'Tiger King' Joe Exotic ashamed of keeping animals in cages, but says he'll remain 'as crazy as I was before'
Joe Exotic has attracted quite a bit of scrutiny after the release of a seven-episode docuseries, 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness', on Netflix. Since its March 20 release, the 57-year-old, who is in prison, has not said anything regarding his new-found fame.
However, a recent video on Twitter posted by Netflix shows him speaking about it from jail, where he is serving a 22-year sentence for plotting to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin in 2017 along with umpteen wildlife violations.
In a new video released by Netflix on Twitter on April 3, the Oklahoma zoo owner said he is “ashamed” of how he treated his animals, including tigers and chimpanzees for the past two decades. According to reports, the Netflix video was recorded on March 22, two days after the documentary was released.
In the video, Exotic speaks frankly about his time in prison and the popularity he has gained after the series. “When I walk out of here, am I going to be as crazy as I was before. That will never change.”
“When I left the zoo and I sent my chimpanzees to the sanctuary in Florida and imagined what my chimpanzees went through for 18 years, I’m ashamed of myself,” stated Exotic, who was born Joseph Allen Schreibvogel but went by a number of names in his career.
Exotic further states in the video that he regrets how he mistreated the animals at the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, and he wants fans to know that he understands the criticism.
Meanwhile, in related news, it has been reported that Exotic is more crazier than the documentary lets on.
Robert Moor, who wrote a New York Magazine investigative “American Animals” that later turned into the Joe Exotic Wondery podcast, had a chat with Mark Carman of WGN Radio, where he spoke of his bizarre encounter with Exotic.
“So the first time I went, I didn’t know enough to be afraid. When you first meet him, Joe seems really charming. He seems like he’s rescuing animals. I was kind of like, you know, this guy’s not so bad.
“And then I started interviewing his former employees, and they started telling me these horror stories of how terribly he treated the employees how terribly he treated the animals," Moor revealed to Carman.
He added: “One of them said to me, look when you go back there, you need to be really careful because Joe has a system set up down there for deaths. And what he means is that they would kill and butcher horses and cows to feed to the tiger. He said they could have you killed, butchered and fed out to those tigers in 15 minutes.”
On the other hand, the Daily Show host, Trever Noah, claimed that he managed to understand Exotic's entire personality by binging on the documentary series. In his words, Joe "loves portraying himself as an expert in his field when the truth is, he has no idea what he’s talking about. He’s just winging it."