Carole Baskin Thinks She Knows Who ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic Sold His Tiger Cubs To
Tiger King raised so many questions that fans have been pursuing the story ever since it premiered on Netflix in 2020. If Tiger King 2 doesn’t have all the answers, there are more places to look. Carole Baskin produced her own series for discovery+ called Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight. In its second episode, Baskin found evidence that suggests another breeder was buying cubs from Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, when they grew up.
Lori Ensign-Scroggins is Carole Baskin’s Prime Suspect
In Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight, Baskin continues the big cat advocacy she’d hoped the original Tiger King would assist. Part of that includes finding Maldonado-Passage’s associates. There are many other figures in the big cat game that Tiger King didn’t include, and Baskin explains her suspicion of Lori Ensign-Scroggins.
“Lori Ensign is on my list because I believe this is where Joe was taking those cubs,” Baskin says in Cage Fight. “I want to look into Lori Ensign-Scroggins because she lost her license in 2012 due to her facility being so unfit. And yet, you can go onto Google right now and you’ll see recent reviews of people that say they were there for a tour or she brought a wild animal to their event. That’s not legal without a USDA license.”
Carole Baskin identified a cat from ‘Tiger King’ on Lori Ensign-Scroggins’ websites
Ensing-Singer’s business is called Safari’s Sanctuary in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Baskin showed a picture of Maldonado-Passage and a cub from Tiger King.
“I believe in Tiger King, this is where Joe was taking those cubs,” Baskin said. “This is Joe with the tiger cub. You can see there’s this unique pattern right here by the eye. Their stripes are like a fingerprint and you can match them up and identify any cat by their stripes.”
Baskin did some basic research on Safari Sanctuary’s website and their Facebook page. She compared adult cubs in their photos with the one in the Tiger King excerpt.
“I went to Safari Sanctuary’s facebook page,” Baskin says. “You see the same pattern there, and then another image when the cat was about six months older. I lined them up side by side so it really points out that same spot on their face. You can see it’s definitely the same cat at Safari Sancutary that Joe had in Tiger King.”
The post-’Tiger King’ theory
On November 15th, Ensign-Scroggins posted a response to Baskin’s accusations on Safari’s Sanctuary Facebook page. She wrote, “If there’s some thing you question. Ask! Don’t make sh*t up. Don’t be a Carole.”
In Cage Fight, Baskin saw everything she needed. However, her series did not come to any definitive conclusions.
“This proves that Joe Exotic and Lori Ensign are connected in this network,” Baskin says. “I strongly suspect that he was taking cubs to her while the authorities had an investigation, and while she didn’t have a USDA license. That’s the only thing that would make sense.”
Baskin also looks into Mark McCarthy, Mario Tabraue and Doc Antle. However, she has more difficulty finding any information about their practices. Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight is now streaming on discovery+.
