Netflix
Joe Exotic from Tiger King
The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (the Tiger King zoo) was a big focus in Netflix’s Tiger King series. The zoo, formerly owned by Joe Exotic, is located in Oklahoma and ownership was eventually switched to Jeff Lowe. Now ownership has switched again and the park was recently handed over to Carole Baskin.
The Park Is Now Owned by Carole Baskin
An Oklahoma federal judge gave ownership of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park to Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue Corp., USA Today reported. The court had also awarded her $1 million against Exotic for trademark and copyright infringement. The court found that Joe Exotic had fraudulently transferred ownership to his mom in order to try to avoid the $1 million judgment. The animals must be vacated within 120 days.
Big Cat Rescue posted that they could help place the animals if Jeff Lowe can’t move them.
Jeff Lowe posted an update on his Official Tiger King website saying that they expected the news about Baskin getting the zoo. He said that yes, she had obtained the 16-acre zoo property. “We congratulate her on her acquisition of 16 acres of mud in the middle of Oklahoma,” Lowe said. He added that the new park they are building is almost complete.
Jeff & Lauren Lowe Are Moving Their Park to a New Location
In the Tiger King series, we eventually learned that Jeff and Lauren Lowe had gained some form of ownership of the park from Joe Exotic. According to the park’s website, the park is still located in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. But since 2018, the Lowes had been talking about moving the park closer to Texas and it looks like they are almost complete with that transition.
In an interview with KFOR in September 2018, Lowe said the new property near Thackerville was amazing and they expected to open sometime in 2019, which ultimately didn’t happen. He said they were already working on dismantling the zoo to move the animals to the new location near the Winstar Casino.
Earlier this year, the zoo was temporarily closed because of the pandemic. But according to the zoo’s Facebook posts, it has since reopened.
Wynnewood Park’s Facebook page still lists the website as the source for information about the zoo and its hours, and the Wynnewood Park website still lists Wynnewood as its location. However, the Tiger King Park Instagram page appears to have the most updated information.
The Instagram page notes that the Tiger King Park is opening behind the Winstar Casino in the Summer of 2020.
The Instagram page had a few comments about Baskin. In one comment they wrote about Baskin: “You didn’t read allt he order. Animals all leave with us. MIC DROP”
When asked what they were going to do about Baskin, they wrote: “We got it :)”
On OfficialTigerKing.com, Lowe said they were almost ready to open the new park behind the Winstar Casino. He said the cages in their new park were much bigger.
