Carole Baskin | |
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 Baskin in 2019 | |
| Born | Carole Ann Stairs (1961-06-06)June 6, 1961 (age 64) Bexar County, Texas, U.S. |
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| Children | 1 |
| Website | bigcatrescue |
Carole Ann Baskin (néeStairs; formerlyMurdock andLewis; born June 6, 1961) is theCEO ofBig Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary.[1][2] She has attracted the attention of local, national and international media outlets to the plight of captivebig cats.
Baskin drew public attention when she was featured in the 2020Netflixtrue crime documentary seriesTiger King, which follows Baskin's escalating feud withOklahoma-basedprivate zoo ownerJoe Exotic. Following the release of the series, many suspected Baskin was involved in thedisappearance of Don Lewis, her second husband. Baskin denied these claims in a post on Big Cat Rescue's website. Her catchphrase, "Hey all you cool cats and kittens!",[3][4] also became ameme as a result ofTiger King.[5][6]
Baskin is also well known for her appearance onDancing with the Stars, featuring her dancing to a cover of the song "Eye of the Tiger".[7] She and her husband Howard also appeared in the 2021Louis Theroux documentaryShooting Joe Exotic.
Carole Ann Stairs was born on June 6, 1961, onLackland Air Force Base inBexar County, Texas.[8] She expressed an interest in saving cats when she was nine, but she decided against pursuing a career inveterinary medicine after she learned that veterinarianseuthanize animals.[9] At age 14, Baskin reports having beengang raped by three men who lived across the street from her house, claiming that she received no emotional support from her family.[10] She dropped out of high school and left home with a local roller rink employee.[9][11] Baskin thenhitchhiked back and forth betweenFlorida andBangor, Maine, sleeping under parked cars.[11] She later purchased aDatsun truck and slept in the back with her pet cat.[11]
At the age of 17, Baskin worked at aTampa, Florida, department store. To make money, she beganbreeding show cats[11] and usedllamas for a lawn trimming business.[9][11] In January 1991, Baskin married her second husband, Don Lewis, and joined his real estate business.[9] The couple foundedWildlife on Easy Street, an animal sanctuary near Tampa forbig cats, in 1992. Don and Carole Lewis never bred lion or tiger cubs but did breed 3 leopards and some other small cats before realizing the harm it was doing the animals and they stopped all breeding by 1997.[12]
Baskin remains the currentchief executive officer of the sanctuary, which she renamed to Big Cat Rescue sometime afterLewis's disappearance in 1997.[13][14][15] She has used social media such asFacebook andYouTube and herThe Cat Chatpodcast to promote activism against private zoos.[16]
In 2020, Baskin was cast inseason 29 ofDancing with the Stars.[17]
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | ||
| Inaba | Hough | Tonioli | |||
| 1 | Paso doble / "Eye of the Tiger" | 4 | 4 | 3 | No Elimination |
| 2 | Viennese waltz / "What's New Pussycat?" | 6 | 5 | 5 | Bottom two |
| 3 | Samba / "Circle of Life" | 5 | 4 | 3 | Eliminated |
Baskin moved in with Michael Murdock, her boss at the Tampa department store where she worked, when she was 17.[11] The couple married on April 7, 1979. Baskin has said that she never loved Murdock and married him only because her parents were disappointed that they had been living together outside of marriage.[18] She became pregnant in October 1979[11] and a daughter was born on July 16, 1980.[19]
According to Baskin, in 1981, when she was 19, she threw a potato at Murdock as he attempted to attack her. She ran out of their home barefoot and met her next husband, Don Lewis, on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa.[11][20] She and Lewis engaged in an affair while both were still married.[20] She became one of Lewis's many girlfriends and substantially grew his wealth by helping him buy and sell real estate in 1984.[21] The pair divorced their respective spouses and subsequently married in 1991.[9]
Baskin claimed that Lewis wasobsessed with sex and would frequently fly to Costa Rica, where he had substantial real estate holdings, to have affairs – timing the trips for whenever she wasmenstruating.[22][23] In July 1997, Lewis filed arestraining order against Baskin, stating that she had threatened to kill him; the restraining order was rejected.[24] Baskin said he filed for the restraining order because he was accumulating junk and she would have it hauled away while he was in Costa Rica.[23] Lewis continued to live with Baskin afterwards.[25] Lewis told her multiple times that he wanted a divorce, but she did not think he was ever serious about it.[26] She says he was diagnosed withbipolar disorder months before he vanished.[27]
