01x02 - Cult of Personality

[bunniefuu]

[phone line droning, dialing]

[operator] 911, what's your emergency?

[woman] We've got an employee

that was attacked by a tiger.

And he's hurt bad.

They will not send a helicopter

until the ambulance gets here.

[Joe] The arm is completely gone.

- We do not have time to wait.

- [animals calling out]

Go get the gurney here.

Get everything out of the driveway.

- Give me a stretcher. How's it coming?

- They're they're getting it.

[Joe] f*ck the fire extinguisher.

You all right? Stay with me.

Stay with me, Saff.

Make a sweep through the park

and make sure there's no other customers

somewhere else in the park, please.

[door creeks]

Ladies and gentlemen, before you hear it

on the news, I'm gonna tell you.

About an hour ago, we had an incident

where one of the employees stuck their arm

through the cage

and a tiger tore her arm off.

I can give you your money back,

or I can give you a rain check.

Why don't you come back another day?

What do you want me

and Paul to do right now?

- Do chores. Be safe.

- Do chores.

- Okay. Back to it then. All right.

- Do not stick your hands in any cages.

Oh, my god.

I'm never gonna financially recover

from this.

[reporter 1]

A woman is fighting to keep her arm

after it was mauled by a tiger.

[reporter 2] The victim was airlifted

to OU Medical Center

for lifesaving surgery.

[woman] The story hit the news.

It was a tiger mauling

in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

Tiger attack, blah, blah, blah.

The fence ripped the skin off the bone.

[Safferty] Joe and John Reinke

had already come to the hospital

to see me,

and I specifically remembered

Reinke handing me a pen,

and I picked it up and I wrote my name,

and then I handed it back to him.

So my hand was still a functioning hand

at the time,

just really bandaged up

and in a lot of pain.

But the next morning,

the surgeon came in and said,

"Hey, Saff, it's gonna be, you know,

about two years

of reconstructive surgery."

He said, "Or you can amputate it."

And I said, "Amputate it."

My biggest thing, and it was

derived from Joseph

he said, "Our mission is to give

these animals a fighting chance."

So I knew

if I stayed in that hospital,

the media wins.

Is this a reflection

of what's not getting done right

at your zoo? That's the question.

[Safferty] I seen how much they blew it up

into this horror story

that I felt like the best thing to do

was get right back to work

to kind of set things right.

I was back on the park

in five days after my amputation.

It was a total of seven days

in the hospital.

Yeah! [laughs]

[reporter] This had to have been

the most terrifying, traumatic event

a human being could experience.

- And yet

- Some would say.

Yet, you're back on the park today,

still loyal, still working,

still loving these cats.

[man]

I was the first person that she talked to

about losing her arm,

and amazingly, she held no bitter,

ill feelings.

This was just another day for me,

um, to overcome.

Uh, my attitude is

nothing can bring me down,

and it's really easy

to do that here, Rick,

and you know this because

I work with a man that also has no legs.

[man]

A lot of people think tigers took my legs.

No, it actually happened

from a zip line accident.

I fell 50 feet, landed on my feet

crushed my feet, broke my hip,

broke my back,

tore all my insides up.

I was paralyzed from the waist down,

but I could move a big toe,

and that's when I said, "I can do this,"

so I took it on myself

to learn how to walk.

Usually you build up muscles,

you build up calves,

you build up your heel,

you know, your ankle.

Well, I couldn't build all that up,

so I was literally walking on bone.

I bet I walked 20 miles a day

at that zoo

12 hours a day, seven days a week.

Give me a kiss! Good boy!

Over time from walking on them,

I just ended up losing my feet.

He loves Daddy.

It wasn't the zoo's fault.

I mean, it was all my fault.

Now, I just got these cool looking legs.

[Kirkham] It's hard to explain

the addiction of exotic animals.

I felt it when I got to hold a tiger

in my hands,

when I got to get in a cage

with six,

eight-month-old tigers and lions.

There's something very addicting about

the feeling of power

being around these animals.

["Way Down in the Hole"

by Tom Waits plays]

- [car horn honks]

- [man] Hey, Doc, how's it going?

When you walk through the garden ♪

You gotta watch your back ♪

Well, I beg your pardon ♪

Walk the straight and narrow track ♪

We just got to keep the devil ♪

Way down in the hole ♪

So you want to see them walk around?

