Big Cat Rescue "Sanctuary" Buys $94,000.00 Worth of Exotics to Fill the Sanctuary

TAMPA, FL, October 06, 2010

In a two-year investigation many of the deep dark secrets, rumors and stories surrounding Carole Lewis Baskin and Big Cat Rescue of Tampa Florida now have more light shed on them than many people would wish for.

During a recent tour of Big Cat Rescue, this reporter and two other affiliates paid $25.00 to take a tour with approximately 25 other people to see this wonder billed as an accredited Big Cat Rescue. Our tour consisted of a jungle of rusty wire (which they call beautiful cages), filthy living conditions, and cats being forced to sleep in dens full of trash, feces and water from both above and below ground level.

Not only did we not see the promised array of big cats, but the tour consisted mostly of small cats such as bobcats, Servals and Caracals. During our visit to Big Cat Rescue we saw just a handful of big cats, including four tigers, two lions and a couple of leopards that looked like they could die any day. I'm sure others were hiding from the heat and our prying eyes, including those the circus pays Baskin to board at BCR.

Not knowing who we were, or that we had proof that many of the animals living at Big Cat Rescue were actually bought by Carole Lewis Baskin and her ex-husband Don Lewis as pets or breeders, the tour guides repeated Baskin's stories of the cats being "rescued" over and over again. This deception, we believe, was aimed at getting the people on the tour to feel sorry for these "abused and neglected" animals and leave their money behind to better the animals' lives, even though this facility allegedly showed a $1.5 million profit last year.

For nearly two hours the group walked around in circles in the heat with the flies and mosquitoes eating at the visitors' flesh from all the swampy water and stale ponds covering at least half of what is supposed to be a 40-acre sanctuary. The group was told stories about how these animals lived in horrible conditions before being "rescued" by Big Cat Rescue. Then, just when I thought this reporter had heard it all, straight out of our tour guide's mouth came the news that the different smells of humans give the cats enrichment, and that another form of enrichment is to drain the blood from rabbits and freeze it, making "rabbit blood popsicles" for the cats. The visitors just about died with shock! All of these people are paying to help save animals and the tour guide is talking about innocent bunnies having their blood drained from their lifeless bodies for kitty treats!

According to Baskin herself, true and accredited sanctuaries do not profit from exhibiting or exploiting their animals. As a reporter, I found it incredible that a woman who lobbies for laws to stop the exploitation of animals can be so quick to collect $25.00 per head several times a day for tours and not call it exhibition or exploitation.

Upon arriving at Big Cat Rescue you are required to sign waivers of liability in case something escapes, or you are injured, die, or come up missing, such as Don Lewis did. They do not mention their history of escapes and injuries (in one case requiring over 400 stitches) and they certainly don't want you to hold Carole Lewis Baskin or her money-making tourist attraction responsible for any doctor bills.

During a 2-hour helicopter flight over the top of Big Cat Rescue videotaping what the public can't see from the ground, this team of reporters discovered that BCR is nothing more than swamp, with staff housing, piles of trash and vehicles everywhere, and below-standard fences that are supposed to keep animals from escaping out into the public, all built on a former trash dump. Nowhere did I see the large acre-sized cages with big cats living in what is claimed to be the nearest thing to living free.

Days before our horrifying personal tour of Big Cat Rescue, we spent hours making copies of documents that had been taken right out from under Baskin's nose by her very own staff. Some of those documents are as shocking and horrifying as the tour itself. I have posted some of these documents on www.911animalabuse.org for verification. Some names and addresses have been omitted to protect the innocent. Inside these hundreds of documents we uncovered such things as:

