Tiger King’s Carole Baskin is granted ownership of rival Joe Exotic’s former zoo
TIGER King star Carole Baskin has been granted ownership of her rival Joe Exotic's former zoo in Oklahoma following a bombshell ruling.
The 58-year-old animal activist is the owner of Big Cat Rescue in Florida and now her competitor Joe's 16.4-acre G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park.
Jailed Joe gave the Wynnewood-based zoo to his former business partner Jeff Lowe and his mother, but now a judge has ruled that his transfer of the zoo land to them a few years ago was fraudulent.
Yesterday, the judge granted Carole complete control of the land to help counter an outstanding $1million judgement that Joe was ordered to pay her for copyright infringement.
According to a copy of the ruling published by Courthouse News Service, Joe's former business partner Jeff has 120 days to vacate the premises, leaving all of his exotic animals who reside on the property there.
Baskin's Big Cat Rescue was also granted ownership of several additional cabins and multiple vehicles on the property.
Big Cat Rescue initially sued Joe's mother Shirley M. Schreibvogel alleging that the transfer of the Oklahoma zoo was fraudulent in February 2016.
Shirley allegedly later admitted in 2015 that the zoo land was fraudulently handed to her in 2011 to avoid creditors.
The complaint read: "Schreibvogel later admitted under oath that the zoo land was transferred to her by Joe Maldonado to remove it from the reach of creditors, including BCR, should BCR win its Florida lawsuit".
Last month, Joe's former zoo had re-opened under the new name Tiger King Park following the success of the Netflix docu-series.
However, Tiger King director Eric Goode told Entertainment Weekly in March it hadn't been making much money.- not just because of the current coronavirus pandemic.
In light of the court ruling, Jeff said he and his wife Lauren weren't too upset losing the zoo as they have already opened a new park also in Oklahoma.
Jeff told TMZ: "We have long anticipated that the judge would eventually undo the 2016 land transfer.
"We are thankful that he dragged out his decision this long and allowed us time to complete the new Tiger King Park in Thackerville, Oklahoma, behind the World’s largest casino.
"Considering [Carole] spent approximately 2.5million chasing her 1million judgment, we congratulate her on her new acquisition of 16 acres in rural Oklahoma."
Carole became a worldwide known figure after Tiger King dropped in March and made her the center of conspiracy theories that she had something to do with her husband Don Lewis' disappearance.
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The animal rescuer was also the target of violent threats from the Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic, who claimed Carole was the reason his business was failing.
Carole accused Joe of animal cruelty and sued the private zoo owner for threatening her.
Joe was sentenced to a 22-year jail sentence after being found guilty of paying a hitman to kill Carole and killing tigers to make room for more exotic cats in his animal park.