'Tiger King' Star Joe Exotic Refusing Medical Care Behind Bars Despite Grim Prognosis

Caged Tiger King Joe Exotic says the cancer treatment he’s receiving inside a Texas federal prison is killing him, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal.

The controversial Netflix star recently stopped seeking prostate cancer treatment at Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center detention center where he is serving 21 years in a murder-for-hire plot to eliminate his archenemy Carole Baskin.

Joe, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado, said the treatment inside the facility was so unbearable – he’d rather live the remainder of his 60-year-old life with cancer.

"I don't want to do anymore treatment from in here,” he explained in a one-page handwritten letter obtained exclusively by RadarOnline.com.

“As the medical care here is so bad, I felt better with cancer than after treatment. So, I'm not doing it in here again."

What’s more, Exotic claims doctors told him cancer has spread to his bladder. The excruciating treatment leaves him with “a lot of blood in his urine,” the tiger-lover told TMZ. "I want to stay here and just let it take its course.”

The brash gun-toting tiger man recently made headlines when he ripped into Baskin’s claim that her long-missing husband Don Lewis is “alive and well” in Costa Rica based on an already discounted 1998 U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigative report she made public.

“Don Lewis is NOT alive, I have her original diary and trust me she hated him so bad she could not kill him fast enough,” said the 59-year-old reality star told RadarOnline.com.

“When this story came out, I said I would voluntarily move to death row if he was alive and it made world headlines,” he added. “I investigated her so much I am 100% sure she, her father who is now passed away and …. killed Don Lewis and ground him up.”

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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Exotic was found guilty and sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2020 for orchestrating a failed murder-for-hire plot against Baskin.

An appeals court reduced Exotic’s sentence from 22 years to 21 years in January 2022 due to “improper sentencing guidelines.”

Exotic first announced his initial prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2021 when he called upon President Joe Biden to grant him a pardon for his crimes “on compassionate grounds.”