4:25 PM PT -- Joe's request has been denied ... the ruling was made because the judge says his involvement in other cases is no reason for him to recuse himself and the comments he allegedly made in court aren't grounds for recusal either.
he says those comments were just about the crimes joe committed, so there's no reason to step away based on them
Joe Exotic wants a new judge to preside over his civil lawsuit, 'cause he says the robe has already shown he's a homophobe who has it out for your boy.
The 'Tiger King' star -- who's currently locked up -- filed a new motion this week asking Judge Scott Palk to recuse himself from a lawsuit Joe filed a few weeks ago against the feds.
In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Joe argues Judge Palk has already presided over other civil cases Joe's been involved in over the years -- and not just the ones depicted on Netflix between himself and nemesis Carole Baskin.
Joe claims Palk has a tainted view, and also hurls accusations at him ... saying Palk has proven he's a gung-ho animal rights activist and homophobic. JE pegged the judge's tone with him during proceedings as "hostile" and "agitated."
Specifically, Joe claims the judge told him ... "I will make sure you are never around another animal the rest of your life." Joe also alleges the judge said, "You were trying to broker a pair of lions to support your husband from jail."
Joe denies that, BTW, and adds even if it were true ... it'd be completely legal in Texas.
In any case, Joe seems to think Judge Palk -- who's currently set to weigh in on his newest lawsuit -- has a grudge against him, and he wants a fresh start with someone else.
Atlanta Hawks superstar Trae Young made it look like his french bulldog, Normi, was sliding on ice Monday ... crossing up his baby girl in a hilarious driveway dribble sesh.
Of course, 21-year-old Ice Trae is known for making defenders look like straight-up fools on the court (remember THIS, Andre Iguodala?) ... but picked a more lovable opponent to be his next victim.
The video is great ... Young even taps the ball on Normi's head to officially check the ball ... then it's all Trae from there.
"The Best Defender I’ve ever been up against," Young joked on Instagram.
Young has been trying to be creative during quarantine ... and even did a trick shot challenge with his socks to pass the time. Nice to see his shot isn't getting rusty, either.
Hey, we REALLY miss sports and this is the best content out there right now.
Doc Antle, former mentor to Joe Exotic, says his animals in Myrtle Beach are safe from the coronavirus, and they've been that way since long before a Bronx Zoo tiger tested positive ... and Carole Baskin's confident her Big Cat Rescue felines are fine too.
Doc, who, of course, was one of the 3 stars of 'Tiger King,' tells TMZ ... his Myrtle Beach Safari is a much different setup from that of the Bronx Zoo. He says he and his 25 employees all live onsite, making for a much more controlled and self-isolated environment.
He says he put his facility on lockdown immediately after the government released guidelines to stay at home and practice social distancing. Doc says his staff has been under strict quarantine since then. No visitors or physical contact with outside groups allowed.
While we humans have had "wash your hands" drilled into our heads ... Doc says his big cats are also bathed and cleaned regularly. He adds, specific caretakers are assigned to the animals, and that doesn't change ... thereby limiting potential exposure to the coronavirus.
If one of his big kitties somehow contracts COVID-19, Doc says it will be treated like a person and placed in self-isolation for 14 days to keep it from spreading it to other animals. Still, he says there's a very low chance of that.
Joe's nemesis, Carole Baskin is equally confident about the well-being of the animals at her tiger rescue outside of Tampa. Folks down there tell us they're monitoring the animals closely and none have shown any symptoms.
As we reported ... the Bronx Zoo tiger is the first animal in the U.S. known to have contracted the disease, but she's expected to recover, and experts say animals can't spread the disease to humans.
The coronavirus pandemic could wreak havoc in a frightening new way, because your house pets could be at risk of coming down with COVID-19.
An expert at the National Institute of Health tells TMZ ... while people might be worried about catching the coronavirus from their pets, it's actually the other way around, and the potential for humans to infect animals is being way overlooked.
