All language subtitles for The.Conservation.Game.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

[chirping]

[dramatic music]

- [Marlin] Wonderful,
memorable moments,

many of these I shared
with Jim Fowler.

- [Jim] We've helped capture
hundreds of animals,

but this one had to rank among
the most memorable of all.

- [Tim] I remember
sitting in front of the TV

we had in our house,
just inches away.

Just totally mesmerised
watching Marlin Perkins

"Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom".

[leopard roaring]

We had Jacques Cousteau,

all these TV shows with all
this adventure and animals.

- [TV Presenter]
When Sam finally leaped out

after the fleeing buffalo,

it took only a moment
for the situation...

- And I would say to myself,

"Man, I wanna go out,
and I wanna catch these animals.

"I wanna be a person
that can handle animals

"and get out there
and do this kind of stuff."

I was trying to take
that adventure I saw on TV,

and do it in real life.

It was just--
it was very exciting.

And from that point on,
I just thought to myself,

you know,
"This is what I want to do."

I loved it,
absolutely loved it.

[laughter on TV]

As I grew a little older
and got in my teenage years,

they were actually bringing
the animals on TV shows

in front of TV audiences
and everything else.

I thought, "Man, this is cool."

- [Johnny Carson]
A very sensitive animal.

[audience laughs]

He punched me
right in the mouth.

- But then this other guy
shows up on the scene,

and all of a sudden, boom,
Jim Fowler hand-off the baton,

and this guy ran with it,
his name was Jack Hanna.

- [David Letterman] Jack!
- He just exploded.

- [Letterman]
Now, wait a minute.

Let's make sure one set
of animals has cleared the area.

- [Jack Hanna] Oh, shoot, no!

- And became the number one
animal celebrity in the world.

- [Jack]
They were born in Columbus Zoo.

- Oh, they were born in the zoo?
- Yeah, this one belongs to us.

- And what was so cool about it
was that he was from Ohio.

He was from the Columbus Zoo,

just down the road
from where I lived.

- The Director Emeritus
of the Columbus Zoo...

- It was attainable for me
to follow in his footsteps,

because he was one of us.

- Put your hand like this.
- No, I think we've seen enough.

[audience laughs]

- And I was just on the verge,
I was still young

and I was helping
with other places,

and other zoos
and everything else,

and I'm thinking,
"Man, this is so cool.

"Someday I wanna be
like Jack Hanna."

That was my dream.

I remember working
as a police officer,

firefighter, paramedic
for the city of Oakwood

here in Dayton, Ohio.

In between calls
we'd watched TV.

And I always wanted
to watch the animal shows.

- [Steve Irwin]
Coming back real fast!

- But the style was changing
so quickly.

- Neck starts to puff up,

that rapid tongue flicking,
it's getting upset.

- They would tease
these animals unmercifully

till they attacked
the TV cameras.

And animals were
running everywhere,

and they were harassed
and were being teased.

- Look at the size
of him, Jimmy!

- Jeff, you're scaring me.

- This form of television
became so popular,

every TV show, all of them
had their own animal guy.

- Please welcome Dave Salmoni.

Dave!
[audience cheers]

- Please welcome Jarod Miller.

[audience applause]

- Nat Geo Wild big cat expert,
Boone, nice to see you.

- Thank you for having me here.

- [Tamron Hall]
What great work you do.

- And things changed,
something happened.

All of a sudden I get a call
from a local police department

by somebody having
a tiger in their basement,

or somebody over here having

one of the most dangerous
creatures on the planet,

a Gaboon viper.

And that's when
I started realizing

this is not fun
and games anymore.

It was a big problem,

and I was right
in the middle of it.

- There are more captive tigers
in the US today

than there are in the wild
throughout the world.

- It turns out some states
make it easier

to keep a tiger than a dog.

We wondered how someone...

- Nobody was ready
for this huge influx

of these animals being bred
and sold out to the public.

Well, with the reality TV
mind-set,

the "monkey see, monkey do"
mind-set, it happened.

I asked them, "Why did you
bring this tiger in your home?"

"I watched a show
on Animal Planet."

Bang, it's just that simple.

- Well, and apparently
some of those animals

are still on the loose.

I know you're involved
in the search.

We'll let you get back to it.

Tim Harrison, thank you.

- I was watching these two
worlds growing at the same time.

You had the celebrity
conservationists,

they come on TV,
and they've got their

endangered species,
their ambassador animals.

- [Jack] Rarest
endangered cats in the world.

- And on the other hand,
you had the seedy underbelly.

We had the backyard breeders.

We had the roadside zoos.

The absolute worst were
these exotic animal auctions.

It was at these auctions,
I saw those two worlds collide,

and it changed my life forever.

[tense music]

[gravel crunching]

[engine humming]
- We're trying to figure out

where all the animals
are coming from.

So Tim says he's
going up to see

the exotic animal auction,
and see what they're selling.

I said, "Well, Tim,
if you're going,

I'm gonna come
and be your backup."

[auctioneer shouting]

This is a very dangerous place,
these auctions,

because within
the first 10 minutes

we heard people talking about,

"If anybody comes
in here with cameras,

"they'll be on their way out
with a ball bat,

or a 2x4, or not such
good shape as they came in."

[people chattering]

- You walk through
this big mass crowd of people

and all of a sudden
you see carts filled

with these cages, big cats,
bear cubs, primates.

They all have numbers on them.

[monkey screaming]

[sniffing, whimpering]

A regular person
can just buy themselves

an endangered species,

walk out of there without
any paperwork whatsoever.

Just, here's my tiger cub,
and off I go.

[auctioneer calling]

- As a police officer,
firefighter, paramedic,

I've seen a lot,

and I've never seen anything
like this in my entire life.

[monkey chattering]

If there was a hell for animals,
this would be it.

[animals squealing]

[tense music]

♪♪

- When you look around,
it's a who's who

of the most notorious,

exotic animal exploiters
in the country.

And all of a sudden
you see Sam Mazzola,

or you see over here
a Terry Thompson.

He was the one
who turned his animals loose

on the city of Zanesville.

And you look over here
and all of a sudden I see

Cyndi Huntsman.

- This gal races up to Tim,

and it's Cyndi Huntsman

who has a roadside zoo
outside of Columbus.

- And she approaches me
and she goes,

"What are you doing here?"

And I looked
and kinda was shocked, I go,

"What are you doing here?"

- [Rus] She says,
"Well, I'm selling the animals

that Jack Hanna had
on TV last month."

- "And I'm gonna pick up
some other animals,

"because he has
another late night show

he's gonna be doing."

- And I just about fell over.

[auctioneer calling]

- [Auctioneer] One female
cougar, two weeks old.

- Could this be the same animals

that I'm pulling out
of people's basements?

[auctioneer shouting]

[cubs squealing]

- It can't get any more weird
than what I've just seen.

So I walk outside,
and I look across the way

and... it's Jarod Miller.

- He's on Animal Planet,

he's on all the late night
shows, morning shows.

- Look at this guy, now...

- [Tim] Here he is in person.

And he knows no cameras
are allowed in there.

- I decide I'm gonna follow him,
I'm gonna see what he's up to.

- You know, he wasn't there
to shut down this auction,

he wasn't there
to expose anything.

He was there to handpick animals
that he wants to use.

Here he is feeding
into the exotic pet trade.

And that's when I woke up.

My gears started working,
I started connecting the dots.

And I realised,
this is not an anomaly.

This is systemic,
they're all combined.

- [Letterman] Imagine seeing
that crawling out from under...

- Then I started
paying attention

to the individuals
in the background.

I started paying attention
to the person that came off

and got the animal and walked
off the stage with it.

I realised, I know that guy.

He's a guy that has
all of his animals

in an industrial park warehouse.

And then I watch another show,

and somebody come out,
I recognise that guy.

He has a backyard menagerie.

He is also a private breeder.

What are they doing
with their ambassador animals?

Where do they go?
What happens to them?

- [Boone]
We've got Mr. Jake here.

He's what we call
an ambassador animal.

So we use him as an ambassador

to showcase what
a great animal he is,

how incredible
these animals are,

and let people learn
about them a little more...

