Carole Baskin is an American big-cat rights activist, podcaster, real-estate entrepreneur, and author, who currently serves as the CEO of the Tampa-based sanctuary Big Cat Rescue. Carole ran away from home as a teenager and began working at a Tampa department store. With her second husband, Don Lewis, she set up a sanctuary, which she renamed Big Cat Rescue after Lewis’s disappearance in 1997. She got into a feud with Joe Exotic, which was highlighted in the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King. Joe was eventually sentenced for attempting to hire a killer to murder Carole, and Carole was awarded his Oklahoma sanctuary.