It's pretty alarming ... we're told cats and ferrets are most likely to be infected with COVID-19 from humans. For dog owners, we're told preliminary studies show canines are less likely to contract the virus. However, as we reported, 2 dogs in Hong Kong didtest positive.
While data is limited on the effects of COVID-19 on animals ... we're told scientists are drawing conclusions from past viruses. Data from the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic shows humans infected a wide range of animals including dogs, cats, tigers and cheetahs.
In all cases of swine flu in animals, scientists say it appeared the critters were infected by direct transmission of the virus from humans in the same household. So, a similar conclusion is being drawn with the coronavirus.
We're told it's hard to know whether COVID-19 would be fatal in pets -- however, one glimmer of hope ... influenza is generally not lethal.
Before you panic, the NIH expert we spoke to is NOT advising you get rid of your pets -- but instead said owners showing coronavirus symptoms should avoid their pets.
If you insist on being with your pet, or have a service animal, we're told owners should wear a mask. Same goes for zoo or lab employees around animals. Remember, a Bronx Zoo tiger just tested positive, and officials believe the virus was passed from a handler.
Important to note the CDC has said there's no evidence Fido or Fluffly can transmit the virus to humans.
And, there's this ... we're told if a pet starts showing symptoms or is diagnosed with COVID-19, it could mean the owner is carrying the virus ... even if he or she is asymptomatic.
Chicago's regularly-scheduled cat wave is about to be too big to handle due to coronavirus -- too many strays are out there with their nuts intact, which means too many damn kittens!
A grassroots, animal-friendly community in Chi-Town called Chicago Community Cats tells TMZ ... the rescues and shelters they normally take stray and feral cats to around this time of year to get spayed and neutered are closed because of COVID-19. That spells trouble.
Of course, it means there's nowhere to take the fierce and the furry, who aren't going to stop sexing each other up anytime soon because of some pesky virus humans fear.
BTW, there's about 200k strays running around in Chicago, and if even a fraction are unneutered/un-spayed ... well, you can do the math. In fact, CCC says they usually help fix at least 3,000 cats right about now, so there's AT LEAST that many on the prowl.
We're told the fear now among the cat lovers in the Windy City is that there'll be a rampant kitten spree in the months to come and by the time the places they need open now eventually wake back up ... it'll be too late. They say they're already getting calls about litters springing up in different neighborhoods, so it's already happening in bunches.
CCC says if this reality comes to full fruition, they'll have to work even harder than normal to try to find foster homes and new owners willing to adopt. And, yes, it could also lead to a pretty grim reality for a lot of those cats that are left hanging in the balance afterward.
In the meantime, CCC tells us they're trying their best to attend to sick and injured feral cats -- but without the buildings they need right now ... mating season will go unchecked.
2:51 PM PT -- The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service just released some information that'll probably come as potentially great news for pet owners, who might be freaking out at the possibility of contracting COVID-19 from their pooches or felines at home.
UPDATE
In a Q&A sheet on their site, the federal scientists say in regards to animals (wild or domesticated) with the question being ... If animals can catch the virus, can they give it back to people? The APHIS experts say ... NO! They add, "At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that any animals, including pets or livestock, can spread the COVID-19 infection to people." What's pretty obvious by now though ... we can give it to them.
A tiger housed at New York City's Bronx Zoo has tested positive for COVID-19, which makes it the first-known animal in the U.S. to have contracted coronavirus.
The Wildlife Conservation Society -- which runs the facility and cares for the animals at the zoo -- made the announcement Sunday, saying a 4-year-old Malayan female tiger named Nadia has tested positive for the disease, which up until recently mostly affected just humans. The diagnosis was confirmed by the USDA's National Veterinary Services Lab.
The org adds other animals of theirs that have shown COVID-19 symptoms of late, including three other tigers and four lions, which have developed a dry cough, but all of which are expected to fully recover. Presumably, those other big cats will get tested too.
The Malayan tiger marks the first U.S-based animal case of coronavirus and the first case in a tiger anywhere in the world. Different animals -- including at least a couple dogs -- in China have reportedly contracted COVID-19, but it hasn't gotten to our furry domesticated friends ... or at least as far as we know.
