Tiger King (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Not Your Average Joe - full transcript
Met Joe Exotic, the gun-toting operator of an Oklahoma big cat park. He's been accused of hiring someone to kill his chief rival Carole Baskin.
[man 1] Where do you want to start?
I guess at the beginning somewhere.
It was a crazy beginning.
Mmm.
- Crazy.
- [interviewer] What was the beginning?
[man 2] Animal people are nuts, man.
And I might be one of them people.
I don't know,
but they're all half-out there, man.
They're crazy.
[man 3] You know, the monkey people
are a little bit different.
[handler]
Okay, good boy! Good boy!
You know, they're kinda strange,
but the big cat people
are back-stabbing...
pieces of shit.
[reporter 1] A decades-long feud
comes to a bizarre end...
[reporter 2] Tiger King stands accused
of trying to have a woman killed.
[man 2] You know, there's not every day
that a zookeeper went to prison
for murder-for-hire.
So, I'm sure...
I'm sure y'all got a story to tell.
[operator]
This is a prepaid call from...
[man 4] Joe Exotic.
[operator]
...an inmate at the Grady County Jail.
[Joe] Do you know
what they threatened me with?
Seventy-nine years.
I went to work every day
prepared to die in a tiger cage.
- [tiger roaring]
- Dying doesn't scare me.
At all.
[reporter 3] Here is a fact
that may make you stop for a second.
There are more captive tigers
in the US today
than there are in the wild
throughout the world.
- [lions growling]
- Come here, you sexy beast!
[man 5] Hi, little man.
Look at that big smile. There you go.
Show them claws.
[man 6] You would not believe
how many sheriffs told me,
"Oh yeah, just down the street,
there's a guy that has a lion,"
or, "A guy down there that has a tiger."
They just feel very strongly
that these are mine
and nobody's gonna take 'em from me.
- [roars]
- [man 7] I'll tell you, it's real simple.
Don't own big, dangerous, exotic animals
'cause it's a time bomb.
Everybody has a story.
Everybody that's owned one,
it's always been a bad, bad ending.
I've been doing this 20 years.
Never even been bit.
- [snarls]
- [man gasps, grunts]
It's okay.
Our mission is to ban
the private possession
of these magnificent animals.
[man 1] She wanted to shut down the zoo.
And he wanted her gone.
[reporter 4]
The so-called Tiger King...
[reporter 5] He is on trial,
accused in a murder-for-hire plot.
[reporter 6] Joe Exotic is accused
of paying a person
to murder Carole Baskin.
[woman] Long before he was ever indicted
in these charges,
Joe Exotic was someone that makes good TV,
makes good news.
Even if it's a train wreck,
you can't help but look.
He's a completely insane, gay, gun-toting,
drug-addict fanatic.
[man 1] He wasn't real.
He was like a mythical character,
living out in the middle
of Bumfuck, Oklahoma.
[reporter 4] The well-known zoo owner
was taken into custody.
[reporter 5] He could be looking
at nearly 80 years in prison.
[Joe] When I leave this park,
I wear a bulletproof vest.
That is how bad this has gotten.
There are so many strange twists
in that story.
You would have to write books,
volumes of the stuff
that went wrong there.
Let me show and tell the whole thing.
Because then you'll get it.
Then you'll say, "Jesus fucking Christ!
Why are you in jail?"
[interviewer]
Okay, this is good. All right.
And how old is she?
[snake owner]
She's 23 years old.
[interviewer]
When I started this project,
I had no idea it would consume
five years of my life
It all began when I was investigating
a notorious reptile dealer
in South Florida.
[dealer] See how the snake stresses?
That's when the venom shoots out.
That's enough to kill everybody
in this room three, four times over.
[Goode] A guy showed up one day
wanting to buy a venomous snake.
We haven't even offered them for sale yet.
These are those real young ones, you know.
[Goode] When he was leaving, he said,
"Check out what I just bought."
In the back of this guy's van
was a snow leopard.
Oh, shit!
It was 100 degrees outside.
Do they need to be refrigerated?
You know, 'cause they...
[dealer]
Not if they're acclimated in Florida,
if they're born and raised here.
[Goode] Are these as rare
as the clouded leopard?
These are rarer than the clouded leopard.
[Goode] It just blew my mind.
What is a snow leopard doing
in the back of this guy's hot van?
That set me on this journey
to really understand what is going on
with people keeping big cats
in this country.
Oh, little girl.
- [woman] Maybe take it off?
- Oh, you don't want me to take it off.
[Goode] I like it off.
Your whole audience will say, "Oh my god,
that guy has a mullet!"
[Goode] No, I like it. I like it!
Jamotti! Jamotti, my sexy tiger!
[Goode]
You raised these from babies?
[Joe] These were grown up
in my house, yup.
We've got, like, eight of 'em
in there now.
People, every day, they're like...
"You must have the most incredible life,
to live with 187 big cats."
I started building this in 1999.
Believe it or not,
this was a completely empty field.
In over 16 years, it's grown into this.
My name is Joe Exotic
and this is Thunder and Lightning!
The only difference between my pet
and your pet is
mine have three-inch teeth,
and they weigh 400 pounds.
Does it feel good to stand on my stage
with 500-pound tigers
and everybody envy you?
Absolutely. Okay?
I would be the biggest liar if I said no.
Now, stop.
That's a brand-new shirt, now quit it!
Do you have a sense of bonding with them,
or do you have a... Ooh.
Is there, like an emotional connection
between you and these cats?
There is a very emotional connection
between me and these cats. Extreme.
That's his deal right now.
I mean, his whole deal is about
just wanting...
Petted and loved on, you know?
- They're so affectionate and fond...
- Are these trying to mate?
Well, they're two boys.
- Oh, they're two boys.
- We have a very open relationship here.
[laughing]
We do not discriminate here.
[laughing]
[Joe] Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to welcome you
to the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park.
I can assure you're going to get closer
to tigers and lions here
than you would anywhere in the world.
Matter of fact, you're gonna get so close
I can almost promise you
some of you will be urinated on.
If that happens,
we have t-shirts in the gift shop
that says, "I got peed on by a tiger."
[man] All right, everybody,
what I need you guys to do
is walk down the fence line here.
Follow Katrina. We're gonna introduce you
to your first dangerous animal.
I'm kind of embarrassed to say it,
but when I got here,
I was on kind of the end of my ropes.
and I was like, "Man!
I never done this shit before!
What the fuck? Let's go!"
And now look at me! I'm doing tiger shows!
[man 2] I've been the manager
at the G.W. Zoo for 14 years now.
Most of the staff was unique.
That's what I thought
was really cool about the zoo.
And then there's Joe.
Do the dance! [humming]
I love you so much!
[man 3] The people who worked for Joe
were misfits,
and they were a family.
It was a place where all these misfits
could come together
and be with the King of Misfits,
who reigned over them.
[woman] Joe is an entertainer by nature.
[Joe] No. Come on.
He was pretty much the star
of his own show.
I'm going to try and get some good shots.
So make sure ya'll get me
some promo pictures in there.
[man] Want me to go up?
No, I want you up front
with a still camera.
Meeting him in person
definitely solidified that.
♪ Woke up this morning
With the sunshine in my eyes ♪
♪ It's funny how a smile can change
The words you want to say ♪
[Saffery] For Joe, the zoo was his stage.
It was the one place he could shine.
He could control every aspect of it.
From the start of the day to the end
of the day, he filmed everything.
Come here, love me!
Come here, love me!
[Saffery]
He had this live TV show that he would do
for a number of his followers.
[Goode] Where does your TV show air?
On the internet. Worldwide.
Every night at six o'clock.
Pretty cool. Come on in.
[Kirkham] Joe had been doing
these internet broadcasts,
either on a regular basis or periodically,
for probably a decade or longer
before I got there.
[man] Didn't Johnny Carson used to smoke
on the set of the Tonight Show?
[Joe] Yeah, years ago!
He never had more than 80 people
watching the thing live.
See ya Monday night, right here!
When I walked in,
I had all this experience.
I had a national reputation.
If you watch us often, you know one of
our reporters, Rick Kirkham, is nuts.
[man] With a mere touch of a flame,
it was instant Kirkham kabob.
[Kirkham] Hey, Mike, get the charcoal!
You know, I've done a lot of shit
in my life,
but I've never experienced anything
like Joe Exotic.
He knew that I could make him famous.
I took it to a new level
because I made it look
like a real TV show.