Lewis disappeared in August 1997[25] and wasdeclared legally dead in 2002.[14][28] A dispute ensued between Baskin and the children of Lewis over his estate, with Baskin prevailing as the primary beneficiary.[24] The case of Lewis' disappearance is still active as of 2023.[29] In September 2020, during the broadcast of Baskin's appearances inDancing with the Stars in select Florida television markets, including Tampa, Lewis's family and their attorney ran a commercial asking for anyone with information on his disappearance to come forward, offering a $100,000 reward.[30]
Carole met Howard Baskin in November 2002 at a kick-off party for the newly formed No More Homeless Pets organization.[31] He joined Big Cat Rescue soon after as chairman of the advisory board.[31] He proposed to her in November 2003,[31] and they married in November 2004.[31]
In October 2020, Carole Baskincame out asbisexual.[32][33]
Baskin had a long-running feud withJoe Exotic, the former owner of theGreater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park inWynnewood,Oklahoma.[34][35] The feud began in 2009 when Big Cat Rescue volunteers initiated an email protest campaign against shopping malls that hosted Exotic's traveling cub-petting shows, prompting many malls to cancel the events.[36] Faced with a loss of income, Exotic responded with a pattern of harassment against Baskin, culminating inrebranding his shows with unlicensed facsimiles of the Big Cat Rescue name and logo and a false Florida phone number; in response, Baskin pursued legal action, alleging that Exotic'strademark infringement damaged the reputation of her organization.[36] In 2013, a court ordered him to pay Baskin $1 million in damages, leading to his bankruptcy.[9] In 2020, he was convicted of attempting to hire two men to kill her, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.[37] Baskin was grateful about his imprisonment, but stated in a video on the Big Cat Rescue website that other big cat owners had been prosecuted as well.[38]
In November 2019,Universal Content Productions announced that they were adapting a Joe Exotic podcast for television, withKate McKinnon portraying Baskin.[39] This was released asJoe v Carole onPeacock on March 3, 2022. Season 1, episode 3, alludes to new information of Don Lewis having abused Carole and her minor daughter Jamie years before his disappearance.
In March 2020, Baskin was featured in theNetflix documentaryTiger King.[40] While filming, she and Howard were told that the series would be "the big cat version ofBlackfish" and would help stop cub abuse. They were also told that, while Exotic and thedisappearance of Don Lewis would be featured in the series, they would not be the focus.[41] Several of the zookeepers featured in the documentary, including Exotic (who had previously made adiss track referencing Lewis' disappearance in 2015) and Tabraue, believe that she was responsible for Lewis' disappearance. AfterTiger King was released, Baskin wascyberbullied over her speculated involvement in Lewis' disappearance viaInternet memes,[42] including a viralTikTok parody of theMegan Thee Stallion song "Savage" referencing Lewis' disappearance and sung by someone doing an impression of Exotic.[43]
In response, Baskin posted an article on the Big Cat Rescue denying the claims made about her inTiger King.[44] She called the documentary "salacious and sensational", and criticized directorsEric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin.[34] Baskin said that she and her husband felt betrayed by the filmmakers, stating she was told the discussion of Joe Exotic and her missing husband were just for context.[45] In a post on the Big Cat Rescue website, Baskin said that the show "has a segment [in the third episode] devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago" and that the series "presents this without any regard for the truth".[46] According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, there is no evidence that Don Lewis was the victim of a crime, and although Carole Baskin and numerous others have been investigated extensively, no one has ever been arrested or charged in relation to the case.[47] Carole Baskin has steadily denied any involvement, and to defend his wife, Howard released a message on the DailyBigCatYouTube channel, stating that the claims about her being involved in Lewis's disappearance are "nonsense" and that Goode and Chaiklin "did not care about the animals or the truth".[48] In response to Exotic's supporters who posted "free Joe Exotic", the Baskins remarked, "If you sincerely believe that a man who shoots five healthy, beautiful, majestic tigers in the head to make money deserves to be free, we are proud to have you as enemies."[49]
