Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle, a big cat trainer who appeared in Netflix’s ‘Tiger King,’ has opened up about the backlash and revealed he’s sleeping with a gun after he started getting death threats.
The 60-year-old big cat trainer appeared in the documentary that also features Joe Exotic, a zookeeper that was sentenced to 22 years in prison after he was found guilty of hiring a hitman to murder Carole Baskin, an animal rights activist.
According to Antle, Netflix’s new documentary is a “quasi fictional drama, more focused on shock value and titillation than fact.”
“Tiger King, the new drama series that debuted on Netflix last week, is not a documentary, it is quasi fictional drama, more focused on shock value and titillation than fact,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
“While focusing on the real life rivalry between Joe ‘Exotic’ and Carole Baskin, the insinuation that TIGERS/ Myrtle Beach Safari is a cult that exploits, euthanizes and incinerates tiger cubs, is a reprehensible falsehood.”
Now, Doc Antle has also claimed he sleeps with an AK-47 due to fears that animal rights activists could make an attempt on his life.
As the big cat trainer said in an interview with The Mirror, he keeps a “pistol in his pocket and another in his glove box” wherever he goes.
“My life is threatened every day, one to 50 times. People say they want to kill me, they’re going to get me. I don’t know where the next crazy person is going to go,” Antle said.
The trainer also lashed out at the allegations Carole Baskin made and claimed that “people think that there’s something there” because of the “salacious insanity she’s written.”
The Doc, whose real name is Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle, is the founder and the director of the South Myrtle Beach wildlife preserve known as The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species.
Antle is also in charge of Rare Species Fund, a foundation that supports and encourages preservation projects around the world.
Throughout his career, Antle has worked on hundreds of TV shows and movies including hits like Dr. Doolittle, Disney’s Jungle Book, and Ace Ventura. He also appeared on the screen as a wildlife expert for Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
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