Be Something Truly Terrifying This Halloween: ‘Joe Exotic,’ Tiger Killer

Published by Katherine Sullivan.
3 min read

It’s never too early to start planning for Halloween, so we’re accepting preorders for our limited-edition “Tiger King Killer” costume. Complete with a blond mullet wig, a mustache, jail bars, an orange jumpsuit, and a plush “pouncing tiger,” this “Joe Exotic” Halloween costume will remind everyone who the true villain of Tiger King is: notorious tiger abuser Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage.

joe exotic halloween costume
PETA’s new “Joe Exotic” Halloween costume comes with everything you need to portray the notorious tiger abuser.

We hope everyone will be out and about by Halloween, so this one-of-a-kind costume is available for preorder now:

Tiger King has exposed tiger cub exhibitors as ghouls who steal cubs from their mothers and exploit them as photo props. This Halloween, join us in reminding folks that a tiger killer used exotic animals as money-making machines until his crimes caught up with him.

Joseph "Joe Exotic" Maldonado-Passage booking photograph

Tiger King features a slew of other animal exhibitors—including Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, Tim Stark, Jeff Lowe

… and others—who breed animals for profit, separate babies from their mothers, and deprive them of everything that’s natural and important to them. Many have criminal rap sheets or lengthy histories of federal Animal Welfare Act violations (and some have both), but they still operate.

We’ve been working for years to shut down facilities like theirs, including rescuing nearly 50 animals from Joe Exotic, all of whom are now thriving at reputable sanctuaries …

curly and mo the wild animal sanctuary
Curly (left) and Mo (right) are now at The Wild Animal Sanctuary. They were rescued from G.W. Zoo after being transferred to Joe Exotic by roadside zoo operator Tim Stark.

… and filing two lawsuits against facilities that acquired big-cat cubs from him. We recently prevailed in one of these lawsuits, and the last six tigers held at a roadside zoo called Dade City’s Wild Things arrived at an accredited sanctuary earlier this month. The order in that case held that prematurely separating tiger cubs from their mothers and using them in public encounters violates the federal Endangered Species Act.

Luna at Dade City
At Dade City’s Wild Things, Luna was forced to participate in “encounters” with visitors, even as she grew larger and began regularly biting her handler.

With your help, we can secure more victories like these for big cats and other animals. After you preorder a “Joe Exotic” Halloween costume, speak out for animals imprisoned at highway hellholes:

And please, never support abusive animal shows or exhibits.

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