Original subtitles

♪

Man: Alright, we are speeding. You speeding?

Exotic: Okay, does sunglasses matter,

So I'm not squinting so bad?

I don't want to look old.

[ laughing ]

Tell me who you are, what you do.

Okay, well, my real name is joseph maldonado-passage,

And everybody knows me as joe exotic.

We are a zoo open to the public

That takes unwanted animals.

I have to ask myself that every day now.

[ laughs ]

I don't know why the hell I'm doing this.

Give that good-looking mama a kiss.

There you go.

Get up here and pet him. Pet him.

Next group!

This is definitely not

One of those things that you do to make money.

I ain't gonna lie --

It's a labor of love.

Really have to love the animals.

[ laughs ]

-There you go! -[ grunts ]

[ tiger growls ]

[ rooster crows ]

[ gunshot ]

Get out of here!

Chase him all the way around.

[ laughs ]

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Saffery: Obviously, the animals was his demise.

It was one of his stepping stones to the top.

And it was also that broken board that he crashed

All the way through.

What you doing, you sexy tiger?

What are you doing?

Saffery: Desperation and greed, for sure, drove that.

Eastwood: I actually worked for joe twice.

In the beginning --

The end of '99, the first part of 2000 --

Joe believed in his head

That there was some sort of connection

To what he was doing and conservation.

I went back in 2014,

You had at least once, twice a month,

Tigers giving birth to cubs and the cubs being pulled --

50 to 60 cubs a year born.

[ growls ]

It was a tiger mill, is basically what it was.

Exotic: I don't know how I become the tiger guy.

I rescued my first tiger in 1999,

And they've never stopped coming.

I call it a gift.

I walk among them,

Don't force them to come to me.

I don't make them do any tricks. I can walk in a cage

With 14 tigers, and if they want to come love on me,

That's their option.

If they want to stay away from me, that's their option, okay?

[ laughing ]

[ groaning continues ]

But anyway...

Fortune and fame. That's that's what joe wanted.

The animals were a big part of that.

But at the end of every day, joe's biggest thing was,

"I want to be famous, and I want to be rich."

That's joe exotic.

Exotic: Lightning, come on!

Let's go!

Come on. Time to go to work!

Come on, sexy man.

[ chuckles ]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

I'd like to welcome you

To the greater wynnewood exotic animal park.

My name's joe exotic,

That's thunder, and this is laughing.

You're gonna get up close and personal today

With one of them fences between you and their cages.

We're gonna put tigers on the ground and you're gonna

Get on the ground and love on these little tigers

So you can understand what I do every day of my life

In order to save these majestic animals.

You know, a lot of people are against public contact

Of animals or public exhibition of animals.

And never, never loved on or never touched.

And to hell with that.

♪

♪

My name is matthew simmons. Navy veteran,

Co-founder of the lockwood animal rescue center.

So, we had been involved in a long lawsuit

Trying to protect wolves in minnesota.

During this long investigation,

The person owning the animals took a hard right

And just started shuffling these animals to the wind.

And 28 of those wolves were transferred to joe exotic.

So our efforts to rescue them turned to oklahoma.

We got a phone call from a lady up in minnesota.

She needed to get rid of them by that Tuesday.

So we ended up with something like 26 wolves...

[ chuckles ] ...That I didn't need.

Ah, hell.

Simmons: I knew very little of joe exotic.

You know, I was somewhat familiar that there was

This guy in oklahoma that had a lot of big cats,

But didn't get any more specifics than that.

Yeah, this place is interesting.

As I'm walking through the facility, I mean,

There's, like, a tiger here and a lion here, and a capuchin,

And they've got chimps and a baby kangaroo,

And there's camels licking people's faces.

And I just, you know,

At that point, I know what crazy looks like.

-How you doing, man? -Good, man.

And then here comes joe.

All I need to do is get them pliable.

We're gonna muzzle them, we're gonna pull dna,

We're gonna pull blood,

We're gonna make a health certificate.

