Joe Exotic Tiger King | The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park or G W Zoo

If you're spending some of your time in quarantine watching Netflix like most of the world then I'm sure by now you've binge watched the series Tiger King. Once I started watching Joe Exotic and his crazy story I couldn't stop it's like a guilty pleasure. Although Joe is currently doing time and sorry for the spoiler but it's not hard to find out. He used to call Oklahoma home. Wynwood, Oklahoma was also the location of his infamous GW Zoo where it still stands to this day. In this video we'll be taking an in-depth look at the GW Zoo, what it was like, if it still exists and much more. Joseph Allen Maldonado Passage born Joseph Shrevevogel, better known as Joe Exotic is a former American Zoo operator. He used to own and run the Greater Wynwood Exotic Animal Park which was also called the GW Zoo and claimed to be the most prolific breeder of tigers in the USA. At the time of this recording Joe is 53 years old and is currently serving 22 years in prison. For what you may ask? Well, if you didn't watch his show, apparently it's for 17 charges of animal abuse and 2 charges of murder for hire. A plot to kill Carole Baskin. I am grateful that justice was served and Joe Shrevevogel Maldonado passage hopefully will serve time in prison and no longer present a threat either to me or to his former big cats. But the story is all over the place so before you believe it, watch the series and you be the judge. One would also assume the GW Zoo is closed now considering Joe isn't there but you may be surprised. I'll explain that a little later though. Aside from Joe's lifelong endeavours raising tigers and other exotic animals, he had some interests aside from the zoo. I mean there's his thriving music career with some songs that were actually pretty catchy. And he even ran as a candidate for the President of the United States as well as for Governor of Oklahoma. Hey guys, it's Karen! We usually do house tours here on Famous Entertainment, but today we're doing something a little bit different. We're going to be taking a look at the Greater Wynwood Zoo, or the GW Zoo that Joe Exotic made famous and give you all the details, including if you can still plan a visit and much more. If you like these videos, make sure you're subscribed and ring that bell to be notified when we post so you can always be up to date. We've never done zoo tours before on the channel, but we recently have done other house tours for celebs like Jessica Simpson and Bill Gates, and we'll link to some at the end. Follow me on Instagram because I love getting to know you guys. I've also been reading all your comments and I'm going to be responding to some at the end of this. I need you to let me know who to do next in the comments down below, and whose home you'd like to see. Now let's get into this video. We'll start with a bit of the history of the GW Zoo. Before Joe even called Oklahoma home, he lived in a few other states. He was actually born in Garden City, Kansas, and then the first pet store he ever opened was in Texas. Joe worked various jobs prior, but at one point he was living with a boyfriend and got a job working at a pet store. His neighbor, worked at an exotic animal park nearby, and often came home with baby lions and monkeys, and he would let Joe bottle feed them. He was hooked. In 1986, him and his brother Gerald finally opened a pet store in Arlington, Texas. Their third business partner was none other than Joe's first husband, Brian Ryan, who ended up passing away in 2001. Off topic, but if you're curious, Joe had 3 more husbands after this. John Finlay, Travis Maldonado, and most recently, Dylan Passage in 2017. But that's another story. Back to the pet shop. Joe, Gerald, and Brian first started selling the usual pet shop animals like reptiles, birds, and small fish, and did so for the first few years. The brothers were clever about finding ways to make money. Gerald even went dumpster diving at furniture and carpet stores, and turned what they found into cat playgrounds and dog houses which they could sell. When they could afford to expand, they invested in bigger cages for small exotic pets like 3 banded armadillos, and 4 Ida possums. Sadly, Joe's brother died in a car accident in 1997, so Joe sold the pet store and had plans for something bigger. His family inherited about 140k related to Gerald's death, and with that, Joe was able to buy 16 acres of land about an hour south of Oklahoma City. Wynwood Oklahoma is a pretty remote city in Garvin County, Oklahoma with a population of just over 2000 people. Actually when you google the city, the GW Zoo comes up as the first attraction or thing to do in the area. So I guess it's been a hit. After buying these 16 acres, Joe poured cement for sidewalks and built a row of 9 cages. At first the GW Zoo didn't stand for Greater Wynwood, but Joe actually named it after his late brother, calling it the Gerald Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park. It even opened 2 years to the day after Gerald's death. 