The rapper hit back at Carole Baskin for criticising the appearance of big cats in her WAP music video. Photo / Getty Images / Netflix
The rapper hit back at Carole Baskin for criticising the appearance of big cats in her WAP music video. Photo / Getty Images / Netflix
Cardi B has dismissed Carole Baskin's claims that the use of big cats in her WAP video was "damaging".
The rapper, 27, called the Tiger King star and animal rights activist's claims "ridiculous" in an interview with Vice, according to the Daily Mail.
"I'm not gonna engage with Carole Baskin on that," she said. "Like, that's just ridiculous you know? Oh, Lord."
Cardi B then brought up a popular conspiracy theory about Baskin, accusing Carole of murdering her second husband Don Lewis, who went missing in 1997 and was declared dead in 2002.
"Like, girl you killed your godd**n husband," she said.
Baskin previously slammed Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion for featuring tigers and leopards in their music video for racy new single WAP.
She responded to Cardi's comment saying that she was trying to "deflect the conversation".
"When most people are called out for their involvement in cruelty to animals they know there is no justification that will persuade others so they have to deflect the conversation to something else," she told Mirror Online.
Although filmmakers used a green screen and then photoshopped in the big cats, Baskin worried the video would "glamorise the idea of rich people having tigers as pets".
The rapper hit back at Carole Baskin for criticising the appearance of big cats in her WAP music video. Photo / Getty Images / Netflix
"My guess is that most people won't even see the photoshopped cats in the scenes because the rest of it is so lurid.
"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."
And despite the safety precautions to keep the animals away from the artists, Baskin said the shooting process could still be damaging to the big cats.
"You have to pose a wildcat in front of a green screen to get that image and that doesn't happen in the wild. 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)," she said.
Baskin wondered if the filmmakers had worked with "one of the big cat pimps" who she says "beat, shock and starve cats to make them stand on cue in front of a green screen in a studio".
"That's never good for the cat," she said.
"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."