I needed some edibles. Nobody brought no edibles?

[ both laugh ]

I needed some edibles from california

Or colorado. You didn't bring me none?

We had been working our way towards picking up 28 wolves,

And we get to joe's and there aren't 28 wolves.

This is three of them. Come here, guys. Come here!

And then he goes into the used car salesman.

"well, you know, it was 28,

But then it was 26,

And it might be 25

'cause there's two of them that we can't find,"

And the whole thing.

[ counting under breath ]

14, 15, 16... [ continues indistinctly ]

Where the hell did reinke get 26 wolves at?

Oh, hell, I forgot that cage over there.

Yeah, with four of them in it, right?

[bleep]

I forgot we chucked four back over there.

Simmons: All of them off!

Put them on rollers and let's start running them.

Oh, I'm so gonna need a joint by the end of the day.

And I don't even smoke weed.

But I'm all for selling it and making some money on it.

[ laughs ]

Simmons: This is a cluster [bleep]

We'll get the wolves and get out of here.

The idea was I can send them wolves

To california, to a better facility

That's prepared to take care of wolves.

And the whole idea is not to be a hoarder, you know?

Hi!

Hi, baby!

This is way too many animals.

Hi! Ready to get the hell out of here?

So, as I'm walking around,

There's, you know, 200 cats on 50-some-odd acres.

What's up, big guy?

What's up, big guy?

You're starting to pick up the vibe that,

You know, this animal's blind

And this animal has dwarfism

And this animal is this.

I got the distinct feeling

Every animal there was on borrowed time.

You need to buy a baby liliger?

Uh, I... [ laughs ]

Once animals become money

And once they become this barter and trade system,

Only the animal suffers.

I mean, he was trying to sell tigers

To anyone who would buy them.

When they're like five or six months old, 1,000 bucks.

I mean, he was trying to sell them to the crew.

He was trying to sell them to my employees.

He was saying we can make it a donation.

And no one there had a permit for tigers.

-These are my film people. -Oh, okay, okay.

Yep, we film y'all filming me, in case you lie --

We got the original [bleep].

[ laughs ]

Yeah, I've been down that road before.

[ laughs ]

This was a unique situation. I could see the walls coming in.

Before we even got here, he was nickel-and-diming

My lawyers to reimburse him

For every expense associated with the wolves.

It was may of 2018, and now we know

That he was trying to figure out his exit plan.

You know, rome was burning,

You know, while we were standing there.

Oh, my god.

God almighty.

I see these two female lions

That are in a 10x10.

Half the roof is off.

And when I walked by, unlike some of the other cats

At the facility, they were petrified.

Cats are one of the few animals that really feed off emotion

And really feed off of who they're around.

And these two were sisters.

I mean, they should've been playing with each other

And spending time with each other.

Instead, they were hiding in the den box

Like they knew their day was numbered.

And joe said something to me like,

"well, you can just take them, too,"

Like it's a tip in the transaction.

Girls! [ whistles ]

Say hi. [ meows ]

You know, I don't own a lion or a tiger sanctuary,

But I knew I had to get them out of there.

So I reached out to dr. Richard,

The lead vet at the wildlife waystation.

They currently live together.

Alright, sending pictures now.

I wanted to take them all.

But chobe and kariba

Were the two suffering the most physically

From their constraints, and also emotionally.

So I said to joe,

What was once a joke, was gonna be a tip...

I said, "yeah, after my phone calls,

I'll take these two lions."

Alright. They're the last ones on the trailer,

So we'll get the wolves loaded up.

Guys, I need to get two crates over here that are empty.

We're gonna load up these lions.

-Up, and slide her in. -Two, three!

-There you go! -[ grunts ]

Eastwood: If you had a cat that had aged out on the pay-to-plays

And for whatever reason was not gonna be used

As a breeder or in the show,

Joe would trade them off as what he termed

Junk tigers, or junk cats --

Ones that's not gonna make him money.

He may send it to another facility,

Or it's thrown into a smaller cage.

