Former owner of America’s largest private zoo killed five endangered tigers to make room for others

I wrote about Joe Exotic years ago (link) and discovered then that he was the owner of America’s largest private zoo (another link). He is obsessed with big cats and he said that the tiger would be extinct in the wild in the not too distant future. Well, he is certainly contributing to that prediction because he’s been accused of killing five tigers to make cage space for other big cats.

It’s reported that big cat bones were recently dug up at the site of Joe Exotic’s animal park which is now under new ownership.

He has also been accused of illegally selling a two-week old baby lion cub, a baby lemur, lions and tigers. Recently I wrote about another accusation thrown at him namely that he conspired to kill the owner of Big Cat Rescue, Carole Baskin, who is critical of him and rightly so. He is currently going through the courts on that charge.

WMUR TV’s Twitter feed led me to this story. It reads “Joe exotic shot, killed endangered animals to make room for other cats”.

Officials: ‘Joe Exotic’ shot, killed endangered animals to make room for other cats https://t.co/FVwP3h0Abc pic.twitter.com/7fvWYbWrDd

— WMUR TV (@WMUR9) November 8, 2018

He now faces substantial fines and a prison sentence if convicted on the new charges of violating the Endangered Species Act in addition to, no doubt, further wildlife-related violations.

Mr Exotic has been criticised by Carole Baskin for operating “one of the most notorious cub petting roadside zoos in the country”.

Exotic appears to have been enraged by Carole Baskin and is on record as saying:

“For Carole and all of her friends that are watching out there, if you think for one minute I was not before, I am the most dangerous exotic animal owner on this planet right now….”

Comment on this news – this is valid and I entitled to comment as journalists are in hard copy newspapers such as The Times

Yes, Joe Exotic is a very dangerous, narcissistic person. He is a very bad person and a complete fraud in running a private zoo with aspirations at conservation but, in truth, the man is a nasty animal abuser and exploiter. He does nothing for conservation, quite the opposite in fact, and I for one hopes he is convicted and severely punished.

Carole Baskin made the point that if the federal government did its job in protecting exotic animals in the first place then nasty individuals like Joe Exotic wouldn’t be around to threaten people like herself. There is the argument that there are too many private zoos in America. There are more tigers in private zoos in America than there are in the wild on the planet. There is a need for regulations to severely curb and restrict private zoos to stop the abuse of big cats and their cubs.