PLAYING her voicemail, Carole Baskin sighs at the vile stream of rape and death threats that spews from her phone. “You murdered your husband and I’m going to come to your house and murder you,” spits one female caller. “You deserve to die, b*,” yells an angry man. Such calls have become a daily reality […]
PLAYING her voicemail, Carole Baskin sighs at the vile stream of rape and death threats that spews from her phone.
“You murdered your husband and I’m going to come to your house and murder you,” spits one female caller.
“You deserve to die, b*,” yells an angry man.
Such calls have become a daily reality for the animal cruelty campaigner since her appearance in the documentary Tiger King, which became the first huge hit of lockdown a year ago.
The Netflix show centred on oddball Joe Exotic’s private zoo in Oklahoma, where he bred tiger cubs for customers to pet, and Carole’s attempts to shut him down.
But the story shifted to his colourful life and his obsession with Carole, 59 — who he accused of murdering husband Don Lewis in 1997 and feeding him to the tigers at their Big Cat Sanctuary in Florida.
Joe, who made hundreds of online death threats against Carole, was eventually jailed for attempting to have her killed — but his fans are still making her life a living hell.
“The show unleashed a tidal wave of hatefulness,” Carole tells The Sun.
“The phone started ringing every two minutes. These people thought I had killed my husband and they were saying they wanted to kill me, my family and the cats.”
Carole, who often put her neck on the line fighting against animal cruelty, feared for her life.
She says: “Joe was just one of a dozen people in the big cat network who have threatened me over the years. But millions of people were being deceived by Tiger King to the point that they wanted to do me harm.”
Vile graffiti While Tiger King and the trial of Joe Exotic put the Baskins in the limelight — and even landed Carole a spot on Dancing With The Stars, the US version of Strictly — they claim they were misled by the filmmakers into thinking the series would champion their cause.
But they are hoping to set the record straight with their appearance in Louis Theroux’s new documentary, Shooting Joe Exotic, which is on tonight
In the feature-length BBC2 film, the British journalist returns to unseen footage he shot ten years ago for his show America’s Most Dangerous Pets and unearths Exotic threatening to kill Carole — who had been exposing the cruelty behind the cub petting business.
Exotic claims she cost the business £3.6million in profits, adding: “The animals won’t be the only thing to be euthanized. This is still America. We’re still allowed to bear arms.”
He also claimed he was in touch with a hitman. Presenter Louis is also shocked by how nervous and excited he seemed to be a decade ago around the flamboyant zoo owner — even going in for a hug after Exotic blasted him for raising animal rights issues.
Louis says: “It’s odd to see how much I seem to like him.”
Joe Exotic was jailed for 22 years in 2019 after attempting to hire a hitman who turned out to be an FBI agent. He was also found guilty of falsifying vets’ records, killing five tigers and selling tigers across state lines.
But the rumours around the disappearance of Don Lewis, Carole’s husband of six years, continue to plague the Baskins. The millionaire car salesman — who had been refused a restraining order against Carole but continued to live with her — disappeared in August 1997.
His van was later found abandoned at an airfield, 40 miles from the couple’s wildlife sanctuary. Carole claims Don had Mafia connections in Costa Rica where he owned another park but she believes he died in a plane crash over the Gulf of Mexico.
She explains: “Don wasn’t licenced so he had to take off and land at airports that were closed. He flew at under 200 feet to avoid getting picked up on radar. He crashed into the Gulf before, as well as at the airport.
“There’s no way we would be able to find the wreckage unless it washes up in some hurricane.”
After Exotic was jailed, Carole and Howard were awarded the Great Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, which he ran with business partner Jeff Lowe.
But when the Baskins took over, they found the staff had trashed it — leaving vile graffiti about Carole daubed on the walls, rotting meat strewn throughout and even numerous “d pics” littering the office.
Lowe, who had moved most of the tigers to a new zoo next to a casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma, left behind three tigers, 11 wolves and two bears.
Carole says: “One of the bears was starving. I was just happy to see that the cages were empty.
“The biggest thing about taking over this park, shutting it down and reselling it, is that it will never again see that kind of abuse.”
Despite Joe Exotic’s vitriol towards Carole, she says there was never a feud between them.
“I’ve never even spoken to Joe,” she says. “I’ve never had any hard feelings towards him. For me it’s always been about ending the abuse of big cats.”
But husband Howard, who Carole wed in 2004, recalls one amusing moment the arch rivals shared during Exotic’s trial.
He says: “Our lawyer was taking him through page after page of horrible sexually-oriented threats he posted against Carole.
“He was sheepishly saying, ‘Yes, I posted that,’ to every one. On a break we ended up at the place you fill your water bottle, and he looked at me and said, ‘Nothing personal.’ How do you get more personal than that?”
There are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 big cats in private ownership in the US, with only 3,900 left in the wild. But the Big Cat Safety act, which would ban private possession of lions, tigers and other species, is expected to pass through the US Senate soon.
In November, Joe Exotic’s former business partner Jeff Lowe was charged with “inhumane treatment” of tigers and lions and mentor Doc Antel is also facing nine charges of animal cruelty.
Carole fears the black market is damaging the credibility of American efforts to save wild tigers and encourages hunting.
She says: “The wild tiger is going to disappear in the next few years if we don’t stop the private possession and breeding.”
But the Baskins believe their voice is finally being heard. Carole says: “It took four months for that initial wave of hatred to subside, after Tiger King, and for us to be able to educate people.
“But we are seeing a huge shift and I think it will continue in that direction.”