There's just no concern for an animal

That is basically... What was his term?

"useless," and just costing him money

Because he had to feed it.

[ laughing ]

One, two, up!

Simmons: The most likely prognosis

For any animal lowest on the rung in joe's facility

Is they get shot and buried in the backyard.

They're not worth transporting. They're not worth selling.

And that's why chobe and kariba were selected.

Let's get these on!

I'm upset that I didn't get there

Ready to do a full evacuation,

That I had only gone there for the wolves,

'cause I think 100 of those cats could have been saved.

Exotic: Matt was a super guy, super guy.

Damn hard to get any money out of him.

[ laughs ]

Simmons: Push straight, boys.

You got to kick it back. -I hear ya.

Simmons: I thought chobe and kariba's days were limited.

I thought it was the right thing to do in the moment.

And we never let joe out of our sights.

We immediately said we'd be happy to do what we can to help.

[ laughs ]

In literally every sanctuary in america.

Taft: Well, we took in two tigers

Born at joe exotic's.

It was pretty obvious they were in pain.

[ tiger snorts ]

Saffery: I know that joe had a lot of cubs

That were specifically gotten rid of

Because they cost too much.

♪

♪

♪

Exotic: Alright, well, anyway, ladies and gentlemen,

If you've never been here before,

You don't know who I am, first of all,

I have no filter, okay?

So if I offend anybody,

I'm gonna apologize right off the bat.

You drove a hell of a long way to get here,

Paid some good money, and I'm gonna make sure

That you're having some fun. [ baby crying ]

And we cannot have that in the audience.

[ chuckles ]

[ laughs ]

Ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am!

Simmons: I mean, the thing is, once you start

Taking a ticket admission at the door,

You're in the entertainment business.

You're in the people business.

You're not in the animal business anymore.

This next part right here is funnier than [bleep].

Get up here!

-Good job, ree! -[ giggles ]

There was nothing about the animals anymore,

Other than how they could make joe money.

Mccord: I was volunteering

And I started working with the tour groups

And doing some kind of basic chores.

I watched a lot of the cubs come in.

And imagine it from the cub's perspective.

So, you're born,

You are immediately taken from your mother.

They are then paraded out in front of masses of people

Multiple times a day,

Every single day.

And then you're either put in a cage

Anytime it was brought up, you were told,

"this is how we make money. They just have to deal with it."

And to read about me on the internet,

You'd think I run the shoddiest place

On the planet.

Some of these facilities find it easier to just use you

As an "escape" goat

Of a shoddy facility, a roadside zoo,

A tiger breeder,

You abuse baby tigers because you let people pet them

Or anything else --

Because it makes money.

I've written over the years about tigers --

Captive tigers, wild tigers.

And something you hear a lot when you cover this topic

Is that there's clearly a market for facilities like joe's

That offer cub petting opportunities.

These are magnificent animals, and they're adorable

When they're small, and they're a huge draw to people.

He knows that, and lots of other facilities know that, as well.

Saffery: He would walk away

From some of his sit-down-and-plays

With $10,000 to $15,000.

And that's a slow day.

Exotic: We do not have a tiger emergency in america.

It's a $500 million-a-year business on the internet.

Simmons: Just so you understand pet and play,

You know, you're creating an animal

That in a short window -- the first eight weeks --

You're gonna make as much money as you can,

And you now have an animal for the next 20 years

In your backyard.

Saffery: Those cubs grow up, and then you have to have

More cubs to continue the income that it provides.

Unfortunately, it's never enough

To cover the amount of money it costs

To tend to an adult tiger, you know?

And it's just a vicious circle.

We tried our best, but joe is not easily influenced,

You know, especially by people who work for him.

I was constantly speaking up,

And it basically got to the point,

Joe didn't like me being there.

I was doing the adoption process.

Basically, it was a sponsorship.

I spent a total of about $3,800

Over the course of about...

[sighing] oh, god, five or six months.

The day that I met siren, she was two days old

And not with her mother.

