Carole Baskin Called Out Ted Cruz For Not Signing A Bill That Would’ve Prevented A Tiger From Being On The Loose In Houston

While weighing in on the tiger currently on the loose in Houston, Tiger King star Carole Baskin called out Ted Cruz for failing to sign on to the Big Cat Public Safety Act back in December, which she believes would’ve prevented this whole mess. Cruz not only didn’t push for a vote on the bill, but he publicly criticized Democrats for wanting to “prosecute Tiger King,” instead of focusing on the pandemic. According to Baskin, Cruz’s failure to get behind the bill is directly linked to the tiger roaming the streets of Houston.

Here’s what she told CNN via The Recount:

You know this is becoming kind of commonplace in Texas, and so I really hope that Senators Cruz and Cornyn sign on to the Big Cat Public Safety Act when they brought it up last year. Because if they had last year when the House passed the bill — the Senate didn’t bring it up — this wouldn’t have happened this time. And the reason for that is this cub’s only nine months old, which means it probably aged out of being used as a pay-to-play prop in December of last hear when this passed the House with a two-thirds vote.

As for the big cat, yes, it’s the same tiger from the viral video on Sunday. In the video, the Bengal tiger can be seen wandering a neighborhood as an off-duty police officer does his best to keep people inside and contain the situation. (Warning: Audio is NSFW)

According to CNN, Victor Hugo Cuevas, the man who was illegally housing the tiger was arrested after trying to flee with the animal. Cuevas, who was out on bond for a murder charge, was eventually caught by authorities. The tiger, however, is still on the loose, which only bolstered Baskin’s further assessment that “the kind of people who own tigers are really dangerous, reckless people.”

Of course, there’s some strange irony in Baskin talking about a murder suspect and tigers, and naturally, social media is already on it:

(Via The Recount on Twitter)