Big Cat Rescue Corp.
Caring for Big Cats - Ending the Trade as Pets, Props & Parts
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
In the United States an estimated 5,000 - 10,000 big cats are living in miserable conditions in cramped back yard cages as pets or mistreated and exploited at roadside zoos and traveling shows. Worldwide the cats face increasing threat of extinction driven by poaching to sell their body parts, human/animal conflict with local residents, and habitat destruction.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Lifetime Care of the Cats
Providing the best lifetime home that we can for the big cats in our care, including spacious natural enclosures, regular enrichment activities to stimulate them mentally and physically, state of the art medical care and the best available food.
Education
Educating the public about the mistreatment of big cats in captivity and the extinction challenges they face in the wild.
Legislative and Regulatory Change
We are a leading advocate for better laws and regulations to end the abuse of big cats in captivity in the United States and in mustering grass roots support for such laws and regulations. Current efforts include the federal Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263 / S. 1210) and a Petition to USDA to ban the cub petting that drives so much of the breeding and suffering.
In Situ Conservation Programs
We devote over $100,000 of our revenue each year to specific high impact efforts being conducted by others in the wild to avoid extinction of big cats. We make a point to devote a significant portion of this budget to the smaller exotic cats who are less well known, receive much less funding generally, where our donations have meaningful impact.
Where we work
Accreditations
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries 2018
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries 2019
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries 2020
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries 2021
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries 2022
Awards
People's Choice Award by Popular Vote 2009
WEDU's People's Choice Award
People's Choice Award by Popular Vote 2008
People's Choice Award
America's Favorite Animal Shelter Top 10 2009
Care 2
Toyota's 100 Cars for Good 2011
Won a Toyota Tundra by Popular Public Vote
GFAS Carole Noon Award 2019
The Global Federation of Sanctuaries
Affiliations & memberships
Chamber of Commerce 2017
Everyday Hero Award by Bay News 9’s Bill Murphy. 2020
Rally Creator Innovative Use Award 2021
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Facebook is the single largest mechanism for educating our audience and continues to grow dramatically.
Number of cumulative views of online videos
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Cumulative views on our main YouTube Channel BigCatTV.com through the end of 2016.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
In the United States we seek to end private ownership of big cats like many other countries have done, with logical exceptions such as the zoos who meet the standards of accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Worldwide we seek to stop the steady dramatic decline in cat populations in order to preserve these apex predator species that are critical to the balance of nature.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our primary strategy is educating the public with two goals in mind. One is to reduce demand for activities like visiting roadside zoos, cub petting, cub photo ops, and circuses to create an economic basis for the cessation of these activities that drive the mistreatment. The second is grassroots advocacy to encourage people to contact legislators and regulators to change the laws and regulations. We carry out this education through virtual guided tours of the sanctuary, two offsite augmented reality installations, through immersive virtual reality games, and through our online website, social sites including Facebook and YouTube, a online course we offer at nominal cost at ZooCollege.com and 12 live webcams on the sanctuary grounds that can be viewed at BigCatCams.com .
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have the volunteer force necessary to man all of our social sites to education and answer questions in real time. We have a two full time people dedicated to our videos which have received over 600 million views and to answering questions on our social sites. We have more than 3.7 million Facebook followers and interact with them daily on big cat issues. Our website gets 2.5 million unique visitors per year and has over 10,000 pages of educational content that explains why wild animals belong in the wild and not in our homes and back yard cages.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2003 the Captive Wildlife Safety Act (CWSA) that we supported made it illegal to sell a big cat across state lines. This partial solution resulted in a drop in requests we receive to take in cats. The Big Cat Public Safety Act is the rest of the legislative solution, closing what have turned out to be loopholes in the CWSA, ending pet ownership and cub petting, and insuring that breeding is truly for conservation purposes. It was first introduced in 2012 and through our efforts along with a coalition of other animal welfare organizations has steadily built momentum each session, which is the normal path for a bill that after multiple sessions passes. Meantime, numerous states of have passed bans or partial bans on the private possession of big cats.
Our direct action against offsite cub petting and exhibition has been very successful in getting venues to either cancel or agree to no longer allow cub petting or exhibition of big cats. These include the owners of over 200 shopping malls, numerous restaurants, and some large companies like Citigroup and Porsche.
We have successfully conducted lawsuits against the most egregious wild cat exploiters and done undercover work to expose the cruel activities at several of the nation's largest tiger mills. What is next is clear: continued work to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act while continuing our education efforts to reduce demand for cub petting and exhibition and to foster true concern for conservation in the wild.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Big Cat Rescue Corp.
Board of directorsas of 3/4/2022
Jamie Murdock
Big Cat Rescue
Term: 2008 - 2023
Mary Geis
No Affiliation
Howard Baskin
Big Cat Rescue
Carole Baskin
Big Cat Rescue
Jamie Murdock
Big Cat Rescue
Darren Kipnis
Merrill Lynch
Keith Lawless
Cox Media Group
Kim Mahoney
Retired
Lynda Licht
KHS&S Contractors
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/03/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.