Tiger King zoo owner now banned from exhibiting animals—for life

Mirage and Caesar, born in December 2020, have been the final in a protracted line of tigers to start out life at Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park—and among the many first to flee the Oklahoma petting zoo’s cycle of breeding and alleged mistreatment. The zoo has been closed to guests since October 2020, and at this time, a courtroom determination completely bans the zoo’s house owners, Jeff and Lauren Lowe, from exhibiting animals to the general public in a facility or on-line.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confiscated the 2 cubs from the zoo—previously owned by Joseph Maldonado-Passage, “Joe Exotic,” the star of Netflix’s fashionable docuseries Tiger King—in January 2021 after they have been about seven weeks outdated, together with eight different cubs and 4 moms. Now, Mirage and Caesar reside collectively on greater than an acre of forested land at Wild Animal Sanctuary, in Keenesburg, Colorado. Soon, they’ll be part of extra younger rescued tigers in a 20-acre habitat on the sanctuary for the remainder of their lives.

 In January 2020, Joe Exotic was sentenced to 22 years in jail for murder-for-hire and wildlife-related crimes. His former companion, Jeff Lowe, had taken over the zoo in 2016. But Lowe and Lauren grew to become embroiled in their very own authorized troubles. Last November, the DOJ sued the Lowes in a civil case, alleging that they repeatedly violated the Animal Welfare Act and the Endangered Species Act by failing to supply their animals with veterinary care, and correct vitamin, enclosures, and sanitary situations, inserting the well being of the animals in “serious danger.”

Among the alleged violations prosecutors cited was a lion cub named Nala, discovered by authorities inspectors mendacity unresponsive within the mud in June 2020. They additionally documented two arthritic wolves caged on a concrete flooring, a grizzly bear whose bones confirmed beneath her pores and skin, a fisher cat with a lame leg, and the our bodies of two tigers buried underneath burned rubble. The corpses have been attracting biting flies that inflicted bloody wounds on the ears of close by tigers, bears, and wolves.

In June 2020, a federal decide ordered the Lowes to relinquish the property to Big Cat Rescue sanctuary owner Carole Baskin to settle a longstanding authorized dispute.

After Lowe’s license to exhibit animals was suspended in October 2020, he forfeited it completely. But he continued to promote “shout-out” movies that includes his animals on Cameo, National Geographic reported. At the time, no legal guidelines existed pertaining to exhibiting animals on-line.  

Between January and August of this yr, the justice division confiscated 146 animals from the Lowes—the company’s largest confiscation of zoo animals to this point. Various sanctuaries have taken them in.

As a part of the consent decree, the civil costs might be dropped. The settlement reiterates the justice division’s allegations towards the Lowes and doesn’t prohibit the division from pursuing legal costs.

Setting a precedent

The settlement additionally clarifies for the primary time that the Animal Welfare Act—enforced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the nation’s solely federal legislation defending the well-being of untamed animals displayed at zoos, aquariums, and circuses—explicitly applies to animals exhibited on-line for cash.

In its case, the justice division cited the Lowes’ promoting of shout-out movies on the web platform Cameo, an exercise first reported by National Geographic. Today’s consent decree not solely bars them from exhibiting animals once more in a zoo setting but additionally expressly defines exhibition as occurring “through any other platform, including online for compensation in exchange for viewing the animals.”

 “This is significant,” Winders says. “If someone else were to try to exhibit online without a license, the USDA or DOJ could swiftly enforce and say, here is the precedent. It’s unequivocal. There is no loophole.”

For 146 animals, a contemporary begin

 In all, the Department of Justice confiscated 69 huge cats, 11 ring-tailed lemurs, and 52 different animals, together with primates, bears, wolves, raccoons, and kinkajous from the Lowes. The animals have been despatched to a number of sanctuaries, together with Lions, Tigers and Bears, in California, and Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, in Arkansas.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary, in Colorado, took in not solely Mirage and Caesar however 79 different huge cats and numerous different animals. Pat Craig, the sanctuary’s founder, visited the Lowes’ property a number of occasions throughout the previous yr to assist take away animals.

“Animals were always underfed, and there were so many rotting piles of stuff,” he says. “A few cages were built right on dirt and sand, so animals had lots of sand in their feet. Lots of twisted legs and bone disease from a lack of calcium.”

Of those that survived, “mostly everybody was messed up” from malnutrition, Craig says. Mothers had ataxia—a neurological situation manifesting as lack of muscle management. Several white tigers have crossed eyes from inbreeding. Nonetheless, after they arrived on the sanctuary, most have been “running, jumping, exploring, and having a ball,” he says. “I bet that’s the first time they ever ran in their life—those cages they were in were so tiny.”

Caesar and Mirage are thriving, Craig says. “They definitely would have had metabolic bone disease if we hadn’t gotten them out. And it’s really nice to know they missed all that cub petting.”

The Lowes proceed to share images and movies of their former animals on Instagram, the place they’ve 90,000 followers, with out acknowledging the confiscations. Meanwhile, Carole Baskin, the present owner of Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park has simply introduced that she’ll be starring in her personal actuality present, which, she says, will doc her efforts to disclose animal abuse at roadside zoos.