You want to lay on that couch with them?

What do want

What do you think the shot is?

- [grunts]

- [tiger yowls]

Nothing is cooler, sexier,

and more significant

to the world we live in today

than a tiger.

It has this primordial calligraphy

that tells a message

just in its very image.

Everyone loves them.

Anyone who says they don't

is just insecure and broken.

[tiger yowls]

[woman]

The minute you meet one of these people

that has an exotic cat,

the first thing they do is

they whip out those pictures.

Look at me, I'm holding this cub.

Look at me, I'm petting this tiger.

Look at me, I've got this cat on a leash.

It's all about "look at me."

They want to use those cats

to elevate their status.

[crowd murmuring in excitement]

- Oh my god!

- They're only an hour old.

[overlapping chatter]

[tigers yowling]

I breed more tigers

than anybody in the country.

[Kirkham] Breeding was his whole thing.

The whole idea was to keep baby tigers

being born.

Joe had so many animals

that he sold them

to a lot of these little animal parks

around the country.

[man] Selling the animals was

the biggest moneymaker for him.

I drove lions, tigers, bears

ligers, all kinds of different animals.

I can't really tell you

all the places I've been.

Let's just say

that I've been to 38 different states.

[man] But if I wanted to just buy

a regular baby tiger

- …from a breeder, how much would it cost?

- Two thousand bucks.

And keep in mind, it's ill*gal now.

[man] This is organized crime.

Criminal enterprises are operating

under the radar illegally

because the Endangered Species Act

forbids selling a tiger.

[Reinke]

You can't buy, sell, trade, or barter

anything endangered,

but there ain't a damn zoo out there

that ain't buying cubs

when they don't have 'em.

Some of the places

that the cubs have actually went to,

you got Doc Antle in the Carolinas,

you got Brown Zoo, you got Tim Stark.

[man] According to Thomas Jefferson,

any law that you think's unfair

or unjustice,

it is your obligation,

it is your responsibility

to stand up against that bullshit law.

If people are concerned about tigers,

they should be donating their money

to places like mine, where we breed them.

Number one, they're endangered species.

Duh. What's the first thing you should do

to protect an endangered species?

Make more.

Not eliminate the source.

[big cats growling]

[Stark] I bought shitloads from Joe.

Hundreds of thousand dollars worth of 'em.

I posted online, 28 different places

that are all part of this whole

what I call the bad guy network,

of people that are breeding cubs

and selling cubs.

I think, honestly

[chuckles] you're gonna

The woman's just obsessed with me.

Carole, g*dd*mn it,

you've missed out on it again.

[Carole] For each one

of these people Joe traded cats to,

there's more information about them,

in the hopes that with law enforcement

taking this serious and going after it,

that they'll actually search out

some of those connections

and see that it's this big network

of people.

Mario Tabraue in Miami

has a criminal history.

His claim to fame

is being one of the biggest drug dealers

that our state ever knew.

But despite having

this criminal background,

he operates a wildlife menagerie.

I don't know of anyone

who has ever been able to infiltrate

Mario Tabraue's facilities.

[man] Oh, sh*t, what is this? Hey!

[guard] Good morning, how are you, sir?

Do you have a reservation?

- I don't.

- You don't?

Well, unfortunately, I can't let you go,

because it's a private place.

[man] I've been trying to call

and they You know, we wanted

This is a private property.

You actually have to have permission, sir.

- All right. thanks a lot. Okay. sh*t.

- Thank you. Have a great day.

[Carole] You're never

going to get into a place like Mario's,

because they're just not going to allow

the public to see

what really happens there.

[man] Probably around 1982,

I went to work for Mario's place.

I would have people come up and go,

"I can't believe you work for that guy,

why would you work for that guy?

Aren't you scared?"

I says, "He has the coolest animals,

I don't care about anything else!"

He had cheetahs, he had leopards,

he had tigers, black jaguars,

snow leopards, cloud leopards,

and this is his private collection

at his home.

Come on, Johnny!

I got food. [cooing]

Pretty much any way

they would smuggle ill*gal drugs,

they would do the same with the animals

but the penalties for that were far less

than if you were busted

for smuggling drugs.

Open up the snakes,

stick bags of cocaine inside of them,

stitch them back up.

Did not really care

if the snake lived or died,

it's just to get it in there.

