Animal abuse claims and USDA violations Exotic has been strongly criticized for his treatment of animals that he owns, including by
Carole Baskin, which eventually led to an investigation by the USDA and convictions for animal abuse. In February 1999, animal welfare investigators discovered a large number of neglected emus in
Red Oak, Texas, and Exotic volunteered to capture the animals and take them to his animal park. However, Exotic, local volunteers, and Red Oak police were quickly overwhelmed by the task of corralling the large and fast-running birds, several of which died. Exotic and another man resorted to killing emus with shotguns and were accused of
animal cruelty by police. However, since the emus were considered livestock, they could lawfully be killed humanely in Texas, and a grand jury declined to indict Exotic. Most of the surviving birds ultimately wound up at Texas ranches. In 2006, the G.W. Zoo was cited multiple times by the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of
Animal Welfare Act standards. In 2020, Exotic was convicted of falsifying wildlife records in violation of the
Endangered Species Act.
Feud with Carole Baskin The feud between Exotic and
Carole Baskin began in 2009 when Baskin, who sought to end commercial cub petting in the United States, targeted Exotic's lucrative traveling shows. While Exotic and the Wynnewood park had been subject to protests and investigations by animal rights organizations such as
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, these efforts had been sporadic and poorly organized and did not seriously hamper his business. Baskin's
Big Cat Rescue organization—which had a very popular Facebook page and many informal volunteers recruited on social media—proved more daunting. Big Cat Rescue volunteers began to track Exotic's movements and
email bomb managers of shopping malls that hosted his shows, prompting many of them to cancel, which jeopardized his income. Exotic saw Baskin's actions as hypocritical because she also operated an animal sanctuary that charged admission, albeit for nonprofit purposes. Exotic responded to Baskin's social media efforts by setting up his own TV studio and YouTube channel at the G.W. Zoo, hosting a nightly talk show that aired vitriolic attacks against Big Cat Rescue and Baskin personally. He covertly visited Big Cat Rescue in September 2010 and chartered a helicopter to survey the property. He obtained a copy of Baskin's diary stolen from her computer by a former employee and posted excerpts online. and was declared legally dead in 2002. Evidence of foul play is lacking and Baskin was never named as a suspect; however, Lewis's daughter says that Baskin killed Lewis and fed his body to her tigers, and Exotic used his YouTube show to promote this theory and others relating to Lewis's disappearance, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Baskin's arrest. In 2012, Exotic began making a series of threats against Baskin on social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube. In May 2020, the
United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled that Exotic fraudulently transferred ownership of the park to his mother to avoid paying debts resulting from the earlier settlement, awarding ownership to Baskin and giving Exotic's former business partner Jeff Lowe until October 1 to vacate the premises. Baskin decided to sell the park with
deed restrictions prohibiting the keeping of exotic animals. Lowe relocated the animals to
Thackerville, Oklahoma, intending to open a new park there, but the
U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit citing Lowe's history of poor animal care; the new park never opened and federal authorities seized all remaining cats in May 2021.
Steve Irwin Memorial and TV studio fire On March 26, 2015, a fire broke out at the G.W. Zoo, destroying the Steve Irwin Memorial and Exotic's TV studio, where he shot his YouTube videos and stored footage for a planned reality series. All but one of the Neverland Ranch alligators were killed. The blaze was thought to have been started by an arsonist, possibly a vindictive employee, but no one was ever arrested. Exotic blamed animal rights activists for the incident, while
Tiger King speculated that the perpetrator may have been Exotic himself or
Rick Kirkham, the reality TV producer who worked with him. Kirkham asserts that Exotic and zoo employees sought to destroy incriminating footage he had stored in the TV studio. Exotic's niece Chealsi Putman, who worked at the G.W. Zoo periodically from 1999 to 2017, also criticized him. In April 2021, Putman was interviewed by
Louis Theroux for
Shooting Joe Exotic and claimed that the tigers Exotic shot were not sick. Several of Exotic's former employees at the G.W. Zoo have called out his actions in interviews after the release of
Tiger King. He has most frequently been criticised by Rick Kirkham, who claimed that things were "a hell of a lot worse" than what's depicted in
Tiger King; "[Watching Tiger King], you kinda had a little bit of a heart for the guy, but you really didn't realize or get to see how evil he really could be, not only to animals, but to people." In the
Tiger King aftershow, Kirkham stated that Exotic was terrified of lions and tigers, and remarked, "It's idiotic to think how Exotic's become famous as the Tiger King when he's so terrified of big cats."
