‘Tiger King’ showed two sides of animal activism
“Animal people are nuts, man…” These are the words we hear in the first 30 seconds of “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness.” What glued us to the TV (besides the fact that we’re stuck at home in the middle of a pandemic) was not just that we love a crazy true crime drama, but that this was a crazy true crime drama it involved exotic animals. People are, were, and always will be attracted to exotic and powerful wild animals and their relationships with humans.
As far back as ancient Rome, humans performing alongside exotic animals took center stage at the Colosseum. In more recent history we were enthralled with Siegfried and Roy — the original Joe Exotic — equally flamboyant, but much more refined. Or Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and their elephant act, or SeaWorld and its killer-whale shows; each entity made it their mission to demonstrate the thrilling relationships between humans and exotic animals. As an animal trainer at SeaWorld for over a decade, I know first-hand exactly how nuts you have to be to work with large predatory animals.
Despite his many shortcomings, Joe Exotic, the title character of “Tiger King,” became a sort of antihero; as the operator of a zoo in Oklahoma, he is unapologetically who he is. Carole Baskin, his rival who referred to her own zoo as an “animal sanctuary,” became the target of hatred to many viewers for her selfrighteousness. Baskin was doing exactly what Exotic was doing, except he allowed the public to pet tiger cubs. Baskin, a staunch proponent of a federal bill to end all private ownership of big cats, comes across as a hypocrite. My take on Baskin is that like many animal activists, she just wants to run the show and call it a “sanctuary.”
Activist-driven legislation made it impossible or even illegal to travel freely into certain areas with elephants or other exotic animals, and in 2016 Ringling Bros. was forced to retire its elephant act. Without its famous pachyderms, Ringling Bros. could no longer compete, and after almost 150 years as America’s oldest form of entertainment, “The Greatest Show on Earth” closed its curtains for the last time.
SeaWorld faced similar pressure for the treatment of its killer whales. For decades SeaWorld had awe-inspiring interactions with trainers in the water with killer whales. In 2010 that all came to a screeching halt after the death of a veteran trainer. After the incident, SeaWorld halted its iconic “waterwork” with its killer whales. It even went further and aligned itself with the animal activist organization the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and proceeded to end its breeding program with killer whales.
Several months ago, SeaWorld caved to People For The Ethical Treatment of Animal’s (PETA) demands and ended its practice of riding on dolphins — another staple of its business model that delighted guests and exhibited the close relationship and trust between human and dolphin.
Despite their common foes, there is disconnect within the animal entertainment industry; SeaWorld espoused a philosophy of positive reinforcement based on training only, while elephant keepers in the circus use a controversial tool called a bull-hook to aid in the training process. This difference in ideology has allowed the activists to hyper-focus their targets on both institutions.
The marine mammal training world vilified the circus world for their use of the bullhook, while the circus world reviled the marine mammal trainers for their haughtiness. The chasm in within the ranks has enabled the true adversaries — the activists — to be victorious in their efforts to dismantle the two juggernauts in animal training.
Where do we draw the line? Actually, who is drawing the line in the first place? Will PETA be happy when zoos and aquariums don’t exist and animals like elephants, killer whales and tigers are all extinct in the wild? This conundrum that animal people have put ourselves in is a dangerous one.
Are we now saying that it was wrong to swim in the water with killer whales — the same way we are saying it was wrong to have elephants perform in the circus? Are we conceding that riding on dolphins was tantamount to abuse?
We all love animals and we all want to preserve the human/animal relationship that has become so scrutinized in today’s day and age.
The relationship between humans and animals is in jeopardy and that is largely due to PETA and other activist groups’ refusal to see the value in human and animal relationships. Animal people are nuts, man, and we all need to realize we are fighting this battle together, because if we don’t, we won’t have a battle to fight at all.