When I first heard about the show, I was outraged about the exploitation of exotic wildlife. I knew without watching that critically endangered animals were being caged and housed in a foreign environment that they were not adapted for. "Five minutes into the first episode of Netflix's viral documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Maddness, its codirector Eric Goode, encounters a newly purchased snow leopard in the back of a van suffering in the Florida heat." Source.
It was evident from the trailer alone that all the animals were thought of as monetary value for utilization with no consideration that they are living creatures. However, what I was not prepared for was to see that same mentality bleed over in the exploitation of people. I was appalled and sickened by the how these "tiger kings" psychologically manipulated people in vulnerable states for their own pleasure and use. What was more shocking was how these acts seemed to be glossed over and lost in the wild ride of Joe's antics and the praise of Doc's "ability" to keep his women in line.
In the beginning, the director and filmmakers seemed to not have a clue where the filming of this show would take them. I believe they, like me, thought they were merely going to be exposing the animals cruelty taking place. But somewhere along their five year journey it appears they lost sight of that fact and got wrapped up in catching all the drama that was collateral damage in the wake of these crazy people.
"But while the Netflix-watching public is fixated on the show's outlandish deeds and personalities, the real victims of the documentary- the people who worked under Joe, and the animals still in captivity- haven't gotten nearly as much press." Source
Every zoo owner in the show is guilty of exploiting its "employees." I use the term lightly because these zoos resemble more a cult than a functional working institution. The unhealthy love and devotion these people show to the owners of these places would make any psychiatrist cringe at the mental and emotion abuse taking place. The tactics used are the same as those people guilty of starting and running cults.
An organization that works to aid humans who have been victimized broke down the strategy that Doc and Joe have used to control their workers. They refer to it as a "grooming" meaning that they are taking advantage of peoples' vulnerabilities and reshaping their identity/ideals to whatever they want them to be. An exact definition describes it as "a predatory act of maneuvering another individual into a position that makes them more dependent, likely to trust, and more vulnerable to abusive behavior." While many say nothing can be done because all the workers consented and can "leave" at anytime, there is a strong argument that is psychological manipulation truly willful consent?
Let's first look at Doc and his women. He goes out of his way to find impressionable virgins, cuts them off from the outside world, and created a system that the only way to the top (meaning decent living conditions and treatment) is through sexual favors with him. Because he is, for many of the women, their first and only association with sex/intimacy, they become emotionally attached. He has stripped the women of their identity, gave them new names, and then has them play the role of a sex icon for his pleasure as well as enticing people to come to his park.
“the grooming techniques some of the main cast of the
documentary use on the people in their life, not just the animals. These exact techniques are used by traffickers and pimps to manipulate and control their victims.” Source
Uses the same techniques of pimps and sex traffickers but this situation only gets referred to in one episode never to be addressed again. Uses the same tactics, but this is not getting any media attention. Instead people are wanting to argue whether Carol's dead husband of twenty years was actually murdered.
Doc is not the only one exploiting his workers in a cult mentality fashion. While Doc uses his women employees for his own sexual pleasure, Joe does the exact same thing but with men. Joe has had three husbands at the same time. It is known knowledge that the men involved were addicts, and Joe was their supplier. Their payment was in sex and employment at this zoo. Their lives are controlled and they cannot go anywhere or leave the grounds without his permission. Two of his husbands were straight before meeting Joe and much younger; Joe used the gravity of their drug addiction and their impressionable age to control them. His first husband even had a tattoo over his genitals that said "Property of Joe." This twisted dynamic Joe created was all about possession and ownership like those men were the same as his tigers. This is prime example of an abusive toxic relationship.
"Joe used many of the same tactics Antle used on his husbands, such as giving them the promise of a better life and finding people who were impressionable and searching. Both of his husbands came to the park when they were 19. When Joe married Travis, his second husband, Joe was 32 years older than Travis." Source
Each situation is the same song just a different tune. Either way one looks at it, both major zoo owners exploit their employees and people as badly as they exploit their big cats. It is because of people like this that there are more tigers in captivity in the United States alone than there are total in the wild."You know why there are more tigers in captivity than in the wild? Because the general public will pay huge amounts of money to play with a tiny tiger cub for a few minutes. But tigers only stay tiny for a few weeks, so to maintain their supply, breeders like Joe Exotic and Doc Antle, as the series shows, churn out cubs for their petting operations and then unload them when the felines grow up, start chomping on customers, and develop a $10,000-a-year meat habit." Source
These people are allowed to continue their inhumane operations because of the ignorance of the general public surrounding the truth about these situations. Media is a fabulous tool to promote knowledge and education about causes such as this; without this show many of people would never know the gravity of the exotic pet trade, the severity of cub petting and damage of these zoos breeding these wild animals. And in many respects, this seemed to be the intended purpose of the show in the beginning. In the beginning, director Eric Goode wanted to focus on the dark under belly of exotic pet trade, but somewhere along the way, the filming got more involved with the drama, and that resulted in the victims and animals fell to the wayside.When watching these people confine tigers in inhumane conditions, seeing women and men being manipulated and sexually exploited, witnessing a woman having her arm bit off because harsh reality that she is in close relations with an apex, wild animal that belongs in the jungle not a cage, at what point does the focus shift from informative documentary to entertainment? When audiences are gripped by these grisly details and its all everyone is talking about, did the show stay true to it intended purpose of being a documentary? When memes are being made about Joe's outlandish personality or corny music videos, at what point is the media source stepping into a moral gray area? This dilemma of shifting the focus to more entertainment lens because these people and actions are almost too real to be true. The sad reality is they are very real and the actions they are doing are very true.
These are the kinds of things anyone in media must think about. Ethics in media is vital (honestly ethics in any situation is vital), but with media it is crucial in another sense. Media outlets have great power in the fact they have a public platform to inform the masses. It is vital that people in media remember this. If they take delicate situations like this where people are in psychologically abusive situations and animals are in horrendous living conditions with poor quality of life, then their first priority as a reporter and informant of the situation is ethics.Reporting on the facts not glamorizing the details. Now, Joe did get arrested, and investigations are coming forward about Doc, so one could argue that in some regards this show brought them to justice. But many also agree that the emphasis of the show was not on the victims but morphed into an entertainment. This delicate line of accountability is one that people working in media must be aware of constantly. If they shift their focus from the importance of ethics, then they are just as guilty as the people they are reporting on for exploitation. A disregarding of media ethics then begins to take on a form of exploitation because publicity (which equals profit) is then gained from the expense of the victims being reported.
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