Tiger King’s Joe Exotic ‘injected his zoo workers with powerful animal tranquilliser ketamine if they had a cough or cold’
Tiger King’s Joe Exotic allegedly injected his zoo workers with ketamine tranquillisers meant for his big cats.
Rick Kirkham, 61, Joe’s head of TV production, has accused him of ‘shooting up’ workers who had coughs or colds using the powerful anaesthetic – ketamine hydrochloride.
Speaking on the Investigation Discovery channel documentary The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story, he said: ‘I saw Joe giving animal drugs to the humans working there.
Drugs: Tiger King’s Joe Exotic allegedly injected his zoo workers with ketamine tranquillisers meant for his big cats
‘When they’d get a cough or a cold, he’d go grab ketamine, an animal tranquilliser, and shoot them up with that.
‘I realised everyone who worked at the zoo was some kind of misfit.’
Joe, 57, was also accused of shooting a woman’s horse and having it chopped up to be fed to his tigers.
Injections: Rick Kirkham, 61, Joe’s head of TV production, has accused him of ‘shooting up’ workers who had coughs or colds
Speaking on the Netflix documentary, The Tiger King and I, Kirkham said: ‘An old woman had a horse and she pulled up.
‘She was really upset and said ”can you please take care of my horse he needs to go out to pasture”.’
Kirkham said that ‘unbelievably cruel’ Joe agreed to look after the sick horse but as soon as its owner left, he pulled out his revolver and shot it before having it chopped up and fed to his tigers.
The production head added that he even saw Joe shoot two of his own tigers, one of which was killed because it nearly bit Joe.
Tiger King: Joe, 57, was also accused of shooting a woman’s horse and having it chopped up to be fed to his tigers
Kirkham also said that contrary to Joe’s famous moniker, he was ‘terrified of big cats’.
He alleged that in documentary scenes where Joe is in a cage with tigers it’s because one of the tigers is blind and the other had been tranquillised.
Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22 year jail sentence after being convicted of two counts of murder-for-hire.
He was found guilty of plotting to kill his rival – animal rights activist Carole Baskin, 58.
The ‘Tiger King’ was convinced she wanted to destroy his zoo, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma.
Joe was also found guilty of 17 counts of animal abuse.
The Truth Behind Joe Exotic: The Rick Kirkham Story will air on the Investigation Discovery channel on June 2.
Guilty: Joe, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22 year jail sentence after he was found guilty of plotting to kill his rival – animal rights activist Carole Baskin, 58 (pictured)