried to say that was Don's idea and something she did long ago in the past. It wasn't that long ago.
Carole Baskin and declawing, defanging. Carole wrote this about declawing in her free online book which is still available. I am posting a snippet here under the fair use of copyright act to talk about Carole's poor treatment of big cats. Because this woman didn't even graduate from high school she did not realize that filing down the fangs of big cats exposing the inner part of the teeth would cause severe pain, infections and lead to extractions. She also recommended declawing big cats on all four which causes disability. The USDA outlawed the declawing of big cats with USDA permits in 2005.
"CLIPPING THE NAILS AND DECLAWING
We have scars and scratches from our fingertips to our elbows and people always assume that it is
from dealing with our big cats, but the truth of the matter is that almost all of these wounds are inflicted
by cubs under six weeks of age. I have even had people ask if I had been in a wreck recently, during
kitten season, due to the condition of my arms and although it is not entirely preventable you can
minimize your exposure by taking a few minutes to clip their claws regularly. In thirteen years of
clipping claws, I have clipped literally thousands of them and only on three occasions have I hit the little
blood vessel that everyone uses as the excuse for why they don't clip claws. I don't want to hurt a
kitten anymore than you, but if I am going to be able to do my job of raising, bathing and medicating
this kitten, then I need to be able to handle him without dropping him.
There is a product available from your Veterinarian called Soft Paws. It is a little gelatin cap that can be
temporarily attached to your kitten’s nails. They come in bright neon colors so that you can see at a
glance that they are still on. We used them once on an ailing Margay who needed daily handling during
his recovery. They worked for a short while and are good for such situations, but they are not the long
term answer for the exotic cat.
If you start early enough and do it often enough, it is no big deal for you or the cat. If you got a late start
or can't manage the cat then we would suggest that one person muzzle and hold the cub and the other
clip. There are a variety of clippers on the market, but I have found that the easiest to handle are
human nail clippers. Finger nail clippers for small cats and Toe nail clippers for larger cats.
If you gently squeeze the paw the nails will extend and you will see that they are hook shaped and
have a dark blood vessel extending along the top edge to about half way down. Just clip the tip of the
nail off below this line and you and the cat will feel no pain. I just take the very tips off, which means
that I have to do it more frequently, but as with most things, I'd rather play it safe than sorry. Unless
your kitten is inbred and polydactal, it will have four nails on each rear paw and five nails on each front
paw, with the fifth one being in a thumb position and usually the hardest to clip and the first one to snag
you. In the unlikely event that you should hit a blood vessel you should have on hand a product such
as Quick Stop which is a powder you dip the nail into to stop the bleeding. I have a bottle of the stuff,
but have never used it as the three times I did hit blood, there was only a drop and then it stopped on
it's own.
I raised purebred domestic cats for over ten years and would never have even considered declawing
but I do recommend declawing the exotic cat because of it's size, temperament and reputation. When
the procedure is done by a qualified Veterinarian and done before the kitten is twelve weeks old they
never even seem to notice that anything was done. We try to have ours declawed, front and back at six
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weeks because they are still very light on their feet. They are declawed in the morning and come home
around four in the afternoon. They usually are starving when they get home, they eat and then nap the
rest of the day away. The next morning they will be shaking their paws trying to get rid of the bandages,
which we carefully clip off. If you take the bandages off yourself, be very careful when clipping as cats
have very loose skin and it may be doubled over in places and you may cut skin that you weren't
expecting to be there.
As soon as the bandages are off the kitten may begin furiously licking and chewing at his paws, but
watch for a moment before getting too excited. Only once has a cub made it's feet bleed from this
grooming and usually once they have the stickiness off their feet they are off and running like nothing
ever happened. We had a cougar that insisted on chewing her toes until they bled and a little bitter
apple was sufficient to stop her behavior. Cougars seem to have a lower pain threshold and will act like
you are killing them when you give routine vaccinations that no other cat can seem to feel.
When you have bottle raised a kitten to be gentle and sweet it may be very tempting to reason that
since the cub does not extend his claws in play with you that it is unnecessary to declaw but failure to
do so while he is young and light, may cause him much more pain when it becomes a necessity later in
life. Failure to see to this most necessary procedure when he was young could later even cost him his
life in an emergency situation. Cats, like children, put everything they find in their mouths and often
something gets stuck, usually across the roof of their mouth, and sometimes in the throat. When your
90 pound Leopard is choking to death, it's going to take all the courage and love you can muster to
stick your hand down his throat and dislodge whatever it is, without having to figure a way past 18
deadly weapons that are all going to be fixed on you. Cats cannot reason, when they are in distress,
that you have never hurt them and that you are trying to help. They are instead, terrified and striking
out at anything that comes near them and you won't be much help to the cat if you are bleeding to
death.
