Tiger King's Jeff Lowe Is Unrecognizable In His Mug Shot
In the shocking world of Netflix's docuseries, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, there was a sordid undercurrent to the story, making the phenomenon of mugshots, arrests and prison sentences something familiar. There is, of course, the series' main character, Joe Exotic, who is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence. According to CNN, Joe "shot and killed five tigers, sold baby lemurs and falsified paperwork to say they were donated, and tried to pay a hit man $3,000 to kill a rival." Yikes.
But Joe isn't the only person in the series who has experienced legal trouble. Remember Jeff Lowe, who rolled into the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, driving his Ferrari acting like the pompous "savior" of the place? When Joe couldn't pay the lawsuit against Carole Baskin, he sighed the park over to Lowe, hoping to protect it.
While Joe is serving time in prison, reports from Lowe's past have surfaced and the Ferrari-driving business partner isn't as squeaky clean as he seemed. Surprise, surprise.
The history of Jeff Lowe's mugshot
While we all know why Joe Exotic has mugshots, what did Jeff Lowe do to have trouble with the law? According to Fox5 Las Vegas, Lowe faced several charges for a tiger cub party bus business he ran in the valley. The bus would pick up customers along the Las Vegas Strip and take clients to a place where they could play with wild animal cubs.
According to Fox5 Las Vegas in 2018, "Lowe faced one charge of doing business without a license and three counts of having no license or permit for wild and farm animals." However, Lowe didn't appear in the "Las Vegas Municipal Court for the charges" and so the court issued warrants for him.
This issue came forward because someone tipped off animal control after seeing the state of the tiger cubs who were being used as part of Lowe's party bus business. According to Las Vegas news KTNV, the baby tigers were severely underweight, suffering from diarrhea, had urinary tract infections due to fecal contamination as well as Giardia, which can be transmitted to humans. Vet reports also stipulated that the tiger cubs had pancreatic conditions that would require lifelong treatment.
Where is Jeff Lowe now?
In response to reports of sickly tiger cubs, Jeff Lowe was arrested after animal control and city marshals descended upon his home in 2018, according to KTNV. They impounded "a tiger, a liliger (part lion, part tiger) and a lemur." The news outlet reports that as part of Lowe's plea agreement, he had to surrender the animals and pay $10,000 in restitution care.
According to PETA, the Las Vegas Municipal Court found Lowe guilty on April 5, 2018 and "issued a suspended jail sentence," his restitution fees and a "stay out of trouble" order.
According to KTNV, it was shortly after this incident with the law that Lowe moved to Oklahoma with his wife, Lauren, and got involved with Joe Exotic. Lowe told the news outlet that when the tigers become adults, he retires them to the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park. He claims that the big cats live "safe and healthy lives," but this doesn't seem totally convincing based on Lowe's previous behavior.
KTNV wasn't totally convinced either and pointed out that in 2017 a female tiger got loose from her enclosure at the GW Zoo and was shot and killed to prevent her escape. On the one hand, it would be incredibly dangerous to have a tiger on the loose and perhaps this was an irregular situation. On the other hand, it doesn't bode well for the health and safety of those tigers.