TAMPA, Fla. — They are the tigers, bobcats, and other animals that once lived in Tampa.
But now Arkansas’s Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is their home.
“They are in an Ozark Mountain setting,” said founder Tanya Smith.
“It’s a quiet area. There’s not a big five-lane highway running right past it like Tampa,” she added.
In preprepation tosell the Big Cat Rescue propertynear Citrus Park Mall, owners Howard and Carole Baskin transferred their animals to Turpentine Creek in 2023.
“We are the best at what we do in the country, and they know that,” Smith said.
Carole Baskin and Big Cat Rescue were part of the Tiger King phenomenon on Netflix.
Smith said she was disgusted by much of what was depicted in the series involving other big cat facilities, including the one operated by the now-imprisoned Joe Exotic.
“The sad thing is the animals’ stories didn’t get told. But you know, if those people were abusing people, it’s pretty easy to know they are abusing animals also,” Smith said.
Smith said one silver lining is some of the worst offenders shown on Tiger King were shut down and their animals siezed.
Turpentine Creek took in some of those cats, and others were confiscated after The Big Cat Public Safety Act in 2022.
It banned the private ownership of big cats and ended the practice of using tiger cubs for photo ops, as they were at Dade City’s Wild Things, a now-closed private zoo in Pasco County.
“There’s a lot of cubs that end up in these bad situations where, without a sanctuary like ours, most of those would be destroyed,” Smith said.
Smith said the Baskins paid more than a million dollars to upgrade facilities in Arkansas, and they visit their big cats once a year.
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