a) USDA forms showing where Baskin bought cats she claims were rescued.
b) USDA forms showing where Baskin then sold some of these same animals.
c) USDA forms showing the breeding of cats claimed to have been rescued.
d) Copies of emails attempting to blackmail people to do what Baskin wants them to do.
e) Copies of emails attempting to set up a fake rescue to gain TV attention using mentally handicapped people for the tour.
f) Copies of emails from Baskin stating that unless she gets some mileage out of a rescue it is not worth her time.
g) Copies of emails from Baskin showing she ordered the massacre of the facility's roosters, committing them to a slow and torturous death.
h) Copies of emails from Baskin regarding taking animals out into the public, underage girls, and the fear that the facility may be accused of child pornography.
i) Copies of emails from Baskin to a taxidermist getting prices of having around 20 pelts of dead cats tanned.
j) Copies of ads offering overnight stays at Big Cat Rescue with a cat in your cottage or cabin for a fee.
k) Copies of ads where Baskin rented out cats for commercial clothing and book advertisements.
l) A copy of the "missing" Jack Don Lewis' death certificate.
m) A copy of Jack Don Lewis' power of attorney drawn up not by an attorney, but by Baskin herself, and "witnessed" by a woman who now claims she did not sign it and did not witness Don Lewis sign it, but was coerced by Baskin to lie under oath.
n) Copies of protection orders applied for by the now missing Don Lewis from his wife Carole Lewis (Baskin) as well as a similar one applied for by a former lover.
o) Copies of USDA documents showing Baskin spent over $94,000.00 dollars buying animals to fill her sanctuary with the cats she needed to have the largest collection in the country.
p) Stories from Big Cat's own website showing animals bought by Baskin being portrayed as animals she rescued "from the pet trade" in order to defraud the public of donations.
q) Documents showing Baskin was charged with 26 counts of violating the Animal Welfare Act giving her reason to change her name from Wildlife on Easy Street to Big Cat Rescue.
r) Documents requiring that people give up their rights to collect from injury for the sum of $10.00.
s) Documents of animals escaping from Big Cat rescue aka Wildlife on Easy Street, none of which appear in Baskin's list of other facility's escapes.
t) Documents of animal attacks and injuries at Big Cat Rescue aka Wildlife of Easy Street, none of which appear on Baskin's list of other facility's attacks and injuries.

The most talked about issue surrounding Big Cat Rescue and the disappearance of Carole Lewis Baskin's husband Don Lewis, who has since been declared dead, is where his body is. Lewis left millions untouched in his bank account and an estate worth even more. All that was needed for Baskin to get her hands on all that money was the legal control offered by the power of attorney which was prepared by Carole herself in case of the disappearance of Don Lewis. At least one signature on that power of attorney appears to have been forged, since a supposed witness has now come forward to say that she never saw Don Lewis sign it. This new information would make the power of attorney an illegal document, which should not have given Baskin the right to Don's millions and should in itself be cause for the Hillsboro County Sheriff's office to reopen the now 13 year old cold case and force Baskin to return the money to Don's estate until a court of law can hear the new evidence and allow a jury to decide.

Insurance fraud would be the easiest case to prove with just the simple evidence I have uncovered. After talking to former staff who were there at the time, almost all believe that Don's body may be found under a septic tank that was buried the day after he was reported missing. The reason there has never been an effort to look for it may be that Baskin has family in the same agency charged with the investigation.

Many people, including myself, would love to ask Carole Lewis Baskin a few questions, the first being why she was the only one connected to Don's disappearance who refused a lie detector test. Now would be the ideal time for Baskin to finally, once and for all, tell the truth and put this mystery, and Don Lewis, to rest.

It is in shock that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) would stand by and allow these animals to be left in such conditions not to mention standing by while innocent bunnies and chickens dying slow torturous deaths for the entertainment of Carole and her staff.

Carole Lewis Baskin is proud of the fact she spends so much money and time slandering and bashing others in the animal industry, and now I know why. She has so much to hide that she must keep the eyes of the public away from her and pointed to someone else, as if the public was to see the truth they would stop donating so much money. Carole runs a website called 911animalabuse.com where she post much of her slanderous material but fails to put in any of her reports the accidents involving big cats and humans that have happened at her very own facility. She also fails to put in her reports that she has had numerous escapes.

At the hands of Carole and her loyal comrades she has cost other facilities tens of thousands of dollars by contacting their clients, sponsors donors with fake and misleading propaganda to get public venues cancelled. Calling it wrong to exploit animals for profit. Calling it wrong to breed endangered species. Calling it wrong to take animals out into the public for education. But it's all okay for Carole Lewis Baskin to open the doors to Big Cat Rescue to public tours, sleepovers with the animals, use animals in public advertisements, use purchased animals as rescues, set up fake rescues for television time, exploit the mentally handicapped for the sake of making a buck. But it is wrong for anyone else to run an honest business.

Why doesn't the animal terrorism bill apply here? It should, and my next stop will be the Department Of Justice to see why they are not acting on this story and put a stop to such terrorist, such as a women who can get away with such a long list of offenses including the possibility of murder, forging legal documents, insurance fraud, and co-horsing people to lie under oath.

The Eastern office of the United States Department of Agriculture has allowed many violations to continue over the years without anything being done. Petitions on the internet show that the public is outraged over the conditions of Big Cat Rescue and the public demand that the USDA clean up Big Cat Rescue and make them adhere to the Animal Welfare Act and give the animals a proper safe place to live.

All documents for this story can be seen online at www.911animalabuse.org.

911animalabuse.org is run by volunteers to report abuse of any animal to the proper authorities.