[Reinke] We did a show every night
and I want to say nine out of ten shows
was about the animal rights people
and Carole down in Florida.
One thing you're forgetting out there,
you animal rights people,
and especially Carole Baskin...
And that's Carole Baskin
down at Big Cat Rescue.
It was all part
of Carole Baskin's plan when...
...paid it to Carole Baskin.
Carole Baskin is so influential.
That Carole Baskin...
And Carole Baskin...
Man, if he ever had an enemy in his life,
it was Carole Baskin.
Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and I'm the founder
and CEO of Big Cat Rescue.
We're the world's largest
accredited sanctuary
that is devoted entirely
to caring for big cats.
[Joe] Since 2006,
we've been in this pissing match
over tigers.
If there's one thing I know for sure
it's that big cats don't belong in cages.
I kept to myself. I did my own thing.
And I picked up an Oklahoma newspaper
one day
and here's this story
about this trashy little roadside zoo.
And it was me!
[Joe] Her whole plan is
to get her following to believe
that we're abusing tigers
and running us all out of business.
[GPS]
Your destination is ahead on the right.
[woman] Here comes Carole.
[Goode] Oh, she's dressed perfectly.
More like this?
You want me to get down,
so you've got this cat?
[Goode]
Yeah, that's great, thank you.
Okay, go ahead.
This is Joseph the lion,
and he came from a facility in Ohio...
I really believe in life
that you can only be good at one thing.
He's gonna get nasty with me. [laughs]
With saving the cats,
it's one thing that I can fix
if I can just stay focused on that.
So I don't read the newspaper,
I don't watch news on television
unless there's a cat involved.
[Goode] Where are we headed?
[Carole]
We're headed to Cameron and Zaboo.
She's saving the very best part for last
'cause they love the turkey necks.
This is Bengali, an old circus tiger.
[snarls]
You can see how they go
from being so sweet
to just wanting to tear your face off,
and they could do it like that,
and it's like, "Oh! That's amazing
to have that kind of range
and that speed!"
I live, eat, and breathe
ending the captivity of wild cats.
And I know that I'm gonna see this
through to the end.
What really sets apart Big Cat Rescue
from a zoo
is that we are fixing the problem,
they are creating the problem.
People like Joe Exotic,
what they are doing is breeding cats
for life in cages.
A tiger needs 400 square miles
of territory in the wild.
So there's no cage
that's going to be sufficient.
But the reason that we have cats in cages
is to provide them a safe place to live
until they die.
This was our oldest cat.
Black Mamba was a jaguar,
Oakie was an ocelot,
Champlaine was a Canada lynx.
You're following me again. [laughs]
You wanna lead?
You can read plaques too.
I think it would be fair to say
that Carole is the Mother Teresa of cats.
You're so wonderful.
The very first image that my parents had
of me in the cradle,
it was me and the cat.
I'd never been a person that had friends,
and so my friends
were two imaginary white cats.
I've always had cats in my life,
and I've always felt a certain affinity
toward them.
I'm actually allergic to cats,
so my entire house is like, you know,
tile floors, no curtains,
metal furniture, that sort of thing.
[Goode] Carole, tell me about this room,
'cause everything has a certain pattern.
That is cat print.
- [Goode] And this?
- [Carole] That was a gift.
- And this? And...
- This I actually had painted.
[Carole]
Most of what I wear are cat prints.
It's almost a uniform.
When I go in to talk with a legislator,
if I go in there dressed head to toe
in cat prints,
people remember, "Oh, that's the person
that's gonna be all over my case
about why cats need to be protected."
[Goode]
Carole, you even have cat luggage!
It's always easy to find my luggage
when I get off the plane.
I think it's a great look.
[laughing]
And this is the Tiger King gift shop,
where I have all of my stuff.
We got honey, we got barbecue sauce,
we have steak sauce, skin cream.
- I have sex gel for you and her!
- Sex gel?
The best seller out of this gift shop
is actually Tiger King underwear line.
People just go crazy over 'em
because they're all in animal print.
- Do you wear these yourself?
- I don't wear underwear.
You don't wear underwear?
No, freeball it.
Oh. Wow.
I've been the cover
of Hollywood Magazine twice.
I have my first two albums that I did.
This is my first album, I Saw A Tiger,
and this is my second album, Starstruck.
And there's 28 songs and 16 music videos.
♪ 'Cause I saw tiger
Now I understand ♪
♪ I saw tiger
And the tiger saw man ♪
♪ I tell all the hunters
To lay down their guns ♪
When I first met Joe,
I was like a month out of high school.
I was with Joe from 2003 to 2014,
so 11 years.
He showed me love
and I learned how big my heart was.
And how much to care.
- [alligator gurgles]
- [both laughing]
Are you gettin' this?
Three, two, one.
John's a strong, silent type.
A man of few words.
But what a hunk.
[Joe] At the age of 13, I knew I was gay.
And I had a bad time struggling with it.
When my father found out,
he made me shake his hand
in front of my mom
and promise not to come to his funeral.
So, I had a real issue dealing with that,
and one night I drove my car off a bridge.
I broke my back...
and spent five years in braces.
I went to Florida to do my therapy...
and my neighbor was the manager
of Lion Country Safari.
And he brought home all the baby lions
and baby monkeys
and stuff at night to bottle feed.
And that's where my attraction
to exotic animals really started in.
What?
I know that they have a heart
and a soul and a mind.
I've learned from them,
and they do therapy for me.
Let's see your foot, sexy lion!
But the animal rights people,
they keep sayin'
I can't have these tigers.
There's a war in America
that's being fought
for an enormous amount of money.
The animal rights activists,
they want the lion's share,
and they don't want to share their lions.
[Howard] In addition to Joe,
the most notorious...
cub breeder/petting operation
is Doc Antle.
Antle is much more sophisticated,
much smarter.
He's fearless.
[roaring]
[Antle] Fifty acres makes up
the preserve here.
We're gonna film, you know...
this is my crib here.
Go to the front door and I'll go open it
and say, "Hi. How you doing? Come in."
- Good idea.
- Okay?
[Goode] I like that Doc is better
at directing than we are.
- Hey.
- How you doing, guys?
Hi, it's Eric Goode. How are you?
- Doing good. Come on in.
- Good to see you. Thanks.
This is Swami Satchidananda,
my grandfather guru who...
A guy I lived with since I was a teenager.
All right, so I am Dr. Bhagavan Antle.
B-h-a-g-a-v-a-n. Antle, A-n-t-l-e.
Dr. Bhagavan Antle.
I am the director
of the Myrtle Beach Safari
and the rare species fund.
And speaking of incredible animals,
joining us is the founder
and director of TIGERS.
- [applause]
- Good afternoon, guys!
This is my little girl, Bubbles!
Look at the pictures there.
That really is Bubbles
and I as kids together.
You can see somehow both of us
got way bigger over the years.
I have been building
this incredible preserve
for people to have
an interactive, up-close,
uncaged experience with wildlife.
Now these big teeth also make it
so that he can take down larger prey
than you would expect.
And he thinks coming out here
is a wee bit of a drag.
[Antle] To see an animal going to chase
that high-speed lure,
diving into that crystal-clear pool...
[woman] Look at the camera!
[Antle] People become wildly stimulated
at seeing that amazing stuff
up close and uncaged.
I am popular,
I am so well known
as big cat guy around the world,
that people who are against people
having relationships with animals, period,
want to destroy me
because I am out there in the forefront
so known of being this guy
that is in love with big cats
and has them love him back.
[Reinke] Joe wanted to be
so much like Doc Antle,
he sent several of us up there
to see his facilities,
so we can do the same in his place.
[Joe] He's taught me quite a bit
as far as being able to market the zoo
and make money at the zoo.
[woman]
Oh, my god, here are the cubs!
All right, so, we're gonna make sure
everybody standing up
gets your turn to come down here
and love on this baby tiger
'cause that's what you came here for.
The animal rights people
like to bitch at you
that cub petting is abuse, okay.
In my opinion,
it's the best education tool.
And keep in mind, in the rain forest,
there's no escalators. All right?
You know, people only care about saving
what affects them.
So you set a baby tiger in a family's lap
and they fall in love
with this baby tiger,
and you have 15 minutes
of their undivided attention to say,
"Look, we gotta save the rain forest
because you're killing
this little baby tiger's...
you know, where he came from."
They leave
with a whole different attitude.
[crowd] Aww!
