Carole Baskin Releases New Documentary Series Ahead of 'Tiger King 2' on Netflix
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Thanks to Tiger King and Tiger King 2 on Netflix, many viewers have questions about Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue.
Baskin's rival, Joe Exotic, is currently serving a 22-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot.
Following the Tiger King docuseries release in 2020, Baskin criticized it for being "salacious and sensational."
Here's what Carole has been doing since Tiger King was introduced to the world.
Between his over-the-top music videos and deep love for exotic animals, Joe Exotic seems like a big enough character to carry Netflix's Tiger King on his own — until you meet Carole Baskin. First, viewers meet her from Exotic's perspective: She's his rival that ultimately landed him 22 years in jail because, well, he was convicted of trying to hire someone to kill her. But the Netflix docuseries also sheds lights on Baskin's own story involving her husband Don Lewis's questionable disappearance in 1997.
While the seven-episode series explored Baskin and Exotic's wild world in the big cat industry, there's still so much left to uncover ... which is where Tiger King season 2 comes in. The follow-up to last year's hit docuseries addresses the curious case of Don Lewis in more detail, despite Baskin suing Netflix in attempt to bar the streaming service from "any use of film footage of the Baskins and the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Tiger King 2 or in any related promotion or advertising." (Netflix and Royal Goode Productions have called for the claim to be denied.)
Here's everything you need to know about Baskin's story, where she is now, and what she has to say about the Netflix docuseries.
Who is Carole Baskin?
At 19 years old, Baskin met Tampa millionaire Don Lewis. Ten years later, Lewis left his wife and children, and married Baskin. During their first few years of marriage, Baskin's interest in big cats blossomed, and the two turned a 40 acre plot of land into Wildlife on Easy Street, a big cat sanctuary that eventually housed 200 cats of 17 species in the late 1990s.
Then Lewis, who at the time was regularly making solo trips to Costa Rica, vanished without a trace on August 18, 1997. While Baskin cooperated with police, they were left without any answers — yet his children (and now many Netflix viewers) speculate that Baskin was involved in his disappearance. Lewis' children even speculate that Baskin may have fed him to her tigers. "It’s a perfect scenario to dispose of someone," his oldest child, Donna Pettis, told People in 1998. "We were upset that the cops didn’t test the DNA on the meat grinder." To this day, Baskin maintains her innocence: "My tigers eat meat; they don’t eat people," she told People . "There would be bones and remains of my husband out there. I’m amazed that people would even think such a thing." He was officially declared to be dead in 2002.
But Baskin's story doesn't stop there: She spent the last two decades embroiled with Exotic over their different views on big cat care. Exotic, for starters, believed that it was important for the public to interact with baby lions and tigers to get a better appreciation for the exotic animals; Baskin clearly disagreed. At one point, Exotic even made an entire music video to a song aptly named "Here Kitty Kitty," which focused on the rumors surrounding Baskin's husband's disappearance.
Things took a turn in 2011 when Baskin secured a million-dollar judgment against Exotic and his exotic animal park. Shortly after, Exotic posted public threats against Baskin on Facebook and YouTube, eventually leading him to promise to pay an undercover FBI agent $3,000 for her death in November 2017. Following his arrest in 2018, he was later sentenced to 22 years in prison for a murder-for-hire scheme, as well as violating the Endangered Species Act for killing five tigers in 2017.
Where is Carole Baskin now?
Wildlife on Easy Street, the sanctuary that Baskin started with her late husband, evolved into Big Cat Rescue. The mission remains the same: "to provide the best home we can for the cats in our care, end abuse of big cats in captivity, and prevent extinction of big cats in the wild." Along with her husband Howard Baskin, she works with animal rights organizations like PETA to end the private ownership of big cats, a.k.a. exactly what Exotic was doing. Currently, Big Cat Rescue is home to more than 80 lions, tigers, bobcats, cougars, and other species.
Apart from working at Big Cat Rescue, Baskin spent last fall competing on ABC's Dancing With the Stars. The first song Baskin danced to during the premiere? "Eye of the Tiger," of course. In the end, Baskin made it through two weeks on the show alongside her pro partner Pasha Pashkov.
As Tiger King 2 hits Netflix, Baskin is focusing on her own two-part Discovery+ documentary series Carole Baskin's Cage Fight, which she believes more accurately illustrates her mission and advocacy.
"When people see Carole Baskin's Cage Fight, that's who I really am. That's my real voice; that's me out there really chasing down those bad guys," Baskin explained. "It's not just a bunch of talking heads that are trash-talking each other. This is real stuff where people are going to be in the trenches, literally, with me."
The series hit the streaming platform on November 13.
Any developments about her former husband's death?
Still, the disappearance of Baskin's second husband remains a mystery — and she's not a fan of the current speculation following the Netflix series. In a 3,000-word blog post, Baskin slammed Tiger King for being "salacious and sensational." The series, which Baskin claims was described to her as "Blackfish for the big cat world," is full of "unsavory lies" about her relationship with Lewis.
When speaking about her former husband's final days, Baskin addressed how she suspected he had Alzheimer’s and she was trying to get him the help he desperately needed. "His behavior became increasing strange. He started refusing to use the bathroom and defecating outside. He brought in a homeless man to stay in our house. I rescheduled an appointment for him to see the specialist Dr. Gold. But he disappeared before the appointment date."
As for the rumor that she used her meat grinder to feed her former husband to the animals, Baskin says it's the "most ludicrous of all the lies," especially because it's hard to believe that a "human body and skeleton could be put through it." In the words of Baskin, here's what Tiger King viewers really need to know: "Don was not easy to live with and like most couples we had our moments. But I never threatened him and I certainly had nothing to do with his disappearance."
Even her husband chimed in to dispel the rumors: "We also believed Eric and Rebecca (the directors of Tiger King) when they told us that they had to mention the disappearance of Baskin's husband Don 23 years before as part of the context and background on her that it would be done in a respectful and truthful way. Not only did they lie about that, they never even gave us a chance to respond to any of the false claims that ended up in the documentary," he said in a Facebook video. "In a way this series is about con artists. The biggest con artists of them all are Eric Good and Rebecca Chaiklin."
He wraps up the 10-minute video by sharing details about his relationship with Carole including that in their 15 years of marriage, the couple has never once fought or spoken "harsh words" to one another. To him, it's impossible to believe that his wife could be responsible for such a crime. "Anyone who spends an hour with Carole would come away knowing that she had no involvement in Don's disappearance," he says.
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