Don' t fool yourself by saying "Well my little Bobcat is no bigger than a housecat, so how dangerous
could he ever be?" My worst and deepest scars are from my sweetest bobcats, under emergency
conditions and they were even declawed. Any cat, Ocelots especially, delight in wrapping themselves
around the anatomy of their "prey" and rabbit kicking with their back feet. When they do this to each
other, in play, no harm is done, but when they wrap around your arm and do the same thing, you will be
bleeding from your wrist to your elbow. There is always the possibility of escape and recapture can be
nearly impossible if the cat has claws, not to mention the fact that a clawed cat is much more likely to
effect an escape than a declawed one. You may reason that in the event of an escape, your cat will
need his claws to survive, but if this is a tame cat, claws or not, it will not be able to survive and if it did
manage to kill anything for food it would be your neighbors cats and dogs, which is going to bring the
whole community down on you and your cats. We have even seen people threaten to sue us because
they came on our property and alleged that one of our cats scratched them. The suit was dropped
when it was proved that the cat had no claws for over a year prior to the incident.
We were boarding a four year old White Tiger who appeared to have been severely inbred and crippled
in the hips. When the weather would turn cold or wet she would claw at her tail, presumably because it
tingled like a foot fallen asleep. She rips the skin open in one slash and then require ten days of
antibiotics and frequent spraying of her tail. Treating her is also compounded by the fact that we have
to watch out for all those big claws. Because she was not declawed as an infant, she will never be able
to run and play with our own Tigers.
Toxoplasmosis gondii (Cat Scratch Fever) is not transmitted via a cat scratch, despite the name,
however your Veterinarian will be much more at ease with your cats if he or she only has to watch out
for a mouth full of teeth. The reasons for declawing are endless and the excuses for not doing so are
not justified.
There are at least two methods of declawing and the first, crushing the claw, we do not recommend as
the claw can grow back and you will have to re- do the procedure. The second sounds more cruel, in
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that the first digit of the toe is removed along with the claw, but it only has to be done once and then it
is soon forgotten. This is necessary as the cats claws are retractable into that first digit, with the
exception of the Cheetah and unless things change dramatically, no one reading this is going to be in
possession of this wonderful, nearly extinct creature. (Incidentally, back in 1964 a pair of Cheetahs
could be purchased for $5,000.00 and now even at $55,000.00 per pair, they cannot be found) For
fourteen days after the surgery your Veterinarian will prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic such as
Amoxicillan to prevent infection. Most Veterinarians use a special skin glue, rather than stitches to seal
the paws and only once have we found this ineffective, due to a bad bottle of "glue". Keep the kitten's
play area exceptionally clean during this time.
Post operative toilet training opinions are varied and your choice will depend on your cat. Some people
switch over to newspaper in the litter box so that the gravel does not irritate the paws until they are fully
healed. The reasoning is that the cat will refuse to use the box if it hurts his feet and your litter box
training will have been in vain. I expect that this may work for domestic cats, but have found that with
exotics it usually results in shredded newspaper from one end of the house to the other and the cat
then associates defecating with anything made of paper. Since we are in a paper intensive business
and have maps, contracts, books and all manner of paper related items about the house, this is an
association that we do not wish to encourage. We continue to leave litter in the box and have not had
any bad side effects arise.
We have found that it is not safe to house clawed exotic cats with declawed exotic cats because even
play fighting can result in nasty wounds to the declawed animal. When two cats have their claws and
are raised together they learn how hard is too hard, but when you begin mixing claws and no claws, all
of the rules are different and someone is going to be hurt. We've been told countless times that it is
okay to breed a clawed feline to a declawed one, but we have found that the declawed cat will often
suffer a nasty cut, and because we love our cats and know how quickly a small cut can turn into a life
or death matter, we do not subscribe to this practice.
We do not believe in removing the canine teeth; not the baby teeth nor the permanent ones. We made
the mistake of having the baby teeth filed down at the same time as the declawing. This is a procedure
that just takes the very tip off the extremely sharp fangs. Our reasoning was, that it is easier to train
and discipline a kitten who does not have those needle like enamels sunk into some portion of our
anatomy. The adult teeth are not nearly so sharp and by the time the permanent teeth come in, the cat
has learned not to use them on people. The results were heartbreaking and very difficult recognize.
We had brought in a large number of kittens, all at once, from two fur farms to save their little lives.
Naturally, they all come in sick and stressed and this adds to all of the problems normally associated
with bottle rearing. When they were finally stabilized enough to vaccinate and declaw, we had their
teeth filed. For the next five months this group was constantly on medication for one ailment or another.
