In 1992,
Don Lewis and Carole Lewis (now known as
Carole Baskin) acquired a bobcat. The following year they acquired dozens more. In 1995, they incorporated Wildlife on Easy Street, Inc. in Florida as a
Not For Profit Corporation with the stated purpose of "acquisition, shelter, feeding, breeding and socialization of exotic and non-exotic animals; public education and awareness to benefit their wild counterparts." In 2003, Wildlife on Easy Street, Inc. was dissolved in a merger into a newly incorporated nonprofit, Big Cat Rescue Corp., with the stated purpose "Prevention of cruelty to animals by providing rescue and a permanent retirement home to exotic cats". The sanctuary featured a
bed and breakfast experience that allowed guests to spend the night with a young wild cat in their cabin. According to the sanctuary, this part of its history was a misguided effort to aid
captive conservation and animal welfare of privately owned animals. The sanctuary was accredited by The Association of Sanctuaries in 1998, and its successor, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries since 2007 to present. In September 2000, Wildlife on Easy Street applied to the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums for accreditation as a Certified Related Facility. The application was denied in March 2001 for various reasons, including concerns about the amount of visitor contact with the cats, lack of any trained zoological professionals on staff, insufficient formal veterinary programs and unfinished perimeter fencing. BCR ceased physical encounters of any kind between the public and cats housed there in 2003. In 2013, following a 2011 lawsuit,
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka "Joe Exotic", whose family runs the
GW Exotic Animal Park, was ordered to pay Big Cat Rescue $ for using confusingly similar trademarked materials. Joe Exotic attempted to hire a hitman to kill
Carole Baskin, chief executive officer of Big Cat Rescue, who had won a lawsuit against him in 2013. Maldonado-Passage has since been arrested and convicted of two counts of
murder-for-hire, eight violations of the
Lacey Act and nine of the
Endangered Species Act. In October 2014,
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission inspected BCR based on a complaint and issued a warning for "maintaining a Leopard in an uncovered outdoor cage >1000 sq. ft., without the use of a moat system, and without previously obtaining written approval by the Commission". In March 2019, Big Cat Rescue opened a zoo exhibit without live animals, using
augmented reality and
virtual reality technologies. Visitors come in person and access the exhibit through a
mobile app on their
cell phone. In March 2020, Big Cat Rescue temporarily closed to the public due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Florida., and Baskin later announced in a Facebook post that she was considering not opening it to the public, stating; Prior to December 2023, all of the cats had been permanently relocated to
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR) in
Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In December 2024, Big Cat Rescue sold the Florida land for USD$19.5 million, of which they claimed would be used to help pay for the food at TCWR and to donate to projects working to save cat species in the wild. ==Conservation==