So we really built up a relationship with her.

She knew us when we showed up.

She would call out and she would chuff.

And it was so cool

To watch this creature that's a wild animal grow.

One of the times I went to go see siren

And I was sitting with her and they said,

"well, it's time to use her for the cub petting.

Bring her out."

She was four weeks, five weeks at this time.

And when she saw the people, she turned around like,

"nope, I don't like this situation."

You know, "put me back, put me back, this isn't good."

And she just started crying.

[ tiger yowling ]

You know, they're crying because they're stressed

And they're afraid and they don't understand.

And it was heartbreaking to see. In fact, it got to the point,

I said, "look, if I need to donate more

To keep her out of there, tell me."

And they wouldn't do it. Joe said, "no,

Every cub has to help, you know, earn their keep."

And I said, "well, I'm paying for her keep."

[ laughs ]

So, you know, he said, "nope, everybody has to have a turn,

And people like the hybrids."

So that was tough.

If you don't like something that I'm doing,

Let's sit down and talk about it.

If you've got a better way to fund it

Or you've got a better idea than I got,

It's the same way that I'm gonna run that [indistinct].

[ walkie-talkie tone ]

I need you to bring no lawn mowers back here.

No noises or anything else,

Or you're gonna have to duck

When this bullet comes over your head.

Man: Okay. [ static ]

♪

[ low growl ]

[ growls ] oh, yeah, looks like it.

Simmons: We were able to bring chobe and kariba

To the wildlife waystation.

Bringing them there was like bringing them to a hospital.

[ growling ]

Richard: My first impression of them was that

They did not have the benefit of good genes.

Chobe in particular is kind of stumpy

And looks like a guinea pig.

She's got some degree of dwarfism.

Both of these girls were from compromised genetic stock,

I would say.

-[ smooching ] -[ tiger growls ]

Personality-wise, chobe, you know, was very aggressive,

Very like, "I don't like being here."

And kariba was a little more evaluating of her space.

Both animals seemed disconnected from their environment,

Almost shell-shocked.

-[ low growl ] -[ whistles ]

I don't believe they had a lot of physical activity.

They were overweight and they had some psychological trauma.

-There you go. -Come on, girl.

Man: There you go!

There you go, sweetheart.

Richard: Animals kept in captivity

Who are kept in small enclosures,

They're not carcass-fed,

They're not asked to jump and climb and run

And do all the things that their bodies are built to do.

You're gonna compound those underlying problems,

Those congenital defects that you've bred in.

-Hey, hey! -Go, baby. There you go.

Richard: My primary goal for chobe and kariba

Was to try to nurse them into a healthier

Emotional and mental place,

Break that wall of shell shock

And start them acting like normal lions.

And that just took time.

But it was very difficult for me that we didn't have

The space to offer them

That I think they really could have benefited from.

Simmons: Under the care of dr. Richard at the waystation,

We had started to overcome

All the physical problems facing chobe and kariba,

But the waystation was not a permanent home.

Richard: I was hoping that they would move on from us

To somewhere where they could have a bigger space

And they would have the opportunity to move around

And have the life of being a real lion.

They both had pretty severe issues with their eyes.

I thought about how much pain they must have been in.

I think there was some amount of neglect.

Joe's theory -- let's just call it a theory --

Was the sabertooth tiger

Could be brought back into existence,

Because it was just a mixture of every big cat.

50 years from now, hybrids are the only ones

That are gonna be able to withstand our climate change.

[ birds chirping ]

♪

Exotic: This park is a beautiful park.

To read about us on the internet,

You'd think it'd be a piece of [bleep].

[ chuckles ]

Huh, cletus?

Too many people have too many opinions on what a sanctuary is,

They're just behind this great big fence.

And I don't even know, you know, what kind of fence they got,

But let's just pretend they got a great big wooden fence.

I don't think that animals should be locked in a jail cell

With no tender loving care, you know?

♪

♪

Defrees: Hey, boys.

