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Tear Jerker / Tiger King

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While the series is most known for its eccentric, off-the-wall characters and events, it also covers a number of depressing events.


  • Joe pulls a newborn tiger cub away from its mother, under the fence, while she's still giving birth to her other cubs. Joe IDs the cub as female. You just know it's going to be another breeder in two or three years, having her cubs stolen, too. Shortly after, we see a whole group of newborn cubs in Joe's house desperately mewling for their mother; Joe says that they never stop screaming, and claims that he had to start sleeping in his recording studio because their cries kept him awake.
  • Shortly before Jeff's introduction, we learn about a truly desperate period at the GW Zoo when the staff was so short on money that they couldn't afford to feed most of their animals. In one scene, we see over a dozen tigers—all crammed together in a pen like cattle—as the keepers try to decide which ones will get to eat that day, knowing full well that some of them may starve. This is followed by a shot of Erik hanging his head in despair, too depressed to say anything.
  • When two of Joe's chimpanzees who lived in separate cages are sent to a rescue and live in a bigger enclosure, they embrace. Even Joe chokes up about it.
  • The fire at Joe's recording studio killed five alligators. It also destroyed all of Rick's equipment and footage, meaning the loss of a year's worth of recording. Rick suffered a nervous breakdown at the time, and is audibly upset talking about it.
    • John Finlay's mournful reaction to the death of the alligators. He just sounds so genuinely confused and bewildered as to how anyone could have done such a thing. Oh, and it reaches a whole new level if (as is implied) John's own husband was in fact the one who set the fire.
  • Travis' death and the aftermath. From what everyone says, he was absolutely miserable with Joe and addicted to meth. (Which Joe may have used to keep him under control). His last moments were him telling Joshua that he didn't care whether he lived or died before shooting himself in front of him (possibly) by accident. Joe makes his funeral all about himself and his government election. Two months later, he remarries again, inviting Travis's mother to the ceremony, which is the last time she says he ever spoke to her.
    • Josh witnessing Travis' suicide. Even worse, we're treated to the security footage of the incident. Mercifully, Travis is offscreen, but Josh is onscreen and we get to see his reaction. He's so shocked that he sits there in silence for a few seconds before getting up to call for help.
  • Joe's mourning of and memorializing of Travis is sad, but not for the reason it initially seems like it would be; nobody who knew Joe believed that he was truly saddened by Travis' death, and suspect he was simply making a show to get attention. The disrespect and cynical use of his memory is both depressing and galling.
  • Travis' mother showing a picture of Travis from right before he moved to Oklahoma.
  • Near the end of the last episode, Saff points out that most of the animals are still as bad off at the end of this mess as they were at the start.
  • Toward the end of the documentary, Rick muses that when Joe started out it might well have been out of genuine love for animals, but eventually the economic reality of running a zoo ground that passion away. This is interspersed with old news footage of a much younger Joe earnestly talking about the importance of conservation, and that big cats should be in their natural environment rather than America. It's a sad reminder of the man he was, the man he could have been, and the man he unfortunately became.

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