Carole Baskin says she's received death threats thanks to 'Tiger King': 'I've had to turn my phone off'
Carole Baskin is speaking out about her portrayal in the popular Netflix docu-series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness — which she says has resulted in her being harassed and even threatened.
In a new interview with the Tampa Bay Times — her first since Tiger King debuted on March 20 — the Big Cat Rescue founder and her husband, Howard Baskin, accuse filmmakers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin of betraying their trust by misrepresenting their Florida animal sanctuary. The couple say they participated in the documentary in order to expose animal cruelty, but say the series instead focused on more salacious storylines involving Baskin’s controversial nemesis, former zoo owner Joe Exotic. The eccentric former zoo owner (also known as Joseph Maldonado-Passage) is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for his treatment of tigers under his care as well as making threats against Baskin’s life.
“I just feel so angry that people have totally missed the point,” she tells the newspaper. “And the point is these cubs are being abused and exploited and the public is enabling that.”
“There’s almost no way to describe the intensity of the feeling of betrayal,” adds husband Howard.
Though Baskin acknowledges her problematic past as a breeder of exotic cats during the 1990s alongside then-husband Don Lewis, she insists that she is now devoted to rehabilitating rescued animals and raising awareness about the harsh conditions faced by tigers in captivity. But Tiger King, she says, leaned instead on Joe Exotic’s rants about her 67-acre Tampa sanctuary, portraying the Baskins as hypocrites raking in huge sums of money at the expense of the animals there. Carole Baskin says footage depicted her spacious enclosures as cramped, with animal rights organization Animal Defenders International issuing a statement defending her “natural vegetation, pools [and] added enrichment.” The Tampa Bay Times also reports that, despite Joe Exotic’s claims, the Baskins receive modest salaries ($65,000 for Carole, and $73,000 for Howard) from the $5.2 million they raised last year through grants and public tours.
Worse, Carole Baskin says, the 1997 disappearance of her second husband Don Lewis — which she says she only discussed on camera after the filmmakers allegedly told it was just for background purposes — was turned into a major storyline insinuating that, as Joe Exotic has repeatedly claimed, she killed her estranged spouse and fed him to her tigers. Though Baskin is not an official suspect in Lewis’s disappearance, which remains an open investigation, Tiger King viewers have had a field day with theories and memes accusing her of murder. She says the speculation has overshadowed the animal cruelty charges she expected the series to feature.
“They saw those cubs being dragged away from their mother,” she tells the newspaper. “Where are those memes? Where are those comments?”
According to Baskin, the series has turned Joe Exotic, despite his history of exploiting animals, into a cult folk hero, with fans calling for his release from a Texas prison. Meanwhile, her newfound fame as a suspected killer has prompted death threats and incidences of harassing behavior. The 58-year-old says drones have flown over her sanctuary — which has been closed since mid-March due to coronavirus concerns — while strangers have loitered near her property and even approached her. Due to safety concerns, she no longer rides her bike between her home and the sanctuary, and is no longer available for emergency calls to help rescue injured exotic cats in the area.
“I’ve had to turn my phone off,” she says. “I can’t tell the real ones from the fake ones because they’re always out-of-state numbers anyway.”
Though Goode and Chaiklin did not respond to Baskin’s claims in the new interview, they have previously maintained that she “wasn’t coerced,” following a post she and Howard shared disputing Tiger King’s footage.
Baskin’s complaints come as others featured in the series returned for Netflix’s The Tiger King and I after-show on Sunday. Hosted by Joel McHale, the special saw reality show producer Rick Kirkham make claims that Joe Exotic once shot an old horse and fed it to his tigers; the Oklahoma showman was also allegedly fearful of the big cats surrounding him, Kirkham charged, and would pose with tigers who were blind or tranquilized. New zoo owner Jeff Lowe and former employees Kelci "Saff" Saffery and Erik Cowie all said that Joe Exotic would indeed have tigers put down even if it wasn’t medically necessary. And former campaign manager Joshua Dial spoke about witnessing the accidental shooting death of Travis Maldonado, Joe Exotic’s husband. The grieving zookeeper, Dial says, visited a shaman after the death.
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