Even if you never got around to binging Netflix’s wildly popular docuseries Tiger King, you’ve probably heard all about the rivalry between Tampa’s Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic, the former owner of G.W. Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma. Now, for the first time since the airing of Tiger King, Carole Baskin is finally breaking the silence with two announcements about the sanctuary. In an email sent directly to Narcity, Baskin expressed her wish to clear up some fallacies that became evident to her after the docuseries went viral. “I, Carole Baskin, speak out publicly for the first time since Tiger King,” the emails read. Baskin goes on to explain a new augmented reality game that she hopes will help end tiger captivity and the concerns of the public that led her to found it. “Judging from the tens of thousands of calls, letters, emails and social posts I’ve gotten after Tiger King aired…most people don’t understand that breeding tigers is causing their extinction in the wild, not preventing it,” Baskin explained. “Another fallacy that came into sharp focus was the general public’s belief that captive bred big cats can be set free.” FAQ Why cub petting is ALWAYS abuse? https://t.co/W4GyD093dtFind out about BCR cages: https://t.co/ouoANuUJ0zWhy can't they go free? https://t.co/BLb4lc00IMWhy captive breeding kills: https://t.co/xYb1awZqd1More lies you were told in #TigerKing https://t.co/nNhs1BZF5G pic.twitter.com/UhCT8Elfz7— Big Cat Rescue (@BigCatRescue) April 6, 2020 The game launched Thursday, June 25, serendipitously the same day that Big Cat Rescue has been granted permanent possession of a tiger named Aria. Aria was transferred to the sanctuary last year after being seized by the Ohio Department of Agriculture from a backyard as a private pet in Ohio. “I felt if I was going to tell people there is a better way to educate people and make them care about conservation than keeping wild animals in cages, then I had to prove it,” Baskin wrote. View this post on Instagram You can't hide from Monday Dutchess! Watch her on Vacation at BigCatCams.com A post shared by bigcatrescue (@bigcatrescue) on Jun 1, 2020 at 5:34am PDT In partnering with Xennial Digital, the new free game was released for Rift users in the Oculus store, teaching players how to track a tiger in the wild while educating them on poaching and conservation efforts. View this post on Instagram Sapphire the white tiger will be going on Vacation Rotation next! Do you know what we mean when we say Vacation? VR is a 2.5-acre enclosure with a lake, giant platforms, lots of toys, dens, and trees where the big cats rotate through each month. She will get 4 weeks of new spaces that she can mark as her own AND you can watch it LIVE at bigcatcams.com (her home enclosure is approx 15,000+ sq feet) A post shared by bigcatrescue (@bigcatrescue) on Jun 11, 2020 at 1:17pm PDT Baskin hopes that this type of augmented reality learning will help eliminate the need for the captivity of exotic animals.