- And as Jake grows up, what's
gonna be in store for him?

- Um, Jake is at a zoo,
and he's obviously...

- I have connections
to almost all the AZA zoos

in the United States of America,

and these ambassador cats
are not showing up there.

- [Dave Salmoni]
You wanna grab him?

Watch your clothes.
- [Fran] Where's his mama?

- His mum's at a nice
little zoo somewhere.

- Aww...

- [Tim] As we look at all these
we have out here,

we try to get a handful of them

that we can actually get
some clean data on.

- One of our things
we're working on here.

This is Millie,
she's a Bengal tiger.

- [Tim] And we think
we can potentially find out

what's happened to them
and where they ended up.

- [Jack]
Species Survival Plan,

we know exactly where
these things are at all times.

- [Letterman] All right, okay.
Wow, this is remarkable...

- [Carney Anne] We have
this connected network

of individuals who are using
big cats for public contact,

and then when they
become too big,

too expensive to maintain,

we see them end up
in the exotics market,

or because of defects
in the laws,

we lose track of them,

because there's
no meaningful mechanism

by which we can figure out

where these cats are coming from
and where they're going.

Think strategically,
and then err on the side

of being over-inclusive.

I'm Carney Anne Nasser,

and I am the director
of the Animal Welfare Clinic

at Michigan State University
College of Law.

The agency will get back
to us and say...

I supervise law students
in the practice of animal law.

Under my supervision,
they tackle cases

under regulatory law,

litigation, policy,
you name it.

Anything impacting
animal welfare

where we can play a role
in advancing the interests

of animals,
that's what we're here for.

- You're gonna be
our ambassadors

to try to find out
what happened.

Working with Michigan State
University's law school,

we're able to
put it together now,

and give us some basis
of where to go.

And I really do think
we're gonna to find out

where some of these cats are.

Tiger Wyatt, Tiger Jake.
Orange Tiger Jake.

- And what I'd like to start out
with is have my law students,

through a series of Freedom
of Information Act requests,

see what we can dig up.

And there would be records kept.

We're gonna do a broad request
to find out

everything that's out there

to the US Department
of Agriculture,

to US Fish
and Wildlife Service,

and then to the relevant
state agencies

to see what they've got.
- And challenging cases.

- To the extent
we don't find information,

I think that's very compelling
to say

we don't even have a way
to find this information out.

It just doesn't exist.

But I'll get
my law students on it,

and we'll see what we can do.

- What I think
anybody would expect

with any kind
of a tiger or big cat,

I would think that
that would be tracked

to a degree beyond
anything else, right?

But there's probably
better tracking

of a lot of domestic cats
than there are tigers.

[tigers growling]

What else has gone on like
in the last couple of years,

since I was here?

- We're gonna prepare
this ground here...

- My name is Keith Gad,

and my background
and training includes

conducting investigations,
wildlife management,

conservation studies,
and federal law enforcement.

What's gonna make
this investigation so difficult

is the sheer number
of big cats

that are out in America.

But you have to start somewhere.

Cy has a couple of tigers,

and so maybe he has an animal
that we're looking for.

You know,
where are these animals now?

And that's what we were hoping,
you may or may not recognise

the names of a couple
of these animals.

There was this three-month-old
female tiger named Millie

that appeared
on "The Today Show"

with Jarod Miller
and Boone Smith.

- The folk that are using
the animals on television,

I've called friends
since I first got started.

- This guy looks familiar
with Jimmy Kimmel.

- Do you not know who that is?

- I don't for sure.
- I do.

- We have an idea.

Who is it?
- Um...

The folk that are breeding
and providing the animals,

these are all people
that I know,

and that I've
done business with.

We all work together.

- Then Millie,
three months old in 2015.

- Right off the top of my head,

but, um, who's that
in the background?

If somebody were
to take interest

in trying to track down
an animal

that they saw as a baby
on a late night show...

I mean, God only knows
where that cat originated from.

...I wouldn't bet
more than a nickel

that if they had 100,
that they'd be able to find

one of them.

I wouldn't even be interested
in really engaging

in a genuine conversation
about the possibility

of actually being successful
in tracking down

any of them,
let alone one.

- Just one of them
that we're interested in seeing.

- Yeah.
- Nothing?

- No.
- Okay, all right.

[TV voices in background]

- We can try to call
Jarod right now,

and just kinda...
informally ask him

if he remembers Emma,
and where she might've went to.

I can't say whether
he'll answer the phone.

[keypad clicking]

[phone line trilling]

[dog barks in background]

[phone line continues trilling]

- [Jarod, on recording]
Hi, you've reached Jarod.

Leave a message
and I'll get back to you

as soon as I can, thanks.

[voicemail beeps]

- Hi, Jarod.
It's Cy here in Ohio.

I was, um, calling
with kind of a random question.

I was curious
if you might remember

a cub that you had
on "The Today Show."

Her name was Emma,
a tiger cub.

- [Jarod] When Emma here is
full grown, she'll be almost...

- [Cy] We're just kinda trying
to track to see where

she might have went.

If you have any answer to that,

or you know by any chance,
just give me a call back.

All right,
hope you're doing well, bye.

[phone beeps]

- He's not gonna know
where the animal's at,

or where it went.

I'd be surprised if he even
remembered the animal, period.

He's not a bad person
for not having those answers.

That's the nature
of his business.

You just want to know what
the cute tiger cub's name is.

- This is Millie,
she's a Bengal tiger.

- [Tamron] Hi, Millie.

- [Cy] And what kind of
natural behaviors it might have

when it's 400 pounds.

- They're very social,
live in big prides,

let the females
bring the food to them.

- [Woman] What a life.

- You don't want to hear

about any potential
sad situation

that it's to succumb
down the road.

Nobody wants to hear that.

- [Radio Presenter]
Music and news

for the City of Good Neighbors,
Buffalo, New York.

Music and news around the clock.

You're listening to WDAN.

- Once we got there, I'm gonna
have you stay in the car,

and just keep an eye.
I don't want to bum-rush him,

and make him feel like, whoa,
jump back, "What's going on?"

- Right.
- And I'm just gonna approach

and hand this to him,

and then start asking him
about these cats,

you know,
where these animals end up.

And then if he
continuously talks,

I'm just gonna keep--
keep letting him talk.

We wanna get something
stirred up here in Buffalo.

We wanna get it going
that we're here

to find out about
these animals.

So we're on, we're looking.

[car door closes]
Is he here already or...?

- No, he's not.
Loretta is though.

- [Tim] Okay, you got it.
I'll just wait for him then.

That's no problem.
You don't have to bother her.

The only person that's
gonna answer this question

is gonna be the last person
seen with her,

and that's Jarod Miller.

[inaudible conversation]

[indistinct chatter]

- [Woman] Or the people
who are-- you know what I mean?

- [Tim] Yes.
Let me grab...

- Do you just have
a couple questions for him?

- [Tim] Yeah, I just need
to talk to you about

5 or 10 minutes, that's it.
- Yes, sure.

- Then we'll let you guys
do what you need to do.

I'll bring you over here
and talk over here a little bit.

Just between you and I.
- All right.

- [Tim] I appreciate it.

Now, Jarod, you probably don't
remember me too much, do ya?

- [Jarod] I don't, I don't
know if we've ever met before.

- [Tim] We probably met
a couple of times

at some of the auctions,
some of the situations.

- [Jarod] Okay.
- But what I have is,

I'm on a kind of
a mission right now.

We're trying to find out
what happened to some

of these cats.
- Okay.

- They're your
ambassador animals.

That's just a partial list.
- Right.

- Those are the ones
we're having a real hard time

trying to even find out
what happened to them.

- Right.
- Do you have any idea

where the snow leopard went
by any chance?

- Well, this is a buddy of mine.
I'm trying to remember.

I think that was one from,
uh, I'm not exactly sure.

- 'Cause that was
just last year.

- Well, I used to work
at the Columbus Zoo,

and he raised a lot
of snow leopards there.

- Okay.

- Then I don't
really know exactly.