[Antle] We believe these incredible,
up-close experiences
makes a connection between them
and the wild world,
opening their hearts and their wallets,
for us to do
our worldwide conservation work.
[Goode]
What is the cost of admission here?
Three-thirty-nine is the start price,
right?
There's people that paid 625,
655 for their tours today.
'Cause it's dynamic price
like an airline ticket.
The price goes up according to
how many people are coming on.
This is our third time. Second this week.
Me and my wife were here Sunday.
[man] You can't put a price
on holding a baby tiger.
- That's his favorite animal.
- I mean, I hit the lottery,
I'll pay these people whatever they want
for me to go down to the reservation
every day and play with them.
[Antle] We charge a premium
because it costs so much
to do proper care.
We feed super quality food
that anyone would be glad
to eat themselves.
It's a minimum of $10,000 a year
to feed each tiger.
[Joe] I can feed a tiger
for $3,000 a year.
[Goode] You've got how many tigers now?
I have 227.
So you're spending...
three quarters of a million
feeding your tigers?
[Joe] Just feeding 'em.
[Joe] We work our ass off
in order to drop that price.
We have feed lots that give us
five to seven cows a day...
that die in the feed lots.
The game wardens and the highway patrol
call us any time
that a cow or a deer gets hit
on the highway.
If I was to feed nothing but cows,
I would need 30 cows a day.
♪ I'm a baby tiger
Short and stout ♪
♪ This is my tail
And this is my mouth ♪
♪ I'm gonna bite you
And it's gonna hurt ♪
♪ So why will I bite you?
Because I'm a jerk ♪
That's it.
[laughing]
[Joe] This was actually me
and my brother's dream, you know.
In 1997,
he was moving my sister
from Dallas to Florida
and he made it 40 miles.
And a drunk semi driver hit him.
- Who's this?
- My brother.
- That's the one that...
- Yup. Yep.
So, when I signed the papers
to shut his life support machine off
and donate his organs,
I promised him
that he would just not be a statistic...
that the people of the world would know
who he is.
And that's when the GW Exotic Animal
Foundation was born, in his memory.
My brother, he's an angel now.
I went to schools and I talked to them
about drugs and alcohol.
But I couldn't keep their attention, okay?
So I took animals.
What do we say to drugs?
We say no to drugs, that's right.
Because drugs
will make your teeth fall out,
and you get really ugly
and you don't have any friends.
Animals just wasn't enough, okay?
So then I started adding magic.
[Finlay] He'd put on a magic show,
which actually was pretty cool.
He would use animals in it.
He had a 12-year-old kid
kind of showing him how to do stuff.
[man] I first met Joe
when I was in the eighth grade.
I helped in a show
down in Norman, Oklahoma.
Joe wasn't doing magic.
I started showing him
some of the magic that I did.
And Joe supplied tigers
to be used during the show.
We're talking this morning about
the upcoming
Mystical Magic of the Endangered Show.
It's coming to the Valley View Mall.
That's when he decided to change his name
to Joe Exotic.
My real name is Joe Schreibvogel.
I go by Joe Exotic
'cause nobody ever knows how
to say it right anyway.
When we first started out,
we were all crammed in a semi.
Fourteen of us in a cab of a semi,
that's a little cramped.
Today we have a Siberian Tiger,
an Indochinese Tiger,
a two-toed sloth, a black panther...
Joe was taking tiger cubs,
stick 'em in a semi,
and carting them to malls
all throughout the Midwest.
[Finlay] They would do cub petting.
You could take your picture
with this little baby cub.
Look at me! Awesome.
I mean, there was times
that we may have made ten grand
at the mall.
And there was times that we were doing
20, 30, 40 grand.
Howard and Carole hired me
at the beginning of 2011
to basically try to track Joe
and convince the malls
to not allow him to exploit cubs.
We started a program
where we would contact the malls
and explain to them why this was bad.
[Bass] At one point,
we used someone to follow Joe
and report what mall
they were going to next.
[reporter]
The animals' presence isn't...
[Bass] It was, you know,
part detective work
to try to track down Joe
and where he was in the country
with these cubs.
And they stalk every move you make.
Doesn't matter where you are
in the country.
They would research it,
find the owners of the mall
and email them, text 'em, call 'em,
send the media out there, everything.
Just hammer 'em.
[Howard] Years ago
when Carole first started doing this,
we might generate 500 emails...
- And be proud of it.
- Yeah.
And as our online audience grew
and our supporter base grew,
this gradually got up
to thousands of emails.
Sometimes as many as
five or six thousand emails.
And one by one,
these malls started refusing
to have him back.
That would pay the bills
for the winter sometimes.
So it was definitely a big loss for us.
But Joe always found a way to make money.
One of the most popular adventures here
at the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park is a ticket for you,
and that's private playtime
with a baby tiger.
[Carole] Anybody who poses
with an exotic cat is a problem.
It just drives more and more
and more breeding
of these cats who will never live free.
[reporter 1] Tiger selfies,
a big trend on a dating app...
The tiger selfie is a growing trend
on sites like Tinder
and OKCupid apparently.
Oh yeah, this is how endangered species
can save themselves,
by helping us get laid.
[Carole] Wild animals have been brought
onto the late-night shows.
- How do you hold these?
- This way.
Hold it against your breast.
[Carole] And when people see that,
they want to emulate it.
All right, yesterday on my day off
I went to the G.W. Zoo.
Shoutout to Exotic Joe.
I got two more tigers.
Now look at me, how young I am
there on Letterman.
Man! Go back, go back!
We might as well do Letterman real quick.
Here I am long ago
on The Late Show with David Letterman.
I've got my big black panther there,
Shadow.
Jay brought us out
into the forefront of people,
he got to meet my animals
like no one else had ever done.
The world's biggest cat coming on there,
baby tigers, cheetahs, leopards,
everybody out there.
Enough?
Here I am in costume
playing Marvelous Bhagavan, the magic man.
And the cubs played themselves.
I don't remember a time
where it wasn't everything I was doing,
having animals in my life.
I grew up a professional cowboy
in a family of professional cowboys.
That led me along
to be able to have a quality life
of a lot of interaction
with amazing domestic and wild animals.
I moved to Yogaville
in Buckingham, Virginia.
I started immersing myself in that life
and I saw the incredible power
of presenting the animals
without barriers,
without caging,
so that you can really get to see them
in all of their power and glory.
[Antle] People in Hollywood,
people other places came to me and said,
"Hey, we need a tiger to do this.
We would like a tiger to do that."
- And ready and go.
- Action.
You are a good kitty.
[Antle]
I made 500 gigantic international movies,
from Ace Ventura, Jungle Book,
Dr. Doolittle, Mighty Joe Young...
I mean, it's a huge list of features
that we made.
Today we're gonna take
those same techniques
that Doc created while working
with Hollywood's top producers
and directors
to create for you
an amazing animal adventure.
Have you had your photo taken?
No? Keep coming, keep coming.
The toenails you gotta watch
because they rip your face.
Grandma?
- [patron] How old are they?
- Six weeks.
From the time
that they're four weeks old
to the time that they're 16 weeks old,
you can profit $100,000
on that cub.
Interaction, playtimes, photos.
[Carole] People who pimp out tiger cubs
can only use them
from the time that they're a few weeks old
until they're about 12 weeks old,
and when they get to be that age,
they can take a finger off.
There are enough ignorant people out there
who will then take in that tiger
and a year later,
that cat's two or three hundred pounds
and they're calling us saying,
"Please get this out of my house."
At the same time,
there's almost no government regulation
of private possession, which I believe
is leading to the unbelievable number
of these cats in captivity.
We have a tiger crisis in this country.
[caller 1] Yeah, there's a lion
on Mount Perry Road and Gratiot.
[caller 2] It was heading west in a hurry.
[caller 3] Looks like a jaguar
or wolf or something...
[Carole] Zanesville really woke up
the public about the fact
that there could be dangerous wild animals
living right next door to them
and they didn't even know it.
[man] It walked out in front of me,
and it was standing there
under the streetlight.
[reporter] Sheriff Matt Lutz said
50 wild animals kept on a private farm
had been deliberately set loose.
One baboon, three mountain lions
and 18 tigers.
[man] Anything outside
the perimeter gets...
definitely gets taken down.
- [gunshots]
- [tiger snarls]
[reporter]
The animals were unleashed on the town
by a man who kept them in his backyard.
