Myrtle Beach ‘Tiger King’ star could face 20 years for buying endangered animals.
A well-known “Tiger King” star and Myrtle Beach Safari operator was convicted of four counts of buying endangered animals, but acquitted on five animal cruelty charges by a jury in Virginia Friday.
Bhagavan “Doc” Antle initially faced 13 counts of buying endangered species and cruelty to animals charges in the Frederick County Circuit Court. A verdict was reached after a week-long trial, according to online court records.
Four additional charges were thrown out before the end of the trial due to insufficient evidence, according to Antle’s defense team.
Sentencing for Antle will take place on September 14, according to Harrigan.
“What he was convicted of was essentially a licensing and in our view, paperwork violations,” Eric Breslin, one of Antle’s attorneys, said. “We feel that those counts are based on a misreading of the law and we will be continuing to push for his full exoneration on those charges.”
There is a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison for each charge, so a maximum of 20 for all four felonies.
Brittany Peet, on PETA’s Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, provided a statement Saturday regarding Antle’s conviction.
“PETA has urged families to stay away from Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle’s exploitative park, blown the whistle on his apparent ‘charity’ scam, and alerted authorities to bears and tigers languishing in the heat at the cruel, now-defunct roadside zoo where he trafficked in endangered lions.
... PETA will push for a government crackdown on his chronic animal welfare violations and the termination of the federal licenses that keep his tawdry park in business.”
Judge Alexander Iden also dismissed three animal cruelty charges against Antle’s two daughters, 36-year-old Tilakam ”Tila” Magnolia Watterson and 28-year-old Tawny Antle, according to Erin Harrigan, an attorney Antle has.
More charges for ‘Tiger King’ star. Antle, others illegally trafficked wildlife, FBI says
Antle was indicted in 2020 following a months-long investigation by the Virginia Attorney General’s animal law unit.
The charges are related to lion cubs transported from a Virginia facility, Wilson’s Wild Animal Park, to Antle’s facility in Myrtle Beach, also known as The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.). The animal cruelty indictments alleged he carried or caused the lions to be carried in a “cruel, brutal, or inhumane manner, so as to produce torture or unnecessary suffering.”
The “Tiger King” star still faces several charges from federal law enforcement.
Antle also was indicted on federal wildlife trafficking charges last year just two days after a three-week stay at J. Reuben Long in Horry County for money laundering charges.