I don't know which ones
were born at the zoo,

but I remember they would raise
them for different...

- So the Columbus Zoo,
this came from the Columbus Zoo?

- I believe so, yeah.
- And it went back?

- I mean, like I said,
I don't know.

Like I don't-- yeah,
I don't keep the cat, so...

- Okay.
These two especially

right here, Emma,
and this lion here.

If you can tell me,
if you can find out,

I'd really appreciate it,
because we're in a process

of trying to find out
where these cats are.

And it makes me a little bit mad
a little bit that you guys

use them and you don't know
where they go, you know?

- Yeah, like when it comes
to like that kind of stuff,

Lee Huntsman that was in Ohio.

And Lee Huntsman
was the one that,

they always had like cats.

But between like Lee Huntsman
and Grant Kemmerer,

do you know him?
- Not yet.

- He's more in Western PA,
so he's about 3 hours from us.

- From here, okay.
- But, yeah, anytime we need,

anytime we ever had
something for a cat,

it was usually Grant, so...

- So really you don't know
what happens?

You use them
and then they go away?

- Yup.
- And then that's--

you never see it again, right?
- Yeah, no, I don't.

- You never see the cat again.
All right, well...

- Nice meeting you, Tim.
- Take care.

I'm disgusted.

You know how hard it was
for me not to grab him,

and shake him?

Yeah, I'm done with him.
I'm so pissed off right now,

I don't even want
to talk to him anymore.

I just wanted
to tell him, say,

"Listen, you're exploiting
these animals,

and it's just not right."

- [Jarod] So I used to work
at the Columbus Zoo,

and he raised a lot
of snow leopards there.

- [Tim] Okay.

So the Columbus Zoo,
this came from the Columbus Zoo?

- [Jarod] I believe so, yeah.
- [Tim] And it went back?

- [Jarod] I know a guy named
Lee Huntsman that was in Ohio.

And Lee Huntsman
was the one that,

they always have cat...

[helicopter blades whirring]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[tense music]

♪♪

- We're on route to a location

that we think some
of the ambassadors cats

have ended up.

It's deep, deep in a rural part
of Pennsylvania.

Kinda-- it's dairy country
is what it is.

Now, if you watch the shows
and listen closely,

you'll hear Jack Hanna refer
to this alleged zoological park

in Pennsylvania.
- [Letterman] Where was it born?

- This was born at the
zoological park in Pennsylvania.

- Oh, for heaven's sake.

- [Tim] And you'll hear
Boone Smith refer to

a supposed sanctuary
in Pennsylvania.

- So he's out of a sanctuary
there in Pennsylvania.

And so these guys have
a great facility where...

- [Tim] If you do just
a little bit of research,

you'll see that there
is no such zoo

or sanctuary that we can find.

It looks like it's got
farm animals onto it.

This is definitely not
a zoo or sanctuary.

I don't see anything at all

that would resemble
any place for big cats.

And in my conversation
with Jarod,

he refers to some guy
in Pennsylvania named Grant.

That's it, you don't have
no idea what happens
to 'em afterwards?

- Usually like Grant Kemmerer.
Do you know him?

- [Tim] Not yet.
- [Jarod] He's in Pennsylvania.

- So this would be
Grant Kemmerer,

who is seen behind the scenes
a lot on TV

handling the animals,
taking them off stage,

even wearing
a Columbus Zoo uniform.

Right there, it says
Columbus Zoo on there.

But he's not
from the Columbus Zoo.

He doesn't own
a zoological park.

He doesn't even have
a sanctuary.

He has a private
animal entertainment company

listed as his home address,

which is actually just a farm
tucked away here

in the back country
of Pennsylvania.

- Right on the other side
of that hill

is where the property is.

- [Tim] Somebody's
not telling the truth.

- Looking at the property,

just not seeing anywhere that
anybody could keep big cats.

Really interesting to see
what Tim finds out

up there talking with him.

- He's not there.

There was his mother-in-law
and father-in-law.

And they said that he keeps
his animals at another location.

It's up the road,
and just back over this hill.

- So it's not the address
on the USDA paperwork?

- No.

Said it's the second house...
on the right.

- [Keith] So did they say
go right at the farm?

- No, maybe it is back there.

"Road closed."
I bet you that's it right there.

[tense music]

[gravel crunching]

♪♪

Something not right here.

[gears clunk]

They've got some cages
up there.

Oh, this is bad.
This is bad, Keith.

Look at these makeshift--
look at these cages.

- Yeah, this is definitely it.

- Every one of these
little bitty cages

has animals in it.

Okay, right over there,
it looks like a leopard.

That's a leopard.
- It's a leopard.

- That's a leopard
in the top cage right there.

This is just disgusting.

I've been telling people
for years that these animals

are ending up
in private people's backyards.

They got animals
in corn cribs.

- Look at this,
look at this one.

- It's just,
it's stunning.

There's wolves up here, Keith.

- That's a big wolf.
- Yeah, a real big wolf.

- And then, man,
look at this right next door.

- If the cats we're looking for
are on this property,

it's gonna really upset me.

[phone buzzing]

Keith, I just got two--
two missed calls here

while we were turning around
here, from Miami, Florida.

That might be Grant's,
because he's originally from

down that area,
that might be his cell phone.

We are looking
for these animals,

and we're looking
for these cats,

especially for Savannah,
and lion cub Tyson,

and black leopard Queen.
How about Wyatt?

Wyatt was the one
we had on a list here.

You have a pen and paper
in your hand?

We just got off the phone
with Grant Kemmerer.

It's actually stunning
that he's confirming

that the animals
we have on this list,

the cats we have on this list,
is on his property.

So everything you have
on this sheet

that I've given
and everything else

is at your property?
- [Grant] Yes.

- I mean, he even said,
you know, Queen is with him

at a show as we speak.

He was on his way back
from a fair,

so we know what
Queen's doing probably.

- I text him, said,
"How many cats do you have?"

And he texted back, "15-1,

"which is the one is a jaguar

on breeding loan to a zoo,
and four lynx."

- So are they really there?

Is he just saying that
to appease you?

And without getting
onto the property,

we will never know.

- If these animals
are on that property,

that's the worst place
these animals could end up at.

And this is supposed to be
a sanctuary.

This is not a sanctuary,
this is a-- this is a prison.

And that's why these guys
on TV are lying.

This is his work here,
he does fairs and festivals,

birthday parties, schools,
scouts, bar mitzvahs.

Oh, here we go,
here's the list,

some of the animals
you can have at your party.

Go down the list here.

Black leopard.
Here we go.

Ever popular tiger cub.

And a male or female lion
for a birthday party.

These cats that are sitting
on these conservationist's laps

are going straight
from their lap

into the animal
exploitation trade.

They're loading up
animals right now.

- [Keith] What's she doing?

She's checking the locks.

She either heard something
and got worried, or something.

- I can guarantee
there's a big cat in there.

And we're getting up
on the interstate.

- Yup.

- ...because of myself.

[lion growls]

- [Woman] And you can say that
the project's a success, right?

- In my opinion,
it was a huge success.

I think the whole point
of the project

was to go out there and teach
these cats they can trust me.

[lion growls]
Easy!

Good girl.
I'm gonna come over here.

[audience laughs]

- [Girl] Oh, my!

- [Dave] All right.

Good girl.

[engine humming]

- Yeah, I was just down here
not three months ago,

giving a guest lecture
at a local university

about America's tiger crisis.

I think when I call it a crisis,
sometimes people think

I'm speaking in hyperbole,
but here we are,

tiger found chained
in somebody's backyard.

[somber music]

♪♪

The only reason we know about
this tiger is because

law enforcement officers
were executing a search warrant

for something completely
unrelated to this issue.

♪♪

And if they hadn't
been doing that,

this tiger likely would still
be on the end of that chain

in the backyard
or possibly even dead.

[machine beeping]

- She still has the blood,
indicating bleeding higher up.

- So I'm down here,

try to assess the situation,

determine what state,
federal laws have been violated,

and what enforcement
opportunities there may be,

and then get this cat
to a reputable sanctuary.

