Where is Joe Exotic from Tiger King now? Here's what happened to the big cat owner

20 March 2020, 15:05

By Sophie Thompson

Tiger King is Netflix's newest docuseries that follows the lifestyle of Joe Exotic - a tiger-lover that rears over 1,200 big cats in his back yard, before being jailed for plotting to murder animal rights activists trying to stop him.

Netflix's latest docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness has already shocked the world, unveiling the true story of Joe Exotic, a tiger lover who bought, sold and killed over 1,200 big cats from his roadside 'zoo.'

It wasn't until he hired a hit man to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin that the story of his behind the scenes animal abuse came to light and made the name for himself that he has today.

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Throughout the seven-part documentary, we witness the rise and fall of Joe (also known as Joseph Maldonado-Passage), as he uses his YouTube channel to document an inside look into his big cat zoo on a roadside in Oklahoma, before things turn sour when a secret drug ring and a cult become linked to the animal abuse crimes that send him to jail for 22 years.

Where is Joe Exotic now?

The documentary ends with Joe sentenced to jail for two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 wildlife charges - 22 years being essentially a life sentence for the 56-year-old.

Three months on and prison is where he remains, but he has made countless attempts to protest his innocence.

As he was sent down, he said in a statement: "I still maintain my innocence and look forward in the upcoming days to my attorneys filing my Appeal and moving on to the next step in this nightmare," calling his conviction a "well-orchestrated frame job." 

However, everyone else seems to be relieved that he's no longer a threat to people or animals, including Carole Baskin whom he accidentally hired an undercover FBI agent to kill. "If he completes his sentence and is released, we will end up spending the rest of our lives, constantly looking over our shoulders, for a threat to our lives," Baskin said at his sentencing. "I hope you will give us as many years free of that threat as you can."

If we get a season 2, it's looking like it's probably going to be from a jail cell.

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