Tiger King should have paid more attention to Doc Antle and his Myrtle Beach Safari
With all of the bananas stuff that Tiger King introduced, we wanted to circle back to 'Doc' Antle for a moment.
Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle – (No, he's not remotely Indian but yes, it is his real name) – was one of the big cat owners featured in the true-crime series along with Joe Exotic and Jeff Lowe.
As with many of the threads that were picked at during the seven-part Netflix show, his shocking (and own brand of problematic) story was laid out for viewers, only to not then reach any closure. In fact, we would argue that – post-#MeToo – there were alleged elements of his participation in the big cat industry that could have been scrutinised more closely.
Related: What the Tiger King documentary didn't tell you about Joe Exotic and his husbands
While Joe Exotic's disturbing and aggressive harassment of Carole Baskin could itself be viewed through the lens of misogyny (he repeatedly referred to her as "that bitch" and that wasn't even the worst of it), Doc Antle's structural use of young interns – raising questions about their treatment – took things to a different but equally uncomfortable level.
But before we delve into the full extent of this unsavoury business, let's first lay out why he was included in the documentary to begin with. As the name suggests, Tiger King is first and foremost an exploration of big cat owners and the phenomenon of private zoos in the United States.
Doc Antle is one of the main players in this industry, as the founder and director of the The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S) at the Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, USA. He was interviewed sporadically throughout the episodes and, as with every other contributor, was keen to try and show that he was on the 'right' side of things – although we soon came to realise that, in this particularly eccentric world, things are rarely so cut and dried.
According to an old article on OneGreentPlanet.org, the tigers kept at this institution are used for "movies, commercials, fairs and photo ops", therefore requiring "vigorous" training in order for them to be able to perform.
Sure enough, it is home to an African elephant by the name of Bubbles, who went to Myrtle Beach Safari after being orphaned by ivory poachers, and who has starred in movies such as Ace Ventura II. The park also has a liger named Hercules – a man-made cross between a male lion and a tigress that is a violation of conservation law in some countries.
But Doc Antle presents himself as a supporter of wildlife conservation and an animal lover, stating that his affinity for furry friends began from a young age while growing up on a cattle ranch in Arizona, as well as his travels and time spent in Asia (where he claims to have got a doctorate in medicine).
He argues that the interactive animal shows serve educational purposes. Antle's bio on the Myrtle Beach Safari website argues that the use of animal ambassador programs can "help visitors reconnect with the natural world" while also promoting "special connections with wildlife that could drive a global conservation message."
Related: Tiger King's Carole Baskin reveals details about missing husband not in the documentary
Aside from the debatable ethics of his work with animals, his inclusion in Tiger King also shone a spotlight on the way in which he runs his safari park. Antle himself described his team as being "a great big cohesive family unit" during the series, but the picture that emerged sounded eerily similar to a cult (a comparison that he refuted strongly in the documentary).
Barbara Fisher, a former employee who started work there at the age of 19, spoke out about her experience of working with Antle during the Tiger King series. She alleged that she had been encouraged to get breast implants and was even told what to eat.
Doc had young female interns working and living in the grounds in order to dedicate themselves to the animals. It was also alleged that they would sometimes have sex with him, and Fisher described that Antle would form a bond with these employees through this act. They would also be instructed on how to dress and would change their names.
The show claimed that he eventually took a number of these apprentices as his wives or girlfriends (we should state at this point that polyamorous relationships are of course not inherently bad, providing all parties consent and there's no unfair power dynamics at play). Doc Antle has since criticised this portrayal, arguing that he does "have a few girlfriends now and they certainly know about each other" but that he is "by no means married to anybody" and does not "have a harem like they are suggesting."
Nonetheless, life with Antle in charge made for disturbing viewing. But as the wider Tiger King story unfolded – re-focusing on Joe Exotic's bitter feud with Carole Baskin, and culminating in the murder-for-hire plot – the documentary veered off into all manner of other wild directions. In doing so, it failed to address much further these specific claims against Doc Antle.
