- Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, 63, oversaw the sale or purchase of cheetahs, lions and tiger cubs, as well as a baby chimpanzee
- The court found that he concealed payments for animals as “donations” to his nonprofit
- He became known for the successful Netflix series Tiger King
Tiger King star Doc Antle faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to animal trafficking and money laundering charges.
Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, 63, oversaw the sale or purchase of cheetahs, lions and tiger cubs, as well as a baby chimpanzee – all protected and endangered species.
Antle rose to fame on the hit Netflix show Tiger King, which followed the life of Joe Exotic, a zoo owner who is now serving a 21-year prison sentence for trying to hire two different men to kill animal welfare activist Carol Baskin.
The court found that Antle hid payments for animals as “donations” to his nonprofit, The Rare Species Fund.
In addition to his nonprofit, Antle runs Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, which offers tours and encounters with exotic wildlife.
Doc Antle pleaded guilty Monday to animal trafficking and money laundering
He oversaw the sale or purchase of cheetahs, lions and tiger cubs, as well as a baby chimpanzee
In Tiger King, Antle is portrayed as Exotic’s mentor. He is also shown to have a cult-like approach to business, as a polygamist with a string of devoted female employee followers.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim said, “The defendant positioned himself as a conservationist, but repeatedly violated endangered animal protection laws and then attempted to cover up those violations.”
Now he faces up to five years in prison, fines of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release for each charge.
Between September 2018 and May 2020, Antle directed the sale or purchase of seven animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, including two cheetah cubs, two lion cubs, two tigers and one chimpanzee.
He also hid transactions using bulk cash payments and forged paperwork, in addition to forwarding payments to his nonprofit, allowing him to classify the payments as donations.
Investigators also found evidence that Antle and a co-conspirator had also used money earned from transporting and harboring illegal immigrants.
In a separate case, a Virginia jury convicted him in June of two counts of wildlife trafficking and two counts of conspiracy to traffic wildlife after purchasing the animals, which he planned to display outside his South Carolina business set.
They acquitted him of five charges of animal cruelty, while the judge in that case dismissed four more charges of animal cruelty and all charges against his two daughters.
He was sentenced to two years suspended for each charge, to run concurrently, and a fine $10,000 to buy endangered lion cubs – he was too ordered to stay away from exotic animals.
Antle with a tiger over his shoulder. He appeared in the wildly popular Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness in 2020, shedding light on big cat breeders and private zoos in the United States.
Antle posing with big cats. Antle was sentenced Tuesday by a Frederick County judge to two years in prison, with time suspended on each charge.
Antle’s history of violations dates back to 1989, when he was fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for leaving deer and peacocks in his Virginia zoo.
Since then, he has amassed more than 35 USDA violations for animal abuse.
He was also criticized by PETA for allowing celebrity guests such as Beyoncé, Floyd Mayweather and Larsa Pippen to make physical contact with wild animals in his park.
He was also part of Britney Spears’ iconic 2001 I’m a Slave 4 U VMAs performance, in which he was the animal handler.
Spears, 40, started the show in a cage with Antle and a liger — a hybrid of a tiger mother and a lion father — then walked onto the stage where she danced with a python wrapped around her shoulders.