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Bhagavan “Doc” Antle founded Myrtle Beach Safari in South Carolina, a roadside zoo where infant animals are torn away from their mothers so that they can be passed around for highly profitable public encounters, routinely treated as props for publicity stunts, and exploited for “likes” on social media.
Antle is a key player in the animal exploitation industry, a convicted wildlife trafficker, and one of the villains featured in Netflix’s Tiger King. He is known to boast that Myrtle Beach Safari’s premium prices for a chance to take photos with infant wild animals somehow fund conservation efforts, but this is all part of a carefully scripted performance. No true animal sanctuary or legitimate conservation organization exploits endangered animals in cruel public encounters, nor would doing so conserve their wild counterparts.
Antle is a showman who could rival P.T. Barnum himself in his ability to exploit the defenseless for his own financial gain. His greedy roadside zoo forces Bubbles, a female African elephant, to endure photo ops and languish alone. Even though female elephants stay with their families for their entire lives in nature, Bubbles hasn’t had contact with another elephant in over 30 years. Depriving wild animals of their inherent right to live and grow among their own families is business as usual for Antle. Myrtle Beach Safari regularly exploits baby animals who’ve been torn away from their mothers—including many species who naturally stay with their families throughout their lives, such as chimpanzees, monkeys, hyenas, and wolves—in stressful public photo ops. Treating animals as though they were nothing more than commodities to trade is a form of speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
In June 2022, the FBI arrested Antle, who was later indicted on federal charges related to money laundering and wildlife crimes. In June 2023, he was convicted on felony wildlife trafficking charges in Virginia. His license to exhibit animals under the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was canceled, but one of his partners now operates his roadside zoo under her own AWA license—so we still need your help!
Please urge Antle to end Myrtle Beach Safari’s public encounters and make a plan to send the great apes and all the other animals to reputable facilities where they could live in peace and get the care that they deserve.