[Carole] I believe that there are a number
of ticking time bombs out there,
and when those places implode
and somebody does something crazy,
that will probably push
our legislation forward.
[reporter] Forty-eight of his animals
were eventually killed,
pushing Ohio lawmakers
to author a new bill
restricting private ownership
of exotic pets.
It's not that having lions
and tigers is bad unto itself.
It is the way he took care of them
that made it take place.
Properly managed wildlife can become
a great tool for wildlife education, like…
[reporter] Arguably the loudest,
most defiant voice on the front lines
of the big cat debate belongs to this man.
I'm Joe Exotic and this is Sarge.
The president of the Humane Society
called this place, and I quote:
"A ticking time bomb and potentially
ten times worse than Zanesville."
It is a ticking time bomb
if somebody thinks
they're gonna walk in here
and take my animals away.
It's going to be a small Waco.
That's a pretty powerful statement.
It's a very powerful statement
because I have poured my entire life
into what I do.
Nobody is gonna walk in here
and freely shut me down
and take my rights away from me
as long as I am not breaking the law.
[snarls]
[man] You know, I've been sheriff here now
for over eight years,
and our community gets its share of crime,
drug use, burglaries, domestic assaults.
But then there's Joe Exotic.
Within a year of becoming sheriff,
Joe walks into my office.
- Good, good.
- Right here.
From that point on, it was, uh...
it's been nonstop,
you know, with the G.W. Zoo and Joe.
This is the thing you don't want
when you have tigers, folks.
It's a real life tornado,
and there ain't nothin' you can do
besides protect yourself.
[Rhodes] I've gotten a lot of calls to...
"You better watch Joe.
He's doing this, he's saying that."
One of the things that keeps me awake
at night is the park.
If you're an animal rights person,
and you try and come into this facility,
this is what
you're going to be greeted with.
[gunshots]
Joe is a very paranoid person.
When I really realized
Joe was potentially dangerous
was when he made a comment
about "this could be another Waco."
That stand-off near Waco
began as a federal raid
when federal agents tried to serve
a search warrant.
[gunshots]
Our hearts go out to these brave agents
who died today in the line of duty.
[Rhodes]
And I took that as a direct threat
that if my office ever had to take
some action out there,
we were going to have a shoot-out.
This is my little town.
I'm the mayor, the prosecutor,
the cop, and the executioner.
You know, after the Waco deal,
me and Joe made a pact.
If anything went bad,
we were gonna shoot each other.
And then that day...
I put our names on our bullets right here.
I have my name
and his name on a bullet.
If anything went wrong,
it was gonna happen.
[Joe] What kinda camera guy are you?
[Rhodes] Someone like Joe,
who is very polarizing...
He can draw out people to oppose him.
[Joe] Oh, fuck yeah!
[Rhodes] For instance, I mean,
I would get a little cut-out postcard
like this, addressed to me...
picture of Joe with the word evil on it.
That was really the point I realized,
you know,
there's people that are opposite
of what Joe believes in.
I have defended myself since 2006
against People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals.
Carole Baskin is supported
by the help of PETA
to the point that they've actually made me
a target now.
[woman] PETA is unapologetic
in its mission to help animals,
and we've been targeting Joe Exotic
for many, many years.
I think that we can't...
underestimate how dangerous some
of these people are.
[Reinke] They think that animals
are being beat everywhere they go.
We didn't beat tigers at our zoo.
We sure got accused of it.
Those people are fucking insane, man.
Actually, they scare me.
[Peet] Joe is always armed.
There's always a gun at his side.
[woman]
What do you carry that gun for?
People.
- [man] Not the cats?
- Not the cats.
I'd shoot you before I shot my cat.
We have 24-hour armed guards,
three of us wear firearms.
That is how bad this has gotten.
[Antle] I sleep with an AK-47
under my mattress.
Loaded, ready to roll.
[man] Joe, he had threats all the time
on Facebook.
He had problems with PETA
coming onto the park
and taking pictures and stuff like that.
And trying to discredit him,
so he needed extra security.
[Rhodes] Over the course of eight years,
I would guess we have probably taken
40 to 50 police reports from Joe.
And we have had people
try to get on that park.
This guy has been videotaping.
And we warned him twice.
And he claims he's with PETA.
[Joe] Main thing is...
Oh, just investigating
some animal rights issues
that might be happening.
[Reinke] They take things to the extreme.
Have you got a tiger in a zoo in a cage?
Yeah.
How are you gonna keep him from running
downtown and going to 7-Eleven?
[Antle] Carole, PETA,
those characters want to attack everyone.
Carole wants to be the last man standing.
There can be only one,
and it has to be her.
[Jow] She's got tens of thousands
of people out there brainwashed
that we're abusing animals.
I just called her a plain-out hypocrite.
You're open to the public.
You're doing boat tours, night tours,
day tours, kid tours, kid camps, weddings.
You name it.
If you're taking photos and stuff,
it'd be great if you would use the hashtag
"BigCatRescue,"
so you can find us there.
Go ahead and open the gates
and go see some cats.
[Jow] It's a moneymaker for them.
These tickets sold out really fast,
and so we're so happy to see all you guys.
If you're not fuckin' exploiting animals
at that point,
what the hell are you doing?
[Carole] These guys are checking out Max
and Mary-Anne.
Carole is, I would have to say,
a hero of mine.
She's an awesome advocate for cats.
These animals have a life to live now.
A happy life to live.
And I tell everyone this is like
the Ritz-Carlton of animal sanctuaries,
'cause you just do an amazing job.
- Stop it, you're going to make me cry.
- I know.
[Kirkham] In my opinion,
Carole Baskin was as bad as Joe.
They were both, you know,
taking advantage of exotic animals
to make money.
So, to me, it was just a feud.
Carole Baskin, yup,
that lady that profits
over 1.5 million dollars
suckin' on your heartstrings
about shit on the internet
that ain't even true!
They are always trying to upset me
on social media.
I got a big mouth
and a television station.
- [chuckles] It seems to be.
- [Goode] And that works.
Why would you give to a facility
to rescue animals
to live in luxurious cages?
Well, how about that one?
That mountain lion is sticking his head
through a hole in the fence
in order to drink out of a...
Joe started bashing her.
She started bashing him.
You know, getting the mall shows canceled.
And she put up billboards,
and she made this 911 animal abuse site.
Joe was one of the top contenders on it.
Carole would now and then
put up something online
about how Joe's breeding
and he's bad and all this.
And he would go off on his internet show.
I consider that bitch to be one
of the biggest terrorists
in the exotic animal world right now.
It is financially draining
to fight this woman.
[Carole]
To get a little bit of background on Joe,
We got undercover video of him
using a 20-week-old cub
that jumped on this little boy
and bit him on the leg.
[child crying]
[Antle] She's ruthless.
Most of us are not ruthless.
People who really love animals
are rarely ruthless.
[Carole] There shouldn't have to be
a place that rescues big cats from abuse
in this country.
What we're asking you to do is champion
the Big Cat Public Safety Act.
The Big Cat Public Safety Act
would end the ownership
of big cats as exotic pets
and prohibit exhibitors from allowing
the public to have contact with them.
The Big Cat Safety Act, if passed,
it will destroy private zoos
across America.
[Joe] For Carole... and all of her friends
that are watching out there,
before you bring me down...
it is my belief...
that you will stop breathing.
It got pretty ugly.
We hear it's Carole's birthday next month.
And we're shipping her two of these!
[laughs]
Look at the fangs on that!
[Carole] One day I went out
to open up the mailbox
and it just exploded with snakes.
There are crazy people out there
who want to see me dead.
Happy birthday, Carole.
What... keeps me up at night
is worrying about them
hurting a family member to get to me.
It was just a... hate.
He has hate for Carole Baskin. Nasty hate.
A hundred rounds of .223.
You got it. Is that gonna be it
or do you need any explosives today?
[Goode] Carole's taking a nap.
[gunshots]
There, I've got every animal rights person
all in one row.
Dynamite. [laughs]
Ready?
Aim... Fire.
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[operator] This is a prepaid call from...
[Joe] Joe Exotic.
[operator]
...an inmate at the Grady County Jail.
[Joe] I'm in a cage.
Do you know why animals die in cages?
Their soul dies.
I'm not gonna be accused and go to prison,
and lose everything I have for things
that other people did.
Before this is over with,
I'm gonna shut down everybody.
[Joe] With our ever-changing climate,
in our world today,
and you're outside
working in the weather elements,
when you come in at night
and you wanna feel good,
reach for
America's favorite skincare products:
Tiger King Skincare.
