I know the series is heavily edited, but it seems that Joe only started down that road after Carole Baskin’s group convinced the malls in the midwest to shut down his shows. Then what are you going to do, when again if we believe Joe, when you have over 200 tigers which cost you $3,000/yr to feed? That is nearly 3/4 of a million dollars in overheard costs in food alone.
It is very easy for me to see why you would start overbreeding, selling tigers illegally, and killing some of the old ones who can no longer help you financially. Not morally or legally right, to be sure, but it seems as if Carole Baskin’s stance led to harm to those tigers when if they were allowed to be money makers would have been treated better.
It’s common for a lawyer who does the will to keep a copy of it. If that is true they could figure out if the will was valid or was a fake will done by her. Certainly the cops looked into the will and if they found it might be fake that would be a big red flag.
Nitpicking, but I think the document was a power of attorney, not a will. It was what allowed Carole to shift his assets around and leave Don’s first wife and kids with “the bad stuff,” according to them.
Right, and that made me discount the “disappearance” language a bit. If he thought Carole was going to make him disappear, why name her his POA? Name one of the kids, his lawyer, or even the ex-wife if he was afraid Carole was going to off him.
Wasn’t he already breeding/selling tigers before Carole Baskin got involved?
Isn’t that the whole reason her group got involved. He was selling tickets to pet tiger cubs and using the Big Cat Rescue’s name. Big Cat Rescue is against breeding period. Of course they sued.
I will admit to being a hypocrite. I’m against breeding big cats, but I will totally buy a ticket to get to pose and pet a tiger cub. No chance now, unless you go outside of the U.S.
I’m not sure of the exact timeline, but Big Cat Rescue was working to eliminate Joe’s tiger petting at malls long before Joe created the Big Cat Rescue Entertainment brand. They picked that name to piss off Carole Baskin.
You’re right, it is heavily edited. This is the article I read last year, which collaborates a lot of the film, but also indicates that Joe was already making good money by 2004, and just he wanted more.
Honestly, the whole saga is sordid and sad, and I’m not really all that concerned to figure out who was better or worse–you can’t believe what anyone in this story says. They’re all fucking losers and swindlers who just think animals will make them cool.
That is my recollection as well. The feud started when Carole Baskin got his mall shows shut down. Then Joe, like the idiot he is, decided to infringe on her trademark. Everything went to hell after that.
During the trademark infringement, someone should have walked into Joe’s office and punched him between his eyes and said, “Joe, can you be any dumber than you are being right now? This woman wants your balls in a jar to display on her mantle and you are handing them to her by doing this.”
The show sort of glossed over the mechanics of the civil suit. Joe was bitching that he didn’t get his day in court, but the judge entered summary judgment in Baskin’s favor. Basically Joe was asked if he infringed on her trademark and he said yep, he sure did. In those incidents, you don’t get a jury trial because there is nothing for the jury to decide–no facts in dispute.
But as far as damages, even when summary judgment is entered, you get a trial on the issue of damages. I cannot imagine that Carole Baskin’s rescue group suffered $1 million in damages as she is a non-profit rescue center (I think). But the show stated in an aside that Joe “settled” with Baskin for $1M. That sounds unlike Joe. I wonder why he didn’t fight her on damages.
Then he made a bunch of fraudulent conveyances to hide assets from her. God, everything about that show was a nightmare.
"I was stunningly disappointedly with the woman who is the “Big Cat Rescue” owner. She started off as a seeming to be a bit of an eccentric, doing this noble project to protect big cats. Then you find out she’s a basically a competitor to him!?!
My opinion of her changed completely when they showed her doing he exact same thing as he does with the exception of taking the animals on the road to malls. All I could think of was what an f-ing hypocritical douchebag!! If it’s wrong to charge admission to see the cats, it’s wrong. F-you. "
Just wait until you see all the past footage of her posing with cubs in the same way she now condemns, happily has volunteers do ALL the work AND to add to her entertainment value, she has, apparently, killed her husband. He conveniently disappeared and left her with all the money and left writings that she threatened to kill him. She destroyed documents, took over POA and left his 1st wife and daughters with nothing. I’d trust my life with Joe over Carole ANY day!
The feud between them reminds me a LOT of how people in the animal rescue world are, even mundane ones like dog rescues. Tons of infighting, hypocracy and drama for drama’s sake.
But on top of that, yeah. That Joe is breathtakingly ignorant.
My wife and I re-watched Louis Theroux’s documentary on Joe Exotic from 2011. Yeah, you can tell he’s an odd one even back then. No mention of Carole Baskin, but other people from the 2019/2020 documentary make appearances.
Well, THAT took a dark turn. I found the first few episodes funny, entertaining, bizarre, and insane. I was worried about the animal cruelty but it didn’t seem like that; yes, it’s wrong to keep those big cats caged, but it also felt like Joe really loved those tigers, he was just totally crazy. Then BAM, the whole thing goes straight to hell in a hand basket what with the Travis tragedy, Joe becoming psychotic, Carole and her husband growing WAY creepier, cats being completely neglected, and suddenly I hated everyone. I’m not sure I even care to finish watching it. Be warned.
