‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’

Into the bizarre world of the exotic animal trade we go in Netflix’s ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness’ (2020).

Directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, this seven-episode docuseries gives us Joe Exotic – a gun-toting, tiger-loving zoo owner currently serving 22 years in an Oklahoma prison.

The crime that landed him behind bars not unlike the cages that once housed his collection of 200-plus tigers? Paying a hitman to kill his greatest rival – wide-eyed, bicycle riding, flower crown obsessed animal rights advocate Carole Baskin.

Waging war against a myriad of wildlife abuses through her organisation Big Cat Rescue, Baskin is also the former wife of millionaire Don Lewis, who went missing in 1997 while some speculated Baskin, the heir to his estate, had quietly fed him to her furry friends.

Just two of the central characters who make up the crazy contingent at the centre of the most bonkers true crime story since ‘Don’t F*ck with Cats’ (2019) (do you see a them emerging here?), the series also features cultish zoo owner Doc Antle, shady investor Jeff Lowe as well as producer Rick Kirkham, who quickly got wise to the reality TV gold that is Joe Exotic before his footage went up in flames.

A wild and winding story that largely takes place at Joe’s Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, ‘Tiger King’ tells of a flamboyant gay zookeeper lording over the well-meaning band of misfits who keep his ramshackle operation running as Joe’s obsession with Baskin escalates to a neglectful and dangerous fever.

Combining the high drama of Joe responding to Baskin calling him out about rampant tiger cub speed breeding, the deplorable state of his zoo and the ethics of keeping animals in cages with Joe’s loose-lipped threats, as well as footage of him shooting a blow-up doll named Carole in the head, the show pulls back from this admittedly mesmerising figure to reveal a host of dodgy sales, drug enabling, abysmal staff wages and misuse of food donations.

The site of suicides, actual bloody arm loss and more, the underbelly of GW zoo is contrasted with the smiling, happy people who go there without sparing a thought for the fact that these majestic animals are far from home and ultimately bred and held in captivity for profit.

“These are very dangerous animals, very beautiful animals that have a place in the world and that’s in Africa, Asia and India, not in Oklahoma,” says a young Joe in some featured interview footage towards the end of the series. “The state needs to pass laws that this breeding has got to stop.”

After watching Joe spiral, make dodgy deals, point guns at the cats and maybe even kill some that were no longer a hot ticket, it’s tough to see what the ardent young man eventually becomes as we cut to him older, menacing, clutching two baby tigers and saying: “Sweet money right here, buddy. Five thousand right here.”

Filled with double crosses, rumours, a run for president, federal investigations, huge egos, even bigger animal collections and insight into the strange world of big cat collectors, ‘Tiger King’ has to be seen to be believed as it chronicles the hypocrisy and delusion of its oddball central characters amidst the rise and fall of Joe Exotic.

“I truly believe that Joe started the zoo for good purposes, good reasons. But as the money rose, I think his care for the animals declined to the point that he didn’t really care for the animals at all,” says Kirkham. “And what was really sad was that I had to film a reality show to make it look like he did.”

Ending with the hard reality that currently 5 000 to 10 000 tigers live in captivity in the USA and fewer than 4 000 tigers remain in the wild while the Big Cat Safety Act struggles to get passed, ultimately the series leaves us with a surprisingly sober Joe who recalls seeing his once individually caged chimpanzees hugging at a better facility and describes it as one of the hardest days of his life.

“Did I deprive them of that for 10 years? Yep.” he says sadly. “Did I do it on purpose? No.

“I was wrapped up in… having a zoo.”

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