People Magazine is finally getting on the Tiger King train, which feels like it’s a little too late. I enjoyed Tiger King for the train wreck and insane distraction that it was, but there’s already a kind of backlash against it. Plus the news is saturated with Tiger King stories because we’re hungry for content and there are so many angles, characters and details to talk about! People did the right thing and is highlighting an interview with the most likeable character in that series, Saff, Joe’s former employee and an amputee who was sitting in front of a dumpster and a bunch of trash. The more I think about this show, the more I realize how manipulative the sets were, and how producers exploited the characters and the storyline for maximum drama. Saff’s quotes to People are obvious to anyone who saw Tiger King – Joe was so obsessed with Carole Baskin.
“Carole was the first thing on his mind every morning and the last thing on his mind every night,” Kelci “Saff” Saffery tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story of his former employer, Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. Joe Exotic.
Like Saffery, those around Maldonado-Passage and his zoo, the Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, grew increasingly concerned about his feud with Baskin, which included posting threatening videos and creating a company that mimicked Big Cat Rescue’s name and logo (for which Maldonado-Passage lost a million-dollar trademark lawsuit in 2011), from an early stage.
“When I first met Joe, he was all about the animals, and he was one of the most kindhearted, lovable, smartest guys in the industry,” says Maldonado-Passage’s friend Tim Stark, a former zoo owner. “When he started doing battle with Carole, I told him he was going to get his ass kicked. He just kept going on. He didn’t listen.”
“Joe wanted to be the big cat and he wanted to show Carole Baskin,” Stark adds.
“Joe had a really bad hatred towards Carole Baskin and a lot of us knew it was going to head in a bad direction,” John Finlay says of his ex-husband and former employer at the zoo. “A lot of people told him he needs to stop or slow down and think about what’s going on.”
When Maldonado-Passage, 57, found himself swimming in debt after the trademark lawsuit, his hatred of Baskin took a dark turn. “Joe lost all concept of reality,” Stark says. “From that point forward, Joe’s life was controlled by desperation to do whatever he could to protect the zoo — anything and everything.”
And a few years later, when Maldonado-Passage ran for President of the United States in 2015, things became clear to zoo staff, Finlay says, that he had “started losing sight of what really mattered: the animals.”
Saffery mirrors that sentiment, saying both Maldonado-Passage and Baskin began their feud as animal lovers “standing up for what they believed was right. “But it started to not be about the animals. I don’t think that it was only about egos, but I do think they started to focus more on Carole and Joe and less on the bigger picture. And nothing came out of it. It’s the worst kind of love story.”
Carole and Joe are so alike that they hated each other and worked to destroy each other. If either one of them had backed down it wouldn’t have gotten to the point where Joe put a half-assed hit on Carole. In no way am I saying it was her fault, just that she engaged with him for years.
Last week we heard that there was going to be some kind of Tiger King follow up or reunion episode coming soon. Both Jeff Lowe, the current owner of Wynnewood Zoo, and Joe Exotic’s current much-younger husband, Dillon Passage, have talked about this. Dillon said it would be a live-type episode, I’m assuming similar to the “live” episodes reality shows like The Bachelor have. Carole Baskin’s rep issued a statement that they weren’t asked to participate and wouldn’t be in it anyway, so there.
Speaking of Carole Baskin, the ID channel is doing an investigative show on whether she killed her first husband, Don Lewis, who mysteriously disappeared in 1997. It promises to have “secrets only Joe knows [and] exclusive footage that has never been shown.” I’ll probably skip that one, but I’ll watch the reunion special definitely. Will Joe be able to call or videochat in from prison?
There’s still a limited series coming with Kate McKinnon playing Carole Baskin, and Rob Lowe has said that he’s developing a Tiger King show with Ryan Murphy. He posted the Instagram below. I think people will watch it, for what its worth. There’s definitely interest in this insane story.
Someone on Twitter made a really good point about how Joe Exotic has been treated vs Carole Baskin and vs someone like Michael Vick. Joe Exotic is in prison for ACTUALLY trying to have someone murdered. Meanwhile all people can talk about is how they SUSPECT Carole killed her husband – despite no legitimate proof of this. Joe killed tigers and blew up his own crocodiles. He was a sexual predator towards teenage boys, he was a criminal and an animal abuser. And yet all anyone can talk about is how “awful” Carole Baskin is. To me this entire thing is an exercise in misogyny.