Lay down.

Good boy.

A sanctuary should be

A sanctuary. [ chuckles ]

So all we're trying to do

Is make sure the animals are well taken care of.

That is the underlying reason

For literally everything that we do.

It's just the keepers that are around the animals.

We kind of consider ourselves a retirement home

For abused animals.

Ideally, we'd like to not exist,

But people keep breeding tigers, so...

We first heard about chobe and kariba

When they were at wildlife waystation.

We were contacted and we immediately said,

"absolutely, we'd be happy to do what we can to help."

Richard: We'd had chobe and kariba for about a year

And they had the opportunity to go to wildcat ridge.

This would have given them an opportunity to have more space

And to live in a vastly improved enclosure.

I knew that that was an opportunity

I didn't want to pass up for them.

Defrees: Hi! What a good girl.

Simmons: You have to give the animal enough space

To be what it's created to be.

I mean, the biggest thing about lions is that they need grass,

They need water, they need to explore,

They need other creatures, they need a living habitat.

They do a great job of doing that at wildcat ridge.

Defrees: Hi, pretty girl. Yeah.

Pretty girl!

I'm making the diets for our lions.

Chobe really likes liver,

So we're gonna give her some of that.

We make every diet specific to every cat

So we can weigh out every diet every day

So we can determine that they are getting

The same amount of food every day,

And we can adjust it as needed

Based on their weight and their health.

♪

♪

Hi!

Chobe is relatively young. She's 5 years old.

She is a lot smaller and stockier

Than your traditional female lion.

She also has quite a large head.

Her eyes are two different sizes.

Her pupils are two different sizes.

It is a sign of being inbred.

Joe exotic bred her parents with each other

Just to mass-produce as many lion cubs as he could

Because they were the most profitable.

He just cared about the product, which was a cub,

Or something that he could sell.

We were successful breeders. That's for sure.

But we were being irresponsible.

And that's a problem, too.

Ford: Because joe was such a notorious breeder,

There are cats that originated from joe exotic's facility

In literally every sanctuary in america.

He's sort of... He's not patient zero,

But he's kind of that hub that everything grew out from

Because he was just pumping these kittens out

Left and right.

♪

♪

This is a fairly large enclosure,

Probably covers 3/4 acre,

Lots of vegetation.

And somewhere in there, there's a tiger.

We provide animals with a lifelong home.

Once they come here, we are committed to keeping them

For the rest of their life.

[ tiger chuffs ] hi, buddy.

[ tiger moans ]

We took in three tigers last February.

Two of them had been born at joe exotic's.

♪

Brulliard: Two cats had been born at joe's zoo,

Sold to a private owner

Who then eventually gave them up to a sanctuary in texas,

And that sanctuary couldn't keep them

And sent them to this place in indiana.

So, their story was not incredibly unusual.

These are cats who are sort of passed around

From place to place.

Taft: Kryxis and kadira, you could tell that

Their eyes weren't working right.

It was pretty obvious they were in pain.

[ tiger growls ]

Just their continual aggressive behavior

And vocalizations.

[ growls ]

An almost unceasing growl,

An unhappiness.

They both had pretty severe issues with their eyes.

The defect was a full-thickness defect of the eyelid.

That defect is called eyelid coloboma,

And that just literally means that that part of the eyelid

Didn't form and there's a hole there.

This was a congenital defect.

Inbreeding could be an underlying cause

Of this abnormality.

I thought about how much pain they must have been in

For their whole entire lives,

That this is something they had been born with

And they were 4 years old.

So I think there was some amount of neglect.

Oh, you know, it should be all about animals.

[ chuckles ]

Saffery: Veterinary bills, they cost too much.

Joe did come back down to numbers every time.

Anything that cost too much money,

Joe found a way to place them somewhere else.

At that point, it's a bill in his eyes.

You know, that's just the reality of it.

We gave birth to america's very first baby liligers.

Saffery: Once he realized he could do it,

He just went gung ho for it.

