Tiger King: Carole Baskin lacks ‘intellectual curiosity about animals’, says Netflix series director

Docuseries co-director also said he wishes to speak to Baskin after she accused him of ‘salacious and sensational’ storytelling

Tiger King star Carole Baskin has a “lack of intellectual curiosity about animals”, the smash hit Netflix show’s co-director has claimed.

Eric Goode, who directed the docuseries with Rebecca Chaiklin, told Page Six that he wishes to speak to Baskin, after she publicly accused the pair of “salacious and sensational” storytelling.

“I feel that Carole, out of all these people, at least had the right message: to stop breeding and exploiting these cats for monetary gain,” Goode said.

But he also expressed concern about Baskin’s motives as a conservationist, suggesting that it may be more humane to euthanise rescued animals rather than keep them locked in cages.

He said: “I posed the question to Carole: Is it fair to keep these tigers in cages? These animals pace neurotically. I know she means well, but I wonder if it’s really the right thing to do.”

He continued: “We wondered — and there were a lot of questions that arose when we interviewed her — [about] her lack of intellectual curiosity about these animals … She has never travelled to see these animals in the wild … It felt very much like she just wanted to live with a bunch of big cats.”

Tiger King, which explores the long-standing rivalry between Baskin and a tiger trader named Joe Exotic, features a number of people who accuse Baskin of being responsible for her missing husband’s death.

Baskin has called the claims “ludicrous”, specifically an allegation that she fed her husband’s body to tigers. Baskin has never been charged with anything related to his disappearance.

Authorities in Florida, however, have this week (31 March) announced that they are seeking new leads in the case, which has remained unsolved since 1997.