'Tiger King' star Carole Baskin slams use of big cats in Cardi B's 'WAP' video

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By VT

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Tiger King's Carole Baskin has slammed Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's use of big cats in their music video for WAP.

The explicit music video features cameos from the likes of Kylie Jenner, Normani, Rubi Rose, Sukihana, Rosalía and Mulatto, but also a big cat and snakes.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Baskin - who was recently granted control of nemesis Joe Exotic's former zoo - said: "My guess is that most people won't even see the photoshopped cats in the scenes because the rest of it is so sexually explicit."

The WAP music video, which debuted on YouTube on Friday, features a big cat as reality television star, Kylie Jenner, walks down a zig-zag hallway, and notices the animal staring out from an open door.

Watch the music video below: 
[[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc5IbN4xw70]]

"I was happy to see that it does appear to all be photoshopped. It didn't look like the cats were really in the rooms with the singers."

However, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue still disapproves of the artists featuring wild animals at all.

Watch the trailer for 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' below:

"That being said, you have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn't happen in the wild," the 59-year-old continued. "It can happen in sanctuaries like ours where cats have plenty of room to avoid a green screen (or would shred it if offered access and could die from ingesting it)."

"That tells me they probably dealt with one of the big cat pimps, probably even one of the ones show in Tiger King, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, who make a living from beating, shocking and starving cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio. That's never good for the cat.

"That makes every follower of these artists, who doesn't know better, want to imitate by doing the same. After tigers are too old for pay to play sessions by people like Joe Exotic, Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle, Marc McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and others, they become a liability instead of an asset.

"While I think most [big cats] are destroyed behind closed gates at that point, some end up being given away to people who want to have a tiger to show off. That never works out and the cats either die or end up dumped in sanctuaries or worse yet, breeding mills. There have been some accounts of tigers just being turned loose on communities when they no longer served as ego props. No matter how you cut it, it's always abusive to the cat and dangerous to the public."

Baskin, who currently owns Big Cat Rescue, was awarded control of Exotic's former zoo as part of a $1 million judgment that the erstwhile zookeeper was ordered to pay her for copyright infringement.