‘Tiger King’ star Carole Baskin offers $5,000 reward to find missing big cat in Houston
One the breakout characters of ‘Tiger King’ says missing Texas tiger “does not belong in private hands” and puts up $5,000 reward
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“Tiger King’’s Carole Baskin has appealed to people who know the whereabouts of the tiger spotted on a Houston street by offering a $5,000 reward.
The tiger, who apparently is named India was spotted wondering alone, and footage was posted to Twitter. India’s location is currently unknown by Texas authorities.
“Hey all you cool cats and kittens, its Carole Baskin from Big Cat Rescue and we are offering a $5,000 reward if the person who has India the tiger will release that cat to a sanctuary that is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries and, or work with law enforcement to convict the people involved in the buying and selling of this tiger.” she said via Instagram.
She used the video to make sure her message got out to the public.
“This tiger does not belong in private hands and we need to get the tiger to safety as soon as possible,” she said in conclusion.
Ms Baskin came to fame following the debut of Netflix’s Tiger King, a standalone documentary series centring around Joe Exotic, and his Oklahoma animal park. She opposes the conditions that Exotic, real name Joseph Maladonado-Passage, kept the big cats in. He was arrested in 2017 over a plot to murder Ms Baskin, who is a vocal critic of him.
She also appeared on CNN on Wednesday and expressed her outrage at the people who kept this animal in a domestic setting.
“The people who were involved in buying and selling and owning and transporting this tiger have proven that they are absolutely reckless individuals with no concern for the people around them or for the animal involved. No tiger belongs in a backyard or basement,” she said.
Ms Baskin lauded the response of the police who came to the scene, saying, “He showed amazing restraint in not shooting that tiger, emptying his gun into that tiger. He kept eye contact, he back away slowly.” she said, while saying that if you see a tiger running away “just triggers their instinct to kill.”
She described the level of danger that the neighbourhood was “extreme”, largely because “no one had even knew the tiger had escaped.”
She spoke of her alarm about how he was just prowling around, and how there was reportedly a children’s party happening locally, which “would have triggered every instinct in that cat to kill.
Victor Cuveas was arrested but let out on jail on Wednesday with a $50,000 bond related to a different charge, connected to a 2017 murder.
Regarding the instance of the missing tiger, Mr Cuveas faces charges of evading arrest but nothing specific about India being missing.
His lawyer Michael Elliot says that Mr Cuveas is not India’s owner and he said, “I want to help finding India.”
Owning a tiger is not illegal in Texas, but keeping one in a domestic setting is.