It's pretty frightening ... and just goes to show the virus can, indeed, spread and adapt fairly rapidly. With this in mind, we imagine people will start having major convos about how to deal with the animal kingdom ... as that's a whole other swab of potential patients we'd have to care for on top of all the people already infected.
BTW, the Bronx Zoo has been closed since March 16 -- and, as you might know, NYC is considered the epicenter of coronavirus cases here in the States. Scary stuff ...
Santa Monica parks are no longer filled with humans ... they're being overrun by a gaggle of squirrels ... and the video is absolutely NUTS!!!
Check out the furry little critters chilling out and catching some rays in the parks along the world-famous Santa Monica Beach ... the squirrels definitely seem way more relaxed and comfortable now that tourists and locals are nowhere to be found.
Most people are just staying indoors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus ... allowing these squirrels to roam free without a care in the world.
Seriously ... have you ever seen squirrels out in force like this before?!?
The dog walking community is hurting across the country -- almost everyone with a leash-for-hire is losing customers under the pandemic ... and it's forcing some of them to get adventurous.
Dog walking companies in L.A., NYC, San Francisco and Seattle all tell us the same thing -- business is tanking, down as much as 50% in some places ... and some have shut down altogether.
One of those is The Dog Walking Network in NYC. Manger Megan O'Leary says business dropped from 120 walks per day to just 30 before they suspended services last week ... after 11 successful years.
In Seattle, an early COVID-19 hot zone, Seattle4Dogs founder Mark Little tells TMZ ... he wasn't comfortable putting his workers at risk so he shut down on March 20 after 17 years in the biz.
Likewise, Hang Around Hound in San Fran, had to layoff 6 employees when it shut down on March 16. Owner Theresa Hedgepeth says several of her 400 clients have autoimmune disorders ... so she felt "reckless bringing their dogs to different neighborhoods when we didn't completely understand the risk."
Some dog walkers are taking precautions to ease the minds of owners worried about their own exposure and their dog's. For instance, Antonio Alfaro in L.A. only takes pups to Topanga Canyon for walks.
It's off the beaten path with relatively few people ... so there's less reason for his 120 clients to be concerned.
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Wag! -- a bigger, national company -- is practicing social distancing for pickups and drop-offs, plus masks and gloves for all of their walkers. Based on pics Wag! walkers continue to post, they're rolling along just fine.
BTW, dog walking isn't specifically listed as an "essential business" under most state guidelines -- however, many include pet boarding.
And, for any owners concerned their dogs could possibly carry coronavirus if they go out -- the CDC says there's no evidence regular household pets are carriers.
The 'Tiger King' leading man, Joe Exotic, was done dirty by vultures and snakes in his inner circle, and shouldn't be the only one suffering ... so says his role model, Doc Antle.
We talked to the owner and founder of Myrtle Beach Safari -- heavily featured in the documentary -- and he gave us his hot take on how everything played out for Joe ... his one-time friend and comrade in cats.
Doc tells us Joe was taken advantaged of and set up by Jeff Lowe and his cronies, who came into the picture once Joe was desperate amid ongoing lawsuits between himself and his nemesis, Carole Baskin. He says that was a bad idea, 'cause it ended up with the 'King' himself paying the price, while everyone else walked away clean.
Doc says, yes, Joe ultimately achieved what he wanted -- fame and glory -- but he can't even enjoy it while behind bars. He also says others were just as bad, or worse, than Joe and shouldn't be let off the hook just because they ratted out their buddy.
On a lighter note, we also asked about his, um, lifestyle ... ya know, the multiple wives thing and the commune, of sorts, he's set up for himself. Doc says he's been getting BLOWN UP by people wanting to join, men and women alike.
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Unfortunately for them -- and all three of his wives, apparently -- Doc says his heart belongs to one woman and one woman only ... and she ain't even human. Sorry, folks ... the harem is closed.
