Whidbey Island’s exotic cat owner hasn’t watched the “Tiger King,” a documentary about a zoo-owner-turned-attempted-murderer that coronavirus-quarantined viewers made one of Netflix’s most watched shows ever.
Greenbank resident John Lussmyer has known about the two main people featured in the documentary series, Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, for many years. Which is the reason he hasn’t watched it.
“They are both lunatics,” he said. “I try to stay away.”
Lussmyer currently owns a bobcat but is known for his cougars — although his most recent pet mountain lion, Talina, died of old age. He said he and other owners of exotic pets have long cringed at mullet-headed Joe Exotic because he left people with a negative and inaccurate impression of the types of people who own the big kitties.
Exotic got a lot of attention for a lot of years, Lussmyer said, because he is an obnoxious buffoon who treats others badly.
“That’s what people think of exotic owners,” Lussmyer said. “It ticks us off.”
About 34 million people have watched more than five billion minutes of “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” according to Netflix. It focuses on Exotic, who owned a private zoo in Oklahoma that caged and bred lions and tigers.
Exotic was shown as a brazen and publicity-obsessed man who toured malls with tigers, made music videos and ran for president and governor. He was in a long and bitter feud with Baskin, who ran a big cat rescue operation and was critical of Exotic’s zoo. He was convicted of trying to have her killed.
Lussmyer said Baskin used to be an exotic pet owner who rescued a lot of animals, which was great. He disagrees with her current stance now that “only people like her” — rescue operations — should be legally allowed to own exotic animals.
Lussmyer cautions people who watch the series to remember that the directors likely “very carefully selected the worst of both sides.”
Lussmyer adopts cougars that need homes because they were abandoned or their owners can’t keep them anymore. He is currently looking for new cats but his search has been stalled by the pandemic.
He holds a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that requires him to show the exotic animals. It’s legal in Washington state to own cougars and bobcats, which are classified as class II animals.
Lussmyer has been keeping big cats for about 20 years. His house is set up with both indoor and outdoor caged areas. It’s not unusual for him to cuddle with a cougar or even occasionally let one wander his home.
Without a doubt, his cats have a much better quality of life than those once owned by the Tiger King. And he bears little to no resemblance to the cast of redneck and occasional tooth-challenged characters that populate the series.
