'Tiger King': Miranda Lambert slammed for photos with Joe Exotic, says she didn't have any idea who he was
Country singer Miranda Lambert is getting slammed for a photo she shared with Joseph 'Joe Exotic' Maldonado-Passage of the documentary mini-series 'Tiger King', who is currently serving prison time for 17 federal charges of animal abuse, in addition to two counts of murder-for-hire. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for illegal animal trading and violations of the Endangered Species Act, along with counts of murder-for-hire plot.
In a bunch of embarrassed and disappointed comments, fans showed that they were taken aback by Lambert (who is the founder of the pet adoption non-profit MuttNation) after she posted the pic with the convicted felon and hashtagged the post #WayTooPrettyForPrison. The 36-year-old country star later apologized but claimed she was unaware of Joe Exotic's history of animal abuse.
In the photos we see Lambert posing with Joe, his ex-husband John Finlay and two other workers from his zoo, one of whom was Kelci 'Saff' Saffery, who also features in the documentary series. There is also a picture of Lambert and Joe near a large yellow Human Society of Tulsa truck.
Fans on Twitter didn't hold back. "That's not a pic I would be proud of let alone post on social media. Very disappointed," says a fan. Another fan shared in the disappointment saying, "I’ve been a fan of yours for 10+ years, but he killed innocent and healthy tigers." Other comments included "Surprised that you would post this considering you [sic] love of animals???? Odd!' (sic)" and "Yikes. This is embarrassing."
A few hours later, Lambert wrote in her apology, "Backstory: During Hurricane Harvey, the MuttNation Team went to Houston to help relocate existing shelter dogs to free up shelter space for animals separated by their owners." She continues, "MuttNation asked volunteers who could transport some dogs from Houston to shelters in Oklahoma, where there was more room and they could be treated and adopted", adding, "Some guy named Joe volunteered his trailer and staff. Now I know it's 'Joe Exotic'. I've never been to his zoo and I didn't even know he had tiger." She concluded her note with "OBVIOUSLY I'd never condone animals being treated badly."
One fan did point out something in line with Lambert's story after they shared a link to the Tennessean which showed several pictures of some of the 2017 rescues where we can see Lambert wearing the same clothes as in the controversial pics with Joe. Another fan responded to the link suggesting that meeting Joe may have just been a simple coincidence, saying "Context: she’s wearing the same outfit as the video in this article. They crossed paths during animal rescues after Hurricane Harvey (sic)."
According to Daily Mail, Lambert recently confessed she is suffering from anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic, saying it is "through the roof". She said, "I haven’t really known what to say on social media during all this. I'm not great at socials anyway and a time like this makes it that much more difficult for me to figure out how to be." However, she is feeling a little better now with help of her husband Brendan Mcloughlin.