All of their ailments reached life threatening proportions, even for otherwise inconsequential attacks.
We were all baffled. It seemed like the kittens had no immune system and yet they did not test positive
for Feline Leukemia Virus or Feline Infectious Peritonitis or any other immune deficiency. One of the
kits had grey teeth canine teeth and we took him in to our Veterinarian to have them removed. He had
been very ill and had quit eating unless we cut his food into tiny pieces and hand fed him. We feared
that he would not even survive the surgery, but we prayed and left the rest to God and our Veterinarian.
As soon as he came home from having the rotten teeth extracted, he took an immediate turn for the
better. That was the last time he was ever sick. Within two days of seeing his dramatic recovery we
took all of the cubs and kittens back to the Veterinarian and had their tipped teeth removed. All of them
were completely better within two days and none of them has been sick again to this day. For the first
seven months of their lives they were knocking at death’s door and the last five months of that was due
to something stupid that we had done. Except for the one kit, none of the others showed any sign of
the teeth being compromised by the filing. The Veterinarian said that they were decayed when she
pulled them out, but it was not apparent by just looking in the mouth."
People are wondering where is Kenneth Wayne Farr born May 2, 1969 who drove Don's van full of Don's guns and ammo to his, Kenneth's house the night before Don went missing. The guns were allegedly a gift from Carole. Later Carole put real estate in Kenneth's name.
Kenneth "Kenny" Wayne Far has been in and out of prison, jail for having, using, selling drugs. I confirmed the name and birth date. His ex wife also confirmed all of this.
ORIGINAL: May 2009. I've known Carole Baskin since about 2002. I first encountered her when I saw pics of her with orphaned wild bobcat kittens which she was supposed to raise and release back to the wild. I'd stated that she should not be playing with the bobcats and her cages didn't meet minimum standards. The spacing between the bars is too far apart. It's dangerous for the animal and people. I was also against Carole Baskin feeding live ex pet rabbits and rats to the cats. One, the cats were never going to be released. They don't need to learn to hunt, hunt. Two, they would never encounter a pet rabbit or pet rat in the wild. It doesn't help them learn to hunt. Carole and her volunteers fed ex pets to the cats because they clearly enjoyed watching the cats torture the ex pets until they died. I have pics and video of this but won't post it because it's too disgusting. When I said this Carole and her friends viciously attacked me.
Below are some newspaper articles which prove that Carole Baskin has been breeding animals, ripping babies from their mothers, selling them, encouraging big cats as pets, helping people get big cats and the necessary permits to keep them, selling encounters with big cats, pics with big cats, tours of big cats, spend the night with a big cat. The clips came from public newspapers. You can find them here at http://www.newspapers.com. I've tagged the articles online so you can just search her name, Big Cat Sanctuary, Wildlife on Easy Street, phone number 813 920 4130 to find them.
September 11, 1998 USDA cites BCS for AWA violations after an employee is mauled. How did Carole get away with this? She does what all the other groups who violate the AWA do, threaten to sue the hell out of the USDA. USDA backs down as they have no money to fight lawsuits. That's how the Wildlife Waystation did okay all those years even after multiple violations and complaints.
1997. Carole Lewis again always trying to show the big cats with baby bottles to look cute so people will want to see and then buy them.
December 1997 while interviewed about her missing husband she happily gives a tour of her large collection of cats even putting one on a chain and taking it for a walk.
September 1997 are her husband went missing. She took interviews standing in front of Don's "junk."
December 13, 1996, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida. "Wildlife on Easy Street. Have your picture taking with Tiger, Panther, Ocelot (All Endanger Species)."
1996 The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida, Nov 13, 1996, pg 18. "Eye of the tiger. Jeff Bushnell, a volunteer with Wildlife on Easy Street in Citrus Park, tries to turn Aurora's attention to a class of second-graders at Miles Elementary in north Tampa. The visit by the tiger, two ocelots and other animals were part of a class project on rainforests."
1996, "Miles Elementary. Animals at school: Second-graders at the school at 317 E. 124th Ave. will be visited by a Bengal tiger, two ocelots and other rain forest animals from Wildlife on Easy Street Friday at 9 a.m. as part of their lesson on rain forests."
August 7, 1996, Times. "Two roaming cougars back in cages. State officials are considering citing the owners of Wildlife on Easy Street for escapes."
August 6, 1996, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida. "Pair of cougars recaptured after escaping refuge." "Summary: A pair of cougars escaped from Wildlife on Easy Street, a controversial Hillsborough wildlife refuge. Both were recaptured."