♪♪

[indistinct chatter]

I just wanna find out
where this cat came from.

♪♪

And she's one
of the lucky ones.

So many of these animals,

they're gonna end up dying
on the end of that chain

never to be found.

- [Man] What'd she do here?
That's new.

- She's really underweight.
She's got--

she had ear mites and a number
of parasite issues.

And she's had really chronic,
severe diarrhea.

[lion cub wails]

Appears that she's been--
she's rubbed her face raw.

In a number of spots,
she's missing fur.

And her foot pads are cracked
from being chained on concrete.

The current state of the law,

the patchwork
state laws we have,

the insufficient federal laws

that are fraught with loopholes,

really give us
no meaningful way of tracking

the coming and going of these
critically endangered animals.

♪♪

- I'm here in Washington DC,

getting ready to go over,
speak to senators, congressmen,

and congresswomen about
the Big Cat Public Safety Act,

which is gonna help prevent
the private ownership,

the breeding, all the problems
we have with big cats

in the United States
of America right now.

- Where we are now is,
we only have two more days for--

in the House for people
to co-sponsor.

- If we can get
this federal law passed,

it's gonna go a long way
to protect

both people and the animals.

Especially with the public
safety aspect of it,

because he is a big supporter
of law enforcement,

big supporter
of first responders.

- Staffer Sarah has already
learned about the issue,

but we want to convey to her

that this is really important
to Ohioans.

- [Tim] I feel a little like
a fish out of water,

and I'm out of my element
right here.

- Proactive work by the agency.

- [Woman] It's a very
small portion of the...

- [Tim] I'm not used to this
chess game they play here

with the way politicians work.

- This should not be
a political issue.

- [Tim] But it's something
I'm learning.

- Let's see if he
has any suggestions.

- [Tim] And luckily,
I'm here working as a team.

And these are the men and women
that can help me.

- ...know where the big cats
are in their communities.

- We took six of these out
of a house in Lancaster, Ohio.

This mountain lion was loose
in downtown Dayton,

chewed through a door
of an empty house.

Brought across state lines
to Harlem

in this apartment building.

There's an African lion
inside there.

We actually had a tiger
jump over the firefighters

as they were fighting
a house fire.

We're making it so
it's just common sense

that you have to register
your animal.

We wanna know where they're at

as cops, firemen,
and paramedics.

- I guess I didn't
really realise the extent

of how many animals
there were, yeah.

- 38 big cats.
- Yeah.

- I think in the long run
it's gonna be worth the while.

I think the most
amazing thing is,

is that people don't realise
being on the frontline

of what's really
going on out there.

And when you show it to them,

it's a whole different
ball game.

...to Harlem
in this apartment building.

- [Rus] The menagerie
listed under species

is exactly the same.
- They don't list two lion cubs.

- [Tim] The only cats I see is
black leopard, cougar and tiger.

- [Carney Anne] At the time
that that letter was written...

- The situation where
it actually shows you

a tiger came from
a backyard zoo,

taken to New York City,
and put on "The Today Show."

We believe it was one
of our tigers, Millie.

- There's no mention
of any big cats at all.

And we know that there was
at least two tigers and a lion,

and it seems that
that information

is what's being kept from us.

- So we're trying to find
a cat named Emma

that went from Jarod Miller
to Andrew Simmons,

and the State of New York
has no record.

[phone line trilling]

- Hey, Jeff,
we are trying to look into

this tiger named Jake.

Jake was on a couple
of TV shows.

We're not finding anything
in the paperwork,

but we know that Jake
ended up at a roadside zoo.

- [Jeff] Yeah, I remember
the name is familiar,

so, yeah, let me do some
research on that roadside zoo.

- All right,
let's see what's next.

- We've got the dates
on this one,

so it doesn't have
any lions on here at all.

And we know for a fact
there was lions there.

- We've tried to get records
with the State Wildlife Agency,

but, um, they won't produce
those records.

- So there's probably no way

we're gonna find out
those two females?

- Be very, very difficult.

- You know, it's ridiculous,
absolutely ridiculous.

- These records
used to be provided,

and now we're in this new era
of zero transparency

with the US Department
of Agriculture.

The position that they've taken
is to withhold

what the animal inventory is
at the time

in their entirety.

- For all states?
- For all states.

We have prepared an appeal
against the USDA

to seek disclosure
of these public records.

If they deny our appeal,
then we are prepared to consider

all available legal options,

including litigation.

[pensive music]

♪♪

- [Tim] Look at that,
right down there,

it says martial arts
and some other thing down here.

- He's here from Animal Planet,
please welcome Dave Salmoni.

[audience cheers]

- [Tim] Do you recognise
that name at all, David Salmoni?

He needs to contact me
right away,

because I think
he can help me out.

- Okay, why don't you sit there?

[leopard grunts]
[audience gasps]

He's just trying to get settled.

- Okay, we left a card,

don't know that's gonna do
any good or not,

but at least we have
one of the locations checked.

- Big teeth and big claws.
- Big teeth and claw-- ow!

- Was this a good idea bringing
this one into the studio?

- Well, you can see,
at this age, they still like...

- [Tim] We got information
directly to people

that know him,

but it's up to him now
to do the right thing.

- What is this lion's name?

[audience cheers]
Oh, no, he doesn't like it.

He doesn't like it.
- Oh, he does.

- [Tim] This is his street
right here, right here.

So I was just seeing
if Dave was here.

I wanted to talk
to him a second.

Okay, thanks.

My name's Tim Harrison,
just have a question.

- [Dave] What can I do for you?

- The organization I'm with
is Outreach for Animals,

and what we're trying to do
is find out what happens

to cats after they've
been used on TV.

This is the partial list
of your ambassador cats.

I'd really appreciate
if we can find out

what happened to some of these.

And we're looking especially
for Mason, Tyson,

you know, the top page here,
if you really look at it.

We have some other ones
on here too,

but just to get a basic idea--
- What you have to realise is...

- I know, that's the downfall,
that's what we're finding out.

And do you think it's right
to do this with a cat

and then it just disappears,
nobody knows what happens?

Oh, you do know
where they all are?
You know where everything's at?

And that's what we're
trying to find out.

Where do they go
after they're done?

- They don't go anywhere.
- They don't go anywhere?

- They stay at their place,
their accredited place.

- What's their accredited place?
That's on this here?

That's an accredited facility?

- [Tim] No, but somebody
at least that's accredited and--

So what we'll do is we have
a certain set of criteria,

and so I and my providers,

and Animal Planet,
and every time we partner,

anything that is ABC...
- Okay.

- ...has to meet
their criteria, right?

And then we at Discovery
and Animal Planet,

because I've been doing this
for 18 years...

I doubt you'll get the help.

If anybody ever decides
to talk to you, great.

- How about you?
- I just talked to you--

- Did you tell me
where they're at?

Okay, then you didn't help me.

Dave, we have to change
the way we're educating.

We also have to change the way
things are going here, okay?

Now I'm asking you,
I'm begging you to help.

I'm begging you.

- It's dumbfounding that we
have to go to this extent

to find a protected
endangered species

in the United States
of America.

- As far as this,
you see...

I'm not gonna expose
these people to any level

of any extra, you know...

- Okay, but I asked, right?
- You asked, good for you.

- But they're hiding it from us.

And that should be a huge
red flag for the public.

- [Tim] Can't find them.
Now, if we look for these--

- If you can't find them,
that doesn't mean

that they've disappeared.
It means...

- [Tim, on recording]
Now if we look for these--

- [Dave, on recording]
If you can't them,

that doesn't mean
that they've disappeared.

That means you need to learn
how to find them better.

[line disconnect tone]

- Challenge accepted.

[tense music]

My name's Jeff Kramer,
and I've been involved

in animal welfare
for over 30 years.

Animals have always been
a passion of mine,

and my background
has always been research.

So to be able to combine
that research skill

and use it for the animals,
like, it's a natural fit.

The world is all digital,

so every part
of everybody's life

is probably somewhere out there
waiting to be found.

It's just a matter of having
the skills to figure out

how the pieces
all come together.

