Bhagavan Dakantal has made over a dozen appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He is the founder of the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is the owner of the premier cat visitation spot in the U.S.
00:00:56.980Oh, wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me this afternoon, bro.
00:01:01.400Glad to be on. Glad we got to put it together.
00:01:04.460Yeah, yeah. Thank you for your patience.
00:01:06.500Chatting here with Doc Antal from Myrtle Beach Safari, which probably is it the premier cat visitation spot in the U.S., would you say?
00:01:16.320In the world, by far. There's no place like this.
00:01:19.560You know, we just have this fabulous location that people can have such a grand time at that is really a palace for the wildlife in our care.
00:01:29.000And it looks really higher end. It looks more like the four seasons of Anamelia over there by you, whereas opposed to, you know, you look at, you know, a place like Joe Exotic is running more of like a still a beautiful place, but a little bit more, you know, something you'd see it like maybe like a rural carnival or something like that.
00:01:49.160Yeah, I mean, you know, it's the opportunity of time and money. For us, this is the going 39 years of doing this.
00:01:56.820I had the blessing of engaging in the biz and being around, started working so heavily in the 80s and 90s, work in Hollywood and doing stuff.
00:02:06.160And we made Ace Ventura and Jungle Book and Dr. Doolittle and 500 movie and television projects over around the world.
00:02:12.160So, and all that led me to a different vision of how to do it and the financial opportunity to create something that could have that five-star appeal.
00:02:21.840Joe just never had the time, never had the money. And I am in this glorious spot that is one of the hot spots of tourism in the world here in Myrtle Beach.
00:04:45.480Look, I think a lot of men, a lot of people were probably jealous if even at the the assumption of it.
00:04:52.180Did you get a lot of people reaching out saying that's wrong, you shouldn't have that type of lifestyle?
00:04:58.400Like, did you get a lot of lifestyle judgment, lifestyle judgment stuff?
00:05:02.200And just somehow that the ladies are very young and are taken advantage of at all from the driver that was coming out of the one unique character's mouth that talked on there.
00:05:14.800The girls that are here, these are women in their 40s, you know, rolling up on 50.
00:05:18.940Those are the key characters that help run the preserve.
00:05:23.020These aren't teenagers that are walking around here.
00:05:25.660Granted, some of them have been here for decades.
00:05:28.600But these are girls that operate this facility that are kickass, lion tamer girls who hold their own and have been doing so and operating the facility autonomous from me.
00:05:39.720I don't even have to be here and they can make it roll along and have everything work out.
00:10:04.420I was checking out some of his YouTube videos yesterday.
00:10:09.160When you look at the documentary, do you see, like, where did they go wrong?
00:10:14.300Like, are there things that obviously they blew out of proportion?
00:10:16.620I mean, obviously they, you know, tried to classify or make it just vaguely look like your granddaughter could be, you know, a woman you're dating or something.
00:10:29.380Or what else did we not get the true story on when you look at it?
00:10:32.140I mean, the huge line they stepped over was there at the end, bringing up on the black screen that they have asked me about some inappropriateness with Tiger Cubs and I haven't answered.
00:10:43.860But in fact, these guys talked to me for maybe five full days of filming and three or four half days.
00:10:50.540They asked me every question in the world.
00:10:52.700Ninety-nine percent of them had nothing to do with anything that was going to become Tiger King.
00:10:58.180And they just pick and chose little pieces.
00:11:00.800Of course, I run this incredible world-class operation.
00:11:04.400I have Tiger Cubs that live with me, cradle to grave.
00:11:07.200No Tiger babies are ever going to be euthanized or ever going to be pushed out of the way.
00:11:12.740They're incredibly precious to us, all the way from what they provide us to just their very nature to they have hyper value.
00:11:24.620We are reproducing tigers that have all been genetically tested from the time they're young and from their grandparents and great-grandparents.
00:11:34.020And we genetically test them to know that these are some of the most genetically diverse tigers on Earth.
00:11:39.380The only ones left on the planet with this genetic makeup.
00:11:44.040We've done that through world-class genetics that continue to work for us, with us.
00:11:49.920And those guys have been able to see this incredibly rare opportunity that we have.
00:11:54.840And this is a bank against the potential eventual extinction.
00:12:36.580There's a black market in Laos or Cambodia or, you know, places in Southeast Asia where people still readily consume tigers.
00:12:43.940The greatest threat the tiger has is being consumed by people who think that the incredible power and grace of the tiger will be given to them somehow by eating its parts and pieces.
00:12:55.200All the way from its testicles to its whiskers, a different parts, give you a different vibe and fix you up.
00:13:02.500But in America, a tiger cub is precious and amazingly rare.
00:13:06.680There is no surplus of tiger cubs in North America.
00:13:10.360There's virtually no one doing anything with cubs except the characters on the film, of which most of those people are out or on their way out.
00:13:37.480In December, they said you guys had a raid that came through there, Doc, for the cats.
00:13:41.080We had an inquiry from Virginia magistrate there who wanted to get some DNA from some lion cubs that we had.
00:13:52.400And so what are they doing with the DNA, do you think?
00:13:54.420Somebody in Virginia is having a meltdown case with them about an animal rights thing in a small hometown zoo that they don't like and they want to close it down.
00:14:36.640They said, we believe you, but we have to have inequivable proof.
00:14:41.160We've got to know that that's the lions.
00:14:43.560Let's take DNA from those lions, and we'll be on our way.
00:14:46.440I was never found or even questioned of doing anything wrong or having stepped over any line of any kind.
00:14:53.300We're just here with our wildlife, having this amazing setup go on, and just trying to make things smooth so the guests can see us and everybody have the greatest experience.
