Interview: Animal Rights activist Carole Baskin on “It’s Not So Late Show” with Aaron Hanania
Animal Rights Activist Carole Baskin is the featured guest this week on the “It’s Not So Late Show” with host Aaron Hanania. Baskin talks about her life and dedication to protecting animals, including tigers and bobcats. The video interview is 34 minutes long
By Ray Hanania
Carole Baskin, the animal rights activist, was the guest this week on the “It’s Not So Late Show” with host Aaron Hanania.
During the video interview, Baskin talked about her lifelong campaign to fight for the rights of animals and her campaign to save tigers and bob cats.
Baskin spoke about how she got into the field of saving animals, especially tigers and bob cats, explaining that she worked at an exotic animal auction and would buy llamas on big tracks of land.
She said she bought her first bobcat to prevent a taxidermist from slaughtering it for its fur.
Baskins aid she is driven to rescue animals to protect them from being killed. She explained she learned in the 1990s that people were buying tigers as pets and launched Big Cat Rescue, originally called Wild Life on Easy Street,” where she is the CEO and founder.
“The biggest challenge that I face is ignorance and apathy. Most people don’t know that we are going to lose the tiger in the wild in the next five years,” Baskin said.
“And even the ones who do know don’t seem to care and that has been really frustrating because we are running out of time and the only way we are going to save the cats in the wild is to end the captive breeding of them. Because that’s creating a legal smokescreen for illegal activities like pouching.”
Baskins aid she is concerned about tigers noting there are only about 5,000 left in the world.
“India has largest population with 3,900 and maybe in Siberia, there may be 500 to 1,000. There’s just, there’s hardly any tigers left. We’re talking about 95 percent of the cats have been lost in thw wild in the last 200 years,” Baskin said.
Click here to listen to the interview or watch the interview using the widget below.
Baskin has attracted the attention of local, national, and international media outlets to the plight of captive big cats.
Baskin drew public attention when she was featured in the 2020 Netflix true crime documentary series Tiger King, which follows Baskin’s escalating feud with Oklahoma-based private zoo owner Joe Exotic.
Following the release of the series, Baskin received abuse online due to the third episode of the series.
Baskin is also well known for her appearance on Dancing with the Stars, featuring her dancing to a cover of the song “Eye of the Tiger”. She and her husband Howard also appeared in the 2021 Louis Theroux documentary Shooting Joe Exotic.
Watch 34 minute video interview with Carole Baskin using the video player below.
American animal rights activist @carole_baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary based near Tampa, Florida, spoke about saving animals especially tigers and bob cats, during an interview on the #ItsNotSoLateShow with host @AaronHanania
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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