If you have dry, cracked hands,
great product for men and women.
Tiger King Super Skin Rejuvenating Cream.
For a full line of Tiger King Skincare,
I guess at the beginning somewhere.
It was a crazy beginning.
Mmm.
- Crazy.
- [interviewer] What was the beginning?
[man 2] Animal people are nuts, man.
And I might be one of them people.
I don't know,
but they're all half-out there, man.
They're crazy.
[man 3] You know, the monkey people
are a little bit different.
[handler]
Okay, good boy! Good boy!
You know, they're kinda strange,
but the big cat people
are back-stabbing...
pieces of shit.
[reporter 1] A decades-long feud
comes to a bizarre end...
[reporter 2] Tiger King stands accused
of trying to have a woman killed.
[man 2] You know, there's not every day
that a zookeeper went to prison
for murder-for-hire.
So, I'm sure...
I'm sure y'all got a story to tell.
[operator]
This is a prepaid call from...
[man 4] Joe Exotic.
[operator]
...an inmate at the Grady County Jail.
[Joe] Do you know
what they threatened me with?
Seventy-nine years.
I went to work every day
prepared to die in a tiger cage.
- [tiger roaring]
- Dying doesn't scare me.
At all.
[reporter 3] Here is a fact
that may make you stop for a second.
There are more captive tigers
in the US today
than there are in the wild
throughout the world.
- [lions growling]
- Come here, you sexy beast!
[man 5] Hi, little man.
Look at that big smile. There you go.
Show them claws.
[man 6] You would not believe
how many sheriffs told me,
"Oh yeah, just down the street,
there's a guy that has a lion,"
or, "A guy down there that has a tiger."
They just feel very strongly
that these are mine
and nobody's gonna take 'em from me.
- [roars]
- [man 7] I'll tell you, it's real simple.
Don't own big, dangerous, exotic animals
'cause it's a time bomb.
Everybody has a story.
Everybody that's owned one,
it's always been a bad, bad ending.
I've been doing this 20 years.
Never even been bit.
- [snarls]
- [man gasps, grunts]
It's okay.
Our mission is to ban
the private possession
of these magnificent animals.
[man 1] She wanted to shut down the zoo.
And he wanted her gone.
[reporter 4]
The so-called Tiger King...
[reporter 5] He is on trial,
accused in a murder-for-hire plot.
[reporter 6] Joe Exotic is accused
of paying a person
to murder Carole Baskin.
[woman] Long before he was ever indicted
in these charges,
Joe Exotic was someone that makes good TV,
makes good news.
Even if it's a train wreck,
you can't help but look.
He's a completely insane, gay, gun-toting,
drug-addict fanatic.
[man 1] He wasn't real.
He was like a mythical character,
living out in the middle
of Bumfuck, Oklahoma.
[reporter 4] The well-known zoo owner
was taken into custody.
[reporter 5] He could be looking
at nearly 80 years in prison.
[Joe] When I leave this park,
I wear a bulletproof vest.
That is how bad this has gotten.
There are so many strange twists
in that story.
You would have to write books,
volumes of the stuff
that went wrong there.
Let me show and tell the whole thing.
Because then you'll get it.
Then you'll say, "Jesus fucking Christ!
Why are you in jail?"
[interviewer]
Okay, this is good. All right.
And how old is she?
[snake owner]
She's 23 years old.
[interviewer]
When I started this project,
I had no idea it would consume
five years of my life
It all began when I was investigating
a notorious reptile dealer
in South Florida.
[dealer] See how the snake stresses?
That's when the venom shoots out.
That's enough to kill everybody
in this room three, four times over.
[Goode] A guy showed up one day
wanting to buy a venomous snake.
We haven't even offered them for sale yet.
These are those real young ones, you know.
[Goode] When he was leaving, he said,
"Check out what I just bought."
In the back of this guy's van
was a snow leopard.
Oh, shit!
It was 100 degrees outside.
Do they need to be refrigerated?
You know, 'cause they...
[dealer]
Not if they're acclimated in Florida,
if they're born and raised here.
[Goode] Are these as rare
as the clouded leopard?
These are rarer than the clouded leopard.
[Goode] It just blew my mind.
What is a snow leopard doing
in the back of this guy's hot van?
That set me on this journey
to really understand what is going on
with people keeping big cats
in this country.
Oh, little girl.
- [woman] Maybe take it off?
- Oh, you don't want me to take it off.
[Goode] I like it off.
Your whole audience will say, "Oh my god,
that guy has a mullet!"
[Goode] No, I like it. I like it!
Jamotti! Jamotti, my sexy tiger!
[Goode]
You raised these from babies?
[Joe] These were grown up
in my house, yup.
We've got, like, eight of 'em
in there now.
People, every day, they're like...
"You must have the most incredible life,
to live with 187 big cats."
I started building this in 1999.
Believe it or not,
this was a completely empty field.
In over 16 years, it's grown into this.
My name is Joe Exotic
and this is Thunder and Lightning!
The only difference between my pet
and your pet is
mine have three-inch teeth,
and they weigh 400 pounds.
Does it feel good to stand on my stage
with 500-pound tigers
and everybody envy you?
Absolutely. Okay?
I would be the biggest liar if I said no.
Now, stop.
That's a brand-new shirt, now quit it!
Do you have a sense of bonding with them,
or do you have a... Ooh.
Is there, like an emotional connection
between you and these cats?
There is a very emotional connection
between me and these cats. Extreme.
That's his deal right now.
I mean, his whole deal is about
just wanting...
Petted and loved on, you know?
- They're so affectionate and fond...
- Are these trying to mate?
Well, they're two boys.
- Oh, they're two boys.
- We have a very open relationship here.
[laughing]
We do not discriminate here.
[laughing]
[Joe] Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to welcome you
to the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park.
I can assure you're going to get closer
to tigers and lions here
than you would anywhere in the world.
Matter of fact, you're gonna get so close
I can almost promise you
some of you will be urinated on.
If that happens,
we have t-shirts in the gift shop
that says, "I got peed on by a tiger."
[man] All right, everybody,
what I need you guys to do
is walk down the fence line here.
Follow Katrina. We're gonna introduce you
to your first dangerous animal.
I'm kind of embarrassed to say it,
but when I got here,
I was on kind of the end of my ropes.
and I was like, "Man!
I never done this shit before!
What the fuck? Let's go!"
And now look at me! I'm doing tiger shows!
[man 2] I've been the manager
at the G.W. Zoo for 14 years now.
Most of the staff was unique.
That's what I thought
was really cool about the zoo.
And then there's Joe.
Do the dance! [humming]
I love you so much!
[man 3] The people who worked for Joe
were misfits,
and they were a family.
It was a place where all these misfits
could come together
and be with the King of Misfits,
who reigned over them.
[woman] Joe is an entertainer by nature.
[Joe] No. Come on.
He was pretty much the star
of his own show.
I'm going to try and get some good shots.
So make sure ya'll get me
some promo pictures in there.
[man] Want me to go up?
No, I want you up front
with a still camera.
Meeting him in person
definitely solidified that.
♪ Woke up this morning
With the sunshine in my eyes ♪
♪ It's funny how a smile can change
The words you want to say ♪
[Saffery] For Joe, the zoo was his stage.
It was the one place he could shine.
He could control every aspect of it.
From the start of the day to the end
of the day, he filmed everything.
Come here, love me!
Come here, love me!
[Saffery]
He had this live TV show that he would do
for a number of his followers.
[Goode] Where does your TV show air?
On the internet. Worldwide.
Every night at six o'clock.
Pretty cool. Come on in.
[Kirkham] Joe had been doing
these internet broadcasts,
either on a regular basis or periodically,
for probably a decade or longer
before I got there.
[man] Didn't Johnny Carson used to smoke
on the set of the Tonight Show?
[Joe] Yeah, years ago!
He never had more than 80 people
watching the thing live.
See ya Monday night, right here!
When I walked in,
I had all this experience.
I had a national reputation.
If you watch us often, you know one of
our reporters, Rick Kirkham, is nuts.
[man] With a mere touch of a flame,
it was instant Kirkham kabob.
[Kirkham] Hey, Mike, get the charcoal!
You know, I've done a lot of shit
in my life,
but I've never experienced anything
like Joe Exotic.
He knew that I could make him famous.
I took it to a new level
because I made it look
like a real TV show.
