By Sadie Shepherd
Chances are, if you’ve spent any time on social media in the past week, you’re well aware of a certain Netflix limited series that has taken the web by storm. “Tiger King” – which premiered on the streaming service on March 20 – has given way too much controversy and speculation regarding the real-life characters it follows.
The show focuses on the story of Joseph Maldonado-Passage – aka Joe Exotic – who ran an exotic animal park in Oklahoma, primarily keeping tigers. Exotic began a 22-year federal prison sentence in January for the attempted murder-for-hire of his rival, Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin, along with a host of animal cruelty charges stemming from evidence found on his zoo’s premises.
The overarching theme of animal cruelty showcased in the docuseries is often overlooked to make time for more salacious details of the characters’ professional and private lives. While Joe Exotic is the main focus of the show, many of his connections in the exotic animal community are featured as well, including Baskin.
From polygamy to cult-like activity and weaponry of all sorts, Exotic and his fellow animal keepers live very eccentric lifestyles. Most notable of the scandals seen in the show, though, is the idea that Exotic was framed in the murder-for-hire plot and that Baskin may be a murderer herself based on the suspicious disapearance of her husband in 1997. These theories have been the basis of memes spanning all of social media, many insinuating Baskin fed her husband to the tigers.
Still, all of these factors in the docuseries pale in comparison to how Joe Exotic’s sheer personality overpowers everything else. The gun-toting, outspoken tiger enthusiast isn’t one to shy away from how he really feels. Much like the old adage about not being able to look away from a terrible car wreck, it’s impossible for the audience to turn away from Exotic’s odd charms. With his flashy wardrobe and quote-worthy one-liners, Exotic has gained many supporters from the show, including rapper Cardi B who tweeted advocating for his release from prison.
The series may be filled with a variety of crime and many different people on the receiving end of it, but the true victims of the exotic animal entertainment industry are constantly on the outskirts of every scene. Two chimpanzees kept apart in separate cages; a lemur confined to a small indoor enclosure; and of course, tigers galore; all being used for profit.
In interviews, the subjects seem to have a constant supply of tiger cubs at their disposal to cuddle and play with. Cub-petting is a source of major contention throughout the series. Exotic and others on the show took to breeding tigers for the sole purpose of birthing cubs to be used in interactive events where guests can hold them and get their picture taken. Admission to these events often costs hundreds of dollars per person, and when looking at the logistics of being able to produce a constant assortment of cubs, the cost makes sense.
In the U.S., cubs can only interact with the public between the ages of 8 and 12 weeks old. This limited window of time means that, to make a profit off of cub-petting, constant breeding must take place and the cycle of cubs being taken from their mothers way too soon continues endlessly.
Baskin made it her mission to end cub-petting, though she herself took part in breeding when she first began working with big cats, and would follow Exotic on his popular mall tours featuring young cubs. She would often reach his destinations before him and manage to cause enough protest to get events cancelled. This may have been the beginning of the truly vicious rivalry and hatred between the two of them.
Though the docuseries dedicates part of its final installment to acknowledging the problem of captive tigers in the U.S., the rest of the drama in the series is what many have taken away from it. As the show cites, there are currently between 5,000 and 10,000 tigers living in captivity in the United States, compared to around 4,000 in the wild.
Towards the end of the last episode, an old clip is shown of Joe Exotic himself when he first started his park, saying that big cats belong in their natural habitats and it’s his goal to return them there. That should be the takeaway of “Tiger King”.