Carole Baskin Files Restraining Order To Prevent Airing Of 'Tiger King' Season 2

TAMPA, FL — On Monday, Carole Baskin, CEO of the nonprofit Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Tampa, filed a motion in federal court in Tampa asking for a temporary restraining order against Netflix and producers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin to prevent them from airing Season 2 of the Netflix docuseries, "Tiger King."

Baskin's husband, Howard, said the second season in the wildly popular series, "Tiger King - Murder, Mayhem and Madness," contains video and audio taken of him and his wife that they never gave the producers permission to use.

Moreover, Howard Baskin said the producers intentionally misled them when they agreed to take part in the filming of Season 1 and ignored their request to be left out of Season 2, which is scheduled to premiere Nov 17.

"We made it very clear to Goode and Chaiklin that we had no desire or intent to be involved in TK2," said Howard Baskin in a statement to Patch. "When Netflix released its Official Tiger King 2 Trailer last week, we were shocked to see that we were going to be a central theme of the sequel and they were using the film footage again without our permission."

Netflix and Royal Goode Productions did not respond to Patch's request for comment.

There is no word on when the Baskins' request will be heard by the United States District Court in Tampa.

The Baskins say they were misled by Goode and Chaiklin about the intent of the docuseries, which aired March 20, 2020.

"When we were first approached by Goode and Chaiklin in 2014, they told us that they were making a documentary to expose the illicit big cat trade akin to the renowned 'Blackfish' (a 2013 documentary on an orca whale at SeaWorld) documentary," Howard Baskin said. "Yet, as we now know from seeing TK1, their work is anything but a legitimate documentary. We believe that TK1 showed Goode and Chaiklin to be devoid of ethics, integrity and any concern for the welfare of big cats."

The Baskins said, instead of the expose into the exploitation and abuse of captive tigers they expected to see, the Netflix docuseries highlighted the bizarre feud between Baskin and her longtime nemesis, Joe Exotic, a flamboyant tiger breeder with questionable ethics and a bleach-blonde mullet haircut.

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Baskin, a nationally recognized champion of endangered tigers, was a major critic of Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joe Maldonado-Passage, and other roadside zookeepers who over breed and exploit tigers for a profit.

In retribution for her criticism, Joe Exotic claimed Baskin was responsible for the disappearance of her first husband, millionaire Don Lewis, in 1997, going so far as to claim she ground her deceased husband in a meat grinder used for her tigers' meals and then fed her husband's body parts to her big cats.

When Joe Exotic's harassment of Baskin, which included posting YouTube music videos featuring a Baskin look-alike, failed to silence her, Maldonado tried to hire a hit man to kill her in April 2019.

The would-be hit man turned state's evidence, and Maldonado is now serving 22 years in an Oklahoma prison after being sentenced in January 2020.

He not only was found guilty of attempting to hire a hit man to kill Baskin but was convicted of some of the very atrocities Baskin accused him of committing, including nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act for shooting and killing five tigers in October 2017.

Witnesses at Maldonado's trial testified that he shot and killed the aging tigers because he "needed empty cages" at his Oklahoma zoo. At that time, the now-closed Wild Things zoo in Dade City was under court scrutiny following an accusation by PETA that the owners were abusing their animals.

According to court documents, the owners of Wild Things put 19 of their tigers in a semi-tractor trailer truck and shipped them 1,200-mile trip to Maldonado's roadside zoo in Oklahoma in violation of two court orders prohibiting Wild Things from moving any of the tigers. During the trip, a mother tiger gave birth to three cubs that died.

When the attempt to conceal the tigers came to light, the courts gave PETA custody of 27 tigers, including the surviving tigers that were shipped to Maldonado's zoo. All are now living at The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, and the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

In the meantime, Baskin sued Maldonado for defamation and, in June 2020, an Oklahoma judge awarded Baskin ownership of Maldonado's Oklahoma zoo, which was controlled by Maldonado's business, Greater Wynnewood Development Group, and his mother, Shirley Shcribvogel, after he went to prison.

It was this sensational story, rather than the plight of captive tigers, that the Netflix series focused on and which riveted the audience.

Howard Baskin said he and his wife made it clear to Goode and Chaiklin that they wanted no part in the second season of the series.

"When Netflix released its Official Tiger King 2 Trailer last week, we were shocked to see that we were going to be a central theme of the sequel, and they were using the film footage again without our permission," Howard Baskin said. "While we cannot stop Netflix and Royal Goode Productions from producing low-brow, salacious and sensational programming, we do believe that we have the right to control footage filmed of us under false pretenses. We like to believe that most Americans will agree that we should be entitled to protect our reputations in this manner and hold entertainment giants to their word."

Because the issue is in litigation, Howard Baskin said the couple wouldn't be doing any further interviews beyond this week's announcement concerning the restraining order.

In the meantime, Season 2 of "Tiger King" is still scheduled to air this month with the introduction, "We thought the mayhem was over. But we’ve only scratched the surface."

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