For Millennials. By Millennials.
Even though on some accounts you can sympathize with Joe Exotic in Netflix’s Tiger King, you really shouldn’t. Joe was problematic in so many ways. He was verbally abusive and mean to the people around him. And if you think he actually cared about his animals, you’re dead wrong. It wasn’t just neglect that harmed the animals but there is information that has come to light on how Joe Exotic committed animal abuse in the most disturbing of ways.
Rick Kirkham shares that Joe was an evil man
The reality show producer Rick Kirkham shared that the Netflix documentary was very accurate but it didn’t go far as much as it should have:
“There was a whole lot more to talk about; a whole lot more that could’ve been shown about Joe Exotic and just how wild and crazy and evil-hearted the man really was”
Rick also added that a lot of the animal abuse that occurred was captured by him for his reality series shows. Joe Exotic wanted Rick to capture everything but he wasn’t too keen on releasing all of the footage to the public, especially when Rick owned the rights to it:
Joe wanted us to run the cameras 24 hours a day, and we did. We shot thousands of hours of things. And everything from him killing animals to abusing people, abusing animals. He knew it was all on tape. And he wanted it recorded. But he never wanted all of it released.”
The horrifying animal abuse at the hands of Joe Exotic
The self-proclaimed lover and protector of tigers and animals, Joe Exotic, was a big hypocrite apparently. Rick Kirkham shares that Joe Exotic would be so cruel to kill his older tigers and then feed those tigers to the remaining ones. In the documentary, Tiger King showed that tigers got left-over meat from the Wall-mart trucks. The documentary didn’t include this detail.
Rick also tells the story of how Joe Exotic killed a horse for no reason:
“Before she got off the park—he said, ‘Rick, roll your camera. Roll your camera. Come on, you’re gonna love this Rick,’—he walked up, pulled a gun out of his holster. And shot the horse dead in the trailer and then cut it up with a chainsaw and then fed it to the tigers that day.”
Joe claimed that he was killing the horse because he could use it for the big pasture on his zoo. Joseph-Maldanado Passage (Joe’s legal name now) was not charged with the killing of this horse.
Joe-Maldanado Passage is currently serving 22 years in prison on two counts of murder for hire. Along with that, the former Tiger King is also in prison for nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. He still pleads not guilty to all of the charges against him.
Joe Exotic froze dead tiger cubs and had videos of people physically abusing the animals
It wasn’t just Rick Kirkham that came out against Joe Exotic. After the documentary released, Joe Exotic’s niece came out and revealed some shocking details of the animal abuse that took place in the GW zoo. His niece, Chelsea Putman also says that Joe was more evil than depicted in the documentary series.
Chelsea Putman reveals that Joe Exotic would freeze dead tiger cubs so that he could sell them at high prices to taxidermists. Not only that but he had videos of different people performing heinous sexual acts on the animals residing in the GW zoo.
It is perhaps for this reason that Chelsea helped the police track down Joe Exotic when he fled to Florida to escape the authorities
Chelsea says this about her uncle Joe Exotic:
‘In the Tiger King Netflix series, you can see glimpses of his evil persona but in real-life Joe is 100 times worse. I want people to know who the real Joe Exotic is, not the one you’ve seen on TV.
All I can say is there, I hope there is justice done on the animals that are still held captive at the zoo that is now under Jeff Lowe.
Related: Fans Hate New Tiger King Episode!
