KEY POINTS

  • Carole Baskin sold Joe Exotic's former zoo in Oklahoma to a local couple
  • She banned the new owners from using it as a zoo or for anything related to "Tiger King"
  • Her husband Howard said they wanted the 20 years of mistreatment of animals in the place "to be forgotten"

"Tiger King" star Carole Baskin confirmed that she has sold Joe Exotic's former zoo.

Last year, Baskin won control of the exotic animal park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, previously owned by Exotic—whose legal name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage—after a judge ruled that she could take over the property, according to TMZ, which was the first to report the sale. The ruling was part of the $1 million judgment the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary owner won against him in their trademark lawsuit.

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment Sunday, the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant said she sold the zoo to a local Wynnewood couple who is known for purchasing properties that need a lot of work. However, Baskin gave them several conditions and restrictions when it came to handling the property.

"When we sold the property in June, we required that it never be used as a zoo, or for anything related to 'Tiger King' or anything like that," she told the outlet.

Her husband, Howard, added that they also had a covenant in the deed that stipulates that the owners cannot use the Netflix reality show to market the property in any way.

"If it became an RV park or storage unit, we don't want it named the Tiger King RV Park," Howard said. "We would like the 20 years of mistreatment of animals there to be forgotten and be history."

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence in Texas for a murder-for-hire plot toward Baskin and for multiple violations of wildlife laws.

Meanwhile, the Baskins have big projects on the way, including a documentary called "Shooting Joe Exotic" with Louis Theroux. At present, they are in Los Angeles for the premiere of the documentary "The Conservation Game," which follows Tim Harrison, a retired cop who "starts to suspect that America’s top television celebrity conservationists may be secretly connected to the exotic pet trade."

"It exposes the way these people that take cubs onto late-night shows, are asked where the animals come from and where they go and they say they came from the zoo," Howard told Yahoo about the documentary. "And in the film, these people were confronted, and they all admit that they have no idea what happens to the animals after they use them. It's very powerful, and it's controversial."

Baskin was reportedly also offered the chance to star in a second season of Netflix's "Tiger King." However, she said she rejected the offer because she felt that the makers of the hit docuseries betrayed her.

Baskin claimed that the producers approached her with an offer to be the heroine of the next installment. However, she felt it would only fuel the rumors that she murdered her first husband, Don Lewis, and fed his body to the tigers.

Baskin alleged that she opened up about her personal life, including Lewis' disappearance, on camera because she was told it would only be used as background context. But to her horror, "Tiger King" had an entire episode focusing on it, featuring Exotic's tirade alleging that she killed Lewis and fed him to her tigers in 1997.

"There’s almost no way to describe the intensity of the feeling of betrayal," Howard said.

Tiger King Carole Baskin
Carole Baskin appears in Netflix's "Tiger King." Netflix