A lot of these hybrid animals end up with problems.

[ tiger growls ]

What's the endgame?

[ growls ]

♪

It was pretty obvious they were in pain.

Dr. Klein came out to our facility.

We immobilized these cats and took them into our clinic,

Where she performed a fairly lengthy procedure.

Klein: This is the first time I had done

Surgery on a tiger before.

I think the most anxiety-provoking part

Was I had to immediately assess them

And then make a decision about what was I gonna do about it.

Because it is difficult and potentially stressful

For them to go under anesthesia, so it's something that we wanted

To try to get a fix with one surgery.

What I decided to do

Was a procedure called a wedge resection,

Which is a surgery I do a lot on smaller animals,

But not one I've ever done on a tiger before.

And what I basically did was removed the edges

Of the eyelid where it was abnormal.

And then I took those edges and stitched them together

To create sort of a normal eyelid margin again

And remove those hairs that were rubbing on the eye.

♪

♪

I wasn't completely confident that we had fixed

The problem entirely.

I'm hoping that with time we're gonna be able to see

That they feel much better

And are able to confidently get around their enclosures.

Four years ago, we thought that we would try

Putting a liger with a lion.

And four years later,

We gave birth to america's very first set

Of baby liligers.

And the only place in the world

That this has ever happened is in russia.

So if it wasn't for private breeders and private zoos

Such as the garold wayne zoo here,

This would never have happened in america.

I started out hybreeding

Off of just an idea that I always had that

They all came from one cat, and that was the sabertooth tiger.

Eastwood: Joe's sabertooth tiger theory --

Let's just call it a theory --

Was that the sabertooth tiger

Could be brought back into existence

Because the sabertooth tiger, in joe's theory,

Was just a mixture of every big cat.

So, what I'd done was I built

Kind of a little continent of my own here

And I put tigers on one side and lions on the other side.

And lo and behold, they bred,

And that's where I got my first ligers.

Saffery: Once he realized he could do it,

He just went gung ho for it.

We're fixin' to have babies there,

And that'll be a whole new species.

Got the world's first tiligers.

Mccord: He was very proud. Joe would not be quiet

About that breeding program

And how he was, you know, revolutionary.

We've been able to prove a couple things.

One is hybrid animals are stronger --

Genetically stronger. They don't get sick.

They live longer. They're healthier.

Kind of like a mutt dog.

You know, you can run over a mutt dog

And he'll never need to go to the vet.

And in 30, 40, 50 years from now,

Hybrids are the only ones

That are gonna be able to withstand our climate change.

And we actually told him that he needed to stop saying that."

[ laughing ]

Joe's breeding of those cats was legal.

There were not state laws that prevented that.

Saffery: Because they're hybrids

And it takes years for the usda to come up with standards

And protocols for these exotic animals,

They don't have any -- zero protocols on them.

Because there's no regulations on them,

It was easier for him to just continue to do it.

Richard: A lot of these hybrid animals

End up with problems physically and psychologically.

I think if mama nature didn't make it,

It's not supposed to be there.

There is no conservation value in creating

Boutique big cat species.

They don't exist in nature.

You can breed an 800-pound liger or tiligon,

But as a veterinarian, when I look at that animal,

All I see is a lifetime of pain and suffering

For that creature.

Saffery: I know now, though,

There's absolutely no reason for hybridization.

There is no wild for hybrids.

You got to keep in mind, they've been in captivity

For over 17 generations.

They have no idea how to kill anything.

So, what's the endgame,

If it's not just for our, my simple entertainment?

Do you feel like he can see better now?

Oh, yes.

Klein: Hey, pretty girl.

I think there's a pretty drastic improvement.

You seem so relaxed right now.

Taft: That just sort of hits you over the head --

Wow, he's better.

♪

♪

♪

Klein: Are they still all together, or is she...?

Taft: They're still all together.

That's kadira.

Hers looks good. She doesn't have discharge.

Her eyes are open.

Hey, pretty girl.

Looks like everything's healed up well.

