Carole Ann Baskin (née Stairs; formerly Murdock and Lewis; born June 6, 1961) is the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary.

Carole Ann Stairs was born on June 6, 1961, on Lackland Air Force Base in Bexar County, Texas.

[8] She expressed an interest in saving cats when she was nine, but she decided against pursuing a career in veterinary medicine after she learned that veterinarians euthanize animals.

[9] At age 14, Baskin reports having been gang raped by three men who lived across the street from her house, claiming that she received no emotional support from her family.

[12] Baskin remains the current chief executive officer of the sanctuary, which she renamed to Big Cat Rescue sometime after Lewis's disappearance in 1997.

[9] Baskin claimed that Lewis was obsessed with sex and would frequently fly to Costa Rica, where he had substantial real estate holdings, to have affairs – timing the trips for whenever she was menstruating.

[29] In September 2020, during the broadcast of Baskin's appearances in Dancing with the Stars in select Florida television markets, including Tampa, Lewis's family and their attorney ran a commercial asking for anyone with information on his disappearance to come forward, offering a $100,000 reward.

[35] Faced with a loss of income, Exotic responded with a pattern of harassment against Baskin, culminating in rebranding his shows with unlicensed facsimiles of the Big Cat Rescue name and logo and a false Florida phone number; in response, Baskin pursued legal action, alleging that Exotic's trademark infringement damaged the reputation of her organization.

[37] In November 2019, Universal Content Productions announced that they were adapting a Joe Exotic podcast for television, with Kate McKinnon portraying Baskin.

Season 1, episode 3, alludes to new information of Don Lewis having abused Carole and her minor daughter Jamie years before his disappearance.

[42] In response, Baskin posted an article on the Big Cat Rescue denying the claims made about her in Tiger King.

[44] In a post on the Big Cat Rescue website, Baskin said that the show "has a segment [in the third episode] 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" and that the series "presents this without any regard for the truth".

[45] According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, there is no evidence that Don Lewis was the victim of a crime, and although Carole Baskin and numerous others have been investigated extensively, no one has ever been arrested or charged in relation to the case.

[49][50] After the United States Department of Agriculture suspended the zoo's license in August 2020, citing poor veterinary care, Lowe closed the park permanently.

[52] In February 2021, Baskin revealed that she had been asked to feature in a planned second season of the show, but she refused and told the producers to "lose her number".

[60][61] The Federal Court in Tampa Bay also denied a preliminary injunction on November 15, 2021, just two days before the show's premiere, after defense attorneys for Netflix said a delay would "hurt marketing momentum" and violate the First Amendment, which in this case would be classified "freedom of the press".

[64] Her life's work, and that of her family, included passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act when it was signed into law on December 20, 2022, by President Joe Biden.