Tiger King has taken the internet by storm over the past couple of weeks. The Netflix documentary series, which tells the crazy story of Joe Exotic, has proven to be wildly popular.
Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, owned a big cat zoo in Oklahoma, where at one point he housed over 200 tigers, as well as various other exotic animal species. He would go on to form a feud with animal rights activist Carole Baskin, which would eventually lead to his downfall.
He would lose his zoo to his business partner, before being accused of attempting to hire a hitman to have Baskin murdered. He would be convicted in court, being sentenced to 22 years in prison for that as well as a host of animal abuse charges.
With so many characters and twist and turns in the Netflix series, we are not given all that much detail on the type of animal abuse Exotic was accused of.
However, a new podcast series delves deeper into that issue and other stories from Joe Exotic's past.
Joe Exotic: Tiger King, by Wonderly, speaks to plenty of people who had experience of the 'G.W Zoo' and Exotic's travelling show and they do not paint a pretty picture of what went on.
We don't want to give away too many spoilers here, but one such example involves starving a large group of stray cats, some of whom were heavily pregnant, so they could be more easily fed to the zoo's reptiles whilst still alive.
The podcast series features interviews with many of the same characters from the Netflix show including Exotic himself, Carole Baskin, and ex-husband John Finlay. A number of new voiced are also introduced. Hosted by journalist Robert Moor, it is available on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
While Exotic comes across as a somewhat likeable personality at times on the TV show despite his obvious flaws, he is painted as a far darker character here. Much of that is down to the animal abuse, with an in-depth interview with John Finlay also showing him in a poor light.
Joe Exotic: Tiger King releases new episodes every few days (with three out so far), as well as two bonus episodes also featuring interviews with Baskin and Finley. It's definitely worth a listen.