[Reinke] We did a show every night
and I want to say nine out of ten shows
was about the animal rights people
and Carole down in Florida.
One thing you're forgetting out there,
you animal rights people,
and especially Carole Baskin...
And that's Carole Baskin
down at Big Cat Rescue.
It was all part
of Carole Baskin's plan when...
...paid it to Carole Baskin.
Carole Baskin is so influential.
That Carole Baskin...
And Carole Baskin...
Man, if he ever had an enemy in his life,
it was Carole Baskin.
Hi, I'm Carole Baskin and I'm the founder
and CEO of Big Cat Rescue.
We're the world's largest
accredited sanctuary
that is devoted entirely
to caring for big cats.
[Joe] Since 2006,
we've been in this pissing match
over tigers.
If there's one thing I know for sure
it's that big cats don't belong in cages.
I kept to myself. I did my own thing.
And I picked up an Oklahoma newspaper
one day
and here's this story
about this trashy little roadside zoo.
And it was me!
[Joe] Her whole plan is
to get her following to believe
that we're abusing tigers
and running us all out of business.
[GPS]
Your destination is ahead on the right.
[woman] Here comes Carole.
[Goode] Oh, she's dressed perfectly.
More like this?
You want me to get down,
so you've got this cat?
[Goode]
Yeah, that's great, thank you.
Okay, go ahead.
This is Joseph the lion,
and he came from a facility in Ohio...
I really believe in life
that you can only be good at one thing.
He's gonna get nasty with me. [laughs]
With saving the cats,
it's one thing that I can fix
if I can just stay focused on that.
So I don't read the newspaper,
I don't watch news on television
unless there's a cat involved.
[Goode] Where are we headed?
[Carole]
We're headed to Cameron and Zaboo.
She's saving the very best part for last
'cause they love the turkey necks.
This is Bengali, an old circus tiger.
[snarls]
You can see how they go
from being so sweet
to just wanting to tear your face off,
and they could do it like that,
and it's like, "Oh! That's amazing
to have that kind of range
and that speed!"
I live, eat, and breathe
ending the captivity of wild cats.
And I know that I'm gonna see this
through to the end.
What really sets apart Big Cat Rescue
from a zoo
is that we are fixing the problem,
they are creating the problem.
People like Joe Exotic,
what they are doing is breeding cats
for life in cages.
A tiger needs 400 square miles
of territory in the wild.
So there's no cage
that's going to be sufficient.
But the reason that we have cats in cages
is to provide them a safe place to live
until they die.
This was our oldest cat.
Black Mamba was a jaguar,
Oakie was an ocelot,
Champlaine was a Canada lynx.
You're following me again. [laughs]
You wanna lead?
You can read plaques too.
I think it would be fair to say
that Carole is the Mother Teresa of cats.
You're so wonderful.
The very first image that my parents had
of me in the cradle,
it was me and the cat.
I'd never been a person that had friends,
and so my friends
were two imaginary white cats.
I've always had cats in my life,
and I've always felt a certain affinity
toward them.
I'm actually allergic to cats,
so my entire house is like, you know,
tile floors, no curtains,
metal furniture, that sort of thing.
[Goode] Carole, tell me about this room,
'cause everything has a certain pattern.
That is cat print.
- [Goode] And this?
- [Carole] That was a gift.
- And this? And...
- This I actually had painted.
[Carole]
Most of what I wear are cat prints.
It's almost a uniform.
When I go in to talk with a legislator,
if I go in there dressed head to toe
in cat prints,
people remember, "Oh, that's the person
that's gonna be all over my case
about why cats need to be protected."
[Goode]
Carole, you even have cat luggage!
It's always easy to find my luggage
when I get off the plane.
I think it's a great look.
[laughing]
And this is the Tiger King gift shop,
where I have all of my stuff.
We got honey, we got barbecue sauce,
we have steak sauce, skin cream.
- I have sex gel for you and her!
- Sex gel?
The best seller out of this gift shop
is actually Tiger King underwear line.
People just go crazy over 'em
because they're all in animal print.
- Do you wear these yourself?
- I don't wear underwear.
You don't wear underwear?
No, freeball it.
Oh. Wow.
I've been the cover
of Hollywood Magazine twice.
I have my first two albums that I did.
This is my first album, I Saw A Tiger,
and this is my second album, Starstruck.
And there's 28 songs and 16 music videos.
♪ 'Cause I saw tiger
Now I understand ♪
♪ I saw tiger
And the tiger saw man ♪
♪ I tell all the hunters
To lay down their guns ♪
When I first met Joe,
I was like a month out of high school.
I was with Joe from 2003 to 2014,
so 11 years.
He showed me love
and I learned how big my heart was.
And how much to care.
- [alligator gurgles]
- [both laughing]
Are you gettin' this?
Three, two, one.
John's a strong, silent type.
A man of few words.
But what a hunk.
[Joe] At the age of 13, I knew I was gay.
And I had a bad time struggling with it.
When my father found out,
he made me shake his hand
in front of my mom
and promise not to come to his funeral.
So, I had a real issue dealing with that,
and one night I drove my car off a bridge.
I broke my back...
and spent five years in braces.
I went to Florida to do my therapy...
and my neighbor was the manager
of Lion Country Safari.
And he brought home all the baby lions
and baby monkeys
and stuff at night to bottle feed.
And that's where my attraction
to exotic animals really started in.
What?
I know that they have a heart
and a soul and a mind.
I've learned from them,
and they do therapy for me.
Let's see your foot, sexy lion!
But the animal rights people,
they keep sayin'
I can't have these tigers.
There's a war in America
that's being fought
for an enormous amount of money.
The animal rights activists,
they want the lion's share,
and they don't want to share their lions.
[Howard] In addition to Joe,
the most notorious...
cub breeder/petting operation
is Doc Antle.
Antle is much more sophisticated,
much smarter.
He's fearless.
[roaring]
[Antle] Fifty acres makes up
the preserve here.
We're gonna film, you know...
this is my crib here.
Go to the front door and I'll go open it
and say, "Hi. How you doing? Come in."
- Good idea.
- Okay?
[Goode] I like that Doc is better
at directing than we are.
- Hey.
- How you doing, guys?
Hi, it's Eric Goode. How are you?
- Doing good. Come on in.
- Good to see you. Thanks.
This is Swami Satchidananda,
my grandfather guru who...
A guy I lived with since I was a teenager.
All right, so I am Dr. Bhagavan Antle.
B-h-a-g-a-v-a-n. Antle, A-n-t-l-e.
Dr. Bhagavan Antle.
I am the director
of the Myrtle Beach Safari
and the rare species fund.
And speaking of incredible animals,
joining us is the founder
and director of TIGERS.
- [applause]
- Good afternoon, guys!
This is my little girl, Bubbles!
Look at the pictures there.
That really is Bubbles
and I as kids together.
You can see somehow both of us
got way bigger over the years.
I have been building
this incredible preserve
for people to have
an interactive, up-close,
uncaged experience with wildlife.
Now these big teeth also make it
so that he can take down larger prey
than you would expect.
And he thinks coming out here
is a wee bit of a drag.
[Antle] To see an animal going to chase
that high-speed lure,
diving into that crystal-clear pool...
[woman] Look at the camera!
[Antle] People become wildly stimulated
at seeing that amazing stuff
up close and uncaged.
I am popular,
I am so well known
as big cat guy around the world,
that people who are against people
having relationships with animals, period,
want to destroy me
because I am out there in the forefront
so known of being this guy
that is in love with big cats
and has them love him back.
[Reinke] Joe wanted to be
so much like Doc Antle,
he sent several of us up there
to see his facilities,
so we can do the same in his place.
[Joe] He's taught me quite a bit
as far as being able to market the zoo
and make money at the zoo.
[woman]
Oh, my god, here are the cubs!
All right, so, we're gonna make sure
everybody standing up
gets your turn to come down here
and love on this baby tiger
'cause that's what you came here for.
The animal rights people
like to bitch at you
that cub petting is abuse, okay.
In my opinion,
it's the best education tool.
And keep in mind, in the rain forest,
there's no escalators. All right?
You know, people only care about saving
what affects them.
So you set a baby tiger in a family's lap
and they fall in love
with this baby tiger,
and you have 15 minutes
of their undivided attention to say,
"Look, we gotta save the rain forest
because you're killing
this little baby tiger's...
you know, where he came from."
They leave
with a whole different attitude.
[crowd] Aww!
