Nearly 100 Great Cats, Bears and Wolves Rescued from "Tiger King" Principles
KEENESBURG, Colo., March 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ninety-one fortunate animals no longer suffer abuse and neglect at the hands of many of the characters featured in the 2020 Netflix docuseries "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness," but rather, now enjoy lives in large-acreage, natural habitats at Colorado's Wild Animal Sanctuary.
As previously reported, 39 tigers and three black bears were rescued from Joseph "Joe Exotic" Maldonado-Passage in late 2017, the major player in the series, who is currently serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison on animal abuse and murder-for-hire charges.
Also heavily featured in the series is Exotic's former business partner, Jeff Lowe, who is now the subject of a major investigation involving animal abuse charges that took place at his roadside zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, and at his new facility in Thackerville, Oklahoma. In January 2021, citing the recent abuse and death of tiger cubs in Lowe's care, a federal judge ordered the removal of 14 tigers from the facility. All of the cubs less than one year of age, as well as their mothers, were removed and are currently living at The Wild Animal Sanctuary's main facility in Keenesburg, Colorado.
In late 2020, a court order forced Lowe to vacate the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park as title to the property was transferred to Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue in Florida. Lowe was given 120 days to relocate all of his animals to the Thackerville facility, yet Lowe failed to complete the transfer and opted to leave 11 wolves, three tigers and two bears behind—all now living in Colorado.
Wildlife in Need, where patrons paid for big cat cub encounters and whose owner, Tim Stark, was featured in the docuseries had all of its animals confiscated in late 2020 due to dozens of animal welfare violations has since been closed down. The Wild Animal Sanctuary rescued 17 of the facility's big cats—a mixture of tigers, lions and hybrids and two grizzly bears, who exchanged their small, chain-link enclosures for the Sanctuary's large-acreage, natural habitats.
About The Wild Animal Sanctuary
The Wild Animal Sanctuary is the largest nonprofit carnivore sanctuary in the world, with over 600 rescued animals including lions, tigers, bears, wolves, leopards and other large carnivores living in large-acreage natural habitats. Established in 1980, the Sanctuary operates three locations in both Colorado and Texas with more than 10,000 acres for abused, abandoned and confiscated carnivores and specializes in rehabilitating captive wildlife so they can be released into natural habitats where they can roam freely and live with others of their own kind. More information is available at www.wildanimalsanctuary.org
SOURCE The Wild Animal Sanctuary
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