In a fresh statement, Tiger King star Joe Exotic is standing by the animal that killed his former associate Ryan Easley, refusing to fault the tiger for the deadly attack.
According to TMZ, Easley was mauled on Saturday (September 20) during a show at Growler Pines Tiger Preserve in Hugo, Oklahoma. Witnesses say the tiger clamped down on his neck and shoulder before violently shaking him. Paramedics arrived shortly after 2 p.m., but Easley was pronounced dead at the scene. The tiger has since been confined to a single cage until the investigation wraps.
Joe Exotic — real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, who is serving a 21-year sentence for plotting to murder Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin — released a statement on Monday (September 22). Easley had reportedly acquired several tigers from Joe’s park after his imprisonment.
“First of all I would like to send my prayers to Ryan Easley’s family for their loss. I have known Ryan for many years,” Joe said. “He built a large compound on the back side of my zoo to house his Tigers during the winter one year about 15 or so years ago.”
He also pushed back at PETA, who suggested the cats may have been kept in cramped cages, calling the claims “total bullshit.” Joe stressed, “no one can blame the tiger for what happened.”
“We all take risk in what we do and we don’t need further laws to ban tigers because of this because you can get killed doing just about anything,” Joe Exotic said.
He added, “We all assume the risk of what we do everyday.”
Joe went on to say that working with tigers “takes guts and skill,” pointing to legendary acts like the Ringling Brothers and Siegfried & Roy’s Roy Horn, who famously survived a tiger attack in 2003.
Reflecting on Easley, Joe shared: “When I knew Ryan in the early years, he wanted to be the one with the most tigers in the ring at one time. I was afraid he was going to get killed because some of his cats were crazy in the head, but it was about having the most performing at one time at all cost[s].”
He also lashed out at PETA, accusing the group of exploiting Easley’s death to push their “agendas” of seizing animals and placing them in what he described as “their funded roadside zoos.”
Joe wrapped up his statement with a somber note: “No matter if you agree with the way another operates his business, a loss is always something no one wants to see happen. So with all my respect as a human R.I.P. Ryan Easley. You died doing what you loved.”
PETA also weighed in on Easley’s death. Debbie Metzler, the organization’s senior director of Captive Wildlife, urged handlers to “get out of the business now and send the animals to accredited sanctuaries.”
