{"id":2188625,"date":"2025-09-29T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2188625"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:49:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T13:49:29","slug":"big-cat-handler-linked-to-tiger-king-star-joe-exotic-mauled-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/big-cat-handler-linked-to-tiger-king-star-joe-exotic-mauled-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Cat Handler Linked To &#8216;Tiger King&#8217; Star Joe Exotic Mauled To Death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ryan Easley died at Growler Pines Tiger Preserve on Saturday, Sept. 20, the southeastern Oklahoma facility said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p>He ran ShowMe Tigers and had worked with animals from Joe Exotic and Bhagavan &#8220;Doc&#8221; Antle.<\/p>\n<p>Easley was performing &#8220;an act with the tiger when something went wrong, resulting in him being attacked,&#8221; Choctaw County Sheriff Terry Park told KXII 12 News. Deputies said Easley wasn&#8217;t breathing when they arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Growler Pines said Easley&#8217;s death was a devastating loss.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This tragedy is a painful reminder of both the beauty and unpredictability of the natural world,&#8221; the preserve said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ryan understood those risks- not out of recklessness but out of love. The animals under his care were not just animals to him, but beings he formed a connection with- one rooted in respect, daily care and love.<\/p>\n<p>His legacy will live on in the lives he touched, the animals he protected and the example he set for others who dedicate their lives to working with wildlife.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FGrowlerPines%2Fposts%2Fpfbid036nuosuCkZVKWeRdWJH95PNERVYLWpVy5Q1KqL6nXRcko1GghZQURU2s85LYSc7Hol&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"272\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>According to animal rights group PETA, Easley spent years transporting big cats to circuses and other events. Easley was filmed in 2017 whipping tigers during a training session, one of whom was struck 31 times.<\/p>\n<p>Debbie Metzler, the PETA Foundation&#8217;s senior director of captive wildlife, is demanding an end to big cat exhibitions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s never safe for humans to interact directly with apex predators, and it&#8217;s never a surprise when a human is attacked by a stressed big cat who has been caged, whipped, and denied everything natural and important to them,&#8221; Metzler said. &#8220;PETA is calling for the remaining wild animal exhibitors who aren&#8217;t dead or in federal prison to get out of the business now and send the animals to accredited sanctuaries where they can finally live in peace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a now-deleted social media post, Joe Exotic mourned Easley&#8217;s death, according to The Oklahoman.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Prayers go out to his family,&#8221; Exotic wrote. &#8220;Ryan took great care of his animals! He loved every one of those tigers and was an advocate for tigers as well as elephants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is serving a 21-year prison sentence for trying to hire two men to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin. In 2020, the murder-for-hire plot was highlighted throughout the first season of the hit true crime documentary series &#8220;Tiger King&#8221; on Netflix.<\/p>\n<p>Growler Pines said all tours and encounters were canceled until further notice.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyvoice.com\/ct\/hartford\/big-cat-handler-linked-to-tiger-king-star-joe-exotic-mauled-to-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Chris Spiker was first published by The Daily Voice on 22 September 2025. Lead Image:\u00a0Ryan Easley, a big cat trainer at Growler Pines Tiger Preserve, was killed by a tiger on September 20, 2025.\u00a0Photo Credit: Facebook &#8211; Growler Pines Tiger Preserve.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p><em>Help to protect wildlife by donating as little as $5 &#8211; it only takes a minute!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" id=\"donorbox-popup-button-installer\"> <\/script><a id=\"preview_inline_popup_button\" class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #0dc5dc; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; display: flex; gap: 8px; width: fit-content; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; line-height: 24px; padding: 8px 24px;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?default_interval=m&amp;amount=50\" data-reminder-widget-enabled=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 75w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 100w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 150w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 240w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 320w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 500w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 640w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 800w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1024w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1280w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1600w\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">Donate<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">conservation partners<\/a> spend at least 90 percent of the money raised on actual fieldwork\u00a0rather than administration and fundraising.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ryan Easley died at Growler Pines Tiger Preserve on Saturday, Sept. 20, the southeastern Oklahoma facility said in a Facebook post. He ran ShowMe Tigers and had worked with animals from Joe Exotic and Bhagavan &#8220;Doc&#8221; Antle. Easley was performing &#8220;an act with the tiger when something went wrong, resulting in him being attacked,&#8221; Choctaw [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2205051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/edge.dailyvoice.com\/upload\/487334073_971747058445272_4575459922363448258_n.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[4138,4146],"class_list":["post-2188625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-big-cats","tag-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}