Tiger King: Madness, Mayhem and Murder has become one of the most-watched Netflix series of all time and unwittingly made a star out of many of the lead characters whose insanely eccentric lifestyles had viewers glued to their seats episode after episode.
It has also changed the lives of the lead characters forever, one of them being 60-year-old Doc Antle who features prominently in the series alongside zookeeper Joe Exotic. Joe, the ‘star’ of the show was jailed for 22 years last year after being found guilty of paying a man to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin - Doc’s fear is that activists now want to kill him.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, Antle has started sleeping with an AK-47 after receiving up to 50 death threats a day. He also told The Mirror that he walks around with a 'pistol in his pocket and another in his glove box.'
'People say they want to kill me, they're going to get me. I don't know where the next crazy person is going to go.'
He also hits out at Carole Baskin, refuting what she has said and written about him, 'The salacious insanity she's written, all of the stuff she said that I'm this evil dude. People think that there's something there.'
We can’t help but ask, is there? His real name is Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle and he is an American big cat trainer and founder of The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.), a 20 ha wildlife preserve in South Carolina. He likes to describe himself as a big cat conservationist but over the years he has faced much criticism from animal welfare activists and zoo experts.
According to Wikipedia, Antle has more than 35 USDA violations against him for mistreating animals. Despite this his staff support him completely writing on his Twitter platform: 'We, are very disappointed that our facility was mentioned in the new Netflix series. We can only assume it is because Doc Antle has been such a high profile wildlife personality for so many…'
The staff at @SafariMyrtle
— Doc Antle (@DocAntle) March 25, 2020
We,are very disappointed that our facility was mentioned in the new Netflix series. We can only assume it is because Doc Antle has been such a high profile wildlife personality for so many… https://t.co/gQkaqaVkSP
After all is said and done, the fact remains that the series focuses on the salacious and insidious relationships between its cast of aberrant characters while ignoring the fate of thousands of animals in cages. In the US alone, there are more tigers living in captivity than those who have been counted in the wild around the world.
The enormous hype this series has generated seems to have done nothing for those who have no voice. Perhaps the many activists who are sending Doc Antle death threats will find a more legal way of venting their anger and doing something to change the fate of this endangered species.
