It seems all anyone wants to talk about this week is the coronavirus — and Joe Exotic.
As we’re all home self-distancing, the latest Netflix docuseries to commandeer the pop-culture consciousness is “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness," which dives deep into the bizarre underworld of exotic pets and barely legal roadside zoos.
The seven-part series, which premiered March 20, chronicles the antics of Joe Maldonado-Passage, the self-described Tiger King known as Joe Exotic, face of the G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma. The show follows Maldonado-Passage’s quest to take out — literally — Carol Baskin, an animal rights activist who has her own exotic animal sanctuary in Tampa, Florida. Lion-sized heaps of drama and criminal activity unfold — you need to watch this train wreck.
But long before “Tiger King” was a thing, New Jersey had its own “Tiger Queen.” Her name is Joan Byron-Marasek, infamously known as the “Tiger Lady,” after a 431-pound Bengal tiger escaped from her Jackson compound in 1999.
For eight hours on Jan. 27, 1999, the tiger terrified residents, who spotted it lurking in the woods. Rescuers tried to tranquilize it, but efforts were unsuccessful. The tiger was eventually shot dead in a driveway not far from its home, the 12-acre Tigers Only Preservation.
Tigers and dead deer are seen in a pen , as authorities investigate the property and the home in Jackson where the local resident known as the Tiger Lady lives. 1/29/99. (Star-Ledger file photo)SL
Initially, the origin of the tiger was a mystery. Speculation surrounded the nearby Six Flags Great Adventure Safari Park, also located in Jackson. After officials eliminated Great Adventure — employees were able to account for all nine of their tigers — suspicions immediately turned to Byron-Marasek’s sanctuary, which was home to 20 big cats.
“We only have one suspect: Joan Byron-Marasek,” David Chanda, a wildlife biologist with the New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, said at the time.
The state said DNA tests proved the tiger came from Tigers Only, but Byron-Marasek denied it, touching off a lengthy legal battled that would stretch on for years.
''I want to assure everybody, especially our neighbors, that the tiger that was shot was not ours," she told reporters in July 1999, nearly six months after the tiger’s escape. "It did not escape from our property. I have no knowledge as to where that tiger came from.
“I have devoted my entire adult life to the preservation of tigers," she continued. "All I ask is that I be allowed to continue my life's work in peace."
But officials didn’t back down.
For nearly five years, Byron-Marasek waged legal battles to prevent the state from shutting her down. She ultimately was forced to stand aside and watch as dozens of animal rescue workers loaded her tigers into two large transportation vans and took them away to the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, Texas, in 2003.
Adding salt to the wound, the Tiger Lady was ordered by an Ocean County judge in 2004 to reimburse state wildlife officials for more than $144,555 expenses in relocating her Bengal tigers.
Workers at the Wild Animal Orphanage unload some of the South Dakota tigers after their arrival in Texas. The cage in which the large tiger is reclining is the same type of traveling pen the orphanage plans to use to remove the big cats at the Tigers Only Preservation Society in Jackson Township. (Star-Ledger file photo)SL
The Maraseks, who are now in their 80s, lost their property on Monmouth Road in Jackson to foreclosure in January 2017, records show. They had filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The last known addresses for them are P.O. boxes in Clarksburg, Monmouth County, and in New York City.
A story in the Asbury Park Press late last year said the property had been sold and is the future site of an industrial park.
NJ Advance Media has unsuccessfully tried to reach the Maraseks for an interview.
Their story is immortalized in newspaper archives around the country, some of which you can still find online with a quick Google search.
Still, it’s tough to captivate an audience like Joe Exotic, who, along with basking in the fur of his dozens of tigers, loves explosives, guns and making country music videos. Again, you just need to watch it.
Vinessa Erminio contributed research to this report.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.