
NEWS AND COMMENT: Following the success of the Netflix docuseries, Tiger King, the producers have created Tiger King 2 which will aired on November 17, 2021. However, Carole Baskin feels very hard done by as they portrayed her in the same vein as they portrayed Joe Schreibvogel, aka Joe Exotic. She is adamant that they betrayed her trust and created a false portrayal of her life’s work in rescuing wild cats at our sanctuary in Florida. As a consequence, she made it clear that she would not cooperate on a follow-up series.
Therefore, they have made part two without her involvement and she’s not sure how they did it.
She said:
“I don’t know how they put out a Tiger King 2 when Joe Schreibvogel is in jail and I’m refusing to be played again. Rebecca Chaiklin [co-director of Tiger King] said she wanted to ‘clear the air’ about what they did to me in Tiger King. I told her to lose my number. There is no explanation for such a betrayal and false portrayal.”
However, Carole Baskin has cooperated on something which will no doubt please her tremendously. It’s a project with Discovery+ in which investigates the treatment of big cats at Joe Exotic’s private zoo, the ownership of which was transferred to her in order to satisfy a $1 million judgement against Joe Exotic in a trademark lawsuit. She sold the zoo.
I suspect that being in charge of the zoo helped her to investigate the past misdeeds of Mr. Exotic who is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for animal abuse charges as well as a murder-for-hire plot against Baskin. He’s appealing for a reduction to his sentence and asked the current and past president of the US for a pardon. He’s been quite vocal in prison and maintained his celebrity status. It is a shame that a convicted criminal and animal abuser can maintain celebrity status. I think we can put that down to Netflix who don’t seem to have the highest standards of integrity.
Baskin said that the Discovery+ series, which is called Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight, provides “a unique opportunity for audiences to come behind the scenes with us for an unfiltered look at how we expose the cub-petting exploiters and roadside zoos we feel are mistreating animals”.
She also said: “This is our real-life work within a dangerous world, and viewers will see it comes with our people being threatened, guns pointed at us and the bad guys shooting at our drones”. You can see how she has been a thorn in the flesh of the private zoo owners of America who routinely exploit and abuse tigers and lions for financial profit.
A Discovery spokesperson, Amy Introcaso-Davis, said that the series would allow viewers to see how Carole Baskin fights for animal welfare in uncovering and stopping the exploitation of big cats.
It should be said, however, that Carole Baskin’s BCR sanctuary includes small wild cats too such as bobcats, lynx and servals.
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