And here's kryxis.

Kryxis could get a little mad.

Does he still get mad? No.

I mean, you couldn't get this close to him a year ago.

That wasn't just me, right? -No, that was everybody.

Yeah. And he seems so relaxed right now.

Yeah, I mean, I think we've accomplished the main purpose,

Which was to get him out of pain.

Mm-hmm.

And do you feel like he can see better now

Than he did when he first came here?

Oh, yes.

He makes use of this whole area.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I don't see any discharge on his face or hers.

Mnh-mnh.

They are doing so much better.

And I think that their quality of life

Has got to be so much better,

And they seem to be out of discomfort.

I think there's a pretty drastic improvement

Those moments sort of sneak up on you.

You know, you watch him getting better and getting better.

And then all of a sudden, there he is,

And he's not growling, he's not snarling,

He's not telling you to go away.

And all of that just sort of wells up

And hits you over the head --

Wow, he's better.

Klein: If they have to live in captivity,

I'm happy that they can be in a place like this

Where they're so well cared for and loved and treasured.

Kryxis and kahira will have a stable home

For the rest of their life.

I've definitely visited many other facilities.

It's very easy to tell whether or not an animal

Is gonna thrive in an environment or not.

Our place looked like a dump compared to this.

And I would have loved to turn around and pack up

Another 15 of my animals and put them there, for sure.

♪

Ah, hell.

He did express regret.

Being in jail had shown him that captivity was cruel.

He said that he would be willing to be a spokesperson for peta.

I think some people buy it,

And most people don't.

♪

♪

♪

Our keepers are so fricking good at coming up with new

And creative types of enrichment for our cats.

Every one of the animals that we have,

Every resident that's ever been here,

Just like people, they're all different.

Woman: Hey, chobe! Get it.

They really like things that are hanging.

Usually, things that we hang up don't stay up for very long.

They like to chew apart boxes. They like to rip them up.

Sometimes, they lay on the boxes

And flatten them and roll around in them.

Enrichment is really important here

Because they get the physical stimulation,

They get the physical exercise, they get to use their brains.

Mental health is important for animals, too,

And enrichment plays a big part in that.

♪

Simmons: You're not a lion until you're on grass.

You're not a lion until you roam a prairie.

And chobe and kariba's transformation is...

I mean, it jumps off the page.

I mean, in joe's, they were in a 10x10,

Waiting to die.

And a year later, they're roaming on grass,

Beginning to be a lion.

Their relationship together has gotten stronger.

They're relying on each other for love and enjoyment.

I mean, very few lions do I see

Spend that much time on their backs.

♪

For us in particular, as long as people continue

To breed and exploit captive-born animals,

We will need to exist,

Until there are laws passed.

If I was to enter the animal industry again,

It would be in the capacity of a sanctuary setting.

Sanctuaries, they're doing it strictly based off

Of the needs of their animals.

I think that's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Brulliard: I spoke to joe by phone when he was in jail.

And as for his business with animals,

His relationship with animals, he did express regret.

He told me being in jail had shown him

That captivity was wrong and was cruel,

And that if he got out, he would commit himself

To promoting cageless animal existence.

He said that he would be willing to be a spokesperson for peta.

You know, whether he means that or not is not clear.

I think some people buy it,

And most people don't.

Saffery: Life after joe exotic

Has been kind of a roller coaster ride for me.

Who am I

If not the tiger trainer,

The tiger handler?

That part's always come first, always.

Even over my own health.

I think what I'm focusing on is just to be a father,

You know, and a spouse, a husband.

You can only see as much as you allow yourself to see.

And for joe, unfortunately, he didn't see anything else

But that one line that he needed to get to the top.

Nothing else mattered.

I didn't intend to start out as a cat guy.

I started out with a deer!

Rescued my first tiger, and they never quit coming since then.

I think the lesson for everyone involved

Is definitely let your passion be something that drives you,

But don't let it be something that consumes you.

Got that on camera?

Ah, hell.