This image provided by the Horry County Sheriff's Office in Conway, S.C., shows Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who was arrested by the FBI, Friday, June 3, 2022, on federal money laundering charges. , a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Antle, the owner of the Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, is featured prominently in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a 2020 Netflix documentary miniseries that focused on tiger breeders and private zoo operators in the U.S. The series focused heavily on Oklahoma zoo operator Joe Exotic, who also was targeted for animal mistreatment and was convicted in a plot to kill a rival, Carole Baskin.
Animal rights advocates have accused Antle of mistreating lions and other wildlife. He was indicted in Virginia in 2020 on animal cruelty and wildlife trafficking charges. “It’s fitting that “Doc” Antle is behind bars after years of locking up the endangered animals he uses in tawdry photo ops. His legal woes are mounting, as PETA recently blew the whistle on his apparent ‘charity’ scam, and the end to his reign of terrorizing tiger cubs can’t come soon enough,” said Debbie Metzler, associate director of PETA’s Captive Animal Law Enforcement division, in a statement.
Cool.