Carole Baskin
American animal rights activist
Carole Ann Baskin (née Stairs; born June 6, 1961) is an American animal rights activist and the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit animal sanctuary. She advocates for the plight of captive big cats.
Baskin was featured in the 2020 Netflix true crime documentary series Tiger King, which follows Baskin's escalating feud with Oklahoma-based private zoo owner Joe Exotic. Following the release of the series, many suspected Baskin was involved in the disappearance of Don Lewis, her second husband. Baskin denied these claims in a post on Big Cat Rescue's website. Her catchphrase, "Hey all you cool cats and kittens!", also became a meme as a result of Tiger King.
Baskin has also appeared on Dancing with the Stars, featuring her dancing to a cover of the song "Eye of the Tiger". She and her husband Howard also appeared in the 2021 Louis Theroux documentary Shooting Joe Exotic.
Early life
Carole Ann Stairs was born on June 6, 1961, on Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.
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.
The public source identifies “Carole Baskin” as american animal rights activist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Carole, Baskin and American.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q88495947. VIAF identifies the subject as 2160846261708030583. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961, 2020 and 2021.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carole Baskin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.