Report by Elisabeth Brentano
tours at their South Carolina facilities,
ranging from a quick photo opportunity
priced at $100 to swimming with tigers,
which starts at $5,000. With a narrow
window for big-cat cubs to be handled
legally, hundreds are bred each year
across the US to create a steady supply for
customers, many of whom are unaware of
the dark side of this lucrative industry.
In the wild, big-cat cubs remain with
their mothers for up to two years, but
cubs bred for petting are separated from
their mothers shortly after birth. When
cubs grow too large to be handled by the
public, some end up in accredited zoos and
sanctuaries, but most endure poor living
conditions in backyards and unaccredited
facilities, lacking proper nutrition, housing
and veterinary care. Worse yet, some
disappear, and with the loopholes in current
US legislation and a lack of records, it is
impossible to know where they go.Lions, tigers and selfies
Beyond lax laws, the desire to interact with
these animals and document the experience
has increased with the rise of social media.
Myrtle Beach Safari regularly posts photos
and videos of founder Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle
and his son Kody Antle cuddling, feeding
and swimming with big cats on Instagram,
and the younger Antle shares the same
content on his own Instagram and TikTok
accounts, which have two million and 14
million followers, respectively. BBC Wildlife
approached Doc Antle for a comment but
he did not respond.
Carson Barylak, campaigns manager at
the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW), was asked about the role of social
media in the big-cat breeding industry:T
he Netflix documentary
Tiger King became a
smash hit, thanks to
wild storylines and
interpersonal drama, but
the series largely ignored
the myriad issues affecting
captive big cats in the United States. Even
after it was revealed that Joseph Maldonado-
Passage, aka Joe Exotic, killed five tigers
while running the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park, very little was said
about why the desire to own big cats is so
pervasive in American culture.
There is currently no federal law
regulating the private possession of big
cats in the US, and while the majority of
US states have banned the practice, some
require a permit and several have no
limitations whatsoever for keeping tigers,
lions, leopards, jaguars, cougars, cheetahs
and hybrids like ligers as ‘pets’. Laws for
exhibition also vary in each of the 50 US
states, but with far fewer restrictions.
As long as an individual obtains a Class
C exhibitor license from the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), they
are free to use animals for any number
of commercial purposes. Not only does
this patchwork of state laws create an
opportunity for big cats to be exploited,
abused and illegally traded across state
lines, but the lack of federal regulation
makes it easy for them to be treated as
a commodity.
Though the USDA has specifications
regarding the handling of big-cat cubs,
cub petting is legal as long as the animals
are between 8 and 12 weeks of age. Myrtle
Beach Safari, which is featured in Tiger
King, offers a variety of cub interactionTrue crime series Tiger King had people
glued to their TVs this year, but it didn’t
reveal all about big-cat trade in the US.
COMMODIFICATION?
Howard & Carol Baskin: Maria Johnson/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Wire/Alamy; Joe Exotic: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy;Doc Antle: Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock; Je Lowe: Ruaridh Connellan/Barcroft Media/Getty; main tiger: Marc Piscotty/Getty;July 2020 BBC Wildlife 33NEWS FEATURE
Filled with
eccentric
characters,
including Joe
Exotic (centre),
the Tiger King
documentary
has cast a light
on the industry
surrounding big
cats in the US.