FILM + MEDIA

OUT OF THE BOX Wild life

by Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness Directed by: Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode Starring: Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, Bhagavan Antle, John Finlay Rated TV-MA 5 hrs., 17 min. (8 episodes)

From the start, Tiger King is a bumpy ATV ride into the outlandish: exotic animals, misfits, magic, reality television, feuds, rivalries, Hollywood, gun culture and PETA — and that’s just the first episode. Centering on the story of one Joe Exotic — aka the Tiger King — this true-crime doc umentary series on Netflix delves into the world of big cat collectors and roadside zoos, where cults of personality abound and the layers of weird are many and varied.

At the center is Joe Schreib vogel-Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, the flamboyant, gun-toting founder of Oklahoma’s Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Zoo for short) and one of the most prolific (some might say notorious) tiger breeders in the U.S. He’s also great televi sion, offering up a campy on-camera persona for filmmakers Rebecca Chaiklin and Eric Goode as well as ample footage from his own cheesy music videos and bombastic spots on JoeExotic.tv. Exotic sees all the world as his personal stage, and the cameras seem to have always been rolling long before Chaiklin and Goode showed up.

A frequent subject of Exotic’s televised rants is Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue, an animal rights activist on a mission to take down all the roadside zoos and outlaw private ownership of big cats. The years-long feud between Exotic and Baskin became more and more contentious, culminating in a mur der-for-hire plot that landed Exotic in prison for 22 years.

While that particular journey forms the backbone of Tiger King, the story swerves again and again into other sideshow acts. A small sample: a polyamorous commit ment ceremony between Exotic and

Bhagavan “Doc” Antle

Joe Exotic

his two young lovers, an employee who loses a limb, a fellow collector named Bhagavan “Doc” Antle who runs his Myrtle Beach Safari with a group of young women he seems to treat like his own personal harem, a shady “angel investor” and a restaurateur turned federal infor mant. Oh, and then there’s Exotic’s bid for U.S. president in 2015, followed by a 2017 run for Oklahoma governor (his campaign manager previously worked at Walmart). Just when you think things can’t get more bizarre, they do.

There’s an overlying seediness to most of the operations cov ered in the documentary. Cages are small, grounds are often unkempt, everyone is running around with loaded guns and humans and ani mals alike eat expired meat from Walmart. There are grotesque scenes where Exotic shoots and blows up Baskin in effigy. Despite Exotic’s protestations of love for his exotic animals, it’s hard to see how any of them could be ade quately cared for under these con

Carole Baskin

ditions. Zoo employees are candid about the back-breaking work for poor pay, and the squalid living quarters. And what did become of so many of Doc Mantle’s cubs, anyway?

It’s hard to imagine why so many willingly choose to work for the likes of Exotic and Antle. At best, we see people so enamored of charismatic men and their cats that they were willing to forgive a lot. But a darker perspective is that these men are predators with a knack for taking in transients, ex-cons, drug addicts, the young and impressionable — people with few other prospects who found coming to the park easier than leaving it.

With her cheerful and sensible demeanor and conservationist lean ings, Baskin stands in stark contrast to these shadier, over-the-top personalities. But there are disturbing aspects to her story as well, including the unsolved disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis. Make no mistake: Exotic, who has repeatedly accused Baskin of murdering Lewis and feeding his body to the animals at her Big Cat Rescue, is a biased observer with an axe the size of Florida to grind. But the details of Lewis’ disappear ance (and the millions of dollars at stake) raise unsettling questions nonetheless.

As compelling as Tiger King is, it has been justifiably criticized for its sensationalism and an inad equate look at the conditions of captive big cats. There’s no mention, for example, of the numerous accusations of animal cruelty and abuse levied at Joe Exotic through the years. Antle, Baskin and Exot ic have all publicly decried the docuseries and their portrayal. And as this strange, sordid tale wraps up, we do wonder about the thousands of tigers (and lions, panthers, leopards and other spe cies) who are being bred for sale, trade and cub-petting sessions. The set-ups, backstabbing, failed plots and injustices endured by the various players were brought on, essentially, by their own actions. The only innocent parties are the exotic animals in the path of this trainwreck of human drama, and by series’ end, there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight for their sad fate. And that is the biggest tragedy of all.