The star of Netflix’s newest documentary sensation, Tiger King, Joe “Exotic” Maldonado-Passage, has filed a jailhouse lawsuit against the feds and has asked President Trump to pardon his conviction for orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot and violating the Endangered Species Act.
The former roadside zookeeper and “big cat” enthusiast – who is serving a 22-year prison sentence – is demanding a combined $94 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, his former business partner, Jeff Lowe, and several former colleagues.
He made his announcement on March 19th via his Faceboook page.
Maldonado-Passage was convicted by a jury last year on 21 counts, including euthanizing five tigers and hiring someone to kill his arch-nemesis, Big Cat Rescue founder and CEO, Carole Baskin.
He alleges that the Fish and Wildlife Service put tigers on the endangered species list “for the sole purpose of allowing animal rights groups to sue small zoos and circuses.”
This news comes after the success of Netflix’s newest documentary series, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. Since its March 20th release, the series has become a huge hit for the streaming service, with the series still the #1 on the service’s Top 10.
But Baskin, who is heavily-featured in the series, has not been a fan of the show, calling it full of “lies and innuendo” and that the directing team behind it set out to make it as “salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers.”
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