May I add to your list? Ya think he was obsessed? He had a youtube “talkshow” where he sexually abused and shot a blow up doll meant to be Carole. He’s on tape saying his new gun was for when he went psychotic and went to Tampa to kill Carole. His ex husband said Joe flew a helicopter over Carole’s zoo with the thought of throwing grenades on her property. I don’t know what went down with Carole’s late husband, but Joe is awful. And infatuated with Carole.
He’s also a giant racist who the directors of the documentary covered for bu editing out all the times he used the n-word and went on racist rants.
@Valiantly Varnished
ITA!
He was rightly convicted. Yet she is getting more hate.
He is a despicable human being.
His treatment of animals is disgusting. How he shot “old, sick” tigers to make room for his baby cub moneymakers.
He’s only out for himself and making a buck using animals as his currency.
Thank you! Before I watched the show I went in fully expecting Carole to be the villain based off of all the memes I was seeing last week. They are ALL terrible humans, with the exception of the people who took care of the animals. Well, tried to take care of them the best they could given the circumstances. They all need to be in jail and shut-down. I really really wanted to do a cub petting one day, it’s definitely off my bucket list now.
Completely agree. Joe is disgusting and is probably loving the attention. I hope he does not profit from this.
Yeah, Joe would be funny if he were a fictional character (he behaves and styles himself as a sort of caricature), BUT HE’S NOT. I can’t believe how many viewers seem to overlook this and just laugh at a situation where majestic animals are treated like slaves for the gratification of trash people who suck at interacting with other humans.
He was breaking laws left and right: abusing/trafficking wild animals, manipulating straight men with drugs using the excuse that there just weren’t enough gay men available in his little town, doing shady business with con men and meth heads, shooting off guns right next to people for laughs, his employee lost an arm, perhaps because Joe always demonstrated to employees dangerous and irresponsible animal handling with animals that can kill a person in seconds, he very likely committed or at least commissioned arson, not to mention years of harassing and explicitly threatening to murder a woman. Trump-level buffoonery.
Don’t get me started on the pervert polygamist guru in Myrtle Beach. Carole’s a weirdo too, and her animal sanctuary did not look so good for the animals, considering she’s got so much money… but she hasn’t definitively done anything illegal. Greedy Carole and her dorky husband are boring by comparison. Though I agree, she kept fighting with Joe instead of extricating herself from the situation and that contributed to the danger she found herself in.
All of this.
I nominate Shelly Long to play Carole Baskins!
Rob Lowe needs top get way trashier clothes in order to pull off Joe E. As it is, I would totally wear that shirt he’s wearing, so I think they need to page costuming!
How would the ID channel get away with a show investigating if Carole had her husband killed based on “secrets” only a man who is murderously obsessed with her “knows”?
“It’s not her fault but she did engage” is just victim blaming. I’m not calling Carole a saint and I honestly don’t know wtf happened with her husband. But if engaging means suing someone who stole your branding and made violent threatening videos about you, would you not do the same thing? Or would you just sit there and take it?
The hate was mutual between these two. Carole was purchasing tigers at auction, breeding and selling. Her husband had nefarious business in Costa Rica, dropped his pilots license the day after obtaining it. No need for him to file a flight plan and could come and go as he pleased and may or may not have been transferring drugs. Pot meet kettle.
And now she no longer does any of that and is lobbying to end cub petting and private ownership. So how are they the same?????? caroles rescue is an actual accredited sanctuary, which has VERY stringent requirements.
Meanwhile joe was trying to sell lion cubs while he was in prison.
See also: obsessive thoughts exacerbated/caused by meth use.
The Murder Squad podcast had an episode about Carole and her missing husband Don. Seems like Don was involved in predatory lending practices. So he’s also awful.
Yeah I think Don was clearly a drug runner, and his death is more likely to do with that than Carole murder. Or he just ran off to Costa Rica with his mistress.