Five minutes into the first episode of Netflix鈥檚 viral documentary series , its codirector, Eric Goode, encounters a newly purchased snow leopard in the back of a van, suffering in the Florida heat. 鈥淭hat set me on this journey to really understand what is going on with people keeping big cats in this country,鈥 Goode says in the series鈥 only narration. It鈥檚 a moment of feline sympathy that launches the show and sends Goode on a five-year quest to document Big Tiger鈥攁 cat-sprayed听industry of breeders, traffickers, and wealthy narcissists exhibiting wild animals across the United States. The bigger the ego, the bigger the cat.听
Goode, a somewhat well-known conservationist and entrepreneur, should be a natural fit for this series: he听founded the听, an听environmental nonprofit,听in addition to creating听and designing听several nightclubs and hotels, including the Bowery Hotel in New York City. Unfortunately, Goode brings to Tiger King the intellectual rigor and social responsibility of… a nightclub and hotel developer. Don鈥檛 get me wrong, Tiger King is as fun as shootin鈥櫶齯p a stop sign. But the scene with the leopard in the van is the only indication in the five-hour series that anyone behind the camera gives half a litter box听about wildlife. Instead, it selectively leaves out information to听craft听a听narrative that entertains at the expense of both the cats and the actual earthbound truth.
I鈥檓 not a big-cat听person. My familiarity with this world comes from the several months I spent last year听producing and editing 听with reporter Rachel Nuwer. In the series, we explore and try to explain America鈥檚 tiger problem, including two episodes听that cover听much of the same ground as Tiger King. And while听Cat People is a work of journalism听that goes in a very different direction with the material听than the听quarantine-fueled supernova of mass entertainment that is听Tiger King,听the docuseries听skims over or entirely leaves out听the context viewers need to understand anything tiger related.听
Tiger King听looks at three organizations, each with its own charismatic figurehead. Joe 鈥淓xotic鈥 Maldonado-Passage runs the in Oklahoma,听Bhagavan 鈥淒oc鈥 Antle founded (TIGER) in South Carolina, and听Carole Baskin operates in Florida. Tiger King would have you believe that听all three facilities and their owners are versions of听the same thing鈥攅gomaniacs who get off on owning wild animals and then selling that feeling of power and primal connection to the public. The show presents Joe Exotic as honest in his dishonesty, Doc Antle as a con man maintaining plausible deniability, and Carole Baskin as a hypocrite, having fooled her followers (and maybe herself) into believing that she鈥檚 somehow different than the other two. It glosses over the fact that her facility is, in most ways,听fundamentally different.
You know why there are more tigers in captivity than in the wild? Because the general public will pay huge amounts of money to play with a tiny tiger cub for a few minutes. But tigers only stay tiny for a few weeks, so to maintain their supply, breeders like Joe Exotic and Doc Antle, as the series shows, churn out cubs for their petting operations听and then unload them听when the felines听grow up, start chomping on customers, and develop a $10,000-a-year meat habit.
What Tiger King largely听brushes aside is that Big Cat Rescue, on the other hand, only accepts animals confiscated by law enforcement听or from owners who are trying to get rid of them.听The听series quickly skims over听the fact听that these cats are almost always adults and that the听sanctuary forbids petting鈥攊f a staff member or volunteer touches an animal for any reason, they鈥檙e fired and never allowed to return. Finally, Big Cat Rescue听will only take animals if the owners sign a contract declaring听that they鈥檒l never own, or even have a photo taken, with another big cat. If they violate the contract, there are financial penalties. The docuseries doesn鈥檛 mention听this听at all.
The Baskins aren鈥檛 just rescuing big cats, they鈥檙e also working on the problem at its source. The biggest threat to tigers鈥 survival around the world is habitat loss and poaching. When American diplomats try to push other countries to address their high levels of poaching, however, they鈥檙e basically laughed at and told to clean up their own problem first. The Baskins are trying to do exactly听that. making听it illegal for owners and breeders to sell big cats as pets across state lines. Then, in 2016, they were part of a collection of environmental groups to close a loophole that allowed licensees like Joe Exotic and Doc Antle to sell big cats to each other. The Baskins鈥 latest lobbying effort is a bipartisan piece of legislation called , which Tiger King听briefly mentions before going back to more salacious material. It would ban all cub petting and exotic-animal encounters, including for hybrids like ligers and tiligers,听effectively shutting down the mechanism that drives the tiger industry.听
Instead of making听this basic difference clear, the series paints Carole as greedy and manipulative, and it portrays her followers and contributors as having been suckered. Yes, she is uncomfortably cat obsessed. Yes, her organization鈥檚 music videos are pretty cringey. And it鈥檚 true that no one knows what happened to her second husband, Don Lewis, which Tiger King revels in for a whole episode. But it鈥檚 also true听that all the fact-checked pieces of journalism about Carole Baskin ( ) end there鈥攏o one knows. Tiger King, on the other hand, gives a megaphone to the conjecture that Carole killed her husband and fed him to the tigers. The backlash to that conjecture? It defames her, of course, but it also limits her and her husband鈥檚听ability to do big-picture conservation work. It hurts the cats.
Let鈥檚 jump back to the breeders for a second, though, because that鈥檚 where Tiger King really drops the ball. The show gives voice to the idea that breeders are helping wildlife by increasing their numbers. 鈥淲e鈥檙e makin鈥櫶齧ore of 鈥檈m,鈥 Joe says. This is one of the most common arguments you hear from tiger owners and breeders. It鈥檚 also听intellectually dishonest, and the fact the series does not give anyone a chance to correct it in the documentary is irresponsible. Virtually all privately owned tigers in the U.S. are mutts who do not belong to any of the six distinct subspecies found in the wild听 to conservation efforts. The show lets Joe and others suggest that if it looks like a tiger, it must be a tiger, never bothering听to point out that that鈥檚 not actually the case. Tony the Tiger would do better in the wild. At least he wouldn鈥檛 muddy wild genes.
These choices add up to a show that becomes propaganda for its own binge-worthy thesis: the whole industry is petty and shallow, to the point that none of these people who have devoted their lives to big cats actually care about animals. It鈥檚 good TV.听It鈥檚 just not true.听
Goode has stopped doing interviews about Tiger King, but he expressed some regret to 听last month that the series wasn鈥檛 more focused on the animals. 鈥淣etflix is very adept at making binge-worthy television,鈥 he said.听Tiger King was supposed to be Blackfish听for cats. Goode told his subjects he was making a film focused on environmental problems. He ended up with something that may actually be a step backward for tiger conservation in the United States.