Here's What Wild Animal Experts Want You To Know About 'Tiger King'

LOADING ERROR LOADING “Tiger King,” the Netflix docu-series it seems no one can stop talking about, is introducing huge numbers of viewers to a world most people aren’t familiar with ― the seedy underbelly of America’s captive tiger trade. AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki Petting Cubs In “Tiger King,” people paying money to pet lion and tiger cubs and take photos with them is a major source of income for Joe Exotic and other private zookeepers. “It requires that babies are taken from their mothers and forced into human lifestyles,” Imogene Cancellare, a conservation biologist whose Twitter thread on “Tiger King” went viral earlier this week, said in an email. Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images Casual Animal Mistreatment There are also instances of animal mistreatment throughout “Tiger King” that are never identified as such and that a casual viewer might not recognize as cruelty. She said some of the “largest red flags” are visitor “interaction with cubs” or adult animals, “the presence of many cubs,” and “cages that are too small, not constructed properly, or filled with debris.” A sign advertising baby tigers at the entrance of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park on Feb. 9, 2019.