Doc Antle is an animal trainer and private zoo operator who has gained a reputation for keeping and raising big cats and other exotic animals. He is also a controversial figure who has faced animal cruelty allegations and criticism from his personal life. The publicity he attracts has made him one of America's most famous animal trainers, and Doc Antle's net worth is now $ 10 million. This is how he accumulated his wealth.
The beginnings of Doc Antle
Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle was born in Salinas, California on March 25, 1960. He was raised on a cattle ranch in Southern California, where he developed a love for animals. Because his name was unusual, he became known as Kevin in school, and it's still a name he uses occasionally. In her early twenties, Antle traveled through China and obtained a doctorate in Chinese medicine. It was then that he earned the nickname "Doc", and he is known as Doc Antle.
His career
Doc Antle founded the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, also known as TIGERS. It's a private zoo where Antle trains and breeds big cats and other exotic species. He opens his zoo for tours of the facilities. Not only does Antler train and breed animals in his zoo, he also works to conserve rare species, and he supports many charities for this purpose. He is the Executive Director of the Rare Species Fund, a non-profit conservation organization. His work with this organization involves the conservation of wildlife around the world. Representatives of the Exxon company approached Antle in 1982. They asked her to do a presentation with a tiger for their annual convention. A year later, the company asked him to train tigers for their “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” advertising campaign. The campaign tigers became Antle's first animal ambassadors, and they continued to appear in Exxon Corporation advertisements for six years. Using Antle's tigers in advertising campaigns raised his profile as an animal trainer. His profile improved further in 2001 when he appeared on stage alongside Britney Spears when she performed "I'm a Slave for You" at the MTV Video Music Awards. The performance featured Spears wearing an albino python draped over his shoulders and a caged tiger.
Antle has also worked behind the scenes as an animal handler for films featuring large and potentially dangerous animals. Some of the films he's been involved with include 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective' and 'Dr. Dolittle. Additionally, Antler has provided animals for many feature films. Some of them include "The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling", "Mighty Joe Young", "The War", "The Jungle Book 2" and "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls". Antler has featured in several big cat documentaries. Some of the documentaries he appears in include PBS's “Big Cats”, Nature's “Jaguar: Year of the Cat” and Nat Geo Wild's “Super Cat”. Most recently, Doc Antler was featured alongside several other private breeders in the 2020 Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness”. Throughout his career, Doc Antler has appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows and late night shows. He often takes some of his animals to accompany him during these appearances. For example, he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago in 2008. He took with him an orangutan called Suryia and an orphaned blue tick dog called Roscoe.
Controversies
Doc Antle is almost as famous for the controversies surrounding his professional life as he is for his success. The first time he drew negative attention to himself was in 1989, when he was fined for abandoning peacocks and deer at his Virginia Zoo. It was the first in a series of fines, as he had more than 35 USDA violations for mistreating his animals. In 2019, the Myrtle Beach Safari in Antle was raided by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. They raided the private zoo with officials from the Horry County Police Department. Antle later explained that they had come to take DNA tests on three lions, which he said came from a Virginia wildlife park that had closed. The documentary 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness' raised further questions about Antle's treatment of animals. Former zoo operator Joe Exotic alleged that Antle used gas chambers to kill tigers to make room for his expanding breeding program. Controversies surrounding Antle's treatment of animals continued into 2020 as he was investigated for the illegal sale of tigers and other big cats, Wikipedia says. In October, he was charged with multiple counts of felony and misdemeanor, including nine counts of animal cruelty, four counts of conspiracy to violate endangered species law, one count of conspiracy to traffic in wildlife and one count of the crime of trafficking in wildlife. He was charged with his daughter and the owner of Wilson's Wild Animal Park in Frederick County, Kevin A. Wilson.
Doc Antle Net Worth
According to Style Caster, Doc Antle's net worth is $ 10 million. He made some of his money through his zoo, where he organizes tours. Antle also made money through her TV appearances and attending events with her big cats and other exotic creatures.
His personal life
There have been repeated allegations that Doc Antle has multiple wives, says The Sun. However, he denies these claims and says he never remarried after his wife died in a car crash in Myrtle Beach in 1995, although he admits he has a lot of women in his life. With his deceased wife, Doc Antle has two children; a son, Kody, and a daughter, Tawny. His two adult children work alongside him in his zoo.
