Editing Joe Exotic (section)

===Feud with Carole Baskin===
{{Quote|Before you bring me down, it is my belief that you will stop breathing.|Joe Exotic about Carole Baskin}}
The feud between Exotic and Carole Baskin began in 2009 when Baskin, who sought to end commercial cub petting in the United States, targeted Exotic's lucrative traveling shows. Although Exotic and the Wynnewood park had been subject to protests and investigations by animal rights organizations such as [[People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals]], these efforts had been sporadic and poorly organized, and did not seriously hamper his business. Baskin's Big Cat Rescue organization—which had a very popular Facebook page and many informal volunteers recruited on social media—proved to be a more daunting antagonist. Big Cat Rescue volunteers began to track Exotic's movements and email bomb managers of shopping malls that hosted his shows, prompting many of them to cancel, jeopardizing his revenue stream

Exotic saw Baskin's actions as hypocritical because she also operated an animal sanctuary that charged admission, albeit for nonprofit purposes. Exotic responded to Baskin's social media efforts by setting up his own TV studio and YouTube channel at the G.W. Zoo, hosting a nightly talk show that increasingly focused on vitriolic attacks against Big Cat Rescue and Baskin personally. He covertly visited Big Cat Rescue in September 2010 and chartered a helicopter to survey the property. He obtained a copy of Baskin's diary stolen from her computer by a former employee and posted excerpts online.

Baskin's second husband, Don Lewis, disappeared in 1997 and was declared legally dead in 2002. Evidence of foul play is lacking and Baskin was never named as a suspect; however, Lewis's daughter asserts that Baskin killed Lewis and fed his body to her tigers, and Exotic used his YouTube show to loudly promote this story and other conspiracy theories relating to Lewis's disappearance, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Baskin's arrest

In 2011, Exotic copied the Big Cat Rescue name and various identifying aspects of the sanctuary's branding in his marketing, rebranding his traveling show as "Big Cat Rescue Entertainment" with a Florida phone number. Baskin claims that she was quickly inundated with emails and phone calls from distraught supporters who assumed that she was operating the traveling show. Baskin sued Exotic for trademark infringement and was eventually awarded a $1&nbsp;million settlement from him although she was unable to collect most of it. Two years later, Exotic filed for bankruptcy.

In 2015, Exotic's mother Shirley was sued by Big Cat Rescue over assets that belonged to Exotic or the G.W. Zoo being transferred into and out of her name.