Zoo Behind Winstar Casino
Although the subject of Netflix’s Tiger King, Joe Exotic, is serving 22 years in federal prison, the G.W. Zoo is still open for business. As documented in the series, Joe’s former colleague, Jeff Lowe, took over the business and changed the name to Greater Wynnewood Animal Park.
However, it won’t be open for long. Per the Oklahoman, Lowe is currently building a new location for the zoo in Thackerville (behind the Winstar Casino, as their Instagram and website explain), which will be called the Oklahoma Zoo. Their new location should not be confused with the Oklahoma City Zoo, however, which has been accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.
Lowe announced that they would be moving the zoo as far back in 2018, per the local network Oklahoma’s News 4, which cited a Facebook post the new owner had written. 'We think it’s best to let this zoo, die [sic] with Joe’s conviction and not make the next generation of animals to live here, forever suffer his outrageous behavior and reputation,' Lowe reportedly posted. His wife, Lauren, echoed these sentiments in an interview with KOCO after Joe’s sentencing in January 2020. '[Joe’s] name will not be mentioned,' she said. 'He will have nothing to do with the new facility. Going to let this place in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, die with him.'
Whatever his intention with these statements, Lowe is planning to vacate to new facilities behind the WinStar Casino before Baskin takes ownership in the fall. It's not clear yet what Baskin has in mind for the property: It could serve as a new space for her Big Cat Rescue operations, or she may simply be planning to sell it and pocket the. Oklahoma Zoo, which is what Lowe renamed the park after he moved in on Joe Exotic's zoo, behind Winstar Casino, is billed as 'opening summer 2020.' The negativity after the show hasn't been great for the re-opening, but Lowe seems less than phased, posting a selfie five days ago as Lowe was 'on the way to the vet.'
Indeed, the Greater Wynnewood Animal Park’s social media presence has been all but scrubbed of associations with Joe, save for occasional posts distancing themselves from him. Per the same News 4 article, Lowe wrote that their newly relocated zoo would be open by spring of 2019, but as of Dec. 5, 2019, it was still under construction.
They’ve started a new website for their new location, which claims that they’re having their grand opening this summer (it’s unclear if they will still make their goal, due to COVID-19 concerns, but on Dec. 5, 2019, they’d finished setting up the new zoo’s perimeter.) In the meantime, the Greater Wynnewood Zoo is still open for business, but it’s worth noting that they still allow cub petting, which Joe’s adversary, Carole Baskin, vehemently opposes.
Furthermore, the park is still open normal hours, despite the coronavirus. Bustle reached out to confirm they are open to the public as usual, and the zoo confirmed that they were, adding that they’re located 'in a rural area. For people to visit they can still practice their ‘social distancing’ while enjoying spending time being out doors.' (As of the time of publishing, there were currently 81 positive COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma, per Oklahoma’s News 4.)
However, Lowe and his wife Lauren are adamant that the animals’ quality of life has gotten better since the park changed hands. 'Since we took over, the zoo has spent thousands upon thousands getting every animal the medical treatment and proper diets that greed robbed them of,' the organization’s Facebook page posted on March 11. 'We defy anyone to find a mistreated or neglected animal here. We are one of the few zoo owners in America with a spotless USDA history.'
One of the Tiger King producers, Eric Goode, however, has another opinion, telling Entertainment Weekly that Lowe is 'basically operating on fumes,' due to less business. Goode continued, saying, 'I think that it’s very sad what’s happening to these animals. And it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s going to happen to them. Some will be placed but I would suspect a lot of them will die from starvation, and probably be put down.'
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In his 56 years of life, Joe Exotic has gone by a lot of different names and done a lot of different things.
The Tiger King has been a zookeeper, a big cat breeder, a presidential candidate, a gubernatorial candidate, a nursing home aide and — according to him — even a police chief.
Zoo Behind Winstar Casino In Oklahoma
On Tuesday, he became a convicted felon.
