Tropes pertaining to the colourful cast of characters that inhabit the community of Big Cat owners.
Others
Mario Tabraue
- Animal Lover: More so than Joe and Doc, at least. He seems to genuinely care about his animals, and apparently his love of exotic pets is what started his drug dealing in the first place.
- The Atoner: Mario seems to have genuine remorse for his past crimes, and doesn't make excuses for his actions.
- Been There, Shaped History: Or rather, popular culture. A number of his more outlandish crimes are speculated to be the inspiration for the character of Tony Montana in Scarface.
- Crack is Cheaper: Literally! Tabraue claims, “I sold drugs to maintain my animal habit.”
- Freudian Excuse: It's specifically pointed out that his mother didn't allow ANY animals in their home, which fed into his later fascination with collecting exotic animals when he moved out, which kickstarted his criminal career as well.
- The Hermit: Probably not surprisingly, Tabraue guards his privacy very closely after getting out of prison, and it was only with great persistence that the filmmakers secured any contact at all, let alone an on-camera interview.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: When compared to the other private zoo owners, Mario seems to be the least shady, which is surprising considering that he used to be a drug dealer. Especially when he's compared to Joe and Doc Antle, Mario is downright normal.
- Longer-Than-Life Sentence: Was sentenced to 100 years in prison for cutting in pieces the body of an ATF agent an associate had previously murdered.
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One-Scene Wonder: Tabraue appears for only one segment of one episode, but it's a pretty remarkable segment. - Out of Focus: Despite the show's emphasis on crazy tiger owners, his role in the series is surprisingly pretty concise due to his lack of involvement in Joe Exotic's exploits.
- Reformed Criminal: Tabraue was formerly the kingpin of a multi-million dollar drug empire, but after getting out of prison he has by all accounts reformed his ways and lives quietly with his menagerie.
- White Sheep: In the private zoo world, to the point that he seems like a Foil to all the other personalities featured. While he has a criminal past, he is genuinely remorseful about it and doesn't give the impression that he's trying to hide anything, he's a genuine Animal Lover with no animal abuse or maltreatment of his pets being mentioned, and he's been Happily Married to the same woman for many years. Compare that to his manipulative, sanctimonious, and egocentric peers.
Tim Stark
A private zoo owner based in Indiana and a friend of Joe's.
- Cold Sniper: Used to be a sniper for the marines, and rather unsubtly implies that he would snipe people trying to remove animals from his property.
- Crazy Survivalist: Even moreso than Joe. Loves his guns, hates the government, and thinks owning exotic animals and doing whatever he wants with them is his God-given right. It ended badly for him.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Tim makes Joe Exotic look even-tempered. He's incredibly aggressive towards people trying to take his animals, makes explicit threats towards people, and even snaps at a judge.
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won: When he came under investigation in relation to mistreatment of his animals, he started threatening whistleblowers and warned the authorities that he would euthanize all his animals if they attempted to seize them. They simply showed up with a SWAT team to enforce the judge's order. Stark then went on the run until he was arrested in upper state New York.
- Implied Death Threat: Although he makes some pretty explicit threats towards people, at one point he implies that he could snipe people who are seizing his animals, in front of three cops. They aren't impressed, and this is implied to be one of the many incidents that leads to his arrest warrant.
- Parrot Pet Position: He's often shown with a monkey on his shoulder.
- Stupid Crooks: He explicitly tells the authorities that he would euthanize his animals if federal forces tried to seize them. On the day of the seizure, he throws an Implied Death Threat at a pair of cops. He ended up getting a warrant for his arrest. And then he snapped at a judge, which just beggars belief.
- Too Dumb to Live: Word of advice—if the cops tell you that you need to be one mile from a location, do not refer to that as sniper distance.
