Story abstract
- Congress unanimously voted to ban the personal possession of massive cats with out a single “no” vote within the senate
- Present huge cats have to be registered
- No new cats may be acquired/bought/owned
- Public contact with six varieties of huge cats can be banned
- Licensed zoos and sanctuaries are exempt
Unique story by Steven Nelson of The New York Publish
WASHINGTON — Rating one other win for Carole Baskin. The primary antagonist of Netflix’s “Tiger King” Joe Unique prevailed once more over her locked-up nemesis late Tuesday with congressional passage of laws banning personal possession of tigers, lions and different huge cats.
The Baskin-backed invoice sailed by way of the Senate with out a single “no” vote and now goes to President Biden’s desk to develop into legislation. The White Home says Biden will signal the invoice, which handed the Home 278-134 in July.
“Apparently I’m more durable to intimidate and kill than some thought!” Baskin mentioned in a video celebrating the milestone — a transparent jab at Unique, who’s serving a 21-year federal jail sentence for crimes together with hiring somebody to kill her.
“The passage of the invoice is the profitable end result of a few years of battling towards narcissistic, abusive, harmful males who dominated the merciless commerce and did all the things they might to cease its passage, together with eager to intimidate, discredit and even kill me,” Baskin mentioned.
The laws phases out the possession of massive cats by forbidding personal house owners from buying new animals whereas forcing them to register their present shares.
It additionally bans direct public contact with six varieties of huge cats — lions, tigers, leopards, snow leopards, jaguars and cougars. Baskin contends cubs typically are killed by house owners after rising out of their potential as revenue turbines.
The invoice exempts licensed zoos and sanctuaries similar to Baskin’s personal Massive Cat Rescue facility in Tampa, Fla.
Baskin, 61, turned nationally well-known in 2020 with the huge success of the documentary sequence that documented her rivalry with Unique, now 59, who described himself as a “homosexual, gun-carrying, redneck with a mullet.”
Baskin campaigned towards Oklahoma-based Unique’s companies, together with creating public strain to halt his tiger cub-petting gigs. In retaliation, Unique accused Baskin of feeding her lacking first husband Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997, to her personal huge cats.
Unique even produced a track and music video known as “Right here Kitty Kitty” about Baskin allegedly feeding Lewis’ physique components to lions and tigers.
Unique additionally accused Baskin of hypocrisy in her marketing campaign towards huge cat possession, noting that her sanctuary originated with a non-public assortment.
Unique operated the Better Wynnewood Unique Animal Park, specializing in tigers and lions, and allegedly paid $3,000 in 2017 to Allen Glover — the right-hand-man of his enterprise rival Jeff Lowe — to homicide Baskin after years of violent rants towards her.
Unique, additionally convicted of federal animal abuse, mentioned he was framed and Glover recanted his testimony final 12 months, saying in a sworn affidavit that “Jeff Lowe created the complete murder-for-hire plot from begin to end.”
Prosecutors mentioned this 12 months, nonetheless, that Unique’s conviction ought to stand due to secret recordings during which he appeared to verify particulars of Glover’s preliminary allegation.
Baskin mentioned that the invoice headed to Biden for remaining approval will get rid of mistreatment of huge felines.
“Inside a decade, a lot of the hundreds of massive cats residing this fashion could have handed away, and in 20 years, no huge cats will probably be residing in this sort of distress,” she mentioned in her celebratory video.
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