At the end of the events documented by the Netflix show Tiger King Joe Exotic went to prison, but what happened to his infamous zoo? The new Louis Theroux documentary Shooting Joe Exotic reveals that the Oklahoma zoo is now in a state of abandoned disrepair. The reasons why the zoo has been permanently shut down are still a matter of debate, but part of the blame can be leveled at the people Exotic put in charge after he went to prison, and what they might've done to it on their way out.
The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, often shortened to the G.W. Zoo, was an animal park that mainly showcased tigers and other large cats, and it opened in 1999 in Wynnewood Oklahoma. It was owned and operated by Joe Exotic, an incredibly eccentric man and the primary focus of the 2020 Netflix docu-series Tiger King. The series focused on how Exotic ran his business, and his eventual criminal court case involving both his animal abuse and his attempt to hire a hitman to murder his rival, fellow zoo owner Carole Baskin.
When Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in prison, he entrusted ownership of the park to his friend Jeff Lowe. However, due to a court ruling, ownership was then ironically given to Baskin herself. As revealed in the Louis Theroux documentary, someone took issue with this ruling and heavily vandalized the park before Baskin was able to take over. Baskin believes that it was Lowe and other associates of Joe Exotic who deliberately did the damage on their way out as a form of petty revenge, and they are certainly the most likely suspects. Due to the extent of the damages and poor management prior to Baskin taking over ownership, the G.W. Zoo is now officially and permanently closed to the public.
The rivalry between Baskin and Exotic stretches back many years, and was even referenced when Theroux originally met and interviewed Joe in 2011, long before he rose to Tiger King fame. In Shooting Joe Exotic it's showed how, by sanding off many of his much more unsavory edges, including his misogyny, racism, and animal abuse, misguided and irresponsible the Tiger King series producers were in glamorizing Exotic. Theroux takes a much more balanced view and lets Baskin tell her side of the story. Baskin says that she was deliberately misled by the producers of the show, and maintains that her only desire is still just to help animals. She even gives Theroux a tour of the destroyed zoo and plays for him some of the death threat voicemails she's received since Tiger King's release.
While seeing the drama play out in something like Tiger King can be compelling for an audience, it's good to remember that these are still real people and the story keeps going after the credits have rolled. One of the casualties of this drama has been the G.W. Zoo itself, its closure leaving the fates of many of its animal residents still uncertain.