Perhaps it was because there wasn't much else to uncover, or maybe other women with similar experiences (should there be any), did not feel comfortable coming forward, particularly if they are still working with Antle.
Doc has since told Oxygen that he regarded Fisher's words as "the ramblings of a crazy child who has a lot of, in my opinion, issues and somehow those have boiled up", denying her version of events. By the look of his Instagram page, a number of the other women who were mentioned in the series are still working at the safari, but they did not make any allegations.
If there was any truth to the claims, it would highlight a systematic abuse of power. While we can't talk for these women, the pattern of control, dependency or the monitoring of movements - in this case, through appearance, daily routine or even sexual encounters - raises the possibility of coercive control and/or psychological manipulation.
Related: Tiger King's Jeff Lowe – the story only gets more disturbing
It was presented in Tiger King that those with big cats could keep people around, or get them on board, because of the allure of the exotic animals. It is widely acknowledged that perpetrators often use money or status as power plays.
Society has seen this time and time again, and there is typically a wall of silence that can allow such behaviour to continue unchecked. But by elevating the voices of whistleblowers – and by that we mean not only giving them a platform, but also using their stories as launchpad to delve deeper – the truth can be exposed. We have seen this with subjects of other documentary work, as well as the results of robust investigative journalism.
Tiger King got the beginnings of this on camera and broadcast it to Netflix's global audiences, but the response to what was shown is further evidence that the message didn't land. Perhaps, we'd argue, because it wasn't shouted loud enough.
Whether through internet memes, or a focus on whether Carole Baskin actually did something pretty bad to her husband (so far the evidence, and her own rigorous denial, suggest not), the problematic men in the series seem to have gotten off lightly in the court of public opinion.
With talk of a possible season two on the horizon, a deep-dive into Doc Antle and his alleged practices could be an angle to further interrogate – although, at this point, it doesn't seem all that likely that the documentary's subjects would want to be involved in a Tiger King sequel.
It probably won't surprise you to know that Doc Antle has been quite damning of the show. He has claimed that the series was "full of a whole pack of untruths" and that he had been unaware of the direction it would be taking. "I repeatedly told them I have no desire to be involved in some show where you've got the feud of Carole and Joe going on," Doc told TMX.news (via People)."It's not my thing. Leave me out of it... Everything went sideways in a great big explosive entertaining way."
While the Tiger King producers don't appear to have directly responded to these claims, they did share their thoughts about Carole's similar assertion that she had not been made aware of the show's premise.
Rebecca Chaiklin told LA Times: "I would just say we were completely forthright with the characters. With any project that goes on for five years, things evolve and change, and we followed it as any good storyteller does. We could have never known when we started this project that it was going to land where it did."
And as for Doc Antle's treatment of the animals?
Within the episodes, an accusation fired at Doc Antle was that he euthanised his tigers once they got too old to be lucrative. According to a 2015 Rolling Stone article, a previous court order had stopped him from letting his park visitors too close to the adult cats, so the policy only allowed the public to hold cats between eight and twelve weeks old.
Doc Antle has strongly refuted the allegation that he would get rid of them once they reached a certain age. "That's not true and... euthanising cubs is illegal, immoral and absolutely never happens here and never has," he told TMX News (via NBC).
In the final moments of Tiger King, it was said that there'd been a raid on Doc Antle's Myrtle Beach Safari. The reason for this has not been revealed, but Doc has claimed that the authorities were looking into the background of some of the big cats in his care.
In a 2019 statement to ABC 15 News, he said that "the lions are part of an ongoing investigation the state is working on and they wanted us to try and help them look at the trail of where the lions had come from and any ideas or evidence we had about what the lion’s lives had been before they moved here to Myrtle Beach Safari."
No arrests were made, and the safari park remains open for business.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is available to stream on Netflix.
Digital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Looking for more TV recommendations and discussion? Head over to ourFacebook Group to see new picks every day, and chat with other readers about what they're watching right now.
You Might Also Like
