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Carole Baskin
- Animal Lover: Comes off as a more straight example than Joe, as she seems to have the well-being of her cats as her top priority.
- Animal Motifs: Leopards. She is often wearing leopard spotted clothing, and her more suspicious qualities are similar to a leopard's stealthy nature.
- Arch-Enemy: To Joe Exotic, due to their conflicting beliefs on big cat ownership.
- The Atoner: Carole once bred and sold big cats herself. She later stops and begins rescuing them instead, pushing for legislation to end the private sale and breeding of big cats, clearly regretting her participation in the big cat trade.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: As mentioned in the entry for The Atoner, she used to breed exotic cats to sell before swearing off the practice and founding a sanctuary for them.
- Black Widow: Joe and her other rivals clearly think so, accusing her of killing her husband Don Lewis for his money. However, she vehemently denies such allegations and they remain unsubstantiated.note
- Bourgeois Bohemian: A well-off, elderly hippie, complete with a habit of wearing flower crowns.
- Clear My Name: Following the popularity of the Tiger King show, Carole has gone into detail
on what she considers to be the misleading narrative presented in the footage. - Crazy Cat Lady: She's dedicated her life to rescuing big cats, and almost always dresses in some kind of big cat print, even to congressional hearings.
- Granola Girl: An elderly example, being an animal rights activist with a habit of wearing flower crowns.
- Hypocrite: The sentiment shared by Joe and several others throughout the series. They see her as guilty of many of the things she accuses Joe of, such as mistreating animals or emotionally manipulating people.
- Irony: Carole's centered her whole life around rescuing cats, yet she's allergic to them.
- Kick the Dog: Carole cutting Don's first wife and children out of his will after his death, seemingly out of mere spite.
- ...Or So I Heard: When responding to accusations that she set up Joe Exotic to get killed in a lion cage, she says that if you wanted someone to die in a big cat cage then you should coat them in sardine oil. There are a few other examples as well, such as how she ponders on how Doc Antle disposed of his tigers, and when she says that a human hand couldn't fit in her meat-grinder.
- Phrase Catcher: Once her enmity with Joe kicks in, it became very rare for Joe to refer to her in media or when talking his employees in the zoo without calling her "that bitch Carole Baskin".
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm, motherly blue to Joe's wild, aggressive red.
Howard Baskin
Carole Baskin's third, and current husband.
- Cool Old Guy: He may be a senior citizen, but he runs a big cat sanctuary with his wife, and clearly isn't intimidated by Joe's lawfare and threats.
- Henpecked Husband: Is this towards Carole Baskin, as he simply follows her around, answering to her every beck and call. He comes off as enjoying a Casual Kink more than a victim of abuse, though; one of their wedding photos even has him wearing a dog collar and her holding the leash.
Don Lewis
Jack Donald "Don" Lewis
Carole Baskin's second husband, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
- Awful Wedded Life: Apparently, he and Carole did not have a happy relationship. For one, they had conflicting beliefs over what to do with big cats; Carole wanted to stop breeding and start rescuing them, while Don had no qualms with breeding and selling them. It's also said that Don cheated on Carole during their marriage, and she allegedly made threats of violence towards him.
- Dirty Old Man: He was quite the womanizer and lech, with Carole being his second wife and having numerous affairs while they were married. According to his former bodyguard in Costa Rica, Don would have many girls brought over to his apartment whenever he was there, at least some of them underaged.Rey: Don was attracted to Costa Rica because it was a paradise where little girls are sold.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: His daughter thinks so, regarding the restraining order he wrote (but was denied) against Carole.Daughter: Daddy never really involved "the law" in anything. It was just something he resisted. For him to go down there, and write that out, and present it before a judge, was major, in my eyes. That is not something he would do unless he was at his wits' end with how to protect himself.
- Posthumous Character: Was declared legally dead in 2002, and given how he's been missing for over 20 years, it's unlikely that he's still alive.
- Really Gets Around: Cheated extensively on both his first wife, Gladys, and his second wife, Carole.
- Riddle for the Ages: His disappearance is one. Was he fed to the big cats by Carole? Did she hire a squad of hitmen to kill him, leaving his body in the ocean? Did he successfully make a break for Costa Rica or did his plane crash down in the Gulf of Mexico? Did somebody in Costa Rica kill him, either a criminal relation or perhaps an angry family member of one of Don's lovers?
- Who Murdered the Asshole: Suspects include:
- Carole, who he was in the middle of an ugly divorce with;
- Business associates, either in the US or Costa Rica;
- The families of Costa Rican girls he prostituted.Rey: I told Don, "Be careful what you're doing. These little girls have family. People will find out, and they'll kill you for that."
