'Tiger King': Rick Kirkham says Joe Exotic shot woman's horse for tiger meat and is 'terrified' of big cats
Spoilers for 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness'
If you've not been consumed by the 'Tiger King' mania yet, the new episode titled 'The Tiger King and I' will take you in its grip. Hosted by Joel McHale, it is an hour-long after-show that serves as an update to the recent docuseries and brings several key characters for an interview.
The set of interviews — even in the midst of coronavirus pandemic — will keep you hooked, but one of the most dispirited points comes when former TV producer Rick Kirkham, who is shown in the documentary living at the Oklahoma reserve, recounts a horrific incident when Joe Exotic killed a horse.
Narrating the tale of a woman and her horse, he says, "A woman came to him and asked, 'Joe, can you please take care of my horse? He needs to go out to pasture and he's old and can you give him a good life?' Joe's like: 'Oh, I have plenty of land. Of course, we will.' She cried and he said, 'Just unhitch the horse trailer, we'll bring it back to you tomorrow. We'll give the horse a great life out there'."
The story takes a deadly turn and what follows will break your heart.
Rick continues, "No sooner did that lady get off the park did Joe say to me, 'Rick, follow me.' He walked right up to the horse trailer, pulled the Western revolver out of his holster, shot the horse dead and said, 'I don't take care of nobody's animals, and now they're tiger meat.' And he had the horse cut up and fed to the tigers. It was unbelievably cruel."
Visibly, the host is also shaken and he asks, "Did you ever see him kill a lion or tiger?" It is hardly shocking when Rick says yes. "I did. I saw him shoot two tigers, actually. One of them because he was pissed off at the tiger as it nearly bit him one day. The guy was a cruel man."
What's more, he makes one of the biggest misconstrued facts known. He says, "One thing that wasn't known is Joe was terrified of big cats. The shots where he is with two tigers, the white one is blind and the other is on tranquilizers. It's idiotic to think how he has become famous as the Tiger King when he is so terrified of big cats."
And if that wasn't enough, Rick also reveals how Joe asked him to kill Carole one time. "It was like a joke: 'I'll make you a rich man if you kill Carole.' and I was like, 'Err ha ha, whatever.'"
On the interview, Rick also says that he "regrets" meeting Joe Exotic. "I was also sucked into the surreal world of Joe Exotic. I want to keep myself away, but it keeps becoming bigger and bigger and bigger."
The story of the horse has left people on Twitter in a huge shock. "Tiger King and I - interesting episode. Joe 100% paying the price for his actions, the story about the horse absolutely disgusting," one fan posted and another wrote, "Oh yeah we all knew that guy that would feed your horse to his tigers."
One tweet read, "This nigga joe exotic killed a horse?!? Ah hell nah he need the chair," and another posted a crying meme and wrote, "The lady who gave Joe Exotic her horse after watching this new episode."
The web of lies, scandals, and controversies keeps getting bigger with each new scoop of 'Tiger King' and it is highly disheartening to see how these characters are gaining more popularity day by day.
If you haven't watched the docuseries yet, catch all the eight-episodes, including the newest after-show on Netflix.
