Following the release of the Tiger King 2 teaser, Carole Baskin, who appeared in the Netflix documentary Tiger King, slammed its makers on Thursday alleging “betrayal and false portrayal.”
Baskin, owner of the Big Cat Rescue non-profit animal sanctuary, was the centre of the first part of the docuseries, which premiered in 2020. Her story was pitted against American businessman and private zoo-keeper Joe Exotic, who was involved in the mistreatment of the big cats. The two were popularly known as each other’s arch-nemeses. The series followed Baskin and Joe Exotic’s journey and concluded with the arrest and conviction of the latter for animal abuse and attempt to murder Baskin. He is currently serving a prison term of 22 years.
“I don’t know how they put out a Tiger King 2 when Joe Schreibvogel’s [Joe Exotic] in jail and I’m refusing to be played again,” Baskin wrote. “Rebecca Chaiklin [director of the docuseries] 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,” she added.
The teaser of Tiger King 2 features Baskin walking down a hallway.
Post the release of the first season, Baskin called out directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin for straying from their stated motive behind the show, as well as for connecting her to the disappearance and death of her former husband, Don Lewis.
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“When the directors of the Netflix documentary Tiger King came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat version of Blackfish (the documentary that exposed abuse at SeaWorld),” Baskin said, adding that the series “not only does not do any of that, but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers.”
Tiger King was viewed by 64 million households within the first four weeks of its premiere in March 2020.
The second season of the documentary series will follow the theme of “cons, scams, and cautionary tales” according to the OTT platform.
In her statement on Thursday, Baskin added that if people really wanted to know how the “horrific and unsafe conditions tigers endure in the US” came to be, they should watch The Conservation Game by Michael Webber. “His film answers the important questions that Tiger King glossed over,” said Baskin, who is currently working on The Conservation Game.