Legal problems mounting for Tiger King Park owner

THACKERVILLE, Oklahoma (KXII) - Newly obtained drone footage shot of Tiger King Park shows piles of garbage, carcasses and what appear to be animals with their ribs visible.

Other large animals, specifically two tigers, are shown in small cages pacing around.

“The whole place was turned into a junk yard and there was refuse everywhere,” said President and Founder of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, an animal protection organization, Steve Hindi who first started filming the park and the Lowe’s in December.

“We saw animals in very very small cages, there was a lot of pacing, the animals are anywhere from bored, to really having mental issues,” Hindi said.

Hindi says the animals weren’t given proper covering when the winter storm hit the area.

“We saw them being fed food that was inadequate, filthy conditions, everything was bad about this place,” Hindi said. “We filmed them in the tiny cages that’s why (Taylor Lowe and others) came out with guns to shoot the drones down.”

Two weeks after Jeff Lowe allowed News 12 to enter Tiger King Park and film the facility the Justice Department seized forty-six tigers, fifteen lion-tiger hybrids, seven lions and a jaguar from the facility in May.

While Hindi was filming he said Jeff Lowe’s son, Taylor, is seen on the footage firing bullets at the drone over the property with a rifle.

“There was heavy pollution and when we got the heavy rain out there, the filth and the chemicals were washing right off his property into the neighbors,” Hindi said.

When News 12 was allowed on the Tiger King Park campus no animals appeared to be subjected to small cages and did not appear to be malnourished as the footage appears to show.

“USDA came through here, federal fish and wildlife came through here. Everyone has come through here thinking this place looks amazing,” Lowe told News 12 during filming.

The Justice Department seized 46 tigers, 15 lion-tiger hybrids, seven lions and a jaguar from the facility back in May.

Hindi said the federal government’s decision to seize the 68 animals from his zoo was “because (Lowe) was abusing the animals.”

“These animals have developed health problems that will never go away,” Hindi said. “Then there’s those who developed health problems that actually killed them.”

Those animals have been sent to sanctuaries throughout the country.

Since then a public nuisance complaint has also been filed against Lowe by the Love County Sheriff’s Office, a blip on the legal radar for Tiger King Park owner.

Lowe currently has four warrants out for his arrest in Las Vegas Municipal Court, three counts of not having proper license or permit for wild animals and doing business without a license from a 2017 case.

To settle those warrants out of Las Vegas Lowe must pay $20,500.

Lowe and his wife Lauren were also arrested June 5th.

In the report obtained by News 12, Lowe jumped a curb driving out of a parking lot in Oklahoma City.

Lauren and Jeff switched seats and were pulled over , they both got DUI’s.

News 12 reached out to Lowe for comment and he said he will not participate in any story that has to do with animal rights groups.

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