Joe Exotic 'broke peacock's neck and fed it to a tiger'

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 3mo

Tiger King producer Rick Kirkham accuses Joe Exotic of breaking a peacock's neck then feeding it to a tiger.

Tiger King star Joe Exotic has been accused of breaking a peacock's neck before feeding the bird to a tiger.

The allegations come from producer Rick Kirkham, who spent a year filming the eccentric zookeeper before all of his footage was mysteriously lost in a fire.

Exotic has since been jailed for 22 years for charges of plotting to murder his rival Carole Baskin and animal cruelty - something Kirkham claims he witnessed first-hand.

"A lot of what was missed was the Joe who was off camera," he told Metro. "Joe Schreibvogel not Joe Exotic. Joe Schreibvogel was a much weaker person, much more fearful of the animals than what they portray on Netflix.

"When you see Joe in a cage with a tiger, the tiger was either blind or it was sedated. He was terrified of these tigers. He was scared of all the animals. I remember a peacock landing on him and he freaked out. He broke its neck and fed it to the tigers.

"I can tell you numerous occasions when we'd be filming something where he's hugging a tiger. He'd say, 'You got that enough, Rick?' I'd go, 'Yeah we got great stuff' and then he'd kick the tiger and walk away.

"He'd literally walk away saying, 'f**king ass tiger' and then he'd kick it. I watched him shoot several animals just because he was pissed off."

Exotic is currently seeking his release from jail and just yesterday Donald Trump revealed that he will "take a look" at giving him a presidential pardon.