âTiger King,â the Netflix docu-series it seems no one can stop talking about, is introducing huge numbers of viewers to a world most people arenât familiar with â the seedy underbelly of Americaâs captive tiger trade.
The seven-episode series follows Joe Exotic, the former proprietor of a private Oklahoma zoo, and his long feud and legal battle with Carole Baskin, who runs a Florida wildlife sanctuary. The story involves murder, organized crime, at least one alleged cult â and the many animals caught in the middle.
But wildlife experts have found it frustrating that throughout the series, the issue of rampant animal abuse often takes a backseat to the over-the-top human personalities.
âI fear that people will remember it as a show about tigers, yet will have learned almost nothing about one of the worldâs most imperiled species,â Dr. John Goodrich, chief scientist and tiger program director for the global wild cat conservation nonprofit Panthera, told HuffPost.
In general, experts told HuffPost, they wished âTiger Kingâ offered more factual information on a range of animal welfare and conservation issues that come up in the series, especially since theyâre so integral to the plot. Here are some of the things they would have liked âTiger Kingâ to explain more.
Petting Cubs
In âTiger King,â people paying money to pet lion and tiger cubs and take photos with them is a major source of income for Joe Exotic and other private zookeepers. The series touches on allegations that at least one zookeeper, Bhagavan âDocâ Antle, kills cubs when they get too big (which he denies) and shows a jarring scene of Exotic dragging a newborn cub away from her mother. But even so, for a show in which cub petting is so crucial, it doesnât explore all aspects of why the practice is inherently cruel.
âIt requires that babies are taken from their mothers and forced into human lifestyles,â Imogene Cancellare, a conservation biologist whose Twitter thread on âTiger Kingâ went viral earlier this week, said in an email. âCubs need a LOT of sleep, just like domestic puppies and kittens, and they need access to milk around the clock. Cubs in pay-to-pet operations are chronically exhausted, overstimulated from being passed around to humans, and are often malnourished. Diarrhea is common, as these babies are stressed and missing the care of their mothers.â
While tigers can come to recognize individual people and even âcrave interactionâ with them, Cancellare stressed thatâs ânot an acceptable reasonâ to breed cubs, take them from their mothers and force them into an unnatural life.
âHumans are not an appropriate substitute for a tiger mother, and none of what you see in âTiger Kingâ is based on natural behavior and tiger ecology,â she said.
Captive Breeding
Exotic, along with multiple other private zookeepers in the series, claimed to be helping the conservation of endangered species by breeding them. Cancellare wishes the series had made it clear that this argument doesnât hold up.
âThe only breeding that contributes to conservation efforts are those under expert-managed Species Survival Plans, which are species-specific programs that safeguard captive populations in case free-ranging populations disappear,â she said. âThese programs trace genetic health, pedigree, and ensure no hybridization, inbreeding, or crossing of subspecies.â
But carelessly breeding tigers â combining subspecies that are totally distinct in the wild, crossing totally different species to create creatures like âligersâ or intentionally inbreeding animals to produce white tigers â is useless for conservation and only adds to the surplus of captive tigers already in the United States.
Casual Animal Mistreatment
There are also instances of animal mistreatment throughout âTiger Kingâ that are never identified as such and that a casual viewer might not recognize as cruelty. Carnivore ecologist Tyus D. Williams pointed to scenes showing feeding time at Exoticâs zoo, where many tigers were corralled into a small space together to get their meal â a practice he called âhorribly dangerous.â
âTigers are solitary animals and highly territorial,â Williams said. Putting so many together and forcing them to compete over food is âasking for tigers to get fatally injured.â
And using scenes like this as âB-footage,â as Cancellare put it, makes it harder for laypeople to figure out whatâs ethical in any zoos they visit.
Responsible Zoos And Sanctuaries
Most viewers can probably tell that Exotic wasnât exactly running a top-notch operation, but the show doesnât provide much information on how to identify more responsible zoos or sanctuaries.
âPlease do your research on any facility that advertises themselves as a sanctuary or zoo before you visit them,â Ellie Armstrong, a Stanford Ph.D. candidate studying big cat genomics and the science adviser for nonprofit Tigers in America, said in an email.
She said some of the âlargest red flagsâ are visitor âinteraction with cubsâ or adult animals, âthe presence of many cubs,â and âcages that are too small, not constructed properly, or filled with debris.â
When it comes to identifying zoos or sanctuaries that operate ethically, Cancellare suggested looking for organizations that are accredited by either the Association of Zoos and Aquariums or the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.
Cancellare also emphasized that âbeing misinformed does not make you a villainâ and people who have supported unethical zoos, or paid to play or take photos with cubs, shouldnât be ashamed about what they unknowingly did wrong. Instead, she said, they should recognize that âknowledge is power.â
â[âTiger Kingâ] should embolden us to have conversations about animal welfare, the power of social media, and changing our perspectives to support meaningful action for captive and free-ranging wildlife,â she said.