‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin says major changes are coming to her Florida sanctuary

Hey, “Tiger King” fans: The residents of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, are on the move.

Carole Baskin, who co-owns the sanctuary featured in the early pandemic Netflix hit, made the announcement last Thursday on her Facebook page.

The animal rights activist, along with her husband Howard Baskin, will reportedly shut the facility and relocate a number of the tigers to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, about three hours north of Little Rock.

The Baskins add in their post that that they will continue to fund the tigers’ care for the rest of their lives.

As for Big Cat, the property will be sold and proceeds used to fund “species-saving projects in the wild.”

“We have always said that our goal was to ‘put ourselves out of business,’ meaning that there would be no big cats in need of rescue and no need for the sanctuary to exist,” the Baskins’ dual announcement said. “Supporting our cats in larger enclosures at Turpentine Creek, at much lower cost per cat than we incur by continuing to operate Big Cat Rescue, will free up resources to let us do much more to save big cats in the wild.”

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Once at the 450 acre Arkansas facility, the Sunshine Staters will likely rub elbows (ahem, noses) with another famous costar of the highly riveting documentary: Lyla hails from Tiger King Park, the notorious breeding facility in Thackerville, Oklahoma, once owned by the show’s star, Joe Exotic, aka Joseph Maldonado Passage.

The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill his rival, Carole Baskin.

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