1996 "Animal Refuse: A Citrus Park animal refuge came under fire from an international wildlife group last week. The World Society for the Protection of Animals said that Wildlfie on Easy Street, where more than 100 felines and other animals live on 40 acres, didn't take proper safety precautions and kept the animals in improper conditions. Owners Don and Carole Lewis disputed the report."
March 3, 1996 The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida
Carole selling big cats to the public as pets.
1999 "It smells of exploitation the moment you walk in." "Regional director for the world society for the protection of animals discussing Wildlife on Easy Street in northwest Hillsborough County.
January 29, 1999, The Tampa Tribune, Tampe, Florida.
See the world's largest collection of big cats.
2004. "Wildlife Tours. Big Cat Rescue. Stand 3 feet from a 700 pound tiger! Spend the night at the world's largest exotic cat sanctuary. 12802 Easy Street, Tampa, FL 33625. 813 920-4130. www.BigCatRescue.org."
2005. Tribune. "Howard Baskin dangles a toy for Bailey, a bobat found a a weeks-old kitten in someone's yard. Apparently orphaned, she missed the maternal lessons in how to fend for herself." You are not allowed to play with animals being rehabbed under a wildlife rehabilitation permit which Carole has. Howard Baskin did this to look cute for the newspaper photographer. It encourages having wildlife as pets.
She would rather than everyone thought of her the way she sees herself; a crusader for animal rights who believes no one should own a wild cat. Not a zoo. Not a sanctuary. Not even herself. But to many who live and breathe exotic animals, Baskin is a hypocrite.
They point out that her 40 acre Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Hillsborough County has 137 tigers, lions, leopards, lynx and other big cats. Her own 'private collection' they call it.
They heckle her at state wildlife meetings. They picket her funraising Fur Balls. And they speculate on what happened to her late husband, Don Lewis, calling police with tips.
'Did you feed him to the tigers?' someone once asked Baskin at the grocery store. Her own stepdaughter wanted police to test the meat grinder at the sanctuary for her missing father's DNA.
Baskin says she has no idea what happened to Lewis and she had nothing to do with it. She is simply focused on her mission to outlaw private ownership of big cats and arrive at a day when there is no longer a need to shelter them. A day when Big Cat Rescue closes."
1997 Carole wrote a book and made a video about keeping big cats as pets.
"Exotic Cats As Housepets" by Carole Stairs Lewis is a 100 page book this is full of useful information on the raising and keeping of exotic cats. It covers 13 species, many of which are endangered and threatened. Zoos do not have good success with breeding the smaller cats an they are generally now a crowd drawing attraction, making the private sector the last chance these cats have for survival. Learn from our successes and be warned by our failures. There are too few of these previous animals left to lose even one to preventable cause. This book is available in hard cover, with color photos. Cost: $35 (includes shipping)"
.
"Breeding. We have neutered all of our male cougars, siberian lynx and
bobcats as these cats are plentiful in captivity and in the wild. There is no reason to breed them. We have neutered our male tiger because he is a hybrid and there will always be plenty in captivity because they breed well and are always in high demand. We do not breed our lions, but have not neutered the male as he is being boarded here and is thought to be one of the last of the Barbary
Lions.
To date, our Margay, Jungle Cats, Geoffroyi Cats, Clouded Leopard and Leopard Cats
have been unsuccessful in breeding. We still breed the leopards, lemurs and ocelots
which are endangered in order to preserve the species. Our last leopard cub was born
in 1996. We do not sell cats.
We are ambivilent about breeding Servals and Caracals as they are threatened and
probably should be bred to continue a genetic diversity capable of sustaining them, but
on the other hand, there is no place for them to live free. To date, our last kitten was
born in the spring of 1997."
1997. Old "glamour shots" of Carole, her daughter and others with big cats.
Their past name was "Wildlife on Easy Street."1997.
2004 from their website. "Big Cat Rescue, is a non profit 501 (c) 3 Corp., and is a permanent retirement home to over 170 exotic cats representing 23 species and sub species. See our
Species Listing under "Animals" for details. What makes us different is that here, your donations actually go to the animals. In order to educate the public about the conditions that lead to so many unwanted, abandoned and abused animals we offer tours, outreach presentations, animal interaction and the opportunity to spend the night in the heart of the sanctuary. We are always inneed of more dedicated volunteers. This site contains over 2100 pages of information and articles about exotic cats."
Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.
August 30, 2018 Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, pg W12 "BigCatRescue's Keeper Tour doesn't come cheap but the 67-acre animal sanctuary calls it the 'most exclusive behind the scenes experience you can find in the animal world that is respectful to the animals and safe for the guests.' "It's unlikely there's another place where you can see such a variety of exotic cats at one time."
This video came out right after Carole said I lied about the animals being bred there by her. This video shows she's a liar. Since then Carole has tried to say that was Don's idea and something she did long ago in the past. It wasn't that long ago.
