It’s Joe Exotic‘s worst nightmare. Carole Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue Corporation, was awarded the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, on Monday, June 1.
Judge Scott Palk ordered Jeff Lowe, who took over the zoo when Joe Exotic (real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage) went to prison, to vacate the property within 120 days, Fox25 reported on Monday. The animals must also be taken off the property.
Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue Corporation won the case after the judge found that the properties were illegally transferred by Joe Exotic to his mother — an action he took instead of paying her a settlement in a trademark infringement suit.
Joe Exotic, 57, is currently serving a 22-year sentence in prison for his murder for hire plot to kill Baskin, 58. He was also convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse during the 2019 case.
The feud between the zoo owners was chronicled in Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. During the series, Joe Exotic made multiple claims that Baskin was responsible for the disappearance of her first husband and that she killed him — allegations she has repeatedly denied.
Lowe was not expecting Baskin to win the case — but is not focusing on it now.
“We anticipated Carol Baskin getting the title to the former park that once belonged to Joe Exotic, and we did not challenge her attempts to do so,” his legal representative told CNN. “All of Jeff’s focus is on opening the new Tiger King Park in Thackerville, (Oklahoma), which should be opening in the next 120 days.”
Joe Exotic, for his part, posted a letter on his Twitter account on Monday from Fort Worth. “#Helpfreejoe. This cannot go on,” he captioned the tweet. In the letter, he apologized to fans for not being able to respond individually, claiming that “this prison is doing everything to keep me from talking.”
He also shared his disappointment on Tuesday, June 2, about his zoo. “Carole Baskin taking my zoo is a tragedy,” he wrote in a message.