- [Tim] Everybody
we've talked to so far

have always pushed it off
on somebody else

who doesn't know,
or lost their records.

- Oh, that's not in my case.

- [Jeff] You know,
it might be the picture,

it might be the video,

it might be the comment
on a picture or a video.

- [Dave] I know where they all
are, I know where they are.

- [Tim] Oh, you do know
where they all are?

Then why can't anybody else
find out where they're at?

- [Jeff] I've encountered some
social media pages

where I've looked through
12,000 photos to find one.

And it's like, bam!
[hand slaps]

There it is.

- [Tim] I'm talking
about backyards.

I'm hoping so.

So none of these are
in a roadside zoo, or--

[tense music]

♪♪

[children shouting, screaming]

[rooster crowing]

- [Tim] Yeah, when I came in
to Critter Country here,

a gentleman,
I think is the owner,

recognised me right away.

And I said, "I'm here
to come see your big cats."

And he didn't pull any punches,
he told me what was going on,

and he ended up
basically telling me that

some of David Salmoni's
ambassador cats are here.

He even told me that some of
those cats, believe it or not,

was raised in his own home,
raised in their living room.

[keyboard clacking]

He had a black leopard
that was actually

the one that was used
on the "Tyra Banks Show,"

when he came out as Tarzan,
and then he took that cat out.

And it was not happy.
[leopard growling]

- But these guys are
actually really rare-- okay.

[leopard growls]
- [Tyra screams]

- Okay, you ready?

She's fine.
Okay.

That's just her
sort of saying, hey...

- [Tim] This cat
didn't end up going

to an accredited
professional facility.

This animal ended up
in a petting zoo,

just a backyard menagerie.

It's even called
Critter Country Farm.

[audience applause]

The other yellow leopard
that's been used

quite a bit by David Salmoni
and was on Jimmy Kimmel's show,

and in fact Paris Hilton
held it.

- [Jimmy] Paris is very
comfortable with this animal.

- You an see she's an old pro.
- I love animals.

- [Tim] And then also
it was used on that

"Fran Drescher Show."
- [Fran] Oh, you sweet thing.

- [Tim] Ended up,
when its use was done,

when it reached a certain size,
it was dumped also here,

and put in the same small cage
as the black leopard.

- [Fran] And what is
the future for this animal?

- [Dave] This guy's
gonna be what they call
an education animal.

So he'll go around and he'll be

teaching people
about conservation.

So he'll be...

- The sad part is,
for five to eight years,

they've been living
in this condition right here,

five to eight years.

These cages are only about
15 foot by 15, maybe 10 feet.

They're separated,
each one's a separate cage.

While this is
going on right now,

they had to move them out
of these cages,

and be placed
in the holding cages,

which is basically
just traveling cages,

small ones so that they
can fix the fencing.

So for the last three weeks,

they've been living
in these travel cages.

This is why David Salmoni
can't tell people the truth.

- There's no positive, there's
no upside to telling you...

- The truth, telling the truth.
- Right.

- There's no upside
to telling the truth, okay.

This is why he can't say,
you know,

when I'm done with this cat,
doing the circuit,

the TV shows
and all the photo ops,

he can't tell you
that they ended up,

you know, dumped into a farm
in Pennsylvania.

- [Dave] You wanna grab him?
Watch your clothes.

- [Fran] Where's his mama?

- His mum's at a nice
little zoo somewhere.

- [Fran] Aww!

- In the name of conservation,

they allowed
these two ambassador cats

to breed here
in this backyard.

[keyboard clacking]

It's so sad.

[keyboard clacking]

We really do have
to pay attention

to what these conservationists
are saying.

- [Woman] ...furry friends.
Hi, Jack.

- Hello.
- [Woman] Who do you have there?

- [Jack] This is a baby leopard,
and the leopard's....

- A perfect example,
Jack was on a TV show,

he had a leopard,
a leopard cub on there.

And he's talking about,
it was part of the SSP,

Species Survival Plan.
- [Jack] Very endangered animal,

it's in the Species
Survival Plan

with American Zoo
and Aquarium Association.

So we monitor every one
of these cats,

wherever they're bred,
and this animal...

- The SSP,
the Species Survival Plan

is actually a legitimate program
with the AZA.

So I immediately went to
the SSP books, the studbooks,

opened them up,
we tried to find that leopard.

Couldn't find it.
That cat's not there.

If it's not in that book,

it does not exist in the SSP.

That got me thinking,
"What's going on here?"

When he was finished
with the cub,

and he was done with it,
a woman came on,

and she started to walk off
with the leopard cub.

It was Grant Kemmerer's wife.

Why is Grant Kemmerer's wife

taking a leopard cub
that's allegedly an SSP cat

off of Jack's lap
and disappearing

off the stage with it?

[tense music]

We started to investigate
a little deeper.

We went in and found some
paperwork, found a transfer,

six months after that TV show

taking a leopard
from Grant Kemmerer

to Critter Country Farm.

How do we know
if that was the same cat

that Jack Hanna had on his lap?
We'll never know.

♪♪

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

Let me see if I can help out.

[muffled voices in distance]

All right, well,
she's definitely not

going to work with us.

She's definitely not gonna
turn over any cats.

In her mind,

she knows something
bad can happen,

but she says, "We'll just
take it as it comes."

What you see back there
is the absolute poster child

for why we need
the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

[sirens wailing]

- [Woman] Clayton County 911,
what's the location
of your emergency?

[airplane engine roaring]

- Here I am coming back
to Washington DC again.

I got a call from Jason Osborne.

Jason has got his fingers
on the pulse out here.

He's working with the Big Cat
Public Safety Act here

on a national level.

So he knows what's going on.

And he says we have
a big issue right now.

So we're gonna find out
what that is.

- But we've been
confronted recently with

what we feel is
a good opportunity,

and a good member,
Senator Portman

from your home state,
he's a great guy,

very knowledgeable
about this issue,

and wants to do
the right thing on this.

And what we came to realise
is that Jack Hanna

and the Columbus Zoo
have come in

and kind of put a halt on it.

He's been to DC quite a bit
on this specific issue.

He's been into
the members' offices.

He's on the phone with staff.

And for one person
to hold this up

in this senator's case,
it's tragic.

- Well, whenever we go
to these offices,

people are like, "You should
get Jack Hanna involved."

We're like, "He is absolutely
the biggest problem

that we're facing."

- Well, we're in
a tug of war, right now.

Every time we start pulling,

the other side starts pulling
a little of that back.

- As you're walking out the door
of these offices,

you can bet
that it won't be long

after you're out of the building

that they're gonna be
in there opposing it.

- [Jason] For folks
to come up here,

and they bring
these animals up here--

- They're bringing animals
to Washington DC?

- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, wow.

- Every year there's actually,

right over there in the House
in the Longworth Building,

every year there's a reception
that Doc Antle hosts

where he brings in tiger cubs.

- Every year?
- Every year.

So some of these congressmen
that have been

our opponents for years
are hosting him.

In DC, the law is,
you're not allowed

to touch these animals.

You know, this is illegal,
but yet they still let it

continue to happen because
it's happening in Congress.

- Wow!
- Yeah, it's awful.

- How do you fight that?
How are you fighting it, Jason?

- Exactly.

- It's such a difficult thing
to overcome,

because when somebody's
standing in the presence

of a cheetah or some
other magnificent animal,

they're just focused on,
when do I get to pet it?

They're not thinking about
the underlying issues.

So it just causes such
a huge problem for us

to be able to try
and overcome.

[keyboard clacking]

- The only thing
that could overcome this is,

while the Columbus Zoo
is the biggest zoo in Ohio,

there are a number
of other AZA zoos in Ohio.

The AZA supports the bill.

So if we could get
those guys to sign on,

so we could go in and prove

that Columbus and Jack Hanna
are outliers,

that they're on the wrong side
of this issue.

That is the only way
that we're going to be able

to get through.

- I'm calling to speak
with Liz Fowler.

Hey, this is Tim Harrison.
I was calling to speak
with Thane Maynard if he's in.

This is Tim Harrison
calling back for Bob,

he told me to give him
a call back.

