Tiger King: Where Are They Now?
5. Kelci “Saff” Saffery
Truly one of the few likeable individuals in Tiger King, Kelci “Saff” Saffery was the worker at GW Park under Joe Exotic who lost her arm to a tiger attack. Having had her skin ripped off during the attack, Saff turned down the option of two years reconstructive surgery and opted for an amputation, returning to work just five days after the operation.
Saff was actually one of the few individuals in the series who genuinely cared about the animals he was working with, staying true to the principles of the zoo that everyone else seemed to forget about.
Saff left the park in 2018 around the same time as Joe, claiming that: “the reason I was there went away, so I left”. Since the show, Saff has largely kept his head down and stayed away from the drama the series has created.
Identifying as transgender and preferring 'he/him' pronouns for being addressed, it came to light in a series of documentaries that Saff had been routinely misgendered by Joe, some of the park's workers and the staff behind Netflix series. And whilst he didn't want to make a fuss again, the conversation did begin trending on Twitter for a time.