[man] Why is it so hard

to get into these places?

[McCarthy] I'll try to put in a call

for you to get into Mario's place.

[engine roaring]

Everything's super secure.

We try to make everything stupid-proof

'cause people will do stupid things.

Come out! And don't go for my leg.

Come out! Come on out! There you go.

[lions growling]

Can I take it from you? Yes.

Can I throw it? Go get it. Go get it.

We interact with our animals.

We give them love and passion.

If you can't keep them in the wild

that they supposedly deserve,

that doesn't exist anymore,

you give them as much happiness

as you can.

And they do get bonded with humans.

People like Carole Baskin,

they use me as a poster child.

I shouldn't have animals

because I was a convicted felon.

Smile, give a big smile. There you go.

But I did my time for what I did.

- [elephant brays]

- [tiger growls]

People used to drive by his house

and scream out, "Tony Montana!"

and drive on.

I'm Tony Montana! You f*ck with me,

you f*cking with the best!

Sometimes they say that

I'm the prototype for Scarface.

[reporter]

Mario Tabraue and his father Guillermo

are accused of operating a ten-year,

top-dollar family drug enterprise.

[Tabraue] The money coming in suitcases

to the bank? I did that.

But not with a fat guy in a van.

It was a Corvette. I did it by myself.

I would call the bank in advance,

and they would have ten tellers

sit there and count it.

There was no counting machines.

Back then, I sold drugs

to maintain my animal habit.

I got to a point where

I was on the phone saying,

"Mario's Drugstore, specializing

in marijuana, cocaine, and quaaludes.

Anybody interested come and get it.

Including you

Metro-Dade Organized Crime Bureau."

They got me on tape.

[reporter] Working out of

Zoological Imports Unlimited,

Tabraue is also accused of covering up

the m*rder,

mutilation, and cremation

of a federal drug informant

seven years ago.

[Tabraue] His name was Larry Nash.

He was an A*F informant.

A guy who worked for me shot him,

and they panicked

and dumped him on my farm.

I had a crazier partner than me who said,

"Let's just cut up and burn him."

So we burned him.

You know, I really didn't do most

of the stuff,

but I carry the stigma of it.

What am I gonna tell the feds now,

or the judge?

"Your Honor, I did not sh**t him,

and I did not use the circular saw

on his neck. It was somebody else."

What difference does it make?

I was still there.

Come here. Come here.

Come here. Hello.

The judge gave me 100 years,

but I won the appeal.

It cost me 12 years of my life.

It's okay.

[kisses] It's okay. Down. Down.

Oh, now you're gonna

Animals don't judge you

as long as you're really good at heart.

They don't care who you are

or what you've done in your past.

Mario's always treated me with respect,

and, you know, everybody's got a past.

[Tabraue] Since I was a child,

I had an affinity for animals.

My mother was anti-pets.

So when I got out of my house,

the first thing I did was

I went and bought not one,

but three Great Danes.

It was like, I'm gonna It's like

you can't eat chocolate, but now you can.

Then I went to a pet shop

selling a cougar. I bought a cougar.

Then it was legal.

That was my second animal.

The third animal was a guy

k*lled by the lions,

and I got those six lions.

Then, I got a tiger from a lady

that had it in a houseboat illegally.

Next thing I know,

I had a whole bunch of sh*t.

Here! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up!

I used to acquire them from Doc Antle,

a friend of mine.

Those are my four girls.

[tiger cub murmuring]

- [man] How did you meet Doc?

- He came to see me.

- [man] What year?

- 1982 83?

So you guys have known each other

a long time.

Yeah, I have pictures of it too.

There's your Doc Antle, look.

That's how I met him.

He would bring the tiger

in the parking lot or inside the business.

- [man] Damn, look at his mustache.

- He looked like Yanni.

That's Doc Antle in my office.

[man] So of all the cat people,

you're possibly closest to Doc Antle?

Yeah, because we learned a lot

from each other,

and he did a lot of things for me

when I came out of prison.

That's my wife and me.

This is Doc Antle's place, T.I.G.E.R.S.

- [man] Is she from Cuba too?

- Yeah.

We have 28 species of primates.

[man] And you nurse these

and actually, literally,

raise them in your own house?

Right now this is the only one I have,

but at times,

I have seven or eight that we raise.

- [man] In your bedroom?

- In our bedroom at night.