Carole Baskin and declawing, defanging. Carole wrote this about declawing in her free online book which is still available. I am posting a snippet here under the fair use of copyright act to talk about Carole's poor treatment of big cats. Because this woman didn't even graduate from high school she did not realize that filing down the fangs of big cats exposing the inner part of the teeth would cause severe pain, infections and lead to extractions. She also recommended declawing big cats on all four which causes disability. The USDA outlawed the declawing of big cats with USDA permits in 2005.
"CLIPPING THE NAILS AND DECLAWING
We have scars and scratches from our fingertips to our elbows and people always assume that it is
from dealing with our big cats, but the truth of the matter is that almost all of these wounds are inflicted
by cubs under six weeks of age. I have even had people ask if I had been in a wreck recently, during
kitten season, due to the condition of my arms and although it is not entirely preventable you can
minimize your exposure by taking a few minutes to clip their claws regularly. In thirteen years of
clipping claws, I have clipped literally thousands of them and only on three occasions have I hit the little
blood vessel that everyone uses as the excuse for why they don't clip claws. I don't want to hurt a
kitten anymore than you, but if I am going to be able to do my job of raising, bathing and medicating
this kitten, then I need to be able to handle him without dropping him.
There is a product available from your Veterinarian called Soft Paws. It is a little gelatin cap that can be
temporarily attached to your kitten’s nails. They come in bright neon colors so that you can see at a
glance that they are still on. We used them once on an ailing Margay who needed daily handling during
his recovery. They worked for a short while and are good for such situations, but they are not the long
term answer for the exotic cat.
If you start early enough and do it often enough, it is no big deal for you or the cat. If you got a late start
or can't manage the cat then we would suggest that one person muzzle and hold the cub and the other
clip. There are a variety of clippers on the market, but I have found that the easiest to handle are
human nail clippers. Finger nail clippers for small cats and Toe nail clippers for larger cats.
If you gently squeeze the paw the nails will extend and you will see that they are hook shaped and
have a dark blood vessel extending along the top edge to about half way down. Just clip the tip of the
nail off below this line and you and the cat will feel no pain. I just take the very tips off, which means
that I have to do it more frequently, but as with most things, I'd rather play it safe than sorry. Unless
your kitten is inbred and polydactal, it will have four nails on each rear paw and five nails on each front
paw, with the fifth one being in a thumb position and usually the hardest to clip and the first one to snag
you. In the unlikely event that you should hit a blood vessel you should have on hand a product such
as Quick Stop which is a powder you dip the nail into to stop the bleeding. I have a bottle of the stuff,
but have never used it as the three times I did hit blood, there was only a drop and then it stopped on
it's own.
I raised purebred domestic cats for over ten years and would never have even considered declawing
but I do recommend declawing the exotic cat because of it's size, temperament and reputation. When
the procedure is done by a qualified Veterinarian and done before the kitten is twelve weeks old they
never even seem to notice that anything was done. We try to have ours declawed, front and back at six
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weeks because they are still very light on their feet. They are declawed in the morning and come home
around four in the afternoon. They usually are starving when they get home, they eat and then nap the
rest of the day away. The next morning they will be shaking their paws trying to get rid of the bandages,
which we carefully clip off. If you take the bandages off yourself, be very careful when clipping as cats
have very loose skin and it may be doubled over in places and you may cut skin that you weren't
expecting to be there.
As soon as the bandages are off the kitten may begin furiously licking and chewing at his paws, but
watch for a moment before getting too excited. Only once has a cub made it's feet bleed from this
grooming and usually once they have the stickiness off their feet they are off and running like nothing
ever happened. We had a cougar that insisted on chewing her toes until they bled and a little bitter
apple was sufficient to stop her behavior. Cougars seem to have a lower pain threshold and will act like
you are killing them when you give routine vaccinations that no other cat can seem to feel.
When you have bottle raised a kitten to be gentle and sweet it may be very tempting to reason that
since the cub does not extend his claws in play with you that it is unnecessary to declaw but failure to
do so while he is young and light, may cause him much more pain when it becomes a necessity later in
life. Failure to see to this most necessary procedure when he was young could later even cost him his
life in an emergency situation. Cats, like children, put everything they find in their mouths and often
something gets stuck, usually across the roof of their mouth, and sometimes in the throat. When your
90 pound Leopard is choking to death, it's going to take all the courage and love you can muster to
stick your hand down his throat and dislodge whatever it is, without having to figure a way past 18
deadly weapons that are all going to be fixed on you. Cats cannot reason, when they are in distress,
that you have never hurt them and that you are trying to help. They are instead, terrified and striking
out at anything that comes near them and you won't be much help to the cat if you are bleeding to
death.