These stars are surviving the isolation and social distancing with a little help from man's best friend ... and their furry friends don't seem to mind the extra attention!
Celebs such as Emily Ratajkowski, Finneas O'Connell, Brody Jenner, and Natalie Portman have been cooped up inside like the rest of us, and have been passing the time by hanging out with their four-legged pets.
Take a look at some of the stars that have been sharing their cutest canine moments with their fur babies by scrolling through our gallery of stars self-isolating with their pets.
"Tiger King" star Carole Baskin claims Netflix made her out to be a monster and an alleged spouse killer -- and while she still denies that, she is revealing new info about her late husband.
Carole bashed the Netflix producers Wednesday for what she characterizes as "lies and innuendos" from people she says are not credible whatsoever. She's especially miffed they suggested she's mixed up in her husband, Don Lewis' mysterious death.
In a post on her Big Cat Rescue website, she drops some alleged tea about Don's final months before he disappeared, and what she describes as erratic behavior.
Carole heavily implies Don had Alzheimer's disease, and even claims he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She says he was an avid dumpster diver in his final days, and would even bring random homeless people over to sleep at their home. She also claims he began defecating on their property grounds, adding he was a sex addict.
Yeah, she kinda went all scorched earth on him. She also claims Don was no millionaire when they met -- as suggested in "Tiger King." Sounds like he did have a vast portfolio when he disappeared though.
In her post, Carole also attempts to discredit almost everyone who spoke about her in the documentary -- and addresses concerns viewers had with how she and her current husband, Howard, run their business.
There's a bottom line though, and it's essentially this ... she says she did everything she could to help find Don when he disappeared, and even questions "Tiger King" director Eric Goode's intentions in allegedly attempting to vilify her.
She says if people want the truth and even more context than what she's offering, they can peep it here.
Joe Exotic's actually way more disturbing than the 'Tiger King' documentary makes him out to be, at least according to the guy who lived at the zoo for a year and helped make Joe a star.
Producer Rick Kirkham joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" and said the wildly-popular Netflix series is frighteningly accurate -- but still only scratches the surface of Joe's crazy lifestyle.
Check out the video ... Rick recalled the time "a poor old woman drove in with a horse trailer" asking Joe to take over caring for the horse on the grounds of his zoo in Oklahoma. He claims Joe told her he'd offer the horse lots of green pasture -- but as soon as she left, he instead did something horrifying.
If you've seen the documentary, you'll recall Rick produced Joe's online reality series and even gave him the nickname Tiger King. He says Joe even wanted him to record the horse incident. As fans know, almost all of Rick's footage burned up in a mysterious fire at the zoo.
Rick also has some strong feelings about Carole Baskin ... and the allegations she was involved in her husband's unsolved murder.
Safe to say, after everything he saw firsthand, Rick's no fan of Joe or Carole.
That's what Lowe wants us to believe ... and now PETA is calling on the NBA legend to cut ties with the Oklahoma zoo owner ASAP claiming he's just as bad as Joe Exotic.
If you recall from the Netflix doc, Lowe owns the Greater Wynnewood Animal Park in Oklahoma ... and just a few weeks ago, the zoo posted a screengrab which appears to show a FaceTime call between Shaq and Lowe.
"One of the nicest guys in the World," the G.W. Animal Park posted on Facebook on March 21 ... "Shaq facetime’d a few minutes ago to see how we were doing and if we need anything. We love you too buddy."
Shocking, considering Shaq just went on his podcast a few days ago and tried to distance himself from the park and former owner, Joe Exotic.
In fact, Shaq said he "stopped going" to the zoo when he found out what was really happening behind the scenes.
Now, PETA is begging the NBA legend to disavow Jeff Lowe the same way he disavowed Joe Exotic ... firing off a letter to Shaq explaining their position.
"It appears that the equally problematic wild animal exhibitor Jeff Lowe is now claiming to have your support, PETA said to Shaq.
"Lowe is no different from Joe Exotic when it comes to harming animals."
