Tiger King star Erik Cowie has died at the age of 53: Zoo keepers were found in a New York City bed

A tiger king star is dead.

On Tuesday, it was reported that on Friday evening Erik Cowie, who was a zoo keeper on the hit Netflix series, had been killed while lying face down in a bed inside a New York City residence.

The television veteran must have been visiting the city, as he usually resides in Oklahoma.

TMZ added that there was “nothing suspicious about the death” and “no drugs were found at the scene.”

The site added that a toxicology test will probably still be performed.

In the past, Cowie had admitted to having a problem with alcohol.

Cowie said earlier that he was “at the end of his” rope “with his drinking problems before finding Joe.

Earlier this year he obtained a DUI in Oklahoma after a car accident.

He pleaded guilty and was convicted shortly afterwards, but did not appear at his hearing.

Although people suspected that his gnashing teeth were due to methamphetamine use, he told people that his poor choppers were only due to old age.

Cowie became famous for starring Joe Exotic, an animal thrower, on the Netflix show.

Erik worked as one of the leading animal caretakers, often cited as the main guardian of large cats.

He had been at the zoo for many years and even stayed after Joe was jailed.

But Erik and Joe did not have the best relationship, as Cowie testified against Joe for abusing and killing some of his zoo animals, which led to Joe’s conviction.

In addition to the animal abuse convictions Cowie’s testimony helped secure, Exotic – indeed Joseph Maldonado-Passage – is serving a 22-year prison sentence for trying to hire someone to kill his rival Carole Baskin.

In June, animal activist / Dancing With The Stars, Baskin, sold the property in Oklahoma, formerly the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park.

He got only $ 140,000.

The sale also came with a huge stipulation: new owners are prohibited from using the property “to house exotic animals of any kind, or as a zoo, wildlife park or menagerie.” over the next 100 years, according to TMZ.

Carkin’s Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue was awarded control over the Wynnewood Animal Park last year as part of the $ 1 million deal in its long-running lawsuit against exotic brands.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011, which came nine years earlier Tiger King became the No. 1 Netflix show and shot Exotic and Baskin with a single star.