Don' t fool yourself by saying "Well my little Bobcat is no bigger than a housecat, so how dangerous
could he ever be?" My worst and deepest scars are from my sweetest bobcats, under emergency
conditions and they were even declawed. Any cat, Ocelots especially, delight in wrapping themselves
around the anatomy of their "prey" and rabbit kicking with their back feet. When they do this to each
other, in play, no harm is done, but when they wrap around your arm and do the same thing, you will be
bleeding from your wrist to your elbow. There is always the possibility of escape and recapture can be
nearly impossible if the cat has claws, not to mention the fact that a clawed cat is much more likely to
effect an escape than a declawed one. You may reason that in the event of an escape, your cat will
need his claws to survive, but if this is a tame cat, claws or not, it will not be able to survive and if it did
manage to kill anything for food it would be your neighbors cats and dogs, which is going to bring the
whole community down on you and your cats. We have even seen people threaten to sue us because
they came on our property and alleged that one of our cats scratched them. The suit was dropped
when it was proved that the cat had no claws for over a year prior to the incident.
We were boarding a four year old White Tiger who appeared to have been severely inbred and crippled
in the hips. When the weather would turn cold or wet she would claw at her tail, presumably because it
tingled like a foot fallen asleep. She rips the skin open in one slash and then require ten days of
antibiotics and frequent spraying of her tail. Treating her is also compounded by the fact that we have
to watch out for all those big claws. Because she was not declawed as an infant, she will never be able
to run and play with our own Tigers.
Toxoplasmosis gondii (Cat Scratch Fever) is not transmitted via a cat scratch, despite the name,
however your Veterinarian will be much more at ease with your cats if he or she only has to watch out
for a mouth full of teeth. The reasons for declawing are endless and the excuses for not doing so are
not justified.
There are at least two methods of declawing and the first, crushing the claw, we do not recommend as
the claw can grow back and you will have to re- do the procedure. The second sounds more cruel, in
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that the first digit of the toe is removed along with the claw, but it only has to be done once and then it
is soon forgotten. This is necessary as the cats claws are retractable into that first digit, with the
exception of the Cheetah and unless things change dramatically, no one reading this is going to be in
possession of this wonderful, nearly extinct creature. (Incidentally, back in 1964 a pair of Cheetahs
could be purchased for $5,000.00 and now even at $55,000.00 per pair, they cannot be found) For
fourteen days after the surgery your Veterinarian will prescribe a broad spectrum antibiotic such as
Amoxicillan to prevent infection. Most Veterinarians use a special skin glue, rather than stitches to seal
the paws and only once have we found this ineffective, due to a bad bottle of "glue". Keep the kitten's
play area exceptionally clean during this time.
Post operative toilet training opinions are varied and your choice will depend on your cat. Some people
switch over to newspaper in the litter box so that the gravel does not irritate the paws until they are fully
healed. The reasoning is that the cat will refuse to use the box if it hurts his feet and your litter box
training will have been in vain. I expect that this may work for domestic cats, but have found that with
exotics it usually results in shredded newspaper from one end of the house to the other and the cat
then associates defecating with anything made of paper. Since we are in a paper intensive business
and have maps, contracts, books and all manner of paper related items about the house, this is an
association that we do not wish to encourage. We continue to leave litter in the box and have not had
any bad side effects arise.
We have found that it is not safe to house clawed exotic cats with declawed exotic cats because even
play fighting can result in nasty wounds to the declawed animal. When two cats have their claws and
are raised together they learn how hard is too hard, but when you begin mixing claws and no claws, all
of the rules are different and someone is going to be hurt. We've been told countless times that it is
okay to breed a clawed feline to a declawed one, but we have found that the declawed cat will often
suffer a nasty cut, and because we love our cats and know how quickly a small cut can turn into a life
or death matter, we do not subscribe to this practice.
We do not believe in removing the canine teeth; not the baby teeth nor the permanent ones. We made
the mistake of having the baby teeth filed down at the same time as the declawing. This is a procedure
that just takes the very tip off the extremely sharp fangs. Our reasoning was, that it is easier to train
and discipline a kitten who does not have those needle like enamels sunk into some portion of our
anatomy. The adult teeth are not nearly so sharp and by the time the permanent teeth come in, the cat
has learned not to use them on people. The results were heartbreaking and very difficult recognize.
We had brought in a large number of kittens, all at once, from two fur farms to save their little lives.
Naturally, they all come in sick and stressed and this adds to all of the problems normally associated
with bottle rearing. When they were finally stabilized enough to vaccinate and declaw, we had their
teeth filed. For the next five months this group was constantly on medication for one ailment or another.
