While Netflix’s “Tiger King” introduced streaming-loving audiences to exotic animals, a legal battle was underway between zoo owners featured in the show and animal advocacy organizations seeking to shut down the cub-petting industry with the support of the federal government.
According to PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Jeffrey Lowe and Timothy Stark split endangered tiger cubs from their mothers at an early age to build photo opportunities with a paying public, and big cats at Stark’s zoo were held in “woefully insufficient enclosures.” Animal rights activists are attempting to set a precedent under the Endangered Species Act through this. They want to show that the Act extends to individual animals in captivity, which would mean that exhibitors who mistreat endangered species may face federal penalties.
Lowe, Stark, and others are being sued under two sections of the Act. The law forbids the harming, threatening, or killing of an endangered animal, referred to as “taking.” It requires someone with standing to file a complaint against an alleged violator.