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Tiger King star Carole Baskin has hit out at makers of the Netflix show, saying it “lies to get viewers.”
The true-crime documentary series investigates the story of Joe Exotic, a tiger trader who was jailed last year for 22 years, for crimes including a murder-for-hire plot following a bitter rivalry with Baskin, who owns a big cat rescue sanctuary in Florida.
In Tiger King, a number of people accuse Baskin of being responsible for the death of her ex-husband, Don Lewis, who went missing 21 years ago.
One of the accusations that aired in the series include that she fed her husband’s body to the big cats at her sanctuary, a claim she says is “ludicrous.”
Baskin has never been charged with anything relating to the disappearance of Lewis.
Now, in a post on her Big Cat Rescue website, Baskin has hit out at the makers of Tiger King, claiming that interviewees in the series are “not credible” and that it features a segment “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.”
Basking begins her lengthy post by claiming that when the show’s directors first approached her and her sanctuary five years ago, “they said they wanted to make the big cat version of Blackfish,” a documentary that exposes the abuse of animals at SeaWorld.
“There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the docuseries 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,” she writes.
She adds: “The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers.”
Later in the post, Baskin shares a photograph of a small meat grinder, writing: “The idea that a human body and skeleton could be put through it is idiotic. But the Netflix directors did not care. They just showed a bigger grinder.”
Baskin’s post follows the news that Kate McKinnon has reportedly been cast to star as her in a movie adaptation of Tiger King.
The Jared Leto Cinema Club launched with a showing of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and on Thursday (March 26), Leto hosted a viewing party for new Netflix hit Tiger King.
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