Last month, zookeeper and Tiger King fan favorite, Erik Cowie, was found dead in a friend’s New York apartment. Cowie, who had no living family at the time of his death, was at risk of being buried in a mass grave until Jeff Lowe, who had previously taken control of the tiger park featured in Tiger King, claimed his body and sent him off properly.
At the time, no cause of death was revealed, but it was rumored that Cowie was found with a large bottle of vodka and today, nearly six week’s since his passing, TMZ has reported that Cowie died from acute and chronic alcohol abuse. According to New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner, Cowie had drank too much alcohol at once, and over time, and his death was classified as “natural.”
Cowie, who was quickly beloved by Tiger King fans, has unfortunately become yet another tragedy associated with the Netflix docu-series that took the nation by storm at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. From lost limbs to on-camera suicides to Cowie’s death, Tiger King has transformed from a bizarre two-week viral moment to more of a disgusting commentary on the value of American entertainment.
Despite Cowie’s death and Joe Exotic’s imprisonment for allegedly paying for Carole Baskin, fellow Tiger King star and Exotic’s arch nemesis, to be killed, Netflix announced, earlier this month, that Tiger King 2 would be arriving sometime before the end of 2021. What exactly will be featured in Tiger King 2 is yet to be seen, but Netflix has promised “just as much mayhem and madness” as was displayed in the program’s first season.
Our thoughts are with Cowie and his loved ones.