Winstar World Casino And Resort
His jury took less than four hours Tuesday to find him guilty on all 19 counts. He showed no reaction as U.S. District Judge Scott Palk read the verdict in Oklahoma City federal court.
The 12 jurors unanimously agreed he twice hired someone to kill a Florida animal sanctuary operator whose nonprofit organization successfully sued him for more than $1 million for trademark infringement and other civil wrongs.
'I am grateful justice was served,' his intended victim, Carole Baskin, said after the verdict.
Jurors unanimously agreed he also illegally killed five tigers with a shotgun, illegally offered to sell and sold tiger cubs and falsified documents involving the sale of tigers, lions and a baby lemur.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines on the two murder-for-hire counts alone. The judge will decide his punishment later this year.
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Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue, said he 'hopefully will serve time in prison and no longer present a threat either to me or to his former big cats.'
Joe Exotic in 1999 founded a private zoo in Wynnewood where he bred tigers, lions and tiger-lions hybrid and allowed the public to have 'play times' with tigers cubs for an extra charge. He sold the zoo in 2016 but was left in charge of day-to-day operations.
In testimony Monday in his own defense, he told jurors the zoo's new owner, Jeff Lowe, set him up in 2017 to get rid of him for good. 'These murder-for-hire allegations were manufactured,' defense attorney, Bill Earley, said in a closing argument Tuesday.
The key evidence against him, though, were his own words.
Prosecutors put into evidence recordings of his conversation with a government informant about having a zoo worker do the killing. In a Nov. 7, 2017, phone conversation, he discussed details of the plan and said, 'As long as he don't get caught red-handed, I think we got this.'
The zoo worker, Allen Glover, testified Joe Exotic paid him $3,000 in cash for the killing, had him get a fake ID in Dallas and gave him a cellphone with Baskin's photo on it. Glover, a convicted felon, said he just took the money and partied on a beach in Florida instead.
Prosecutors also put into evidence Joe Exotic's 47-minute conversation on Dec. 8, 2017, at the zoo with an undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man. He offered to pay the agent $5,000 down to make Baskin go away and $5,000 more when it was on the news. 'Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off,' he said in the recording.
'Here's the problem with kings,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Green said in her closing argument Tuesday. 'They start to believe they are above the law.'
She replayed for jurors Tuesday part of Joe Exotic's phone conversation with former boyfriend, John Finlay, after his arrest last September in Gulf Breeze, Florida. In the conversation, Joe Exotic expressed shock when Finlay revealed he told the FBI he drove Glover to Dallas to get the fake ID for the Florida trip.
'Oh, so, so, you hung me out to dry? Huh?' he said.
Again, Green told jurors Tuesday, Joe Exotic's mouth 'became his own worst enemy.'
He faced 21 counts when the trial started. Prosecutors dropped two false document counts Friday.
Lowe, who is relocating the zoo to near Thackerville, called the verdict 'justice for the animals.' Lowe said Joe Exotic has committed other crimes including embezzling $88,877 in zoo funds to pay personal and campaign expenses.
Joe Exotic ran for president in 2016 as an independent. He ran for governor in Oklahoma in 2018 as a Libertarian. Last June, he was forced to leave the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park by Lowe.
About his names, he said he was born Joseph Schreibvogel. He went by the name Joseph Maldonado after marrying husband Travis Maldonado. He went by the name Joseph Maldonado-Passage after Travis died in 2017 and he married Dillon Jacob Passage two months later. He was referred to in trial most often as Mr. Passage.
He also has gone by the nicknames the Tiger King and Joe Exotic.
The president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Tuesday 'Joe Exotic has been on PETA's radar for years as a notorious animal abuser and as the primary supplier of big cat cubs for the cruel cub-petting industry.'
'The world will be a safer place for all living beings with this man behind bars, where he can no longer harm animals or the animal advocates he hanged in effigy,' PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said.
Nolan Clay was born in Oklahoma and has worked as a reporter for The Oklahoman since 1985. He covered the Oklahoma City bombing trials and witnessed bomber Tim McVeigh's execution. His investigative reports have brought down public officials,... Read more ›