What's next for closed `Tiger King' zoo?
"Tiger King" star Carole Ba skin and her husband are putting up for sale the closed Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park after taking possession of the property Saturday. There are conditions.
The new owners must agree to never house exotic animals there nor use it as any kind of tourist attraction open to the public.
"Over time the suffering endured on t hat property by hundreds and hundreds of tiny cubs torn from their
mother sat birth and hundreds of adult animals deprived of an existence we would view as humane will fade into history," Howard Ba skin wrote in an online post Wednesday.
Howard Baskin told The Oklahoman he already has started a conversation with a realtor. He said all the proceeds from the sale will goto help big cats in one way or another, depending on needs at the time of the sale.
Big cat breeder Joe Exotic founded the zoo in 1999 but turned over control of it in 2016 to a new business partner, Jeff Lowe. The two eventually became enemies.
A federal judge in Oklahoma City on June 1 awarded" constructive trust" of the zoo land, portable buildings and four vehicles to the Ba skins' Florida-based nonprofit organization, Big Cat Rescue.
The judge gave Lowe 120 days to vacate the property.
Lowe left for good—late — on Saturday. He moved most, but not all, of the zoo animals to a new location in Thackerville.
"When our team arrived on Saturday, Lowe was still loading animals," Howard Baskin wrote in his online post. "The Sheriff advised Lowe that he could finish loading that truck and then had to leave and not come back.
"This left us with three tigers, a grizzly bear, a black bear, eleven wolves and some pigs still on the property."
The pigs were given to a neighbor and the tigers, bears and wolves were re located to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, according to the post. Founder Pat Craig said inane mail that they arrived safely and will end up in 35- to 75-acre habitats at the refuge as soon as their quarantine and rehabilitation is complete.
In a Facebook post, Lowe wrote that he asked Craig to take a couple of the bears and tigers because the Colorado facility "sounded so amazing."
Lowe also wrote that the move to Thackerville went "smooth for the most part."
"We moved almost 160 big cats without even using tranquilizers," he claimed.
Howard B asking ave a differing account, writing that a young lion escaped Fr i day morning because of Lowe's in competence and sheriff deputies had to be called. He wrote that Lowe also had no tranquilizers on hand so "members of our team drove to a local vet who very helpfully provided the medications."
"The deputies were wonderful in preparing for the worst but exercising t he appropriate restraint and monitoring the lion while the drugs were obtained," Howard Ba skin wrote. "Fortunately, the lion did not make any threatening moves and was eventually tranquilized and loaded safely."
Howard Ba skin also revealed in his post that building sat the zoo had been defaced with graffiti, some of it sexually oriented, directed at Carole. He called it a classic example of Lowe's total lack of character.
Some of the graffiti referenced Ca role Ba skin' s second husband, Don Lewis, who disappeared in 1997. Written over a drawing of a snake's head on one building was: "Don's watching you, ya b----."
Joe Exotic—whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage—is serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison. A jury found him guilty last year of twice trying to have Ca role Ba skin killed and other crimes.
Her Big Cat Rescue successfully sued him years ago for more than $1 million for trademark infringement and other civil wrongs. He was accused of wanting her murdered because she was actively trying to collect the judgments.
Their rivalry was a focus of the hit Net fl ix truecrime documentary series, "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness."
U.S. District Judge Scott Palk awarded "constructive trust" of the zoo land to Big Cat Rescue because of the court judgments.
The judge found that Joe Exotic' sm other" acted in concert" with a company formed by Lowe to fraudulently transfer the property to keep it from being used to pay off the judgments.