“Tiger King” Joe Exotic Is Suing The Government For $94 Million From Prison
While the rest of the world is just now having their minds blown by the majestic splendor of Joe Exotic’s chaotic existence thanks to the Netflix documentary Tiger King, longtime Dlisted readers can say they knew him when. Shockingly, Joe is the only person, to my knowledge, to have been stripped of their HSOTD title due to a murder-for-hire conviction. If you’re just now meeting Joe for the first time (government name Joseph Maldonado-Passage), he was the owner of a janky ass roadside zoo specializing in big cats, which he bred, running him afoul of animal rights activist Carole Baskin, who owns a sanctuary called Big Cat Rescue.
In January, Joe was sentenced to 22 years for trying to hire an undercover FBI agent to murder Carole for fucking with his business. He was also convicted on eight counts of falsifying wildlife records, nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act and killing five tigers. According to TMZ, Joe just filed a $94 million lawsuit from prison against the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Federal Wildlife Service for fucking with his business. If only Joe had concentrated more on his lip-syncing country music career instead of torturing animals for a living, we’d all be better off.
Joe’s suing the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Federal Wildlife Service for placing the “generic tiger” on the endangered species list. Exotic claims this was done for the sole purpose of targeting businesses like his, and essentially … putting him out of business.
As he puts it, this equates to “stealing my property and promoting an animal rights agenda.”
Joe also alleges he was “discriminated against because he is the only person charged with this statute because [he] is an openly gay male with the largest collection of generic tigers and crossbreeds.”
According to the suit, he wants $78,840,000 for the loss of his personal property and 18 years’ worth of his work with tigers for this.
Joe is seeking an additional $15 million against two former business associates, one of whom’s alleged bad deeds Joe claims, caused his mom to die from stress.
As for his criminal conviction, he’s going after a handful of people involved in the case — including his former business partner, Jeff Lowe, for allegedly lying to the feds and planting evidence against him.
He accuses another former colleague of being an informant and claims the sum of all this contributed to the passing of his mother, Shirley.
Well, it’s a good thing Shirley never had to watch Tiger King then. The mere sight of Joe’s sagging eyebrow piercing flopping around was enough to have me reaching for my nerve pills.
Pic: Tampa Bay Police