Editing Joe Exotic (section)

===Animal abuse claims and USDA violations===
In February 1999, animal welfare investigators discovered a large number of neglected emus in Red Oak, Texas, and Exotic volunteered to capture the animals and take them to his animal park. However, Exotic, local volunteers, and Red Oak police were quickly overwhelmed by the task of corralling the large and fast-running birds, several of which died. Exotic and another man resorted to killing emus with shotguns and were accused of animal cruelty by police. However, since the emus were considered livestock, they could lawfully be killed humanely in Texas, and a grand jury declined to indict Exotic. Most surviving birds ultimately wound up at Texas ranches.[[File:Taliger at G.W. Park.jpg|thumb|A group of big cats at Exotic's zoo, including a Taliger. To feed his large amount of big cats, Exotic shot horses and fed their remains to the tigers. He also fed them expired Walmart meat.|250x250px]]In 2000, to feed his growing zoo of big cats, he took in horses that were donated to him. He would shoot the horses and feed them whole to the tigers, lions, and other big cats.

Due to the number of exotic animals at his zoo, Exotic found feeding them all to be expensive. To help offset the cost, Exotic fed them expired meat from Walmart. Employees at the zoo also ate this expired Walmart meat, and also used the expired meat to make pizzas.

In 2006, the G.W. Zoo was cited multiple times by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of Animal Welfare Act standards.