I'm sure by this point you've seen Tiger King, and if not, you've heard about it (and if not, good on you for focusing your efforts on more productive things during social distancing). For those of us who have seen it (basically everyone and their mother, mine included), we watched the tale of Mr. Exotic and his *pals* 'Doc' and Jeff completely and disgustingly mistreat animals -- and women (people for that matter).
I am all for entertainment and then discussing said entertainment on all the social platforms, however, for every 20 tweets/posts/TikToks making fun of Tiger King, I might see one that talks about how f*cked up everything is in this documentary and what we can do to stop it.
So, below is a list of organizations to support and ways we can start helping end this senseless treatment of animals -- and the women who were basically trapped in a cult with the R. Kelly of the animal world.
For the cool cats and kittens:
Donate to Panthera. They're devoted exclusively to the conservation of the world’s 40 wild cat species and their ecosystems.
Donate to Peta//spread the message on social media, contact the perps, and tell them to shut that 💩down. *Personal biases aside, Peta does real work, with real results. Your petition signatures shut down awful practices; your public shaming makes companies think twice; and although extreme, at times...it works.
Donate to Animal Legal Fund Defense. They're working to shut down roadside zoos and make it harder/illegal for people to obtain licenses to legally own these animals.
Donate to World Wildlife Fund. They do a whole, whole lot of work for so many species of animals.
Donate to Wildcat Sanctuary. They provide care + homes to big cats who were illegally purchased as pets.
TAKE ACTION. Times are tough right now, and even in 'regular' times, we don't always have the luxury to give that $$$. So what we can do, FOR FREE, is contact our representatives and tell them to PASS the Big Cat Public Safety Act.
For all the ladies:
If you are the victim of domestic violence (of any kind), you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Mental abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, and extreme control ('Doc' - looking at you) are all wrong.
Donate to a local woman's shelter. It can be a little more difficult to get in contact with locations, and donations are tough right now with COVID-19, but it is worth reaching out and checking with a shelter in your area to see if there's anything you are able to help with at this time.
Then we have one last piece of this, Carole Baskin, and I have very mixed feelings. On the surface, we have so much in common. Love of animal print clothing and second-hand items (like the tigers she claims to help). However, her breeding days tend to overshadow the work she's doing now. It brings into question her authenticity and motivation -- and there's also the whole murder allegation thing...
With that, I'll leave you with a quick video, and some second-hand, animal-themed quarantine photoshoot shots:)