All of their ailments reached life threatening proportions, even for otherwise inconsequential attacks.
We were all baffled. It seemed like the kittens had no immune system and yet they did not test positive
for Feline Leukemia Virus or Feline Infectious Peritonitis or any other immune deficiency. One of the
kits had grey teeth canine teeth and we took him in to our Veterinarian to have them removed. He had
been very ill and had quit eating unless we cut his food into tiny pieces and hand fed him. We feared
that he would not even survive the surgery, but we prayed and left the rest to God and our Veterinarian.
As soon as he came home from having the rotten teeth extracted, he took an immediate turn for the
better. That was the last time he was ever sick. Within two days of seeing his dramatic recovery we
took all of the cubs and kittens back to the Veterinarian and had their tipped teeth removed. All of them
were completely better within two days and none of them has been sick again to this day. For the first
seven months of their lives they were knocking at death’s door and the last five months of that was due
to something stupid that we had done. Except for the one kit, none of the others showed any sign of
the teeth being compromised by the filing. The Veterinarian said that they were decayed when she
pulled them out, but it was not apparent by just looking in the mouth."
People are wondering where is Kenneth Wayne Farr born May 2, 1969 who drove Don's van full of Don's guns and ammo to his, Kenneth's house the night before Don went missing. The guns were allegedly a gift from Carole. Later Carole put real estate in Kenneth's name.
Kenneth "Kenny" Wayne Far has been in and out of prison, jail for having, using, selling drugs. I confirmed the name and birth date. His ex wife also confirmed all of this.
ORIGINAL: May 2009. I've known Carole Baskin since about 2002. I first encountered her when I saw pics of her with orphaned wild bobcat kittens which she was supposed to raise and release back to the wild. I'd stated that she should not be playing with the bobcats and her cages didn't meet minimum standards. The spacing between the bars is too far apart. It's dangerous for the animal and people. I was also against Carole Baskin feeding live ex pet rabbits and rats to the cats. One, the cats were never going to be released. They don't need to learn to hunt, hunt. Two, they would never encounter a pet rabbit or pet rat in the wild. It doesn't help them learn to hunt. Carole and her volunteers fed ex pets to the cats because they clearly enjoyed watching the cats torture the ex pets until they died. I have pics and video of this but won't post it because it's too disgusting. When I said this Carole and her friends viciously attacked me.
Below are some newspaper articles which prove that Carole Baskin has been breeding animals, ripping babies from their mothers, selling them, encouraging big cats as pets, helping people get big cats and the necessary permits to keep them, selling encounters with big cats, pics with big cats, tours of big cats, spend the night with a big cat. The clips came from public newspapers. You can find them here at http://www.newspapers.com. I've tagged the articles online so you can just search her name, Big Cat Sanctuary, Wildlife on Easy Street, phone number 813 920 4130 to find them.
September 11, 1998 USDA cites BCS for AWA violations after an employee is mauled. How did Carole get away with this? She does what all the other groups who violate the AWA do, threaten to sue the hell out of the USDA. USDA backs down as they have no money to fight lawsuits. That's how the Wildlife Waystation did okay all those years even after multiple violations and complaints.
1997. Carole Lewis again always trying to show the big cats with baby bottles to look cute so people will want to see and then buy them.
December 1997 while interviewed about her missing husband she happily gives a tour of her large collection of cats even putting one on a chain and taking it for a walk.
September 1997 are her husband went missing. She took interviews standing in front of Don's "junk."
December 13, 1996, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida. "Wildlife on Easy Street. Have your picture taking with Tiger, Panther, Ocelot (All Endanger Species)."
1996 The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida, Nov 13, 1996, pg 18. "Eye of the tiger. Jeff Bushnell, a volunteer with Wildlife on Easy Street in Citrus Park, tries to turn Aurora's attention to a class of second-graders at Miles Elementary in north Tampa. The visit by the tiger, two ocelots and other animals were part of a class project on rainforests."
1996, "Miles Elementary. Animals at school: Second-graders at the school at 317 E. 124th Ave. will be visited by a Bengal tiger, two ocelots and other rain forest animals from Wildlife on Easy Street Friday at 9 a.m. as part of their lesson on rain forests."
August 7, 1996, Times. "Two roaming cougars back in cages. State officials are considering citing the owners of Wildlife on Easy Street for escapes."
August 6, 1996, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida. "Pair of cougars recaptured after escaping refuge." "Summary: A pair of cougars escaped from Wildlife on Easy Street, a controversial Hillsborough wildlife refuge. Both were recaptured."