[Antle] We believe these incredible,
up-close experiences
makes a connection between them
and the wild world,
opening their hearts and their wallets,
for us to do
our worldwide conservation work.
[Goode]
What is the cost of admission here?
Three-thirty-nine is the start price,
right?
There's people that paid 625,
655 for their tours today.
'Cause it's dynamic price
like an airline ticket.
The price goes up according to
how many people are coming on.
This is our third time. Second this week.
Me and my wife were here Sunday.
[man] You can't put a price
on holding a baby tiger.
- That's his favorite animal.
- I mean, I hit the lottery,
I'll pay these people whatever they want
for me to go down to the reservation
every day and play with them.
[Antle] We charge a premium
because it costs so much
to do proper care.
We feed super quality food
that anyone would be glad
to eat themselves.
It's a minimum of $10,000 a year
to feed each tiger.
[Joe] I can feed a tiger
for $3,000 a year.
[Goode] You've got how many tigers now?
I have 227.
So you're spending...
three quarters of a million
feeding your tigers?
[Joe] Just feeding 'em.
[Joe] We work our ass off
in order to drop that price.
We have feed lots that give us
five to seven cows a day...
that die in the feed lots.
The game wardens and the highway patrol
call us any time
that a cow or a deer gets hit
on the highway.
If I was to feed nothing but cows,
I would need 30 cows a day.
♪ I'm a baby tiger
Short and stout ♪
♪ This is my tail
And this is my mouth ♪
♪ I'm gonna bite you
And it's gonna hurt ♪
♪ So why will I bite you?
Because I'm a jerk ♪
That's it.
[laughing]
[Joe] This was actually me
and my brother's dream, you know.
In 1997,
he was moving my sister
from Dallas to Florida
and he made it 40 miles.
And a drunk semi driver hit him.
- Who's this?
- My brother.
- That's the one that...
- Yup. Yep.
So, when I signed the papers
to shut his life support machine off
and donate his organs,
I promised him
that he would just not be a statistic...
that the people of the world would know
who he is.
And that's when the GW Exotic Animal
Foundation was born, in his memory.
My brother, he's an angel now.
I went to schools and I talked to them
about drugs and alcohol.
But I couldn't keep their attention, okay?
So I took animals.
What do we say to drugs?
We say no to drugs, that's right.
Because drugs
will make your teeth fall out,
and you get really ugly
and you don't have any friends.
Animals just wasn't enough, okay?
So then I started adding magic.
[Finlay] He'd put on a magic show,
which actually was pretty cool.
He would use animals in it.
He had a 12-year-old kid
kind of showing him how to do stuff.
[man] I first met Joe
when I was in the eighth grade.
I helped in a show
down in Norman, Oklahoma.
Joe wasn't doing magic.
I started showing him
some of the magic that I did.
And Joe supplied tigers
to be used during the show.
We're talking this morning about
the upcoming
Mystical Magic of the Endangered Show.
It's coming to the Valley View Mall.
That's when he decided to change his name
to Joe Exotic.
My real name is Joe Schreibvogel.
I go by Joe Exotic
'cause nobody ever knows how
to say it right anyway.
When we first started out,
we were all crammed in a semi.
Fourteen of us in a cab of a semi,
that's a little cramped.
Today we have a Siberian Tiger,
an Indochinese Tiger,
a two-toed sloth, a black panther...
Joe was taking tiger cubs,
stick 'em in a semi,
and carting them to malls
all throughout the Midwest.
[Finlay] They would do cub petting.
You could take your picture
with this little baby cub.
Look at me! Awesome.
I mean, there was times
that we may have made ten grand
at the mall.
And there was times that we were doing
20, 30, 40 grand.
Howard and Carole hired me
at the beginning of 2011
to basically try to track Joe
and convince the malls
to not allow him to exploit cubs.
We started a program
where we would contact the malls
and explain to them why this was bad.
[Bass] At one point,
we used someone to follow Joe
and report what mall
they were going to next.
[reporter]
The animals' presence isn't...
[Bass] It was, you know,
part detective work
to try to track down Joe
and where he was in the country
with these cubs.
And they stalk every move you make.
Doesn't matter where you are
in the country.
They would research it,
find the owners of the mall
and email them, text 'em, call 'em,
send the media out there, everything.
Just hammer 'em.
[Howard] Years ago
when Carole first started doing this,
we might generate 500 emails...
- And be proud of it.
- Yeah.
And as our online audience grew
and our supporter base grew,
this gradually got up
to thousands of emails.
Sometimes as many as
five or six thousand emails.
And one by one,
these malls started refusing
to have him back.
That would pay the bills
for the winter sometimes.
So it was definitely a big loss for us.
But Joe always found a way to make money.
One of the most popular adventures here
at the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park is a ticket for you,
and that's private playtime
with a baby tiger.
[Carole] Anybody who poses
with an exotic cat is a problem.
It just drives more and more
and more breeding
of these cats who will never live free.
[reporter 1] Tiger selfies,
a big trend on a dating app...
The tiger selfie is a growing trend
on sites like Tinder
and OKCupid apparently.
Oh yeah, this is how endangered species
can save themselves,
by helping us get laid.
[Carole] Wild animals have been brought
onto the late-night shows.
- How do you hold these?
- This way.
Hold it against your breast.
[Carole] And when people see that,
they want to emulate it.
All right, yesterday on my day off
I went to the G.W. Zoo.
Shoutout to Exotic Joe.
I got two more tigers.
Now look at me, how young I am
there on Letterman.
Man! Go back, go back!
We might as well do Letterman real quick.
Here I am long ago
on The Late Show with David Letterman.
I've got my big black panther there,
Shadow.
Jay brought us out
into the forefront of people,
he got to meet my animals
like no one else had ever done.
The world's biggest cat coming on there,
baby tigers, cheetahs, leopards,
everybody out there.
Enough?
Here I am in costume
playing Marvelous Bhagavan, the magic man.
And the cubs played themselves.
I don't remember a time
where it wasn't everything I was doing,
having animals in my life.
I grew up a professional cowboy
in a family of professional cowboys.
That led me along
to be able to have a quality life
of a lot of interaction
with amazing domestic and wild animals.
I moved to Yogaville
in Buckingham, Virginia.
I started immersing myself in that life
and I saw the incredible power
of presenting the animals
without barriers,
without caging,
so that you can really get to see them
in all of their power and glory.
[Antle] People in Hollywood,
people other places came to me and said,
"Hey, we need a tiger to do this.
We would like a tiger to do that."
- And ready and go.
- Action.
You are a good kitty.
[Antle]
I made 500 gigantic international movies,
from Ace Ventura, Jungle Book,
Dr. Doolittle, Mighty Joe Young...
I mean, it's a huge list of features
that we made.
Today we're gonna take
those same techniques
that Doc created while working
with Hollywood's top producers
and directors
to create for you
an amazing animal adventure.
Have you had your photo taken?
No? Keep coming, keep coming.
The toenails you gotta watch
because they rip your face.
Grandma?
- [patron] How old are they?
- Six weeks.
From the time
that they're four weeks old
to the time that they're 16 weeks old,
you can profit $100,000
on that cub.
Interaction, playtimes, photos.
[Carole] People who pimp out tiger cubs
can only use them
from the time that they're a few weeks old
until they're about 12 weeks old,
and when they get to be that age,
they can take a finger off.
There are enough ignorant people out there
who will then take in that tiger
and a year later,
that cat's two or three hundred pounds
and they're calling us saying,
"Please get this out of my house."
At the same time,
there's almost no government regulation
of private possession, which I believe
is leading to the unbelievable number
of these cats in captivity.
We have a tiger crisis in this country.
[caller 1] Yeah, there's a lion
on Mount Perry Road and Gratiot.
[caller 2] It was heading west in a hurry.
[caller 3] Looks like a jaguar
or wolf or something...
[Carole] Zanesville really woke up
the public about the fact
that there could be dangerous wild animals
living right next door to them
and they didn't even know it.
[man] It walked out in front of me,
and it was standing there
under the streetlight.
[reporter] Sheriff Matt Lutz said
50 wild animals kept on a private farm
had been deliberately set loose.
One baboon, three mountain lions
and 18 tigers.
[man] Anything outside
the perimeter gets...
definitely gets taken down.
- [gunshots]
- [tiger snarls]
[reporter]
The animals were unleashed on the town
by a man who kept them in his backyard.
