Joe Exotic Talks Former Associate Who Was Killed By Tiger…
In a new statement, Tiger King star Joe Exotic refused to blame a tiger who took the life of his former associate Ryan Easley.
As reported by TMZ, Easley was mauled on Saturday (September 20) during a show at Growler Pines Tiger Preserve in Hugo, Oklahoma. The animal was said to have bitten into Easley’s neck and shoulder area before violently shaking the tiger handler. Authorities and paramedics arrived at the scene shortly after 2 p.m., but Easley was pronounced deceased not long after. The tiger has since been placed into a single cage and will not be allowed to exit until the conclusion of an investigation into the attack.
Joe Exotic, real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, who’s currently serving a 21-year sentence for the murder plot of Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin, issued a statement about Easley’s attack on Monday (September 22). The late animal enthusiast reportedly acquired tigers from the animal park when Joe went to prison.
“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 stated. “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.”
Joe added that PETA speculating that the tigers were kept in “small cramp[ed] cages” was “total bullshit” and that “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,” he said.
He continued, “We all assume the risk of what we do everyday.”
Joe added that working with the large felines “takes guts and skill,” and cited performers such as the Ringling Brothers and Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy, who was attacked by a tiger in 2003.
“When I knew Ryan in the early years, he wanted to be the one with the most tigers in the ring at one time,” Joe stated, adding his fears that Easley “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].”
Elsewhere, Joe went after PETA for allegedly using Easley’s death for their “agendas” to take “peoples animals away and putting them in their funded roadside zoos.”
“No matter if you agree with the way another operates his business, a loss is always something no one wants to see happen,” Joe concluded. “So with all my respect as a human R.I.P. Ryan Easley. You died doing what you loved.”
PETA also addressed Easley’s death in a statement, with the organization’s senior director of Captive Wildlife, Debbie Metzler, calling for wild animal handlers to “get out of the business now and send the animals to accredited sanctuaries.”