‘Surviving Joe Exotic’ Doc Tells a Story About Two Tigers That Will Make You Cry (Exclusive Video)
When Animal Planet’s upcoming “Surviving Joe Exotic” documentary airs Saturday, viewers will get updates on how some of the animals who appeared in Netflix’s “Tiger King” are doing now — including tiger littermates Kryxis and Kadira.
“Kryxis and Kadira, you could tell that their eyes weren’t working right. It was pretty obvious they were in pain,” Joe Taft, Director of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, says in an exclusive clip of the documentary obtained by TheWrap. “Just their continual aggressive behavior and vocalizations. An almost unceasing growl. Unhappiness.”
The pair were born with visual impairments that left them blind by the time they were rescued from Joe Exotic’s G.W. Zoo. Since then, their vision has been restored after having correctional surgery at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana.
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A veterinarian explains in the clip that the cats’ visual impairments were caused by a congenital defect that affects the eyelids.
“Inbreeding could be an underlying cause of this abnormality,” says Heidi Klein, Veterinary Ophthalmologist.
“Tiger King” star Saff Saffrey, who famously lost an arm to one of Joe’s tigers, also makes an appearance in the Animal Planet doc.
“Veterinary bills, they cost too much. Joe did come back down to numbers every time. Anything that cost too much money, Joe found a way to place them somewhere else,” he says in the clip. “At that point, it’s a bill in his eyes, you know? That’s just the reality of it.”
Watch the exclusive clip above.
“Surviving Joe Exotic” airs on July 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Animal Planet.
Read original story ‘Surviving Joe Exotic’ Doc Tells a Story About Two Tigers That Will Make You Cry (Exclusive Video) At TheWrap
