Carole Baskin from Tiger King is making the rounds on social media once again this year. This time it’s for comments she made regarding Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s new music video for hit song “WAP”.
Baskin has experienced a roller coaster year to say the least. The proud owner of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa has faced intense backlash for her portrayal in the popular docuseries Tiger King. The documentary focused on the exploits of the mercurial, big cat zoo owner Joe Exotic who despite being somewhat of a villain garnered popularity among viewers. With Carole being Joe Exotic’s real life arch-nemesis many viewers did not take kindly to how she was portrayed in the series. In fact, to further add salt to Carole’s reputation the show unearthed a couple shockingly shady details from her past. These details included the disappearance of her husband and the subsequent forgery of his will providing Carole full access to his estate. Also, Carole and her previous husband allegedly both bred and sold exotic animals a practice that Carole now markets herself to be vehemently against.
Despite the fan crusade held against her she still remains a wild success on social media as well as amongst animal rights conservationist groups. Carole focuses on using her platform to speak out against the domestication of big cats and bring awareness to the animal rights ethics infringed upon in this process. That’s exactly why Baskin has made comments regarding Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s new video. Carole believes that the issue with this video is that it glamorizes keeping tigers as pets. In regards to the use of Big Cats in the video, she stated to TMZ, “every ignorant follower will want to imitate by doing the same.” Naturally, Carole’s comments have only been met with harsh backlash from the mainstream. Many users feel that Baskin’s real intent is to name drop celebrities in order to virtue signal for animals that she doesn’t really care about.
However, despite many fan’s opinions and whatever her intentions may be, Carole is not wrong. Yes, it may be a bit overboard to condemn every Hollywood exhibition of tigers as some sort of cause to raise awareness. But, the domestication of tigers is a serious unethical practice and Carole has fought tooth and nail trying to get regulatory agencies to recognize this. Albeit, by branding her image as a animal rights activist Carole has also profited massively from free volunteer labor and an extraordinary social media following. This fact is what mainly hinders the mainstream media’s ability to get behind Baskin’s cause.
Shocking scenes from the series exhibited the fruits of Carole’s labor while at the same time displayed the poor conditions she supposedly cages her beloved animals in at Big Cat Rescue. These cages appeared to be small and rusty with little to no care for the proliferation of lush Floridian plant life which raveled and knotted the cage interiors. Needless to say, some of Carole’s actions speak louder than her words. Although, does that make her words wrong? Fans can learn more about Carole Baskin by checking out Tiger King which is available on Netflix.