[door opening]

I usually go to Babies "R" Us

and buy the preemie clothes.

Like, every occasion.

Let's say Easter. See, this is the boys.

[man] Feels like you love them

as much as your children.

[Maria Tabraue] Yeah, I think even more.

[laughs]

This here is Mario's office.

This is things he has collected

through the years.

This book is Doc Antle, actually,

Bhagavan Doc Antle.

- [woman] What kinda doctor is he?

- Mystical science.

- Mystical science?

- Yeah.

[man] Who's that?

One of his wives.

[man]

One of his wives? Oh, I like that answer.

- [laughter]

- He's very eccentric. Like

[woman] How many wives does he have?

- I would say that he has three.

- [woman] He has three wives?

- Yes.

- [man] Wow.

[man 1]

Doctor Antle, he has four or five wives.

Well, he has three or four girlfriends.

He has, like, nine wives.

[man] How many wives does Doc Antle have?

I don't f*cking care.

[Antle]

Operating the T.I.G.E.R.S. preserve here

takes place by

a great, big, cohesive family unit.

We have people that have joined

our apprentice program over the decades.

These are apprentices that come on

generally as teenagers,

live on the preserve,

many of whom have stayed on

for decades themselves.

Look at the camera and smile!

Over there, babe!

[Antle] This is my longtime

girlfriend-partner, China,

the blonde lady running the stuff here.

Since she was 17 years old,

she's been living here

and taking care of my stuff.

Rajnee, the little Italian lady,

20 years ago, when she was a young woman,

she came and lived with me,

has been staying there ever since.

Moksha, the pretty blonde

with the big teeth

and the bright, big smile,

she's going on 16 years of living here

and taking care of all that stuff.

My girl China's house is there,

and my Italian partner there.

She lives in that house.

And then Moksha is on the front,

the big home there in the front.

Every day, you're really gonna care for

the animals first,

and that has always been very difficult

for my kids

and the ladies of my life.

Everybody's jealous.

[man]

Do you live in the house with others?

[Antle]

You can't get into my complex lifestyle.

It's not for prime time.

[woman] I know I'll always love Doc,

because he meant so much to me

for so long.

I worked there from 1999

until I left in 2007.

When I read what it was like there,

it sounded like a utopia.

And I stumbled upon

the T.I.G.E.R.S. website,

and they talked about

how everyone was vegetarian

and how they used, like,

principles of yoga to train animals.

These were all things

that I was already into.

Perfect, you know?

I'm gonna go be a yoga animal trainer.

That sounds great.

I packed up everything, I sold my car,

and I convinced my dad to drive me down.

This is me when I first got there.

My dad left.

He actually What he said to me was,

"Goodbye.

Don't fall in love with your boss."

Because back then he was, like,

"Oh, my god, this guy is a chick-getter."

You know what I mean, he's Anyway.

[man] Why do you choose to call him

Bhagavan, is that how everyone

- That's what we called him.

- Bhagavan, which means what?

"Lord." It means "lord."

- Bhagavan means "lord."

- Yeah.

What does the name Bhagavan mean?

Bhagavan means

that you're a friend of God.

[man 1] The Bhagavan is the master

of the universe.

It's the all-knowing,

all-seeing kind of guy.

[man 2] And your dad is that guy?

For Certainly in his universe

he definitely is that character,

no doubt.

[Antle] It's Shangri-La here.

It's an unbelievable, unprecedented,

magical place

where incredible things happen

and where everything is neutral

and happy and going well.

You know, we lived

in these terrible horse stalls, basically.

Like, with sliding doors

with bars on them.

It was full of c*ck.

I mean everywhere.

Like, I would go to make a sandwich,

my bread would be full of c*ck

and it was like, nothing,

just throwing the co

I mean, it was just

That's the way it was.

Doc says, "You're this garbage person,

but if you listen to me,

I'll make you great."

If they wanted to

get to the top really quickly,

they should sleep with him.

I certainly didn't want to sleep with him,

but I was thinking about it.

[Antle speaking indistinctly]

[drumming]

[Fisher] There was a certain personality

of woman that he wanted.

They were virgins or close to virgins.

He would become

that sex partner for them,

the first,

and then they would be bonded to him

in this way, where he felt like

he could get them to do anything.

According to them,

it was like his Shaktipat.

