Leopard Attack At Big Cat Rescue Injured 46-Year-Old Texas Woman

WYNNEWOOD, OK, December 30, 2010

Big Cat Rescue's CEO Carole Lewis Baskin declines comment and would claim no wrongdoing.

Mindy Harrell of Odessa, Texas was attacked by a leopard through its cage. Harrell, 46, received 451 stitches to her right arm after she got to close to the animals cage and it removed skin from her elbow to her wrist.

Carole Lewis Baskin, CEO of the sanctuary denied any wrongdoing in response to the Federal charges brought on by the United States Department of Agriculture, and claimed the inspector was biased against her.

Mrs. Lewis Baskin, has posted on her current website, and many others she runs, the vital statistics of having big cats in captivity and the danger of them in zoos and parks around the world and now must add the Tampa-run facility to that list.

Seventy-year-old Peggy Rousanzion of Largo, Florida recalls her overnight stay at the sanctuary as a birthday present where she was able to experience the joy of having a large exotic cat stay with her in her overnight cabin on the sanctuary. She remembers having the 70-pound cat in her lap for hours without anyone there in the cabin from the sanctuary.

Complaints have been filed against the facility this year by neighboring facilities for unsafe enclosures and perimeter fencing. The United States Department of Agriculture followed up on all complaints and once again cited Big Cat Rescue in June and September of this year for unsafe enclosures that could cause possible escape of large cats.

911 animal abuse speaks for the animals with no voice.

Website: http://www.911animalabuse.org