1996 "Animal Refuse: A Citrus Park animal refuge came under fire from an international wildlife group last week. The World Society for the Protection of Animals said that Wildlfie on Easy Street, where more than 100 felines and other animals live on 40 acres, didn't take proper safety precautions and kept the animals in improper conditions. Owners Don and Carole Lewis disputed the report."
March 3, 1996 The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida
Carole selling big cats to the public as pets.
1999 "It smells of exploitation the moment you walk in." "Regional director for the world society for the protection of animals discussing Wildlife on Easy Street in northwest Hillsborough County.
January 29, 1999, The Tampa Tribune, Tampe, Florida.
See the world's largest collection of big cats.
1999, "Wildlife on Easy Street. Sleep in rustic cabins amid the world's largest collection of exotic cats. Let the roars and purrs of 144 big cats lull you off to sleep at 12802 EasySt. Tampa 813 920 4130 www.WildlifeEasySt.com." She didn't call it a sanctuary. These tours, spend the night with big cats were used to sell big cats.
2004. "Wildlife Tours. Big Cat Rescue. Stand 3 feet from a 700 pound tiger! Spend the night at the world's largest exotic cat sanctuary. 12802 Easy Street, Tampa, FL 33625. 813 920-4130. www.BigCatRescue.org."
2005. Tribune. "Howard Baskin dangles a toy for Bailey, a bobat found a a weeks-old kitten in someone's yard. Apparently orphaned, she missed the maternal lessons in how to fend for herself." You are not allowed to play with animals being rehabbed under a wildlife rehabilitation permit which Carole has. Howard Baskin did this to look cute for the newspaper photographer. It encourages having wildlife as pets.
She would rather than everyone thought of her the way she sees herself; a crusader for animal rights who believes no one should own a wild cat. Not a zoo. Not a sanctuary. Not even herself. But to many who live and breathe exotic animals, Baskin is a hypocrite.
They point out that her 40 acre Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Hillsborough County has 137 tigers, lions, leopards, lynx and other big cats. Her own 'private collection' they call it.
They heckle her at state wildlife meetings. They picket her funraising Fur Balls. And they speculate on what happened to her late husband, Don Lewis, calling police with tips.
'Did you feed him to the tigers?' someone once asked Baskin at the grocery store. Her own stepdaughter wanted police to test the meat grinder at the sanctuary for her missing father's DNA.
Baskin says she has no idea what happened to Lewis and she had nothing to do with it. She is simply focused on her mission to outlaw private ownership of big cats and arrive at a day when there is no longer a need to shelter them. A day when Big Cat Rescue closes."
1997 from the Wildlife on Easy Street website.
1997 Carole wrote a book and made a video about keeping big cats as pets.
"Exotic Cats As Housepets" by Carole Stairs Lewis is a 100 page book this is full of useful information on the raising and keeping of exotic cats. It covers 13 species, many of which are endangered and threatened. Zoos do not have good success with breeding the smaller cats an they are generally now a crowd drawing attraction, making the private sector the last chance these cats have for survival. Learn from our successes and be warned by our failures. There are too few of these previous animals left to lose even one to preventable cause. This book is available in hard cover, with color photos. Cost: $35 (includes shipping)"
.
"Breeding. We have neutered all of our male cougars, siberian lynx and
bobcats as these cats are plentiful in captivity and in the wild. There is no reason to breed them. We have neutered our male tiger because he is a hybrid and there will always be plenty in captivity because they breed well and are always in high demand. We do not breed our lions, but have not neutered the male as he is being boarded here and is thought to be one of the last of the Barbary
Lions.
To date, our Margay, Jungle Cats, Geoffroyi Cats, Clouded Leopard and Leopard Cats
have been unsuccessful in breeding. We still breed the leopards, lemurs and ocelots
which are endangered in order to preserve the species. Our last leopard cub was born
in 1996. We do not sell cats.
We are ambivilent about breeding Servals and Caracals as they are threatened and
probably should be bred to continue a genetic diversity capable of sustaining them, but
on the other hand, there is no place for them to live free. To date, our last kitten was
born in the spring of 1997."
1997. Old "glamour shots" of Carole, her daughter and others with big cats.
Their past name was "Wildlife on Easy Street."1997.
2004 from their website. "Big Cat Rescue, is a non profit 501 (c) 3 Corp., and is a permanent retirement home to over 170 exotic cats representing 23 species and sub species. See our
Species Listing under "Animals" for details. What makes us different is that here, your donations actually go to the animals. In order to educate the public about the conditions that lead to so many unwanted, abandoned and abused animals we offer tours, outreach presentations, animal interaction and the opportunity to spend the night in the heart of the sanctuary. We are always inneed of more dedicated volunteers. This site contains over 2100 pages of information and articles about exotic cats."
Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.
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