So there's this concept

where a guru will touch you

and you'll become enlightened.

So essentially, it's

Shaktipat with p*nis.

Well, I guess, I don't know.

His touch brings them up

to his level of enlightenment.

[Joe] Doc Antle is like

my mentor

in the animal industry.

When I met him, I had two husbands,

whatever you want to call them.

He had three girlfriends or wives.

[chuckles]

Are we running a competition?

I don't think so.

You were my first love

The one that's gonna last ♪

[Reinke]

Joe's had a pretty good cast of characters

as far as husbands go.

He's had John as a husband

since I've been around.

John's a muscled-up bully kind of guy.

Doesn't come off to me as being g*y,

but, you know, he lives with Joe.

Hey, don't show all my secrets now.

[Reinke]

It's a it's a unique relationship.

And then there's Travis.

Travis is another

musclebound skateboarding guy.

Hi, I'm Travis.

- [Joe] Maldonado.

- Hi, I'm Travis Maldonado.

[Joe] Tell me more about your feet!

[both laughing]

My feet? My feet? Size 16.

I've got some big hands.

[Finlay]

The day Travis came to the park

he looked like

just a little, innocent person.

I'm 19 years old,

and I am from Southern California,

and I am tall, tan, and beautiful.

[Joe] He arrived and, my god,

it was this 6'6"

dark-complected gentleman

with the most god-awful big hands

you've ever seen in your life.

Joe immediately is, like,

love-struck by this.

So we're taking the trash trailer down

one day. John's driving the truck.

Me, Joe, and Travis are in the back

of the trailer.

And, uh, Joe says

"How straight are you?"

And he goes, "Pretty straight."

And I said, "You watch porn?"

He says, "Yeah."

I said, "Well, do you enjoy

the guy with the little one doing her,

or do you enjoy watching

the guy with the big one doing her?"

And he says, "Well, obviously you want

to watch the guy with the big one."

I said, "Well, you ain't that straight."

[laughs]

[Finlay] It wasn't weird to share Joe

with another guy because

Joe had tried for many years

to bring other people in,

and one day Joe asked me if

Travis could be in a relationship

with us too, and

I wasn't

I didn't really know any better.

I didn't care.

[slow-tempo country song plays]

[officiant] In our society today,

no wedding is really normal,

but even by modern standards,

this is an unusual wedding.

Today, we have gathered to witness

the union of Travis, John, and Joe.

Go with love. You may now kiss.

You'll know

By the wind in my eyes ♪

And the beat of my heart

I'll be there ♪

You'll know ♪

'Cause you'll never be lonely again ♪

Anytime, anywhere ♪

[Maldonado]

I haven't had much of a life before this,

but when I did come here,

I started experiencing

a lot of different things.

I enjoy being around Joe and John

and all the animals.

I think what's going on around here

is great.

Uh

[Howard] People like Joe have

an amazing grip over people,

generating an affection and a devotion

that is totally irrational.

[Carole] Frequently, these people

that have these animals

will use them as a lure

to bring in young people

that really haven't had

the opportunity yet

to build a lot of relationships

and understand how badly

they're being abused themselves.

And they're using those animals

as the way of forcing these people

into labor camps.

[Antle] It has to supersede

all of your other hopes, wants,

dreams and desires.

It's what you're gonna wake up doing,

it's what you're gonna go to sleep doing,

and it's gonna happen 365 days a year.

Weddings, funerals, and relationships

at Christmas fade away

because the 80 tigers

will still be standing there

waiting for you to deliver

their next meal.

I just work all day.

- I'm kinda like a stay-at-home

- Like 8:00 to midnight.

- 8:00 a.m. to midnight. Yeah.

- You're working every day.

It sounds insane,

it sounds intense and whatever,

but it's, like it's my lifestyle,

it's what I want to do.

[bird chirps]

[man] So many of us are programmed

to believe that, you know,

we need weekends off,

we're only working 40 hours a week.

Um, that, you know, in some ways,

this is, you know, the military.

Except instead of having, you know,

hand grenades, we have tigers.

[Antle] The only survivors here look at it

that they're getting to do

something they like,

and it's not a job,

it's a lifestyle they have dove into.

We worked so hard

- for so long.

- [man] How much did people get paid?

A hundred dollars a week.

A hundred dollars a week.

[Carole] Good morning, everybody. Hi!

