Doc Antle

Antle was fined by the USDA for abandoning deer and peacocks at his zoo in Buckingham, Virginia in 1989. In total, Antle has more than 35 USDA violations for mistreating animals.[10] Joe Exotic, who operated the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, accused Antle of killing tigers in gas chambers to make space for further breeding.[11] Antle delivered seven tigers to the Samut Prakan zoo in Thailand, which is a zoo that has faced allegations of keeping animals in terrible conditions.[12]

Antle runs a charity called Rare Species Fund, which is dedicated towards protecting animals living in the wild. However, former employees of Antle have claimed that much of the charity's donations are funneled back to Antle.[13]

In late December 2019, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Horry County Police Department raided Doc Antle's Myrtle Beach Safari. Antle told media at the time that this was for DNA testing lions for a multi-state investigation.[14]

In 2020, Antle was reported as being investigated by the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Justice for the illegal sale of big cats including tigers.[15] He was indicted in October 2020 by a grand jury in Frederick County, Virginia, after a months-long investigation by the Virginia Attorney General's Animal Law Unit. The charges included felony wildlife trafficking as well as misdemeanor animal cruelty and violations of the Endangered Species Act.[3][16][17] Prosecutors contend that Antle carried or caused the lions to be carried in a “cruel, brutal, or inhumane manner, so as to produce torture or unnecessary suffering.”[18] A trial date is set for July 2022.[19][18]

Former employees of Antle's zoo, Myrtle Beach Safari, have accused him of using the zoo to create a cult-like following around him.[7][20] Antle requires his employees to not just see the zoo as a workplace, but also as a lifestyle.[7] For example, he requires female employees to be single, childless, abstain from eating meat, wear certain clothing and weigh within 20 pounds of their "perfect athletic weight."[7][5] One of Antle's former apprentices referred to him as the "the Harvey Weinstein of the exotic animal industry."[21]

Antle was one of the private breeders featured in the Netflix television documentary Tiger King. In the first season of the series, former T.I.G.E.R.S. employee Barbara Fisher stated that she and Antle's other apprentices who were mostly young women felt compelled to have sex with him in order to advance in the zoo. According to Fisher, she was also pressured to get breast implants because the park desired "sexy" ladies to be featured. In another Netflix show, Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, Antle's second wife, Sumati Steinberg, alleges that when she tried to leave him, Antle abused her by choking her until she passed out and breaking two of her ribs.[22] One of Antle's other wives, Radha Hirsch, claims that she met Antle when she was just 11 years-old much to the chagrin of her mother, who ended their relationship three years later when it became sexual.[22] However, soon after, Antle picked Hirsch up from school and she ran off to live with him.[22]

Mark Topping served as Antle's assistant and business partner at the Buckingham Zoo until he died in 1989 after falling off of a cliff during a hike.[21] Some of Topping's friends and former co-workers believe that Antle may have had a role in Topping's death because Antle owed him money. However, one man, Paul Lewis, who was with Topping on the day of his death, believes that Antle had no connection to his death.

Antle has criticized the accusations against him and his facility, specifically calling Fisher's claims "ramblings" and saying she has "issues and somehow those have boiled up".[23][24][25]

Antle has worked as an animal handler on films including Dr. Dolittle and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and has also provided animals for movies such as The War, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Mighty Joe Young, and The Jungle Book 2.[26] He has been involved in the production of three documentaries—Nat Geo Wild's Super Cat,[27] Nature’s Jaguar: Year of the Cat,[28] and PBS’s Big Cats.[29]

In 2001, Antle was on stage with Britney Spears during her performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U" at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, which featured a caged tiger and a large albino python draped over Spears' shoulders.[26] In 2008, Suryia and Roscoe, an orangutan and an orphaned blue tick hound appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago.[30]

In December 2021, Netflix released a three-part spin-off of Tiger King, titled Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story.[31]