Joe Exotic Says He Now Understands What His Big Cats Felt Like Locked Up On His Zoo

Joe Exotic has finally expressed some sympathy towards the big cats he kept locked up in his infamous zoo.

The former big cat owner has been in jail now for nearly three years after he was convicted on multiple animal cruelty charges as well as a murder-for-hire plot to kill his arch rival Carole Baskin.

His crimes and his life are well known thanks to the incredibly viral Tiger King Netflix documentary series.

The second season of that wildly successful has now been released and it dives a little deeper in the lives of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin and Jeff Lowe.

While we won't give you any spoilers for the show, there was an interesting tidbit at the end where the star of the series finally expressed some form of empathy for what he's done.

But just before you think he's expressing remorse towards Baskin, think again.

These many months in prison has given Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, some perspective on how he treated the animals at his zoo over the years.

He said he finally understands why it was wrong to keep those big cats locked up in a cage because he now knows what that feels like.

"After being lumped up her three years, I know now how my animals felt," Joe said in the final episode. "I'm ashamed of myself. I hope I'll get a second chance just like my tigers."

It was also ironic for Jeff Lowe to express the same sympathies towards Joe Exotic's plight while in jail.

He said two and a half years is a long time to be locked up in prison, even though his animals were also confined to small cages at his zoos.

In addition to the two counts of murder-for-hire, Exotic was sent to jail for 22 years after being convicted of eight counts of violating the Lacey Act by falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tigers and for selling tigers across state lines.

He was also the focus of multiple wildlife investigations over allegations of animal abuse when he ran the G.W. Zoo.

So, viewers found it interesting that Exotic only feels sorry for keeping his animals in cages rather than other things he was accused of doing while operating the big cat park.

Topics: Entertainment, Joe Exotic

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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