- [Bob]
Thanks for reaching out to us.

- This is their baby.

So we really need you all to
step up and do the right thing.

- That's great, that's exactly
what I wanna hear.

Just staying away from private
breeders, private ownership.

Unless you're involved
with anything like that,

you're doing fine.

- [Thane] I know you know...

So he must have sent
four out of five to...

- So there's nothing
we can do about that.

What I'm doing is trying
to get the four zoos here,

because I know
I'm not gonna get Columbus.

- We'll do some process here.

I imagine we can weigh in.
- Excellent.

[Liz Fowler speaking]

- That's good, that's good.
I like to hear that.

- I can't thank you enough,
Liz, that's encouraging,

that's exactly
what I wanna hear.

Looks good.

Now she's got
the Northeast zoos,

that's Cleveland,
Toledo, and Akron.

- [Man] Let me talk
with our curators tomorrow,

and I'll get a sense
of where they are.

- Yeah, I haven't talked
to Doug yet,

but I'm going up to Detroit Zoo
with Ron Kagan up there,

he's a big supporter,
and have a conference call
with Doug from the Akron Zoo.

And we're gonna see if we can't
get on the same page.

- [Doug] Modern standard is
and what the expectation is,
I doubt it will work.

- So my suggestion,
because I think Tim in a way

has put a challenge
in front of us,

I'd like us to be in front of it
rather than others actually.

- [Doug] I totally
agree with you.

And the bottom line is...

- Absolutely right.

- [Doug] And we are the leaders
in animal care and welfare.

And that then requires us
to take that position.

- It's not some
radical extreme view.

This is, we want
to keep your kids safe,

if you're our neighbors,

and we want to keep
the animals safe.

Why is anyone arguing
about that?

- I had a fan that used to
show up at my shows,

because I used to do live shows.

I would come to places
and show animals I rescued.

So he'd show up
and he'd talk about snakes.

He was big in snakes,
and he really loved--

I'd get him up and help him hold
the big 15-, 16-foot python.

He loved it, he loved
the snakes and the pythons.

And he saw me working
with these animals.

He watched all the newscasts
and all the TV shows I was on.

Go back to being a paramedic

after... being Jungle Tim
for while.

It's what I've done for national
shows and also local shows.

And this is what the kids
and the families like,

me come out with my jungle hat.

And it's kind of a persona
that they like.

There was pictures,
his sister showed me

and my friends of him
actually having a jungle hat

like I was wearing
and having a snake.

Well, these snakes here
are people's pets.

They'd be buying through
the Trading Post classified ads,

through advertisements.
What they see on national...

That's when I learned the
"monkey see, monkey do" thing

really hit me hard.

With Ted, they said

his girlfriend and he
were in the house,

and apparently Ted went down
and tried to get the snake

and fell into the snake,
into the cage.

The snake got hold of him.

It was a 15-foot
Burmese Python he had.

Constricted him
and killed him.

- [Woman] Please, the snake's
wrapped around his neck, ma'am.

Please, he's got blood all over.
Oh, my God, please!

[sirens wailing]

Please!

- That changed me a lot
when it came to...

wanting to continue
doing like what Jack Hanna

and the rest of them do,
bringing animals out

and showing them to people.

I started realizing that maybe

I'm part of the problem
in a sense,

I'm part of the solution.

People were not listening.

I did not want to be
that person anymore.

I didn't want
the jungle hat anymore.

I didn't want to do
that stuff anymore.

These kids are gonna imitate it.
The adults are gonna imitate it.

And that's not the only person
I lost that I knew,

but that was the one that
actually looked me in the face

and call me his hero.

- [TV Presenter]
West, northwest around

18 miles per hour right now.

So a little bit breezy...

[turn signal ticking]
- Yeah, we're gonna

head on down this way.
Should be up a few blocks here.

[knocking on door]
On the left.

I need to go around back
and see what happens.

Hi, any of you guys
know Boone Smith?

- [Man] Yeah, Boone's next door.

- Well, we've got
the right spot.

This is the town he lives in.

[knocking on door]

I hate going to somebody's home,

I hate having to go
to their place of employment.

This is definitely his house.

But they're forcing me
to do this

when all they had to do is
get on the phone and call.

Gotta look for
a Sierra truck also, too.

Oh, here we go.
Here we go.

Hey, Boone.
- [Boone] Found him.

- How you doing? Tim Harrison.
I'm a retired cop.

What I'm trying to do is
figure out what happens

to some of these cats that were
used as ambassador animals.

- Okay.
- See if you can't help me out.

You're my last resort, really.
- Okay.

- Do you have any idea
what happens to them at all?

- Your ambassador cats,
so it's kind of like one

of those situations where
we're trying to figure out.

- Think they do end up back
in zoos or some place like that?

- Okay, where you think
they come from then?

- Like facilities.

Would you think like private
owners or something like that?

Okay, it just makes me
aggravated because as we go out

to try to find these animals,
we can't find them.

That's scary, and to me, Boone,
that's not right.

- Where are they going?
If they're not going to
an accredited sanctuary,

where the hell
are these cats going?

When I go over
to the tiger projects,

we know where
those tigers are, okay?

We can't find a tiger
that was in your lap

on a "Good Morning America,"
or something?

You know what I'm talking about.
You feel my pain, right?

- All I care about is Jake,

all I care about is Jingles,
all I care about Queen.

I don't care about
what happens to you
or anybody else right now.

All I care about is these cats,
you see what I mean?

Take that with you,
but I want you to hold on to it.

No, you have to keep that
because later on
you're gonna want

to know why you didn't call me,
you really are.

No, you really are.

I need a shower.

[engine turns over]

Same garbage, same bull

that every one of them said,

same garbage, same bull,
same everything.

[tense music]

I told him, I said,
"These cats are missing."

And here he is, the number one
big cat expert in the world,

and he, "I don't know,
I can't help you."

- [Boone] You're asking--
- You don't know.

- You're asking questions.

- I hand him the folder,
and he holds it in his hand,

doesn't even look at it.
He tries to give it back to me.

- No, you have to keep that...
Here's a folder with your cats,

your ambassador animals
are missing.

And he pushes them back at me

'cause he does not want that
in his hands.

...why you didn't call me,
you really are.

No, you really are.

- Jingles is a Bengal tiger,
another one

of our animal ambassadors.
[tiger meows]

One of the animals that we
highlight in this--

[tiger yowling]

- [Savannah] What does
that sound mean?

- Right off the bat,
he admitted to it.

He admitted to what
I've been saying for years,

that these animals are coming

from private dealers,
private people.

- This is Millie,
she's a Bengal tiger.

- Straight forward,
right to my face,

do they go to zoos?
"No."

Do they go to private people?

"Yes."

That's historic,
that's absolutely amazing.

That explains it all.

- [Boone] I guess
I shouldn't say.

- [Man] As Jake grows up, what's
gonna be in store for him?

- Jake is at a zoo,

and he's what we call
an ambassador animal.

- Is it true that their skin
is actually striped too?

- Yeah, underneath, yeah.

The cool thing
about their stripes,

it's like a fingerprint for us.

It's an individual pattern
that is specific to him
and identifies him.

And that's a really cool thing
about tigers.

They can identify him
by his stripes.

- What's unique about the tiger,

and it's unlike the lions
and some of the other cats,

is that their stripes
are just like our fingerprints.

No two are alike,
and they never change.

So if you have a good photo,
or a good video,

you can actually identify
that tiger

when it's an infant
all the way throughout its life.

So I wanna update you guys
on a little progress.

I think I've got something
very interesting

you guys may wanna see.

It's utilizing how we can
identify the tigers,

individual tigers
by their stripes.

- We'll put it on right now.
- Tee it up.

- [Jeff] So I started trying
to match the stripes

on the tigers
we are looking for

with stripes on the tigers
out there on social media.

And I came across this post.

It's a tiger cub being exploited
at the same time

that Boone Smith had a cub.

And the post refers
to the same name, Jake.

- [Boone] Yeah, this is Jake.

And he's here to teach us
a little bit about

some of these big cats.

- Wow.
- [Jeff] Now here's the kicker.

