Tiger King star Carole Baskin said she’s lost over a million dollars in revenue following the closure of her cat sanctuary due to the pandemic.
The animal rights activist, who rose to fame on the popular Netflix series was forced to close her business down after she discovered big cats could also be killed by Covid-19.
But Carole, 61, was also fearful that visitors to her sanctuary would plot to kill her cats as Tiger King viewers were angry that her animals were in cages.
READ MORE: Tiger King’s Carole Baskin under constant watch after facing death threats for 30 years
Talking exclusively to Daily Star about her business closure, Carole said: “So we have still not reopened for two and a half years.
(Image: NETFLIX/Youtube)
“We’ve been closed and it’s been costing us over a million dollars a year in revenue to be closed.
“The cats are still dying in zoos from Covid so I’m not going to expose my cats to that kind of threat.”
She continued: “Every year I have to raise about three and a half million dollars just to keep the cats fed and vet care and that sort of thing.
“And by losing a million dollars a year of that revenue it really has cut into our ability to do things. So I’ve had to let go of half of my staff.
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“All of our animal care is done by volunteers, so it didn’t result in any diminishment of their care but the projects that we had going on out there, we were opening up the world’s first augmentative reality zoo so you see cats in a headset in natural environments.”
When asked whether she receives any additional help, the reality star expressed that there is no aid available for big cat rescuers.
She explained: “There is no government funding for rescuing big cats and in our country, the government has been the biggest problem, as they don’t stop these people from doing things that are just a really bad idea.
“It’s a bad idea to be breeding hundreds of big cats with nowhere for them to go.”
Since her appearance on Tiger King, which was first released on the streaming platform in 2020, activist Carole has achieved a huge win with the passage of a bill which aims to put the exploiters of tigers and lions out of business.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
