Carole Baskin confirms sale of Joe Exotic's former zoo, says it can't be used for 'anything related to Tiger King'
Carole Baskin has confirmed that the zoo previously belonging to Joseph Maldonado-Passage, known as Joe Exotic from Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, has been sold.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Baskin, the owner of the nonprofit sanctuary Big Cat Rescue, confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that not only has the Oklahoma property formerly used as an exotic animal park been sold to a local couple who are known for purchasing properties that need a lot of work, but that the new owners cannot use the ownership for anything Tiger King-related.
The news was first eported by TMZ.com on Saturday.
"When we sold the property in June, we required that it never be used as a zoo, or for anything related to Tiger King or anything like that," Baskin told Yahoo.
Her husband, Howard Baskin, also stated that the couple had a covenant written into the deed that stipulates the property cannot be associated with Tiger King.
"If it became an RV park or storage unit," he explained, "We don't want it named the Tiger King RV Park. We would like the 20 years of mistreatment of animals there to be forgotten and be history."
The Baskins have big plans coming up the pipeline. They told Yahoo they recently worked on a documentary called Shooting Joe Exotic with Louis Theroux "that played in Britain back in April to rave reviews, and was on the top of their on-demand list for weeks."
Right now, the couple is in Los Angeles for the premiere of the documentary The Conservation Game, which follows the story of Tim Harrison, a retired cop who "starts to suspect that America’s top television celebrity conservationists may be secretly connected to the exotic pet trade," according to the website.
"It exposes the way these people that take cubs onto late-night shows, are asked where the animals come from and where they go and they say they came from the zoo," Howard Baskin told Yahoo. "And in the film, these people were confronted, and they all admit that they have no idea what happens to the animals after they use them. It's very powerful, and it's controversial."
Last month, it was determined that Maldonado-Passage would receive a new prison sentence, Yahoo Entertainment previously reported. In 2019, he was convicted of attempting to hire two men to kill Baskin. He was sentenced to 22 years behind bars, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled in July to vacate the sentence on a technicality.
In September of 2020, Joe Exotic applied for a pardon from the Trump administration. He sent a handwritten note, obtained by Yahoo Entertainment, stating that he “looked up” to the then-President Trump “because you stand for what you believe in no matter what anyone thinks.”
