Traveling the country in 1866, the showman P.T. Barnum sparred with the founder of the A.S.P.C.A. Having learned of a mauling at a Long Island zoo in 1933, one woman wrote to her newspaper, “it makes one wonder why these roadside ‘zoos’ are allowed.”

Watching Netflix in 2020, a lot of people are wondering the same thing.

That question and many others rose out of the documentary series “Tiger King,” about Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, the former owner of a roadside zoo in Oklahoma, now in federal prison for, among other things, trying to hire a hit man to kill an animal-rights activist.

Since the series’ release last month, Joe Exotic, 57, has won over a whole new set of allies against a host of his former associates and enemies, most prominently the activist Carole Baskin. Some are calling for his release from prison, where he is serving a 22-year sentence.

His story has also given new energy to animal-rights activists, who say the documentary chose to sensationalize feuds and missed an opportunity to expose cruelty at roadside zoos.