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Tiger King star Carole Baskin has called out Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion for their use of big cats in the music video for new single ‘WAP’, describing the clip as “lurid.”
In a statement written to Billboard in response to the video, the Big Cat Rescue CEO said that on top of her concerns regarding the animals’ welfare when capturing the footage, she felt the clip could help to “glamorise” the idea of having them as pets.
“My guess is that most people won’t even see the Photoshopped cats in the scenes because the rest of it is so lurid,” Baskin said. “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. In fact, probably most of the rooms were Photoshopped in via green screen.”
Baskin added that, despite not being present in the room for the video itself, the scenes featuring a cheetah and a tiger would not have been captured organically, explaining that “you have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn’t happen in the wild.”
Baskin continued: “It can’t 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, who makes 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.”
Baskin added that the worst part of the video was its potential to “glamorise” keeping big cats as pets. “That makes every ignorant follower want to imitate by doing the same. After tigers are too old for pay to play sessions by people like Joe Exotic, Bhagavan Antle, Marc McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and others, they become a liability instead of an asset.
“While I think most 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.
“Either way, it’s always abusive to the cat.”
Earlier this week (August 6), Megan Thee Stallion confirmed she’s working on a film screenplay.
Megan had previously alluded to a feature film development in her NME interview last month. In a new interview, the Houston rapper confirmed her work in progress and said she was a big horror film fan, but did not specify whether her own work would be part of the genre.
“It’s gonna be something that definitely blows your mind; you’ve never seen it before,” she told Variety.
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