[Carole] I believe that there are a number
of ticking time bombs out there,
and when those places implode
and somebody does something crazy,
that will probably push
our legislation forward.
[reporter] Forty-eight of his animals
were eventually killed,
pushing Ohio lawmakers
to author a new bill
restricting private ownership
of exotic pets.
It's not that having lions
and tigers is bad unto itself.
It is the way he took care of them
that made it take place.
Properly managed wildlife can become
a great tool for wildlife education, like…
[reporter] Arguably the loudest,
most defiant voice on the front lines
of the big cat debate belongs to this man.
I'm Joe Exotic and this is Sarge.
The president of the Humane Society
called this place, and I quote:
"A ticking time bomb and potentially
ten times worse than Zanesville."
It is a ticking time bomb
if somebody thinks
they're gonna walk in here
and take my animals away.
It's going to be a small Waco.
That's a pretty powerful statement.
It's a very powerful statement
because I have poured my entire life
into what I do.
Nobody is gonna walk in here
and freely shut me down
and take my rights away from me
as long as I am not breaking the law.
[snarls]
[man] You know, I've been sheriff here now
for over eight years,
and our community gets its share of crime,
drug use, burglaries, domestic assaults.
But then there's Joe Exotic.
Within a year of becoming sheriff,
Joe walks into my office.
- Good, good.
- Right here.
From that point on, it was, uh...
it's been nonstop,
you know, with the G.W. Zoo and Joe.
This is the thing you don't want
when you have tigers, folks.
It's a real life tornado,
and there ain't nothin' you can do
besides protect yourself.
[Rhodes] I've gotten a lot of calls to...
"You better watch Joe.
He's doing this, he's saying that."
One of the things that keeps me awake
at night is the park.
If you're an animal rights person,
and you try and come into this facility,
this is what
you're going to be greeted with.
[gunshots]
Joe is a very paranoid person.
When I really realized
Joe was potentially dangerous
was when he made a comment
about "this could be another Waco."
That stand-off near Waco
began as a federal raid
when federal agents tried to serve
a search warrant.
[gunshots]
Our hearts go out to these brave agents
who died today in the line of duty.
[Rhodes]
And I took that as a direct threat
that if my office ever had to take
some action out there,
we were going to have a shoot-out.
This is my little town.
I'm the mayor, the prosecutor,
the cop, and the executioner.
You know, after the Waco deal,
me and Joe made a pact.
If anything went bad,
we were gonna shoot each other.
And then that day...
I put our names on our bullets right here.
I have my name
and his name on a bullet.
If anything went wrong,
it was gonna happen.
[Joe] What kinda camera guy are you?
[Rhodes] Someone like Joe,
who is very polarizing...
He can draw out people to oppose him.
[Joe] Oh, fuck yeah!
[Rhodes] For instance, I mean,
I would get a little cut-out postcard
like this, addressed to me...
picture of Joe with the word evil on it.
That was really the point I realized,
you know,
there's people that are opposite
of what Joe believes in.
I have defended myself since 2006
against People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals.
Carole Baskin is supported
by the help of PETA
to the point that they've actually made me
a target now.
[woman] PETA is unapologetic
in its mission to help animals,
and we've been targeting Joe Exotic
for many, many years.
I think that we can't...
underestimate how dangerous some
of these people are.
[Reinke] They think that animals
are being beat everywhere they go.
We didn't beat tigers at our zoo.
We sure got accused of it.
Those people are fucking insane, man.
Actually, they scare me.
[Peet] Joe is always armed.
There's always a gun at his side.
[woman]
What do you carry that gun for?
People.
- [man] Not the cats?
- Not the cats.
I'd shoot you before I shot my cat.
We have 24-hour armed guards,
three of us wear firearms.
That is how bad this has gotten.
[Antle] I sleep with an AK-47
under my mattress.
Loaded, ready to roll.
[man] Joe, he had threats all the time
on Facebook.
He had problems with PETA
coming onto the park
and taking pictures and stuff like that.
And trying to discredit him,
so he needed extra security.
[Rhodes] Over the course of eight years,
I would guess we have probably taken
40 to 50 police reports from Joe.
And we have had people
try to get on that park.
This guy has been videotaping.
And we warned him twice.
And he claims he's with PETA.
[Joe] Main thing is...
Oh, just investigating
some animal rights issues
that might be happening.
[Reinke] They take things to the extreme.
Have you got a tiger in a zoo in a cage?
Yeah.
How are you gonna keep him from running
downtown and going to 7-Eleven?
[Antle] Carole, PETA,
those characters want to attack everyone.
Carole wants to be the last man standing.
There can be only one,
and it has to be her.
[Jow] She's got tens of thousands
of people out there brainwashed
that we're abusing animals.
I just called her a plain-out hypocrite.
You're open to the public.
You're doing boat tours, night tours,
day tours, kid tours, kid camps, weddings.
You name it.
If you're taking photos and stuff,
it'd be great if you would use the hashtag
"BigCatRescue,"
so you can find us there.
Go ahead and open the gates
and go see some cats.
[Jow] It's a moneymaker for them.
These tickets sold out really fast,
and so we're so happy to see all you guys.
If you're not fuckin' exploiting animals
at that point,
what the hell are you doing?
[Carole] These guys are checking out Max
and Mary-Anne.
Carole is, I would have to say,
a hero of mine.
She's an awesome advocate for cats.
These animals have a life to live now.
A happy life to live.
And I tell everyone this is like
the Ritz-Carlton of animal sanctuaries,
'cause you just do an amazing job.
- Stop it, you're going to make me cry.
- I know.
[Kirkham] In my opinion,
Carole Baskin was as bad as Joe.
They were both, you know,
taking advantage of exotic animals
to make money.
So, to me, it was just a feud.
Carole Baskin, yup,
that lady that profits
over 1.5 million dollars
suckin' on your heartstrings
about shit on the internet
that ain't even true!
They are always trying to upset me
on social media.
I got a big mouth
and a television station.
- [chuckles] It seems to be.
- [Goode] And that works.
Why would you give to a facility
to rescue animals
to live in luxurious cages?
Well, how about that one?
That mountain lion is sticking his head
through a hole in the fence
in order to drink out of a...
Joe started bashing her.
She started bashing him.
You know, getting the mall shows canceled.
And she put up billboards,
and she made this 911 animal abuse site.
Joe was one of the top contenders on it.
Carole would now and then
put up something online
about how Joe's breeding
and he's bad and all this.
And he would go off on his internet show.
I consider that bitch to be one
of the biggest terrorists
in the exotic animal world right now.
It is financially draining
to fight this woman.
[Carole]
To get a little bit of background on Joe,
We got undercover video of him
using a 20-week-old cub
that jumped on this little boy
and bit him on the leg.
[child crying]
[Antle] She's ruthless.
Most of us are not ruthless.
People who really love animals
are rarely ruthless.
[Carole] There shouldn't have to be
a place that rescues big cats from abuse
in this country.
What we're asking you to do is champion
the Big Cat Public Safety Act.
The Big Cat Public Safety Act
would end the ownership
of big cats as exotic pets
and prohibit exhibitors from allowing
the public to have contact with them.
The Big Cat Safety Act, if passed,
it will destroy private zoos
across America.
[Joe] For Carole... and all of her friends
that are watching out there,
before you bring me down...
it is my belief...
that you will stop breathing.
It got pretty ugly.
We hear it's Carole's birthday next month.
And we're shipping her two of these!
[laughs]
Look at the fangs on that!
[Carole] One day I went out
to open up the mailbox
and it just exploded with snakes.
There are crazy people out there
who want to see me dead.
Happy birthday, Carole.
What... keeps me up at night
is worrying about them
hurting a family member to get to me.
It was just a... hate.
He has hate for Carole Baskin. Nasty hate.
A hundred rounds of .223.
You got it. Is that gonna be it
or do you need any explosives today?
[Goode] Carole's taking a nap.
[gunshots]
There, I've got every animal rights person
all in one row.
Dynamite. [laughs]
Ready?
Aim... Fire.
[gunshot]
[gunshot]
[operator] This is a prepaid call from...
[Joe] Joe Exotic.
[operator]
...an inmate at the Grady County Jail.
[Joe] I'm in a cage.
Do you know why animals die in cages?
Their soul dies.
I'm not gonna be accused and go to prison,
and lose everything I have for things
that other people did.
Before this is over with,
I'm gonna shut down everybody.
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in our world today,
and you're outside
working in the weather elements,
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