Oh, thank you for coming.

I don't pay anybody to do animal care,

because people will do that for free.

Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue has

an army of people working for free.

She is not a stupid woman.

She makes everybody else

do her dirty work.

Because we're gonna have so many people

here today,

we have brought in 76

of our own volunteers,

and they brought their families.

- This is Regina and Bonnie

- Hello.

and Bonnie has the best pants

of the entire place so far that I've seen.

I love those.

[both laughing]

[Carole] Our volunteers wear

a color-coded shirt system.

Red shirts primarily function as, like,

your beginner, like, keeper trainees

and partner trainees.

If you get all your classes done,

you can apply for yellow shirt.

It takes about almost a year

to get your yellow,

then you have to have your yellow

for a full year.

Then you can apply to be a green shirt.

You have to have a minimum of two years.

And it goes by so quickly.

After they've been here for, like,

five years or so,

they can graduate to a master keeper.

- [man] And that's blue?

- That's a navy blue.

- Navy blue.

- There's royal blue.

I'm actually an intern.

I work six days a week, twelve hours days,

basically fast-pacing

through the volunteer program.

[man]

Are you super hands-on with the interns?

Sadly, I hardly ever know who they are

until they've been here, like

They're here for level five,

and it's, like,

"I've seen you around here a lot.

[laughs] You keep coming back,

you're getting older."

You know, that's when

they really start showing up on my radar.

You definitely don't work regular hours.

So Christmas could be a bummer

for some people?

Yeah, no, I don't take Christmas.

I'm here Christmas.

[Joe] How does she brainwash

all of them volunteers

into the same bullshit?

She can make all these people think

that everybody else in society are

abusers but her.

I mean, she's a master marketer,

I'll give her that.

[man] I noticed that you have

a huge presence on social media.

[Carole] We've got

over two million fans on Facebook,

but in a given week,

we can reach three million.

Hey, all you cool cats and kittens,

it's Carole at Big Cat Rescue.

Max and Marianne the bobcats' enclosure

got finished and it looks great.

Every two weeks,

we get a check from Facebook,

and last two weeks were, like, $23,000.

And every two weeks it's going up

by thousands of dollars.

Hey, all you cool cats and kittens.

It's Carole from Big Cat Rescue.

I am about to go live on the Dodo Impact.

All right.

She rode the first wave of social media.

Her YouTube channel has 200 million views.

Her accounts have ten million people

watching them.

[somber instrumental music playing]

We're kind of popular. [laughing]

[both laugh]

You see them in the jungles ♪

In the forests, on the plains ♪

And you can feel their spirits ♪

[Carole] People see that logo,

they know who we are.

The first thing they'll say is,

"I love your videos!"

We get that everywhere we go.

Living beautiful, wild and free ♪

Oh! Beautiful, wild and free ♪

And just like them, I see ♪

[Antle] High-quality social media,

duping tons of teenage children

to devote their days and times

to the cause that she has.

And so they go to Big Cat Rescue,

a derelict, rundown,

backyard collection of 12 cats,

and think they're going

to the world's greatest big cat sanctuary.

Come a little closer.

- Did you get the big cat?

- [camera operator] Yep.

Hi, I'm Joe Exotic,

and this is Big Cat Rescue.

[Joe] We went to go on a tour

of Big Cat Rescue,

and I paid my fees to go on a tour,

and I videotaped the tour.

[volunteer]

We are accredited as a true sanctuary.

We are totally hands off.

We don't touch them at all.

Her sanctuary is probably worse

than most people's backyards.

I mean, the cages are tiny,

the weeds are shoulder high.

It is literally a wire jungle

in a mess of trees.

[Reinke] USDA do not care.

They kept giving her a perfect inspection

where we couldn't get one.

And it just aggravated Joe.

[Joe] She advertises she has

over 100 big cats,

and on this tour, we only saw 12.

So I wanted to see

where she's hiding the other 100 big cats.

[volunteer]

We're going to to the gift shop.

Feel free to look around

as much as you want.

I went to the gift shop

and introduced myself, you know,

and I said,

"Well, in a couple hours, you know,

look up, it'll be me."

So we went to this little airport

outside of Tampa

and rented a helicopter,

and I flew over Big Cat Rescue.

[Carole] He wanted to get footage

of the cages and the enclosures

and all of that,

but he had clearly done it

to antagonize us.

