Netflix’s documentary series Tiger King includes a number of big cat lovers alongside Joe Exotic, including tiger trainer Doc Antle and his strange park, but what happened to him?. There is no shortage of curious characters in Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, the latest true-crime documentary series from Netflix. The series focuses primarily on Joe Exotic, the utterly unique man behind the G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma whose rivalry with another big cat lover led him to a 22-year jail sentence after he tried to pay to have her killed.

Another key figure in Tiger King is the man who calls himself Mahamayavi Bhagavan “Doc” Antle. He is the founder and director of The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he also runs a safari and zoo. The Myrtle Beach Safari website refers to Antle as being “widely recognized as one of the foremost animal trainers in the world, having worked with thousands of animals and having traveled the globe promoting the research, education, and conservation of some of our planet’s rarest and most endangered species.” Antle has been a major figure in the public eye as a wild animal trainer, appearing on late-night shows with David Letterman and Jay Leno. He is also credited as an animal trainer in movies such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and 1994’s The Jungle Book.

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Doc Antle is portrayed as a strange, almost cult-like figure in Tiger King. Carole and Howard Baskin, the couple behind Big Cat Rescue in Florida and Joe Exotic’s biggest enemies, declared Antle to be the most notorious big cat cub breeder operation in the entire country, far more sinister and sophisticated a businessman than Joe Exotic. People on the show argue over just how many wives Antle has, with one of his former employees-turned-lovers, Barbara Fisher, accusing him of sexual and emotional manipulation. Where Joe Exotic’s personal life is portrayed by the documentary as funny and somewhat pitiable (which is a problem unto itself), Doc Antle is decidedly shown to be a deeply unnerving and potentially dangerous man.

What Is Tiger King’s Doc Antle Up To Now?

Today, Doc Antle continues to live at his residence in Myrtle Beach. For any visitors wondering if their scheduled safari trip will be canceled because of COVID-19, Myrtle Beach’s website assures people that they are “not planning to cancel any tours” during this time. It seems as though business as usual has continued for Antle in many ways. His social media is chock full of videos, TikToks, and images of himself, his employees, and his animals gallivanting together around the zoo. An Instagram post refuting Tiger King has since been deleted, wherein he said that they were “very disappointed that our facility was mentioned in the new Netflix series.” It’s a curious reaction from Doc Antle given that he voluntarily appeared in the show on his own property. The statement further referred to Tiger King as being “not a documentary; it’s sensationalized entertainment with paid participants.”

What About Doc Antle’s Supposed Wives?

Nobody in Tiger King can decide how many wives Doc Antle actually has. According to Antle himself, the answer is zero. In an interview with Oxygen, he claimed that he has been single since his wife died in a car crash over 20 years ago, and that many of the young women featured in the series are the girlfriends of his son and grandchildren. In regards to the accusations made by Barbara Fisher, he called them “this is the ramblings of a crazy child who has a lot of, in my opinion, issues and somehow those have boiled up.”

What Legal Troubles Has Doc Antle Been In?

After being convicted of animal abuse, Joe Exotic claimed that Doc Antle was the worst perpetrator of these crimes against pet cats and accused him of euthanizing his tigers in gas chambers to make space for further breeding. This has never been proven, although Doc Antle has faced many other legal problems pertaining to his treatment of these animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Antle for numerous violations last year, including failing to provide tigers a secure enclosure, according to Myrtle Beach Online. The zoo was raided in December 2016, relating to an investigation in Virginia regarding three cubs in his possession. Antle denies any wrongdoing. Antle’s now-deleted statement claims that it “adheres to all USDA guidelines […] We have never had a USDA violation.” PETA claims that T.I.G.E.R.S. has faced dozens of USDA violations over the decades, starting in August 1987. The USDA had conducted 23 investigations of the park in the period between April 2013 and June 2016, more than three times the number of inspections at any other facility in the region.

Tiger King is now available to watch on Netflix.

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Kayleigh Donaldson
(473 Articles Published)

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Kayleigh Donaldson is a full-time pop culture and film writer from Scotland. A features contributor to Screen Rant, her work can also be found regularly on Pajiba and SYFY FANGRRLS. She also co-hosts The Hollywood Read podcast. Her favorite topics include star studies, classic Hollywood, box office analysis, industry gossip, and caring way too much about the Oscars. She can mostly be found on Twitter at @Ceilidhann.

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