A Virginia courtroom efficiently convicted “Tiger King” star Bhagavan Antle, also called “Doc” Antle, final Friday on 4 felonies linked to unlawful wildlife trafficking.
Attorney General Jason Miyares’ workplace stated in a press launch that Antle, who was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Virginia, was convicted by a jury of two counts of wildlife trafficking and two counts of conspiring to visitors wildlife.
Antle deliberate to show the lion cubs at his zoo in South Carolina.
The investigation into Antle started in 2019 and led to a week-long trial leading to his conviction.
“Virginia’s animal cruelty legal guidelines aren’t taken evenly by my workplace,” Miyares stated. “I’m pleased with my Animal Law Unit for his or her tireless work, and I’m thrilled that the jury not solely agreed with us however despatched a message that Virginia doesn’t tolerate wildlife animal trafficking.”
Antle is scheduled to be sentenced on September 14, 2023.
Antle is featured prominently in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a 2020 Netflix documentary miniseries that centered on tiger breeders and personal zoo operators within the U.S. The sequence focuses closely on Oklahoma zoo operator Joe Exotic, who was additionally focused for animal mistreatment and was convicted in a plot to kill a rival, Carole Baskin.
Animal rights advocates have accused Antle of mistreating lions and different wildlife. In 2020, he was indicted in Virginia on animal cruelty and wildlife trafficking costs.
Antle has a historical past of recorded violations, going again so far as 1989, when he was fined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for abandoning deer and peacocks at his zoo in Virginia. Over the years, he has greater than 35 USDA violations for mistreating animals.
In June 2022, Antle was charged with laundering greater than half one million {dollars}, cash federal prosecutors stated he believed to be the proceeds of an operation to smuggle unlawful immigrants throughout the Mexican border into the United States.
He faces as much as 20 years in federal jail if convicted of the cash laundering costs.
