‘Tiger King’: Jeff Lowe Wishes Carole Baskin ‘All the Luck In the World’ with Joe Exotic’s Zoo
Carole Baskin will take over the zoo formerly owned be Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, and featured in Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. This means that Jeff Lowe, who has been running the zoo since Maldonado-Passage went to prison, has to vacate. That’s fine with him and his wife, Lauren.
The Lowes spoke with ET.com on June 2 about their thoughts on the court awarding Baskin the zoo, as well as their plans for a new zoo. Jeff Lowe remained positive about Baskin’s prospects, despite all the animosity between them as depicted on Tiger King.
Jeff Lowe hopes Carole Baskin succeeds with the ‘Tiger King’ Zoo
Lowe’s primary concern is for the tigers. They’re taking Maldonado-Passage’s tigers to their new zoo. Baskin will move her Big Cat Rescue tigers to the Oklahoma zoo. Lowe doesn’t want to worry about what Baskin will do with the zoo.
“I don’t want to pretend to climb into Carole Baskin’s mind because I think it’s a very dark place,” Jeff Lowe said. “Who knows what she’ll try? I wish her all the luck in the world. She can have this 16 acres of haunted memories.”
Jeff Lowe hopes this gives Carole Baskin closure with Joe Exotic
One of Lowe’s hopes is that Baskin can put her animosity towards Maldonado-Passage behind her. Yes, Maldonado-Passage is in prison for hiring a hitman to kill her. She’s safe now and Lowe hopes she focuses on the tigers.
“Carole, we hope this puts an end to your spite and to your hatred,” Lowe said. “I’ve got nothing for you. I’ve got nothing against you. You do your thing, I’ll do mine. In the end, we’ll let the public decide who takes better care of their animals and who is more genuine in their concern for the care of the animals.”
There will be healthy competition between Carole Baskin and Jeff Lowe
When the Lowes open their new zoo, they and Baskin will have competing zoos in Oklahoma. Tiger King has resulted in controversy over any party keeping big cats in captivity. Lowe is confident his zoo will prove to be the more beneficial to animals.
The simple fact that we let people touch a baby tiger does not make us evil people. That’s what she wants us to believe but we have thousands of people who show up here every year who disagree with her completely. The only way that people are really going to care about the survival of a species is if they actually experience what that species is like. We truly believe that. We don’t make a lot of money doing the cub petting. I promise you we don’t but we get a lot of people here and it changes their lives. It truly changes these lives. Most of our people who come here are students or in the animal industry or in animal school for some type of animal care. They’re truly here to experience something they can’t experience anywhere else.
Jeff Lowe, interview wtih ET.com, 6/2/2020
