BASKIN BREAKS HER SILENCE – SORT OF

Pranksters trick ‘Tiger King’ star into giving her first “exclusive” interview by pretending to be Jimmy Fallon

WHILE Carole Baskin, the Tiger King personality, had kept mum in the month-plus since careening into the national limelight with the success of the Netflix docuseries, she delivered her first interview to a pair of YouTube prank experts named Josh Pieters and Archie Manners.

“In a worldwide exclusive,” Pieters said, “we bring you

Carole Baskin’s first worldwide interview – by tricking the Tiger Queen into thinking she was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

Pieters and Manners laid the groundwork for the rib by telling Baskin, 58, they represented a production company called Invisible Object that was facilitating guest appearances on talk shows.

Guests appear during video conference amid the near-national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Baskin, who has been a hot topic amid her ongoing feud with the show’s Joe Exotic, first turned down overtures from Pieters and Manners.

She said she was upset by Exotic’s allegations on the Netflix series that she killed her late husband Don Lewis.

Pieters and Manners told Baskin that the interview would be focused solely on the big cats.

They reassured her they would not touch upon the Tiger King controversies; and used clips of Fallon speaking about cats to conduct a discussion with Baskin.

After some initial communication complications, Pieters and Manners said they smoothed over legal issues with Baskin’s camp, setting her up for the Zoom call.

In the chat, Baskin, who runs the Florida animal sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, said she had to lay off 50% of her workers.

She said she was at the location every day to care for the animals.

“My daughter and I still come into the sanctuary every day because we have to take care of all the big cats here,” she said.

“Unfortunately due to the loss of tourism revenue we’ve had to let go of about half of our staff and, thankfully, all of our animal care is done by volunteers.

“The animals are still getting their daily care but it means all of us are having to work double time to make sure that happens ... I work seven days a week but I’m a workaholic, so I really love doing this work.”

She said the shutdown related to the virus might force her to shutter her business with the loss of tourism revenue.

“After Covid-19 I just don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to do tours again,” she said.

CAROLE Baskin, who runs the Florida animal sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, said she had to lay off 50% of her workers. She said she was at the location every day to care for the animals.