Joe Exotic's niece claims he was "100 times worse" than how he was portrayed in the Netflix documentary, Tiger King.
In an interview with DailyMailTV, Chealsi Putman makes a series of damning claims about Exotic – real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage – including that he froze dead cubs to sell to taxidermists, and that he had videos of people performing sex acts on the animals at his Oklahoma zoo.
Tiger King is the most talked about show in the world right now after dropping on Netflix three weeks ago. It follows the gay, gun-toting Exotic, 57, running his Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, and his nasty feud with big cat activist, Carole Baskin.
Exotic is now serving a 22-year jail sentence for animal cruelty and for plotting to murder Baskin.
Carole Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue. Photo / Netflix
"In the Tiger King Netflix series, you can see glimpses of his evil persona but in real-life Joe is 100 times worse," Putman, who worked for Exotic on-and-off from 1999 to 2017, told the publication.
"I want people to know who the real Joe Exotic is, not the one you've seen on TV.
"I've personally witnessed Joe spray a tiger with a fire extinguisher, not out of a safety or for a life saving reason, but because the tiger didn't react the way Joe had wanted it to.
"A few years ago, at the zoo we had a monkey who just had a baby, Joe wanted to take the baby monkey away from its mother so he could sell it. The mother monkey naturally wouldn't let Joe take the baby away from her so, he decided to 'dart' the mother monkey.
"He was going to shoot a tranquilliser dart into the mother monkey so he could take the newborn baby away from her. Joe shot one dart into the monkey, but after a few minutes the tranquilliser hadn't worked, so he shot another dart into the mother, and another.
"He shot a total of five darts into the mother until she dozed off so he could pry the baby monkey away from its arms. I was disgusted by his actions, he's lucky the mother monkey didn't die."
Joe Exotic is now in prison for murder-for-hire. Picture / Netflix
Putman also said Exotic would freeze tiger cubs when they died, using the excuse he was helping a local university with their research. She said she found no evidence of this, and instead believed he was selling them to taxidermists.
"Over the years there must have been at least 10 tiger cubs that he froze. I have no idea what happened to them, they would just disappear," she said.
"There wasn't much Joe wouldn't do for a dollar."
Putman also said Exotic used his employees' identities for the illegal sale of tigers to keep his own name in the clear.
"He would either take cash under the table for the sale of the tiger or if someone sent a cheque, it would be made out to another person, or if the money was wired to a store, it would be in another person's name," she said.
"Joe always attempted to distance himself from any illegal activity, but he had no problem involving his employees in it."
In far more sinister allegations, Putman claimed there were videos of people performing sex acts on some of the animals at the zoo – though she had never personally seen any.
"I didn't want to see them, I just heard about them."
Putman, who assisted the FBI with their investigation into Exotic which eventually saw him convicted, said Exotic deserved longer than his 22-year sentence.
"If it were up to me, I would have sentenced him to life behind bars, he wouldn't have ever seen the light of day," she said.
Joe Exotic with some tiger cubs. Photo / Netflix
"Joe's a liar so I was worried that the jury may fall for the show that he puts on, but fortunately they saw through his BS (bull***t) and convicted him of all of the charges.
Putman, who has not spoken to Exotic in two years, added she was told he was currently being investigated by the IRS for campaign fraud when he ran for Governor of Oklahoma in 2016, which was shown in the Netflix documentary.
