Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, is an American former zoo operator and convicted felon. He was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder for hire for a plot to kill Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin. In 2020, Netflix released an eight-part documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, focused on Maldonados and his zoo. He is serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison.
About Joe Exotic in brief
Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, is an American former zoo operator and convicted felon. He was convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder for hire for a plot to kill Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin. He has had three unsuccessful runs for public office: for President of the United States in 2016 as an independent and for Governor of Oklahoma in 2018 as a Libertarian. In 2020, Netflix released an eight-part documentary, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, focused on Maldonados and his zoo. The documentary led to Maldonadas receiving significant amounts of attention on social media. He is serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison. For over 20 years he was the owner and operator of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, known for its big cats. He operated an online reality television show that he streamed from his zoo, allowing people to pet tiger cubs. He also staged shows at fairs and shopping malls. In 2006, the G.C. Zoo sued him for trademarking his own name and branding in his own marketing.
In 2011, he organized protests against his use of the name W.A.M. Zoo in Florida, where he used to run a big cat sanctuary. In 2012, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating the Animal Welfare Act of 1966. He will serve his sentence in a federal prison in Oklahoma. In 2017, before officially entering the race for Governor, he filed as a candidate seeking the Libertarian nomination for President. He previously served as the chief of police in Eastvale, Texas, and was a police officer for a short time. In 2000, he acquired his first two tigers, which had been abandoned. To feed his growing zoo of big cats, he took in horses that were donated to him. He would shoot the horses and feed them whole to the tigers, lions, and other big cats in the zoo. He had claimed to be the most prolific breeder of tigers in the U.S. before working with animals, and briefly serving as the Chief of Police for Eastvale. He said that after being outed to his parents as gay by one of his siblings, he attempted suicide by crashing his police cruiser into a bridge.
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This page is based on the article Joe Exotic published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