2 of Gerald's pets were the zoo's first inhabitants, which happened to be a buffalo and a deer. Word spread that Joe opened an animal sanctuary, and people began dropping off exotic animals they no longer wanted. Among the first was a mountain lion, and then a bear. In 2000, Joe got his first 2 tigers. A game warden called him saying someone abandoned 2 tigers in a yard near Ardmore, and Joe brought them back to the park, naming them Tess and Tickles. They bred, and Joe raised the cubs. Although they weren't running free in the wild, Joe really loved having them. GW Zoo became home to more than 1,000 animals of all species, including over 100 tigers, lions, ligers, chimps, baboons, leopards, pumas, alligators, and even smaller reptiles. And just for reference, the Dallas Zoo sits on 106 sprawling acres, while the GW Zoo is only 16. So it's definitely a little cramped. We also know that there were animals like wolves and snakes. Joe of course hosted daily tours at the zoo where you could see the animals up close and personal and walk around all 16 acres, take photos with them, and more. From aerial views we can see the animals were spread out in open concept cages, while other species were kept in separate buildings. The alligators were kept in one building by themselves, and there was a suspicious fire that killed them one year which was pretty sad. For over 20 years he was known as Joe Exotic, the zoo operator, and also hosted sideshows across the country where he allowed people to pet tiger cubs, also staging shows at fairs and in shopping malls. But there was also no shortage of drama. Over the years there were a bunch of issues regarding animal abuse and trouble with the law so things went far from smooth. It also seemed that Joe was more focused on fame and profit at times. He operated an online reality TV show that he streamed from the zoo which definitely made good content for the Netflix series. In 2001 the zoo reported a revenue of over 117k, but by 2006 the number grew to over 530k, much of it being from donations. Along with the growth of the GW zoo, Joe decided to expand his for profit ventures. In the zoos gift shop he sold Joe Exotic branded skincare products, alcohol, and even condoms. Later he opened a bar 2 miles from the zoo called Safari Bar, and a pizza joint named Zooters. I'm not sure if Zooters is still open to this day, but the GW zoo actually is. I was surprised after watching Tiger King to find that the GW zoo is still up and running. Of course Joe doesn't own it anymore, nowadays it's in the hands of Jeff Lowe and his wife Lauren. Jeff is a South Carolina businessman once convicted of mail fraud, but what I remember most about him was that him and his wife Lauren were swingers and used tiger cubs to pick up chicks. So strange. Anyways, he purchased and re-opened the zoo from Joe. Others say he basically stole the zoo from him which doesn't seem far off because it was all very sketchy. Either way, Joe couldn't possibly run the place now. The Greater Wynwood Exotic Animal Park is licensed by the state of Oklahoma as a rendering facility, and according to the website, since February of 2016 the park has grown leads and bounds adding many more attractions, restaurants, and shows. Current owner Jeff says he's always been around big cats, and their love of cats is what brought them to the park in the first place. These days the GW Zoo is the largest privately owned exotic animal park in the US, and houses 230 tigers and lions alone. Sources say that Jeff plans to close the zoo in Wynwood and move the animals to a new location near Thackerville, Oklahoma, but that hasn't happened just yet as far as I know. If you're thinking of planning a trip to the GW Zoo one day, I'm sure the animals would love to see you, but you should probably read some of the Yelp reviews beforehand. And surprisingly, they weren't all about Joe. One about Jeff had one star and read. The owner of the zoo, Jeff Lowe, will attack you with name calling and harsh comments for not agreeing with him politically. Cool zoo when it used to mean something, but the new owner just cares about making a buck and is not about Joe's brother anymore. And one of the funnier comments said that they wouldn't even give the place one star and that they thought the zoo would be great for kids, yet Joe Exotic had half naked photos of himself all over the property. Another person wrote. To a crowd mostly full of elementary age and younger children, Exotic asked, who's here with a girlfriend or boyfriend? Several individuals raised their hands. Exotic then proceeded to toss condoms to the people that had raised their hands. Of course the condoms had himself on them. And finally, this one said at the end. Upon entering we were offered a $5 box of biscuits to feed the animals. We later saw that not only did these dog biscuits expire in 2010 lol, they were everywhere and likely the main source of food for all the animals. Poor animals, I hope these days Jeff isn't still feeding them expired snacks. So now we've looked at the GW Zoo, formerly known as the Gerald Wayne Zoo, now also known as the Greater Wynwood Exotic Animal Park. Although this zoo has a bumpy past to say the least, I gotta say it had a ton of cute animals. I really hope that after the lawsuits they're getting treated better. I guess we could have done a tour on Joe Exotic's jail cell, but I think the zoo is a little bit more interesting and I'm really surprised that they managed to do so much with only 16 acres of land. I hope that once Jeff relocates all the animals to his new zoo, the location is much bigger because it sounds like there are way too many cats now. What did you guys think of the GW Zoo? Would you eat at Zooters Pizza? Honestly, after seeing the Walmart truck of meat in the show, I'd be a little scared but that pizza didn't look that bad. Let me know in the comments as well as if you watched the series and what shocked you the most. Also, be sure to tell me what tour videos you guys would want to see next. Follow me on Instagram if you wanna chat and I'll see you all in the next one. Bye!