In June 2020, a federal judge granted Exotic's former zoo property to Baskin and Big Cat Rescue on the basis that Exoticfraudulently transferred the zoo's real estate to his mother to avoid paying Baskin's $1M trademark judgment. Jeff Lowe's zoo operation was given 120 days to vacate the property.[50][51] After theUnited States Department of Agriculture suspended the zoo's license in August 2020, citing poor veterinary care, Lowe closed the park permanently.[52] Jeff and Lauren Lowe then relocated all of the big cats toThackerville, Oklahoma, intending to open a new park there, but theU.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit citing the Lowes' history of poor animal care; the park never opened and federal authorities seized all 68 big cats from the Lowes in May 2021.[53]
In February 2021, Baskin revealed that she had been asked to feature in a planned second season of the show, but she refused and told the producers to "lose her number".[54][55] A month later, she was interviewed alongside Howard Baskin by British filmmakerLouis Theroux for theBBC documentaryShooting Joe Exotic, during which they discussedTiger King and the allegation that Baskin murdered Lewis, which she denied.[56]
In July 2021, a three-judge panel for the10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Exotic should serve a shorter sentence, saying the separate convictions for each man he tried to hire to kill Baskin should have been treated as one by the trial court.[57][58] A new sentencing hearing was held on January 28, 2022, where Baskin testified that she was fearful that Exotic would threaten her if released. A federal judge resentenced Exotic to 21 years, a reduction of only one year.[59]
On November 1, 2021, the Baskins filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Royal Goode Productions over an alleged breach of contract. They claim that their initialrelease did not grant the producers liberty to produce derivative works or sequels using the original footage shot of Carole and Howard.[60] The lawsuit requested an injunction to stop the release of the film on November 17, but the same day the suit was filed a U.S. District Judge denied the request. The judge further added that the case would not necessarily entitle the Baskins to financial compensation.[61][62] The Federal Court in Tampa Bay also denied a preliminary injunction on November 15, 2021, just two days before the show's premiere, after defense attorneys for Netflix said a delay would "hurt marketing momentum" and violate theFirst Amendment, which in this case would be classified "freedom of the press".[63] InTiger King 2, attorney Joseph Fritz produced a letter from theUnited States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stating that Lewis had been found alive and well in Costa Rica. On her website, Carole states DHS did not exist until 2002, indicating the letter had to have been written at least five years after Lewis was last seen in Tampa.[64] However, the Hillsborough County sheriff’s officer denied the existence of such a letter.[65]
Baskin, and her company Big Cat Rescue, have lobbiedCongress to ban the private trade and ownership of exotic cats.[66] Her life's work, and that of her family, included passage of theBig Cat Public Safety Act when it was signed into law on December 20, 2022, by PresidentJoe Biden. The bill closed the loopholes in the Captive Wildlife Safety Act that she lobbied for from 1998 until its passage in 2003. The BCPSA bans contact with all big cats and their cubs and phases out private ownership of big cats.[67]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Fatal Attractions | Herself | Animal Planet documentary |
| 2020–present | Tiger King | Herself | Netflix documentary |
| 2020 | Dancing with the Stars | Herself | Season 29 contestant (3 episodes) |
| 2021 | Carole Baskin's Cage Fight | Herself | Discovery+ (2 episodes) |
| 2021 | The Conservation Game | Herself | Peacock documentary |
| 2021 | Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic | Herself | BBC documentary |
| 2023 | House of Villains | Herself | E! reality competition |
[Baskin] has branded the masks with her 'favourite tagline'. The catchphrase 'Hey, all you cool cats and kittens' was immortalised in the scandalous 2020 Netflix documentary ....
[Baskin] is known for her catchphrase 'Hey all you cool cats and kittens!'
At the very least, you might remember her iconic catchphrase. 'Hey, all you cool cats and kittens' became a meme following the show's premiere.
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