'Cage Fight:' Gloves come off for Carole Baskin's new docuseries

Carole, Howard Baskin preview 2-part documentary 'Cage Fight'

Cynthia Smoot reports

TAMPA, Fla. - "We were told Tiger King was about the abuse of wild animals," but Tampa's own Carole Baskin -- founder of Big Cat Rescue -- says she and her husband were betrayed by the producers of Netflix’s hit series "Tiger King."

Carole Baskin says they were told the name of the series would be "Stolen World," modeled after the successful "Blackfish" documentary, which led to the beginning of the end of orcas in captivity.

Her husband, Howard, says, "They had shown us video months earlier where Carole was the heroine going after the bad guys, so that's what we were expecting."

Now the Baskins say they're going to show the world, in their own series, what "Tiger King" left out: the cruelty behind cub-petting and tiger trafficking.

"Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight" begins streaming this Saturday on Discovery Plus.

The Baskins spoke with FOX 13’s Cynthia Smoot about life since "Tiger King" and what kind of cage fight viewers can expect.

Carole Baskin says this isn't about settling a score, but putting the focus back where it belongs, on the cats.

Says Baskin, "It's about bringing people along with us to show them how critical it is that we stop the cub petting and stop the private ownership."

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Carole says she's ready for the fight, but not against Joe Exotic. He's already behind bars, she points out. She says she’s out to catch the rest of the bad guys abusing tigers and other animals.

"When they see who these people really are and the way they are really treating animals, you're right there alongside us seeing this as we're seeing it," Carole said.

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That's what she's promising in "Carole Baskin's Cage Fight," to show viewers what she's been doing for years, long before Joe Exotic was convicted of trying to hire a hitman to kill her. She says he wasn't the first person to threaten her life. He's just the one who got caught.

"We speak out against animal abusers. We go after them, and we gather the evidence necessary. They hate us because of that, and they have targeted my life," Carole said.

"Tiger King" also made her the target of rumors and speculation about what happened to her first husband, who disappeared in the late 90s.

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Overnight, Carole Baskin found herself not just famous -- but infamous.

"And then my phone started ringing and it rang nonstop for the next three months with people just screaming obscenities, people wanting to kill me, wanting to kill my family, wanting to kill the cats. I'd ask them, 'Why the cats? Why do you want to kill the cats?’ They'd say, ‘Because you keep them in those tiny little cages,’ and what they're talking about is those feeding boxes which is what we feed our cats in because that's all people see on "Tiger King."'

Howard Baskin says there was also an outpouring of support from friends and fans who helped get them through it. Now they're ready to take the fight to the abusers.

And they're inviting the world to come along.

Carole says they hired an investigator and they got help from a member of Joe Exotic's own family. She says everything you'll see is real, even when it gets dangerous.

Howard added, "There are places in both episodes where there's gunfire and it's not us shooting and it's not blanks."