[helicopter blades whirring]

[Carole] In the course of doing

this low-flying buzzing

over the sanctuary,

we have a cat who,

if she hears any kind of, like,

motorized sound, has seizures.

I wish that helicopter would go away!

When Joe rented that helicopter,

it gave him a lot of really bad ideas.

He was talking about dropping grenades.

Pulling the pins and just dropping them

out of the helicopter.

[Howard] We always have

a level of worry about these people,

but if we were to say, "You know what?

This is dangerous.

Let's just stop,"

we'd be miserable,

because it causes us so much pain

to see these animals treated this way.

My email says, "Judge me

by the enemies I have made." [laughs]

So I really appreciate the fact

that none of these people like me.

Hi, little man. Hi, little man.

[man] Now this is a liger?

This well, I always don't say

they're ligers,

'cause there's like an anti-liger vein,

so I just pretend

they're all big cats. [laughs]

But yes,

this is a nine-month-old liger child.

And how big will this cat get?

If he hits the giant size,

then he's gonna be 900-plus pounds,

and he's gonna be 11 and a half feet tall.

And his chain's not been cleaned properly,

so my shirt's ruined.

[handler] I'm sorry.

[Antle chuckles]

[handler] He had to see his girlfriend.

[Stark] Me and Doc were friends,

you know, for years.

I kinda idolized him, you know.

Hell, number one,

not just because of the way

he had the animals and stuff he had,

the way he had them women trained.

For his own damn, you know

harem and sh*t, you know.

The first time I ever met

First time I went to Doc's place,

first time, I told him, "I don't need you

to teach me a damn thing about animals.

How the f*ck you got these women trained?"

He's good at getting what he wants

out of things

people and animals.

He chose all of our outfits.

We were supposed to be sexy,

because we're luring people in.

China came right after I came.

Her name was Michelle.

Moksha was named Meredith.

Rajnee, when I met her,

her name was Renee.

I had my name legally changed to Bala

for many years.

Changing your name is a very quick way

to change everything else about you.

He controlled every aspect of our day

and what we were allowed to do,

what we were, you know

Definitely what we were allowed to eat

as vegetarians,

but also,

they were pushing me to get implants

um

which I don't remember agreeing to.

It was more like

the appointments were made

and they had decided,

and I was too scared to say

I didn't want to do it.

And also, I got to sleep for a few days

to heal from that,

and that looked so good

after working so hard

for so many hours with no break.

No break.

Nothing else but work, work,

work, work, work.

It was like, I'll do anything

I'll do anything to just rest.

[man] It's not every day

that you're asked to have a job

where you can't take any time off,

because people do have lives

and they do have families

outside of creating

You're leading me down a road

where people are just gonna say,

"You have to join a f*cking cult

to be a tiger trainer."

Promise you. Been here 35 years.

Heard it all forever.

h*!

[drumming]

[Fisher] He would say,

"They're free to leave at any time."

[drumming]

[Fisher]

But that's the way it is in all cults.

I mean, they're free to leave,

they're usually not locked up.

They're being held by a thousand,

like, social ties

and by the idea of losing everything,

and how are they gonna even go

and where will they go when they leave?

- What?

- I'm gonna do something.

[Joe] He's got his little cult,

and I've got my little cult, you know.

It's just two complete opposite,

different worlds.

You know, he's a little more upscale,

and I'm working with people

that just got out of prison.

But it tends to work for him,

and the way I do it tends to work for me.

[Safferty]

Joe definitely liked to hire people

who that was their only option.

Don't try this at home, kids.

[Safferty] And his reasoning for it was,

if this is all they have, and it's decent,

they'll work hard enough to keep it.

It's kept me sober and not drinking.

[grunts]

Keeps me from getting into trouble.

He had people in the community saying,

"Hey, I saw someone come in

at the bus station in Midwest City

and they're still sitting there tonight.

They have no family, nowhere to go,

and now they're on the side of the road."

You wanna trade a place to live

that you can call your own

in one of them trailers

out there at the park

in exchange to work at the Burger Barn?

Yeah, I can do that.

- Give you a start.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Give me a start. Thank you!

- [Reinke] He pays the staff $150 a week.

- [man] Twenty dollars a day?

For 12 hours.

Ten to 12 hours every day of work, yeah.