00:16:23.820And, Cody and Doc, do you guys, in interacting with animals so closely, especially here like Volley, does it make you feel more like evolution?
00:16:32.500Or do you still think that there's a religious element?
00:16:36.760Like what kind of comes into your soul when you're this close to animals?
00:16:40.080I mean, I think that there is potentially a creator to the universe, right?
00:16:44.280I believe that there is some kind of divine fingerprint that helps organize us all out.
00:16:49.580I don't know that anybody's down there doing day-to-day calls on how we behave, but I think that there is something spectacular in what was made up and how it all happened.
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00:22:27.320So, Doc, in a video I saw online, Carol Baskin, who's also another, you know, she's another cat owner and farmer that's featured in the documentary.
00:22:38.800Carol really pushes the envelope of you guys mishandling cub treatment over there.
00:23:09.400People like Carol and PETA just trying to make up a story.
00:23:13.220Of course, the cubs are super valuable to us as individuals, as characters that hold vital genetics to our ongoing program.
00:23:22.300Almost 40 years where we've been holding these family of tigers together.
00:23:26.320I've known several hundred tigers in that time, trying to have them hold up that genetics, which may, in fact, save the tiger and through that, make it that there will even be tigers on the planet in time to come.
00:23:40.000A baby tiger needs TLC, round the clock.
00:23:43.160You just can't rough them and handle them in some way that's inappropriate.
00:23:46.720They are cared for, round the clock, handled super minimally.
00:23:50.900You know, they pretend like we're passing them off in a line.
00:23:59.740And what about when they age out of kind of that sugar realm where people are loving them and, you know, like, they start to become, you know, hit the terrible twos, you know, like, even like children do.
00:24:10.180Do you guys, is there an underground railroad or something where you guys get rid of tigers at that point?
00:24:15.640Or is there, you know, what's the real deal?
00:24:17.940You see all those guys that are with Cody, those are Cody's, you know, brothers and sisters that he's out there with all day.
00:24:24.280He's got every color, every size, every shape, boys, girls.
00:24:28.440We continually have a relationship with those guys throughout their life, cradle to grave.
00:24:33.560They're important characters that on the preserve, we swim with them in a huge pool.
00:24:38.540They've got to be great big guys for that.
00:24:40.000We have a big tiger run where we have a tiger chase high-speed lures.
00:24:43.860We have 10 tigers that are set up to go and chase that lure system and be part of the whole interactive part of the tour.
00:25:19.180And it's not going to be something that creates a benefit of business.
00:25:24.960You need this tiger to be there for his genetics, for his beauty, for what he's going to be able to do later.
00:25:31.880And as an individual, he's a highly important, loving, caring character that a girl, a boy, sat there holding and loving and giving it a bottle around the clock and always being with it.
00:25:44.740So these are imprinted fur children in their own way as they-
00:25:56.520There are some retirees here that are decades old and ready to step off the edge, and we coddled them along so that they can cross the rainbows.
00:28:17.440I've had them next to me and with me my entire life.
00:28:19.860And I think it's essential to get that love and understanding and connection to ourself and animals to have puppies and to have things around in our life.
00:30:00.620And most of them don't even realize it's possible to do it safely, securely, and beneficially somewhere.
00:30:05.700Doing it here creates a big multi-sided benefit where you get to see the animals and pay for their wild project restoration so that they have a place to live.
00:30:18.020Hopefully that can move forward as we all make up our mind whether we're going to hold the world for wildlife or if we're going to hold the world for just people.
00:30:26.160Because we've got to come up with a decision there for the wild world to be left alone a little bit.
00:30:31.480And everybody wants their slice of it because it's also a valuable asset.
00:31:36.800I got scared at the end of watching Tiger King that I thought to myself, man, this is really going to put a damper on this kind of wild experience that you could have with cats, or the most innate experience you could have with cats.
00:31:55.840Or at the end, did you feel like this is going to inspire more people to come to these experiences?
00:32:01.180I hope it lets people think they can experience it and create the benefit for the animals in the wild and for the animals that are here with us.
00:33:44.180It sounds like any other business realm.
00:33:46.720It's like trying to kill out the little man.
00:33:48.920I did feel like that at the end of the documentary.
00:33:51.020I worried, I said, man, is this going to kill the little man, you know, or the middle man?
00:33:55.900Because I remember when I was growing up, we had a guy by us that had a couple of animals.
00:34:00.220I don't even know what one of them was.
00:34:01.600And we'd go over there and pet them, you know, and you could see the animals and stuff like that.
00:34:05.840And I felt like it at least gave me at least, you know, an experience with animals that was close to me.
00:34:11.380You know, we had by us, we had a wildlife refuge when I was in junior high.
00:34:17.480And you go there and they got like a camel or something and all kinds of long animals, giraffe and everything.
00:34:24.720And I'm assuming that once these kind of things move forward, that a lot of a lot of you guys and those sorts of things would be shut down.
00:34:40.940You can never have enough turkey dinner.
00:34:43.200You know, they're all the way to the extreme.
00:34:45.620The big money, powerful organizations like PETA and Humane Society of the United States are anti-all-human interaction or entertainment for pets or for food.
00:34:57.520Now, I'm a vegetarian, but I don't think you're supposed to be a vegetarian.
00:35:01.640You have to make that choice yourself.
00:35:03.860I can't impose upon you my own concepts of thinking.
00:35:08.260Everyone has to make their own free choice.
00:35:10.580I think that those ideas of somebody trying to legislate a what they think is a moral choice for you is wrong.
00:35:19.460And that's what a lot of this boils down to is them saying we know what's best.
00:35:24.560You know, there's a whole political concept of we know how you should really behave and be treated.