2016-07-05 Carole Baskin’s Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

Love letter to Jamie

I've never had a clue how to express it to you, but I love you beyond what words can say. I just wrote the following on Little Feather's tribute page:

Regrets. I knew I would have them. I've known for 23 years, but now that is mostly what I feel. When Little Feather first arrived and was so sick, I had to carry her in a pouch in my shirt because I still had to work.

I had to run a real estate business, care for a husband suffering from Alzheimers, and care for more than 60 other exotic cats who had been rescued from fur farms and taxidermists. Jamie was only 13 and was the most help I had. It would be three more years before my family would join us in this endeavor.

I adored Little Feather and wanted so much just to enjoy her kittenhood, to spend time with her, and others, like Windsong, Raindance, Hercules and Catera, but was always being pulled in so many directions that I never had that luxury. I always knew I would regret it. I knew I'd wake up one day and that opportunity would be lost forever.

I tried to spend time with each of them, and all of the others that I loved in each and individual ways, but it was never enough. The phone would ring, a text would arrive, some other cat would need assistance and the time was always cut short.

Today as I saw Jamie struggling to deal with the loss of a sister, a child to her, a constant in her life for all of her teens and adulthood, I took it to heart that I need to make more time for those I love because I don't want to regret a minute of my life that wasn't spent showing that I love them.

Today I wrote up my speech for tomorrow’s USDA call

What animals should APHIS consider including under the definition of dangerous animals?

I believe it is easier to exclude animals from the definition of dangerous animals, when it comes to felids. Because there is no known vaccine against rabies in exotic cats, ALL cat species, other than Felis catus or Felis silvestris catus, should be classified as dangerous animals. Failure to classify them as dangerous, implies that they are not dangerous.

The very meaning of the word “dangerous” is: Being able or likely to do harm.

Virtually every state requires that exotic cats, of all species, other than domestic cats, be kept caged. That is because they are dangerous, both to humans they may bite, scratch or kill and to the environment.

Many states require that domestic cats be vaccinated against rabies and even more require that domestic cats coming into their state be vaccinated first, but there is no known, effective vaccine against rabies in non domestic cats.

Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain. Symptoms include: violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Once symptoms appear, the result is nearly always death.

That’s a pretty awful death and is easily preventable by classifying all non domestic cats as dangerous, and thus not suitable as pets or pay to play props.

As for environmental issues, there isn’t a week that goes by, that we don’t get a call from someone reporting a cougar in their yard. Usually it is a bobcat, or a HUGE domestic cat that is likely the cast off from the hybrid cat trade. 1st generation hybrids, between domestic cats and wild cats, are often bigger than either parent and never work out as pets.

These cats often escape or are released into the environment and then breed with feral cats, causing danger to the public and to the local eco systems who are not designed for these super predators.

Back in the 60s and 70s, when the Animal Welfare Act was passed, no one would have dreamed that people would try to make pets out of wild cats, so the antiquated rules have not kept up with protecting wild animals from the abuses they suffer today. I am glad that you are considering rule changes and hope that you will drastically improve the protections afforded wild cats in captivity. The changes you make now will probably have to survive another half century of human evolution, so they should be far more restrictive than you may think necessary for now.

Other News Around the Sanctuary Today

Last night I got a call from a woman in OR who’s been working for Bonnie Ringo for 4 years off and on, and full time since April 1. She relayed a long tale of law breaking and abuse toward her and her family, but I don’t have time to write that up now. Suffice it to say that I’m glad the bad guys use my name all the time because when they alienated their staff, they always know to come to me.

I’m thankful that my mother is lucid enough to still handle as much as she does. Today she and I set aside time to call my credit card company to find out why my card is frozen. I’d asked my mother to send a $5000 payment, when I learned a month ago that we had not gotten the April bill in the mail. When my card froze again, I thought maybe she hadn’t paid a bill, or had lost a bill, but today the credit card company said that I was over paid, but that they had blocked my card because the post office told them they couldn’t forward my mail any longer.

I’ve been at this address for more than 20 years. There is no mail forwarding going on. Our postal service has just become completely unreliable.