Carole's current husband made a personal plea to the reality TV star in a video posted to YouTube.
After several subjects of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness have spoken out, it’s now Howard Baskin’s turn to share his thoughts on the Netflix true-crime docuseries. The current husband of animal activist and owner of Big Cat Rescue Carole Baskin came to her defense over questions raised over the disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis, and even made a personal plea to Kim Kardashian West in a video posted to YouTube.
“This is a video to our supporters to explain to you the deception that took place in the making of the Netflix Tiger King and to thank you so much for so many expressions of support that we have received from you,” Howard says in the nearly 10-minute vlog.
Howard then echoes his wife’s initial response to the docuseries, in which she claims that directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin misled them into believing that they were participating in a project similar to Blackfish, which exposed the dark underbelly of Sea World.
In the past, Howard explains, they have turned down requests for interviews, believing that those projects were not going to do “something meaningful” in the fight for animal safety. He goes on to call the directors “con artists” for letting them believe Tiger King was going to be “done in a respectful and truthful way.”
“Not only did they lie about that, they never even gave us a chance to respond to many of the false claims that ended up in the documentary,” he continues, largely referring to the episode that is focused on Carole’s past and whatever happened to Don.
In the series, several people insinuate that Carole not only had something to do with his disappearance, but that she also was responsible for his death and may have fed his body to one of her tigers in the sanctuary.
He then went on to call out Kim Kardashian West, who is the subject of her own, upcoming crime documentary, The Justice Project on Oxygen, for asking her followers on Twitter if they believed Carole did in fact kill Don.
“Wow the amount of texts I’ve gotten about Tiger King since I tweeted about it all have mentioned their belief that Carol killed her husband! What are your thoughts? Do you think Carol killed him?” she wrote on Sunday, March 22, the same weekend many were catching up on the series.
“I doubt if Kim will see this video, but if she were to come and spend an hour with Carole I know she would have her answer and I know what it would be,” Howard continued in his video, adding, “Of course we would welcome her visiting if she wanted to.”
Additionally, Big Cat Rescue responded to Kim on Twitter, inviting her to the Tampa, Florida, park. “We would love for you to visit Big Cat Rescue once Covid-19 is over to meet Carole, tour our GFAS-accredited sanctuary for big cats, and learn about how you can help end abusive cub petting!” the account replied.
Howard’s video is just one of many responses from the subjects of the film who largely feel they were misrepresented. Doc Antle, owner of a South Carolina roadside zoo, took issue with how he and his employees were portrayed, while Carole has issued several responses on her website and to ET about the film and even the news that Kate McKinnon is set to portray her in an upcoming scripted series.
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