The post is from
Cyndi Huntsman in Ohio,

and the tiger's being used
as a mascot

for a high school football team
called the Massillon Tigers.

- Yeah.
I'm from Ohio.

And the Massillon High School's

a very well known
football dynasty up there.

And for years,
and years, and years,

they used a tiger cub to promote
their Friday night lights.

So each tiger cub
was called Obie.

So what it is,
is that every year,
they'd get an Obie,

sometimes an Obie would die,
they'd get another Obie.

And it's still counted
as Obie One, Obie Two,

Obie Three, Obie Four.
And then to be moved on

after you're no longer used
who knows where.

- [Jeff] Yeah, that's what
I'm looking at right here.

[children chanting "Obie"]

They, you know, drag him around
these huge student gatherings

in elementary schools
with hundreds of kids screaming.

[kids screaming]

- This is unbelievable.

- [Jeff] The tiger actually
has physical contact

with the kids
on a couple of occasions.

[kids screaming]

- And yet this is a facility
where the USDA

continued to renew
this person's license.

- This is the same place that
Jack Hanna gets his cats from,

The Stump Hill Farm.

[kids screaming]

- [Jeff] So here's where it
gets really interesting.

So I went and got some
screen captures

when Boone Smith had Jake
on "The Today Show."

And when I looked
at that same time period,

the Massillon High School
tiger mascot was

Obie number 43.

And then I lined up
those stripes,

stripes line up exactly.

So I got a fingerprint
100% match.

Jake is Obie number 43.

- Absolutely.
Good, good job, good job.

- Arc over the right eye.
- Yeah.

- [Boone] Everybody that I know
we've used in the past,

they're licensed and legit.

Like the time
I've been involved...

- [Jeff] Just to be clear,
this was going on the same time

that Boone Smith was using Jake
as an ambassador cat.

- ...is to let people know
that these guys

are in danger
and we need to protect them.

We wanna do what we can
to bring awareness,

to help people
have some knowledge

that we need to do some things
and step in and save these guys

before they do get in trouble.

[melancholy music]

♪♪

- To do this all the time,

you're talking about a lot
of young animals.

- [Tim] Every year,
it's new every year.

- Every a year, and every show

you have to have
something different.

Where are all these animals?

[upbeat music]

♪♪

[tigers growling]

These little guys are
a little over a year old.

We got them at the start

of the picture cub season
last year.

They'll be here
for 18 to 20 more years.

- [Tim] I've known
Mary Haven for years.

She does a great job.

Her whole mission is to care
for other people's mistakes.

- It's like a puppy mill.

It's the same thing
as a puppy mill,

only bigger and...

- [Tim] More dangerous.

- [Mary] More dangerous, yeah.

[tiger growling]

- [Tim] It's a great facility,
it's not open to the public.

Most people don't
even know it exists.

- I don't know
where he came from,

but I do know
he went to the circus.

- [Tim] The circus, okay.
It's only a few of us

big cat people
in the rescue business

that know that she even has
a place down there.

- [Mary] And also, we let
all the growth in the cages

grow up because
it's cooler for them,

and they love to hide in it.

If we were open to the public,

that's not gonna
be very pleasing

because they're never
gonna see an animal.

- [Tim] If I had
endangered species,

that I've been using
as ambassador animals,

where would be a perfect place
for me to dump these animals?

- That they will
let them come here

is because I don't name names.
It's not that I don't want to...

- [Tim] It would be hidden
in the hills of Tennessee,

out of sight, out of mind.

- And how old are these,
you said?

- [Mary] Almost two.

- Jingles was born in...
wait a minute.

No.

- [Mary] Come on, buddy,
Sven, come here, boy.

- [Tim] So this is Sven, huh?

- Come here, come, come.

[leopard growls]
He'll snarl.

- [Tim] So Sven and Olaf.

- [Mary] Yeah.

- [Tim] So you know,
I'm just not used to seeing

a snow leopard
in a rescue environment.

- There are not
as many snow leopards
in the private market,

which is where most
rescue animals come from.

[camera clicks]

So it is more rare
for a sanctuary to have them.

- Where did these guys
come from?

- They came
from a facility in Kansas

that does a lot of breeding
of AZA animals.

And that's where they came from.

- We have the most adorable
snow leopard.

- [Jack] If they start
crying a little bit,

everyone at home,
they're doing fine.

- Oh, this poor guy is scared.
- [Jack] And that fur--

you see, George,
you feel that fur?

- Is there a possibility
Sven and Olaf

were potentially used
as a cub on TV?

- No, I don't think they do

any commercial activities
like that.

They do not do
any handling within the zoo.

And as far as I know,

I don't know of any of them
that go off site with animals,

or entertainment industries
at all.

If you're gonna be
accredited by the AZA,

there are certain rules
and standards

that have to be followed,

or you will be eliminated
from the accreditation.

- Six to 12,000, 15,000 feet,

there's very few left in
the world, we don't even know.

They're beyond
critically endangered right now.

The animals,
when they get...

- This is a snow leopard, so--
[leopard grunting]

- [Woman] What's he
doing that for right now?

- [Man] He wants down time.

- I think that you got lied to.

This is Sven and Olaf
on "Good Morning America,"

they haven't hardly had
their eyes open yet, all right?

A VIP party with Jack Hanna.
It's quite stunning.

This is Wrigley Field,

and they were
passing them around,

so everybody get
their pictures taken.

This is the coach
dragging Sven.

He didn't wanna go,
and he was dragging him along.

Those two little ones
that were so small

their eyes were about--
still almost closed,

being transferred around
from motel to van.

- It's definitely not good
for their health

to take them
when they're that young.

It's very, very stressful.

I didn't know they'd been
used for, um, encounters.

That may attribute to

having lost some of them
at early ages.

The little lion,
he was still very young.

He was like maybe
a year and a half at the most.

There's several,
and we really...

- After our trip
to Tiger Haven,

where we were surprised
that they had

two endangered snow leopards,

we're talking, and we find out
that it wasn't just two.

That she had had, I don't know,
four or five, maybe six.

- We have gotten
several snow leopards.

- Why are they being sent
to a rescue facility anyway?

They're an endangered specie.

Not only that, but they're not
living long, they're dying.

- We've lost several
snow leopards.

They are not the healthiest
animals in the world.

- The fortunate part of it

is that the Species
Survival Program

has studbooks
for the snow leopard,

where each and every
snow leopard

is supposed to be tracked
from birth to death.

[dramatic music]

There's a pretty common path
to Tiger Haven.

They're coming from a place
called Tanganyika,

which is out in Kansas.

Tanganyika is
a non-AZA facility,

and they have a pattern
of transferring them out.

The Columbus Zoo is a very
common place where they're sent

as early as days to weeks
of their birth.

- [Sam Champion]
So when do the eyes open?

Because they look
like they're just...

- They're only there
for six months.

They go right back
to Tanganyika.

Then they will go
to other places.

We see what looks like
just people's names,

and one of them
we found out is a magician.

So there's-- there's a lot
of concern here.

As you get into
the more recent population,

we start seeing
a lot of "LTF,"

"lost to follow up."

[keyboard clacking]

In regard to long-term
research studies,

"lost to follow up" means
you lose track of someone.

So whatever reason,

sometimes you're
going to have an LTF.

Throughout the first,
I mean, over 100 years,

all of these pages, you see
very few "lost to follow up."

That's the sign
of a legitimate program, right?

And then all of a sudden
in these recent years,

you see Columbus Zoo,
Tanganyika,

and then whatever other place,

and it immediately lists it
as a "lost to follow up."

[keyboard clacking]

And just a rough count,
I'm somewhere up to

about 13 or 14 from Tanganyika.

And that's more than
we saw in the first

at least 90 years
of the program.

- [Jack] Then what we call
the Species Survival Plan,

which means we know where
every one of them is located.

We have chips in these.

- This is a pattern of dumping.

It's a way of washing their
hands of that snow leopard.

Nobody's going to
follow up after that.

They assume it's gone.

- So, nobody even-- the only
people that know these animals

are here is us,
pretty much?

