Where are the 39 big cats abused by Tiger King's Joe Exotic?
Netflix’s original series, ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’, starring controversial Oklahoma big-cat owner, Joe Exotic, has taken the Internet by storm.
The docuseries based on Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, caught the attention of people instantly partly because they were mostly stuck at home amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The show has a 94 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a review-aggregation website for film and television, whereas according to Netflix, it is currently the most-watched show on the online streaming platform. It has also earned itself a lot of fans, including celebrities like Cardi B, Wiz Khalifa, Dax Shepard, Chris Brown, and Kim Kardashian.
The first season of the series concluded showing Exotic in jail serving a 22-year sentence for plotting to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin in 2017 along with umpteen wildlife violations. However, little did it say of the current state of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park’s tigers.
According to a report by the People Magazine, 39 tigers and three bears, who were formerly under Exotic’s care, are now safely living in the expansive habitats of Keenesburg, Colorado sanctuary.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a non-profit institution and home to about 550 wild animals rescued from neglectful and often illegal situations. The unique part about the place is it does not breed its animals and also does not allow guests or keepers to have hands-on contact with them.
Kent Drotar, the public relations director of the sanctuary, told People that Exotic’s tigers and bears came to their care through a mix of surrender and the threat of legal action.
Continuing further, Drotar said that the tigers’ journey to the sanctuary started in 2016. At the time, PETA filed a lawsuit against a Florida zoo, called Dade City’s Wild Things Zoo, claiming that the place was mistreating endangered animals.
As a part of the proceedings, PETA’s legal team went to the zoo to inspect the property.
“A couple of days prior to that Joe Exotic drove from Oklahoma down to Dade City, Florida, and removed 19 tigers at the behest of the owners of Dade City’s Wild Things,” Drotar stated, adding he believes the 57-year-old shifted the tigers to his zoo to thwart law enforcement and because “Joe Exotic was notorious for breeding cubs and selling them to other organizations that used cubs, so there’s a good chance those 19 tigers originated at Joe’s zoo.”
However, Exotic’s illegal action came into light and a judge threatened to charge him with bringing big cats over state lines, prompting Exotic to give up 19 tigers to the Wildlife Animal Sanctuary.
He also chose to surrender 20 more tigers and three black bears of his own soon after the death of his husband Travis Maldonado. “He was kind of having a change of heart and was saying he wanted to get out of the business completely,” Drotar added.
According to Drotar, all the 42 animals are at the property for a little over two years now and have noticeably changed. He said when the animals came they were malnourished and weak, with lackluster coats and extensive dental issues.
The public relations director also said that at the time when the animals arrived it seemed that they had lost their spirits too. “It’s kind of like the tigers were thinking, ‘Wow, my life is not worth living',” Drotar said and also added that luckily that the unhappy days of the animals ended soon as they settled into their new home. “The animals are just happier. They are no longer just pacing. It was almost an immediate change with their demeanor."
“They see other tigers. They see other animals. They see a horizon. They just have more of a purpose for living. There is no comparison on where these animals came from and where they are now,” he noted.