PETA points out Lowe "has a long history of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act" -- and there's still an active warrant for Lowe in Nevada stemming from Lowe's failed tiger-petting business (which was also mentioned in the Netflix doc).
"It's clear that you love tigers, and we hope you will dissociate yourself from people who profit from abusing, breeding, and exploiting them," PETA said to Shaq in the letter, obtained by TMZ Sports.
"Will you please make it clear right away that you don't desire to have an ongoing relationship with Lowe? As long as he continues to use your name to support his abusive business, you will be tied to animal suffering."
"Instead, please help these tigers. Help us shut down these hellholes, move the animals to reputable sanctuaries, and keep them out of the hands of abusers."
We've reached out to Shaq for comment. So far, no word back.
If you thought "Three Billy Goats Gruff" was an enchanting fairy tale, you ain't seen nothing yet ... a small community in Wales has got that beat by the dozens.
Once upon a time, a virus took over the world and forced everyone inside for a long while. The city of Llandudno in the British land of Wales was no exception to the rule, and not a soul wandered its streets for weeks ... leaving the town barren and in relative silence.
The local mountain goat gang caught wind of the abandonment, and decided to try their hand at taking over the joint ... slowly but surely flocking and having their run of the place, without a human in sight to stop them.
The more goats that joined the herd, the more they were left to do their own bidding, and eventually ... the entire town was inundated with horns and lots of baaahhs.
The local townsfolk couldn't do a thing but watch intently from indoors. "Will we ever go outside again?" wondered Papa. "Doubtful," replied Mama. "The 'rona's got our goat for now."
It would be incredibly cruel for Kate McKinnon to use real cats for her new show ... so says "Tiger King" star Carole Baskin who implores the actress to choose a different route.
A rep for Carole's Big Cat Rescue tells TMZ ... the org would very much feel like it would be cruel to use real big cats in a television series about cruelty to big cats. The org suggests Kate to instead utilize computer-generated imagery (CGI) of cats in the show rather than forcing real big cats to suffer just to entertain the audience.
ICYMI ... Kate -- who plans to star as Carole -- has had a project in the works since November based on the popular Wondery podcast, "Joe Exotic." The enormously popular Netflix doc "Tiger King" has since turned Kate's project a hot commodity, but she's also now in the crosshairs of wild animal conservationists.
The rep for Big Cat Rescue says, "We hope McKinnon has a passion for animals and that her series will focus on the horrible lives captive big cats lead when exploited by breeders like Joe Exotic. We further hope she urges the public to support the Big Cat Public Safety Act that would end the cub petting abuse in America."
PETA, which for years had been working to shut down Joe Exotic, has also come out echoing Big Cat Rescue's sentiments ... pleading with Kate and her producers "to use only CGI, animatronics, or even existing footage of big cats and other animals."
Shaquille O'Neal wants to make it clear -- he does NOT support Joe Exotic or the GW Zoo, despite the way it looked in the Netflix docuseries, "Tiger King."
One of the big moments in the series was when Shaq not only visited the GW Zoo back in the day -- but he then gave Joe Exotic a plug on "Inside the NBA." Shaq says he's visited the zoo several times and even appeared on Joe's reality show in 2014.
People have been critical of Shaq -- since the doc paints Joe as a scumbag who mistreated the animals at his Oklahoma facility. Also, he's accused of trying to put a hit out on a rival tiger sanctuary owner. Bad stuff.
But, Shaq addressed the situation on "The Big Podcast with Shaq" -- and claimed he had NO IDEA things were as bad as they were at the zoo.
"I was just a visitor. I met this guy. Not my friend. Don’t know him. Never had any business dealings with him, and I had no idea any of that stuff was going on," Shaq said.
The NBA legend admits he made donations to the zoo -- claiming he does stuff like that all the time -- but would never support the mistreatment of animals.
"People that know me know that I'm righteous. I don't harm tigers. I love tigers."
"We found out that he’s involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going.”
Shaq says he really likes the show -- he's binged watched it -- saying, "It's actually a really good documentary."
