Flew home from OKC after a long day of listening the Joe Schreibvogel lie, and lie, and lie. This is my opinion.

Oklahoma City:

8:30 a.m. I step out into the bone chilling air to walk a few short blocks to our attorney’s office. Since arriving the day before, I’ve stayed out of sight, having all of my meals sent to the room, so that I don’t accidentally tip off Joe Schreibvogel that I’m in town. He’s threatened me for years and is absolutely obsessed with his hatred for me. Howard is still recovering from open-heart surgery and can’t make this trip, so he’s worried sick, but knows one of us should be here for the Hearing on Assets.

Our attorneys are excellent and specialize in this sort of bankruptcy work, but Joe Schreibvogel is a compulsive liar, from what I’ve seen, and no one knows his back story better than Howie and I do. Plus we know the industry, so we can catch him in a lie faster than anyone else. Part of the strategy is just to throw him off center. The mere fact that we exist seems to be enough to keep him raving like a loon all day, according to his staff who left from the abuse, but having to sit across the table from either of us just sends him into nose twitching, nail biting, knuckle chewing fits. He reminds me of a trapped animal, who will chew off their own limbs to escape, as he feverishly gnaws at his own hands.

Knowing the hundreds of cubs he’s pimped out and all they have suffered at his hands, it gives me some pleasure to see him so frantic. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.

But for now, I focused on getting from the hotel to the attorney’s office, without Joe Schreibvogel or one of his animal abusing minions interceding. I must look paranoid as I slow or stop frequently to canvas parked cars, windows, check allies and the open bays of multi level parking garages for the glint of a gun, the red dot of a laser or a person acting suspiciously. A black sedan has been in the parking lot and is now slowly pulling onto the sidewalk, blocking my path.

Fight or flight?

Yesterday it was 17 degrees and the most snow to ever fall in Oklahoma City in March. The sidewalks are a treacherous mix of snow, slush and ice. It’s not far, back to the hotel, but part of me is so mad that I’m frozen to the spot while debating, in milliseconds, if there’s anything in my bag that would suffice as a weapon to protect myself.

Mental checklist: There’s an iPhone 6+. It’s big, but the rubber case makes it an unlikely choice. There is my Mac Air laptop, which has a thin, steel edge and just enough weight to be easy to swing and yet could have a pretty good impact. There is the HDMI cable that I use to connect hotel T.V.s for more screen space, but it’s a flat edge and would fail as a garrote. I peer hard through the dark, tinted windows, to see how many opponents I’m facing… Joe always has his entourage because he can’t seem to function if he isn’t the center of attention…

Turns out to be a young woman, so caught up in texting that she seems to be oblivious to the fact that she’s almost coasted out into traffic while looking at her phone.

One more block to go.

I said I was mad, and the more I learn about this clown, the madder I get. He flew under my radar until about 2009 (although he will tell you that I was giving him a hard time since 2007) when I discovered that dozens of animal acts, that were traveling the U.S. pimping out cubs, were actually the work of one person. While that would seem like a bad branding strategy, it was a great way to hide misdeeds. For now, regardless of how angry it makes me to think of the abuse, I had to attend this hearing, to make sure we made the most of the opportunity to put a stop to it.

At Howie’s insistence, Heather has found an off duty officer to be my bodyguard for the rest of the day. Tall, dark and fiercely protective, he looks like he could take on any trouble the skinny, loud mouthed, self proclaimed “Tiger King” and his band of hooligans could throw our way. Wearing a crisp shirt and tie under his snug fitting Northface jacket, you can’t see the gun he’s hiding. Crew cut hair and dark ski glasses give the mixed message of businessman / secret agent. Kyle’s quiet, and I like that. He’s all business and that means he’s not easily distracted. Before we set out, I have to pry to find that he’s got 14 years on the job and likes the challenges of dealing with OKC’s underbelly. This backyard breeder is no big deal to him.

It’s only a few blocks to the Federal Courthouse. A deposition could be taken anywhere, but we have planned it to be in a Judge’s courtroom so that all weapons and recording equipment will be left at the check-in area. The Federal Courthouse is even more strict than regular courthouses and doesn’t allow phones, Google Glass, or any sort of gadget that could record or transmit. Attorneys can get a pass for having their phones, but that’s it. Knowing this, I’d left all of my gear back at the attorney’s office, and anyone who knows me, knows how naked I feel without my phone.

We figured that on the first break Joe Schreibvogel would be running outside to call more minions, to try and intimidate me upon leaving the courthouse. We had planned ahead that at one of the latter breaks, I’d leave with the undercover cop and head home. It would give me some time before Joe could rally anyone, who sees my work to protect animals, as a direct infringement on their “right” to profit off them.

Today Joe’s entourage consisted of one greying, nicotine addicted man, wearing a Tiger King hoodie, and three attorneys. I wonder who was footing that bill? Surely they have read through the discovery thus far and have seen Joe Schreibvogel ’s propensity for running up bills and then running out on paying them. Maybe his mother is still providing the gravy train, or maybe it came from the zoo’s till, but all day long we will hear Joe cry “poor me, I have no money and must eat what ever friends give me, or the horses and cows I kill and butcher; I can’t afford my medicine so I have to depend on others who have my same disease to share theirs with me.”

On and on he whined about how he’s never been paid a dime by the park or zoo and how he does it all because he just loves to help people so much. He tried hard to find someone in the room who would believe his nonsense, and even managed to produce some tears about how his entire involvement in the zoo is to try and educate the current employees on how to care for animals before he dies. Our attorney, Mel, offers to give Joe some time to compose himself, but Joe is performing and insists that he finish his act before the tears dry up.

No one likes to see a grown man cry, but I know they are just crocodile tears. No doubt he’s used them on his mom from an early age and that’s why she’s spoiled him and continues to bail him out of one bad business decision after another. My heart is hardened to the ploy, as I think about the lioness he sewed up, like she was just a rag doll. She had huge, gaping wounds and Joe played the part of country vet, while his cameras rolled, despite having no medical training to back it up. In later episodes he talked about having to do it over because his stitches didn’t hold. I see it as his utter neglect of the big cat’s needs that caused her so much suffering. I think it was his desire to be seen as a vet, without having gone through the training to earn him that title, which led him to continue putting her through such misery. No, I wasn’t impressed with his tears.

The purpose of the hearing was to catch Joe Schreibvogel in as many lies as possible so that it would be easy to prove our case to the judge at a later date. That was like asking the sky to be blue, or the sea to be wet. It was a very productive day.

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.