Big Cat Protection Bill Passes House Same Day Volunteer Attacked

TAMPA, FL — A tiger attack at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa Thursday brought home the point Carole Baskin, the sanctuary's founder, has been making for years.

Despite being raised in captivity, tigers are wild and potentially dangerous animals that can revert to their natural instincts with no warning. One volunteer feeding a tiger nearly had her arm torn off by a cat in an enclosure.

For several years, Baskin has lobbied for the passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 1380- S.2561), a federal bill that would prevent people from owning big cats as pets and ban exploitative roadside zoos.

The bill never made it out of committee until this year, and on Thursday the U.S. House passed it 272 to 114.

Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois, the bill is an expansion of the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 intended to "further the conservation of certain wildlife species." The new bill revises requirements governing the trade of big cats, including lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars and cougars, and restricting the possession and exhibition of big cats, including direct contact between the public and big cats.

Most importantly, said Baskin, it would close down the roadside zoos she's railed against for years as cruel to animals and dangerous to the public.

Until now, big cats born and bred in captivity were bought and sold throughout the United States without regard to the owner's experience or the unique needs of the animals. The big cats were often kept in inadequate enclosures or chained up in backyards. Cubs were taken from their mothers before being properly weaned and forced to pose for photos with visitors and participate in swim encounters with patrons willing to pay extra for the privilege.

After watching the passage of the House bill on C-Span Thursday, Baskin promptly posted a victorious tweet:

"We are thrilled that the Big Cat Public Safety Act passed the House with bipartisan support to protect the big cats from abuse, the public and first responders from injuries and death, and the tiger in the wild from extinction," Baskin said. "None of these important goals are partisan in any way and we hope the Senate will follow suit quickly to make it into law."

She said her excitement was tempered by Thursday's attack involving Big Cat Rescue volunteer Candy Couser.

"This morning, during feeding, Candy Couser, 69, who has been a volunteer at Big Cat Rescue for five years, and a Green Level leeper (lions, tigers, etc.) for almost three years, was feeding 3-year-old Kimba Tiger," Baskin said. "She saw that he was locked in a section that was away from where he was usually fed and radioed the coordinator to find out why. Kimba had been locked away from that section for several days as cameras were being installed there. She opened a guillotine tunnel door at one end of the tunnel, and when she went to raise the second door, she saw it was clipped shut. This is our universal signal not to open a gate without the coordinator coming to assist, but Candy said she just wasn't thinking when she reached in to unclip it. It is against our protocols for anyone to stick any part of their body into a cage with a cat in it. Kimba grabbed her arm and nearly tore it off at the shoulder."

Another volunteer heard the commotion and came running, causing Kimbo to loosen his grip on Couser. Couser pulled away from the tiger and a volunteer who is also a nurse closed off the artery under Couser's armpit to the stop the bleeding. Another volunteer pulled Couser to safety and used his belt as a tourniquet. The volunteers packed Couser's arm in ice packs while waiting for the ambulance.

Couser was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa where she's conscious and insistent that no harm come to Kimba for her mistake.

"Candy is a beloved member of our family and cares deeply for the animals and respects the safety protocols of the sanctuary," Baskin said. "It only took one moment, and one wrong decision, for tragedy to strike."

Couser is undergoing surgery on her arm, which was broken in three places. Her shoulder was damaged as well, Baskin said.

The attack is being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"While it's our understanding that the CDC could demand he (Kimba) be killed and tested for rabies, that's unlikely given the fact that he's vaccinated and Candy does not want him to be killed for doing what comes naturally," Baskin said.

Baskin said Kimba has been placed in quarantine for 30 days as a precaution.

She said she brought in a grief counselor and gathered all staff and volunteers to discuss the incident, which has shaken everyone at the sanctuary.

"The fact that, despite our intense safety protocols and excellent record of safety, an injury like this can occur just confirms the inherent danger in dealing with these animals and why we need the Big Cat Public Safety Act to eliminate having them untracked in backyards around the country and ending up in sanctuaries where wonderful people like Candy Couser have committed themselves to providing care for those discarded by the pay to play industry," Baskin said.

She said Big Cat Rescue's keepers go through extensive training. In addition taking classes through Zoocollege.com, they are certified in every step of caring for these big cats. They must perform each procedure several times before they can go on to the next level of training, Baskin said.

"There are more than 50 classes to reach the level of proficiency required to feed our big cats," Baskin.

Kimba is among hundreds of tigers Baskin and the Big Cat Sanctuary have rescued over the years.
Born in 2017, Kimba was owned by a circus in Guatemala along with two other tigers, Max and Simba. When Animal Defenders International successfully lobbied Guatemala to pass a law banning circuses, the Hermanos Ponce Circus went on the run, taking Kimba, Max and Simba and three other tigers with it.

Eventually, Animal Defenders International and authorities found the circus and rescued the animals.

Kimba and the other big cats were taken in 2018 to a temporary rescue camp that Big Cat Rescue helped to fund. It took another 15 months for Big Cat Rescue to obtain import permits from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and make arrangements to bring the tigers to the United States.

"Big Cat Rescue funded the care for Kimba, Max, and Simba during this lengthy ordeal," Baskin said.

Eventually, the three tigers were flown to Miami and taken to Big Cat Rescue on Nov. 25, 2019.

Couser was among the volunteers who greeted Kimba when he arrived at Big Cat Sanctuary, the 67-acre Citrus Park sanctuary for tigers and other big cats, which Baskin founded in 1992.

It was Baskin's desire to protect captive tigers that led her to agree to appear in the Netflix docuseries, "Tiger King - Murder, Mayhem and Madness," a decision she now regrets because it cast her in an unfavorable light.

Instead of exposing the cruelty of roadside zoos, Baskin said the docuseries, which premiered March 20, focused on the long-running feud between Baskin and a notorious roadside zookeeper in Oklahoma, Joe Maldonado-Passage, who goes by the name Joe Exotic.

In April 2019, Maldonado-Passage was convicted of attempting to hire a hit man to murder Baskin. He was also convicted of nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act after shooting and killing five tigers at his zoo in October 2017 because he "needed empty cages" to accommodate tigers being transported from another notorious roadside zoo in Dade City, which was trying to conceal the tigers prior to an upcoming inspection.

Before beginning his prison term of 22 years in an Oklahoma prison, Maldonado-Passage took one last shot at Baskin in an interview with the docuseries directors, accusing her of killing her first husband.

It wasn't all bad, though. Baskin believes the publicity following the airing of the Netflix series, including an appearance by Baskin as a contestant on the ABC television show, "Dancing with the Stars," may have been responsible for Congress' change of heart about the Big Cat Publix Safety Act.

See related stories:

• Carole, Howard Baskin Tapped For TV Expose On Animal Exploitation
• Netflix's 'Tiger King' Prompts Sheriff To Seek Tips In Cold Case
• Dade City's Wild Things Reportedly Closes Following PETA Lawsuit
• Court Sides With PETA; Dade City Zoo Banned From Owning Tigers