“Tiger King” star Bhagavan “Doc” Antle was booked into a South Carolina jail by the FBI Friday evening
Antle, 62, was jailed in a North Myrtle Beach detention center around 5:40 p.m., and no charges against him were listed, according to government records. TMZ reported that the arrest was related to money laundering.
Antle — who was featured as a rival of Joe Exotic in the hit Netflix docuseries — owns Myrtle Beach Safari.
In recent years, he was charged with multiple felonies for trafficking and abusing exotic animals. Activists cheered his latest arrest in a statement to The Post.
“We applaud the Dept. of Justice and FBI for arresting Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle, a longtime scoundrel engaged in the egregious and inhumane trade of dangerous big cats,” said Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action.
“Irresponsible breeding, inhumane living conditions, and public exploitation is a serious problem in the U.S., and caging these wild animals also presents a threat to human health and safety.
A follow up Netflix documentary series “Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story” alleged that Antle had sex with minors, abused women and defrauded a wildlife charity.
Antle told WBTW-TV in December that all the allegations were “absolutely false.”