Ad Blitz Exposes What ‘Tiger King’ Left Out

PETA Takes Aim at Waccatee Zoo, Where Tiger Is Going Bald and Big Cats, Bears, and Baboons Show Signs of Psychological Distress

For Immediate Release:
April 9, 2020

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

As Netflix’s Tiger King captures the world’s attention, PETA has launched a TV and radio ad campaign revealing that “Doc” Antle of Myrtle Beach Safari isn’t the only animal exploiter in town. At the Waccatee Zoo, big cats, bears, and baboons pace back and forth in barren cages—and some even attack themselves—and a tiger named Lila, who was reportedly sent to Waccatee from Myrtle Beach Safari, has lost almost all of her fur. “She needs to be sent to an accredited sanctuary immediately,” the ads urge. “All of the animals do.”

“The rundown Waccatee Zoo is just as despicable as the other tourist traps on Tiger King,” says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet, who appears in the Netflix docuseries. “PETA is calling for these suffering animals to be moved to reputable facilities where they’d receive the care they urgently need.”

Other animals at the Waccatee Zoo have recently been seen with severely overgrown hooves, wounds, and significant hair loss, and the facility is in general disrepair, with dirty and unsanitary conditions, insecure fencing, and other issues. The roadside zoo was previously cited for failing to provide animals—including a lion who had difficulty walking—with veterinary care and for keeping bears and cougars in enclosures that lack adequate space.

The ads will run twice daily on FOX through May 10 and air hundreds of times on nearly a dozen radio stations over the next month.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.