Feud with quarterback Jordan Travis In September 2023, Joe Exotic threatened legal action against
Florida State Seminoles quarterback
Jordan Travis for allegedly infringing on Exotic's trademark of "Tiger King". Exotic released the following statement on his social media:
Conviction and imprisonment In November 2017, Exotic told two men he would pay them several thousand dollars to kill Baskin; one of them was an undercover informant for the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a result of an investigation by the FBI, the
U.S. Marshals Service, the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, and the
Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Exotic was arrested and arraigned on charges of
murder for hire and of violating the
Lacey Act and the
Endangered Species Act. In April 2019, a federal jury found him guilty on two counts of hiring someone to murder Baskin in Florida, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act by falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tigers and selling tigers across state lines. In March 2020, Exotic filed a lawsuit against those he blamed for his arrest and conviction, including the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the lead prosecutor, a federal agent, and former business partner Jeff Lowe; he sought $94 million, he dropped the lawsuit five months later. In April 2020, Exotic was a topic of conversation during a White House COVID-19 press conference. A few days later,
Donald Trump Jr. joked about the prospect of Exotic getting a pardon. , January 2021 (evoking the album cover of the Beatles'
Abbey Road) In May 2020, a private investigator, attorneys representing Exotic, and a group of volunteers calling themselves "Team Tiger" delivered a 257-page document to the
U.S. Department of Justice disputing elements of his conviction and requesting a
pardon from President
Donald Trump. On January 19, 2021, the day before the
inauguration of Joe Biden, Team Tiger chartered a limousine in
Fort Worth to prepare for Exotic's anticipated last-minute pardon and release. However, he ultimately was not pardoned and remained incarcerated at FMC Fort Worth. Later that month, Exotic hired
John Michael Phillips and Amy Hanna as his attorneys. They planned to file a motion for a new trial within a few months. In July 2021, a three-judge panel for the
10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Exotic should serve a shorter sentence, saying the separate convictions for each man he tried to hire to kill Baskin should have been treated as one by the trial court. A new sentencing hearing was held on January 28, 2022, and was attended by a group of Exotic supporters, some wearing animal-print masks. Baskin testified at the hearing that she was fearful that Exotic would threaten her if released. A federal judge sentenced Exotic to 21 years, a reduction of only one year. While incarcerated, Exotic wrote his autobiography,
Tiger King: The Official Tell-All Memoir, which was released on November 9, 2021. In prison, Exotic has been allowed to use a computer for 30 minutes at a time, so he worked on his book every day. After the success of the first season of
Tiger King, Exotic began to receive a large amount of fan mail.
Cardi B attempted to start a GoFundMe to help get Exotic out of prison. Exotic also inspired several
Internet memes, most of which were based on his quotes in
Tiger King. He also inspired the ongoing "Free Joe Exotic" campaign, started by fans who believed he was wrongly convicted. On March 31, 2020, Donald Trump Jr. posted two Exotic memes to Instagram, the first featuring a face merge of his father Donald Trump with Exotic, and the second featuring
Joe Biden's head photoshopped over an image of Exotic with a tiger. Exotic was transferred from FMC Fort Worth to
Federal Medical Center, Butner in
North Carolina in November 2021. He was later moved back to FMC Fort Worth and is scheduled for release in 2036. == Personal life ==