Should ‘Tiger King’ Star Joe Exotic Be In Prison? Director Eric Goode Weighs In

Many of Netflix’s “Tiger King” viewers are divided when it comes to whether or not Joe Exotic should be in prison. The Oklahoma tiger breeder is serving a 22-year-sentence for his alleged involvement in trying to hire a hit against his infamous rival, Carole Baskin, and violating the Endangered Species Act, Page Six reports. Now, the docuseries’ director, Eric Goode, is sharing his opinion on the zoo keeper’s right to freedom.

“Should he be sprung from jail at this time? I don’t think so,” he told the outlet.

However, he feels that the length of Exotic’s sentence was a little extensive.

“Sometimes our criminal justice system is about punishing people and not reforming people,” Goode added. “I think Joe was a bad guy, [but] he’s a human being and there are parts of Joe I empathize with.”

On March 24, Goode and his co-director/writer Rebecca Chaiklin told the Los Angeles Times that Exotic is thrilled by the attention he’s received since the series March 20 release.

“Joe has called me quite a few times over the last few days and weeks,” Goode said at the time. “One, he is absolutely ecstatic about the series and the idea of being famous. He’s absolutely thrilled.”

“You can hardly talk to him without him mentioning the amount of press he’s getting,” Chaiklin added. “He says people are asking to see his Prince Albert and girls are sending him sexy bikini pictures even though he’s gay. He’s over the moon. Having kept in pretty close touch with him while he’s been in a horrible county prison, this has raised his spirits.”

However, Chaiklin says that she and Goode witnessed Exotic abuse his tigers.

“Joe definitely did some horrible things to his animals,” Chaiklin added.“He was very abusive to them and he shot five tigers, no question about it. But what has happened to him has also been hard.”

Furthermore, she adds that while she understands why people love to pet the tiger cub, it does come at a disturbing price.

“Most of the tigers we were around were subjected to abject cruelty. We saw babies being torn from their mothers and screaming,” Chaiklin explained. “They’d get sick from being handled so much and get ringworm and mange. It was disturbing. Are they cute? Yes. Were there temptations to cuddle or touch? Yes. But it was very clear that it was not something positive.”

And while Goode says that Baskin, owner of Big Cat Rescue, is also treating animals unfairly, he feels she has better intentions, Page Six reports. However, Baskin and her latest husband, Howard, are upset with the “Tiger King” crew claiming they are “devoid of integrity” and “not interested in the truth.”

“I would like to speak with them,” Goode said in his latest interview. “I feel that Carole, out of all these people, at least had the right message: to stop breeding and exploiting these cats for monetary gain.”

However, she also keeps her exotic animals in cages.

“I posed the question to Carole: Is it fair to keep these tigers in cages? These animals pace neurotically,” he recalled. “I know she means well, but I wonder if it’s really the right thing to do.… She has never traveled to see these animals in the wild … It felt very much like she just wanted to live with a bunch of big cats.”

On the other hand, Goode claims that after spending so much time behind bars Exotic is now completely against cages.

“He is in a cage and of course he’s gonna say that he now recognizes what he did to these animals,” Goode told the Los Angeles Times.“With Joe, we have empathy for him, but at the same time, he’s someone who really knows what to say at the right moment. I take it with a big grain of salt when he says he is now apologetic for keeping animals.”

"Tiger King" is available to stream on Netflix.