One hundred and thirty-eight dollars

and twenty-six cents, to be precise.

This is probably gonna get me in trouble,

but we just eat off the meat truck.

[truck beeping]

There was a truck that picked up meat

from all these Walmarts in the area

that had expired to feed the animals.

If you go to Walmart

and you put a brisket in your basket

and a couple t-bone steaks,

and you go to the register

and your credit card declines

or your check declines,

it can't go back, it goes to the trash.

And once it leaves that cold shelf,

it cannot go back.

[Cowie]

Oh, man! This stuff is still frozen.

Take that home.

[Reinke] Staff was world's worst

about going through the truck.

You know, to render it,

it needs to go to the cats,

but they would all go through it

and get 'em something to eat.

Ain't nothin' wrong with it, man.

I like my sh*t medium rare.

Lobster tails

and bad-a*s cuts of beef and sh*t.

Joe would let them pick out

what they wanted first,

and they'd carry bags of this expired meat

and foods back to their mobile home,

and that's what they ate,

because that's all they had.

There were four mobile homes

inside the zoo.

The washing machine didn't work.

The water didn't run in the bathroom.

One air conditioner for the entire thing.

It can be 120 degrees in there at night.

That was the nice one.

[man] Whoa, m*therf*cker!

- What's in there?

- f*ck' rat, right there.

Oh, sh*t.

Oh, my god, there he is!

- Oh, f*ck!

- [rat squeaking]

[Carole] If you talk to the people

who have escaped some of these situations,

what they'll say is

that they were treated so abusively.

But not only are they abusing the people

that worked there

they're abusing the animals there as well.

Those people feel like

they can't talk about it

because they could be accused

of having done it for their leader

that they were so enamored with.

[Fisher] I was really looking for somebody

to tell me what to do.

Doc said men are pigs and women are sheep.

I was a sheep, I guess,

ripe for the slaughter.

What I did, basically,

when I was there was raise tiger cubs.

At first, it was only, like,

a couple of litters a year,

and they were only for a certain time.

By the time I left,

there were always multiple litters

just all over the place.

There's all of us. The family.

Oh, this was my favorite tiger ever,

Lakshman.

Such a sweetheart.

And he

That was like a turning point

for me there.

Doc saw how well I did with Lakshman.

You know, just being gentle,

just following Lakshman's lead

and just making suggestions, you know,

and he was

He would do anything I asked him to.

He just trusted me so much.

- He was a good tiger.

- [man] What happened to him?

Um

We don't We didn't really ask,

because

only he's like, "I know where they go."

We didn't see that,

and we weren't really part of that.

One of the main things he told Joe Exotic:

"You can't keep 'em all."

That's a bad business decision,

because, you know,

once a tiger gets out of the stage

where you can use 'em,

they're nothing more than a bill then.

[tiger huffing]

There's always been a rumor out there

that Doc Antle euthanizes his cubs

when he's done with them.

[Carole]

We've had whistle-blowers come to us

and say that they've heard a g*nsh*t

in the middle of the night

and the next day there's no cat

but they don't know where the cat went.

And I think

that these people are smart enough

to only use their very closest circle

of people that they've got good dirt on

That they would use to dispose of a body,

because it takes a few people

to lift a big cat.

Unless you part 'em out right there,

I guess.

[McCarthy] She thinks

she's the Cleopatra of big cats.

And to tell you the truth,

she's not that good.

And any time anyone attacks her,

she goes after them with her millions,

which she inherited from her husband

that's dead and missing for years now.

[man] Wait. How does

someone's husband just go missing?

- Like they just go missing?

- He just vanished.

[Tabraue] Carole Baskin is full of sh*t,

in my opinion.

She's got a missing husband

that's supposedly buried in her property.

That's a real true story.

Her husband disappeared.

The lady who runs Big Cat Rescue,

who seems, in my opinion

to be completely out of her gourd,

and seems, in my opinion,

to have k*lled her own husband,

potentially.

[Joe] Carole Baskin's third husband,

they can't find his body.

We believe that she fed him to the tigers.

It just makes for wonderful sales

of newspapers, I'm sure

for them to speculate

that I fed him to the tigers, which is

crazy.

[reporter] And Mike says his children

from a previous marriage

and former secretary

have been quoted as saying that

they believe Carole fed him to a tiger.

[tiger roaring]

[instrumental folk music]