Exklusively for zoos.media – 9th of August in 2023. Author: Philipp J. Kroiss
The animal rights industry once again shows its ugly face. Felicia Frisco demasks the animal rights activist’s tacktics by showing how they try to bully her and use weight shaming in their campaign.
Big Cat Rescue: Bullying & Weight Shaming
Everyone, who ever discussed with radical animal rights activists, knows that: if they can’t beat you because you know the facts, they make it personal: you will find yourself being insulted and bullied. Another example of this was made by “Carole Baskin and the Big Cat Rescue Team”. Felicia Frisco is an animal caretaker, who is constantly flawless passing every single inspection of her animal husbandry. She is educating many people with her traveling big cat husbandry and raising her voice for conservation. They leave no chance to try to bully her wherever they can but she is strong enough to be undeterred by these attacks. Luckily, that doesn’t stop her from exposing these methods.
Disgusting attempt to spread hate
Big Cat Rescue wants its followers to “take action” against her appearance at the Carver County Fair. The activsits claim there would be “14 shows in 5 days”. In fact, there are just 12 shows scheduled – two to three a day – with Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) and a white South African lion (Panthera leo krugeri). So, there’s no problem at all with these educational shows the big cats voluntarily participate in. Ignoring all flawlessly passed inspections, the animal rights activists claim it would be an “abusive travel act”. There is no fact to support this claim.
Besides these misinformation, it gets even dirtier because of the use of a weight-shaming picture that should represent Felicia Frisco’s work. She exposed it:
The animal rights activists know that the truth is not on their side, so they try to hurt a renowned young female animal trainer with such an insulting representation. Felicia Frisco is the only performing female tiger trainer in the USA and really successful. The animal rights industry fears this because education is the natural enemy of the activists’ agenda full of lies and misinformation. That’s why they try to stop her from showing many people the truth about tigers and lions in human care.
Education is important
Threatened species need ambassadors. The message of conservation has to to go out to as many people as possible. Seeing these animals at a fair or something like that is more accessible for some people than visiting a zoo. A zoo might be too far away of to expensive, for example. In addition, many zoological gardens stopped educational shows with big cats in free contact. So, Felicia Frisco’s educational show is a unique experience that can familiarize people with conservation who cannot be reached by stationary zoos. It’s a great and important addition for conservation action.
Also, more and more stationary zoological institutions in the USA make mobile educational offers including bringing animals with them. Most zoos and aquariums are not able to do this with big cats because their animals have not grown accustomed to this mobile life for generations as, for example, Felicia Frisco’s big cats have. Many private owners, educators, and circuses care for a population of animals that know no other life than in close contact with humans. The caretakers live with these animals as part of their families. This tradition is a treasure because it enables a completely different and enriching animal experience.
Felicia Frisco educating millions
More than 2 million people follow Felicia Frisco on TikTok alone. She shares her love for her animals and her posts were liked over 38 million likes on this platform. By doing that, she shows a lot of transparency concerning her husbandry and debunks the animal rights activists. Felicia Frisco shows that no one needs to force big cats to be in safe contact with them. She trains these animals on the basis of love and respect. Everybody can see that the animals enjoy that.
@teentigermom93 Tiger kisses 🥰 #tiger #ScreamItOut #cute #wholesome #zoo #trainer #professional #petsoftiktok #zookeeper #catsoftiktok #cat ♬ original sound – theetriccstallion
You won’t find a great human-animal bond like this in the animal rights industries’ so-called sanctuaries. Especially not in husbandries connected with “Carole Baskin and the Big Cat Rescue Team”. So, there seems also a lot of jealousy when animal rights activists act against Felicia Frisco. Luckily, she doesn’t let them stop her. She keeps doing amazing work with and for animals while inspiring millions.
