Where is Carol Baskin now in Netflix's "Tiger King"?
Tiger King spoilers ahead; if you've seen Netflix's "Tiger King" (opens in new tab), you already know that one of the most fascinating characters to come out of the show is Carol Baskin. The main character, Joe Exotic (aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage), is a controversial zoo owner, breeder, musician, attempted politician, and is currently in prison for animal cruelty and, yes, hiring someone to have Baskin killed. Baskin himself used to have a business focused on exotic animals, but now works with PETA to advocate for animals. Her work to end private ownership of large feline animals (which is exactly what Exotic was doing) has led the two to become sworn enemies.
Baskin is (fortunately) still alive, but not a fan of this documentary. Here is what we know about what she has said and done since the program finished filming.
Baskin first appeared in the news in the 1990s (opens in new tab). Her own association with big cats began when her second husband, Don Lewis (more on him later), bought bobcats from a fur farm. Their sanctuary grew to 200 cats and two-way visits (opens in new tab): "To raise money for the business, they allowed guests to rent cabins on the property and spend the night with the big cats as roommates.
Eventually, Wildlife on Easy Street became Big Cat Rescue, and Baskin stopped breeding animals and instead invited guests to interact with them. Her activism morphed into animal rights work with her third husband (Howard Baskin), which brought her into conflict with Exotic. Baskin openly objected to Exotic's treatment of animals, especially the way they bred animals and used their offspring as entertainment, and the way they kept animals in substandard conditions such as small cages. She also called on shopping malls to cancel events sponsored by exotics.
And then things got really weird: a low-budget music video in which Exotic took aim at Baskin (opens in new tab), a copyright lawsuit after Exotic changed its name to Big Cat Rescue Entertainment (opens in new tab), and a long After the feud, Exotic tried to hire an employee as well as a hitman to have Baskin killed. The hitman turned out to be an undercover FBI agent (oops), and Exotic is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for murder for hire and animal cruelty.
In a recent lengthy blog post (opens in new tab), Baskin launched into a rebuttal, accusing the documentary of being "lewd and sensationalistic."
Five years ago, when the directors of the Netflix documentary "Tiger King" came to us, they said they wanted to make a big cat version of "Blackfish" (a documentary exposing abuse at Sea World).
How disappointing it was to see that the documentary not only did none of that, but only aimed to be as obscene and sensational as possible to attract viewers. The more obnoxious the lie, the better to win over viewers.
The series also delves into Baskin's potential involvement in her second husband's alleged disappearance (Baskin explains in the Doukas series that she left her abusive first husband for Lewis). (Don Lewis disappeared without explanation in 1997 and was legally confirmed dead in 2002). Baskin spends a large part of her blog refuting this claim.
At this point, it appears that Baskin is still running Big Cat Rescue and continuing his animal welfare work. Vanity Fair spoke with her before she watched the season (opens in new tab). Baskin said of Exotic, "He was never a big part of my life, and it's such a great story ...... It's really frustrating to have the perception that he was something big in my life."
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