Tiger King’s jailed Joe Exotic files a $94M lawsuit against government for civil rights violations
TIGER King’s Joe Exotic has filed a $94 million federal lawsuit against the government for alleged civil rights violations.
The Netflix star is serving 22 years in jail after being found guilty of paying a hitman to kill animal activist Carole Baskin, and of killing tigers to make room for more exotic cats in his animal park.
According to his lawsuit, obtained by PEOPLE, Joe is seeking $73,840,000 for loss of personal property.
He says this includes “18 years of research and care of 200 generic tigers and cross-breeds for 365 days a year, at a boarding rate of $60/day per animal.”
A further $15 million is for “false arrest, false imprisonment, selective enforcement and the death of his mother, Shirley.”
The lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and government agents.
The country music singer has also claimed that those government offices made the tiger an endangered species in the US solely to file charges against him – and promote their alleged “animal rights agenda.”
He also claimed he was targeted “because [he] is an openly gay male with the largest collection of generic tigers and crossbreeds.”
In the suit, the reality star accused his former business partner, Jeffrey Lowe, of filing false statements to federal agents.
He alleged: “He was the main person in this entrapment scheme to take my zoo for free. Changed my medicine with illegal drugs, stole my animals under fraudulent reasons.”
The lawsuit comes hot off the back of the Netflix series starring Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage.
It follows the eccentric animal collector and his bitter rivalry with animal activist Carole, culminating in him hiring a hitman to kill her.
But Carole Baskin has branded the documentary ‘salacious and sensational’ – claiming bosses ‘didn’t care about the truth’.
Despite his incarceration, Joe has made extreme claims that Carole killed her first husband, Jack ‘Don’ Lewis.
Don went missing in 1997 after ‘going away to Costa Rica’ and never returning.
He was declared legally dead in 2002, and Carole has vehemently denied Joe’s accusations that she killed Don and either buried his body under a septic tank, or fed him to her tigers.
Since the seven-episode series first launched on Netflix, Carole has slammed it in a scathing blog post, calling it “salacious and sensational”.
She wrote: “When the directors of the Netflix documentary Tiger King came to us five years ago they said they wanted to make the big cat version of Blackfish (the documentary that exposed abuse at SeaWorld) that would expose the misery caused by the rampant breeding of big cat cubs for cub petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive.
“There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the docuseries not only does not do any of that but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers.”
Carole also addressed the way the series portrayed her first marriage to Don.
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She continued: “[Tiger King] has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don 21 years ago.
“The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavoury lies are better for getting viewers.”
The producers of the series and Netflix are yet to respond to Carole’s comments in her blog.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is available to stream now on Netflix.