- Pretty much.

- Species Survival Plan
with American Zoo
and Aquarium Association,

which means we know where
every one of them is located.

We have chips in these.

Again, a snow leopard,
what you're holding here,

there's very few left in
the world, we don't even know.

They're beyond critically
endangered right now.

- [Keith] Right here.
- Now how old are these?

- [Jack] These are about
eight weeks.

- [Sam] Eight weeks old.
- Eight weeks old.

- [Sam] So when do
the eyes open?

'Cause they look like
they're just barely

opening up.

- The studbook records,
these cats are five weeks old.

And what I don't get is,

what difference
does that make to Jack

whether they're eight weeks old
or five weeks old?

- I'll tell you exactly
what difference it makes.

It's a difference between
violating industry standards

for public contact with cubs
under eight weeks of age,

and not violating
those standards.

- Wow.

- It is highly reckless
and irresponsible

to have cats whose immune
systems are still compromised,

passed around
on a morning talk show,

presented as being older
than they really are.

- [Jack] These are about
eight weeks.

- So it is no surprise to me
that Hanna is telling

these hosts that this cat
is eight weeks old

when this cat
is not eight weeks old.

- [Jack] These are about
eight weeks.

Rob and Sam, these are one
of the rarest cats in the world,

live in the Himalayas,

and these animals
live anywhere from

6,000 to 12,000, 15,000 feet.

- Looking through these records,

they are literally
being subjected

to the most detrimental
circumstances

immediately upon birth.

- Oh, snow leopard.

- Tearing cats away
from their mothers,

forcing them to appear
on television shows

when they are
immunocompromised.

- All of this is harmful,
and we see that

manifesting in their death.

- [Jack] These guys
are only a few weeks old.

- [Keith] We know that this
is Casper at five weeks old.

Casper was dead
at two years old.

- This is not working.

We've got death, death, death.

Lost to follow up, which means
most likely dead too.

- 21 days or so,
send it Columbus,

three days later,
it's dead at Columbus.

- This is a snow leopard, one of
the rarest cats in the world.

This animal lives in Nepal,
Tibet, at very high altitudes.

And they're absolutely one
of the most fantastic cats
in the entire world.

- [Woman]
So how old is this one?

- Looking through the annual
reports from Tanganyika,

they list only one death
of a snow leopard,

and that was at age 18.

- It's a liability
on their record.

They're sandbagging
their record,

and the book shows it perfect.

Once it gets LTF on here,
there's no more record.

- Wow.

- This is just
extremely troubling.

- Something's gotta be done.

I gave him a free pass
for a long, long time,

and I knew something was wrong,

but I wasn't quite sure.

And I kinda put
a blind eye to it,

and I did what
everybody else did,

and said, "That's just Jack."

[dramatic music]

♪♪

There's times I sit and I think
about what's gonna happen.

[audience laughs]
- That's how we did it.

I said for the first show
I brought a hippo...

- It bothers me
that I have to go down

and go face to face
with my, uh-- my hero.

I'm thinking, man!

[audience applause]

And I think about what's
gonna be the effect of this.

There's a part of me
that doesn't want to expose him.

There's a part of me that wants
to leave him as the Jack

that I knew when I was a kid.

- Hey, everybody.

- And then there's a part of me
that sits there,

and I think about
all those endangered species

sitting on his lap,
I see their faces.

[audience applause]
- Thank you so much.

- I can't step back
and allow this

to continue happening
because they don't have a voice.

[crowd muttering]

I approach him,
and I ask him for help,

and I show him the faces.

It's gonna be totally
in his ballpark,

because what his reaction is,

is how this investigation
is gonna continue.

Hey, Jack.
- [Jack] How you doing?

- [Tim] How you doing, man?
I just wanna stop and say hi.

I wanted to talk to you too.
- [Jack] No problem.

- But the problem is,
is that we've been doing
a little investigation.

We're trying to find out
what happens

to the ambassador cats
after they're done with.

- Right, right.
- And what we've done is that--

- Here's Suzi Rapp.
- Hey, how you doing?

You probably don't remember,
Tim Harrison.

- Suzi Rapp's been with me
since I was 39 years at the zoo.

- Yeah.
- She now is called by everybody

in the country when it comes
to cheetahs or any cat.

- [Suzi] I'm on the Animal
Welfare Committee.

- [Tim] I know exactly
who you are.

It's very impressive.
I was telling Jack,

we're in the process
of doing an investigation

on what happens
to the ambassador cats.

Once they're done with
on the circuit,

where do they go?
'Cause we have like 200 of them,

and I narrowed it down to 25.

Yeah, it goes back, and it goes
all the way through here too.

You can see the different cats.
- [Suzi] Yeah, yeah.

- [Jack] These animals here,
you know about the Wilds, right?

- [Tim] Oh, yeah,
beautiful place.

- [Jack] 10,000 acres.
- [Tim] So these cats
are at the Wilds?

- [Jack] Well, no, we have them
there, but let's say the Wilds,

Suzi Rapp, that's up to her.
She runs the show.

- [Tim] Oh, okay.
- [Jack] Let's say somebody
had to bring an animal

out there, and they want
to have some there,

obviously they'll go
to the Wilds.

But these cats, like I said,

they're like incredible
where they go...

- [Tim]
They're the ambassador cats.

And also I just wanna
verify something.

I was just back from
Senator Portman's office,

and he told me,
and I was shocked,

because I'm pushing for
the Big Cat Public Safety Act,

I'm pushing for it,
and he told me,

he said,
"No, I'm not going to do it.

"'Cause Jack Hanna
doesn't wanna do it,

and the Columbus Zoo
doesn't want to do it."

That's why I'm here to ask.
- [Suzi] Can I tell you why?

- [Tim] Yeah.
Okay, I wanna hear.

- [Suzi] Because you're
gonna shut down...

- [Tim] I'm not
shutting down anything,

I'm just looking
for the law enforcement part.

- [Suzi]
...by supporting that law,

because that law shuts us down.
- [Tim] Oh, it shuts you down?

- [Suzi] Just to let you know,
it shuts me down.

If we remove the animals from
connecting people with them,

they will not participate.

I'm all about laws,

and I'm all about regulation
as long...

- [Tim] I don't want
this little guy hearing it.

- [Man] How's it going?
- [Jack] Nice to see you.

- [Man] You all right?
Can we get a picture with you?

- [Tim] I'll let you go,
but I appreciate it.

We're trying to find out, okay?

We're just trying to find out.
- [Man] Say cheese, Ry.

- [Tim] I'll let you guys go.
- [Man] Cheese.

Thank you, sir.
- [Jack] Trust me,

if she knew of somebody doing
this stuff, like the bad stuff,

she'll be calling you overnight.

- [Tim] Okay,
hang on to my card.

- [Suzi] I'm on the Animal
Welfare Committee.

- [Jack] You've got a card?
- Yeah, she's got got my card.

I'll let you guys go.
I loved it, Jack.

Stay safe.

- [Jack] We always use
the country, these animals here,

you know about the Wilds, right?
10,000 acres.

- [Tim] So these cats
are at the Wilds?

- [Jack] No, we have them there,
but say the Wilds,

Suzi Rapp, that's up to her.
- [Tim] Oh, okay.

- [Jack] Say somebody has to
bring an animal out there

and they want to
have something there,

obviously they'll
go to the Wilds.

- [Tim] Okay.
- [Jack] But these cats,
incredible where they go.

- [Tim]
They're the ambassador cats.

[melancholy music]

♪♪

[camera clicks]

[tiger growling]

- To this day,
and I'm thinking in my mind,

why am I doing this?

'Cause it's not--
I've lost--

I've lost everything
with these people.

These are the people
I looked up to.

I looked up to Jack Hanna
when I was a young man.

It's one of those things,
am I doing any good?

But I think I am,
by exposing,

but is anybody gonna
be out there to step up

and back us up?

Is there gonna be anybody
that's gonna come out

of the conservation world
of these people

and say, "Tim, I'm with you,
brother, this ain't right"?

And so far we ain't got it.

And, uh...

♪♪

[indistinct announcements on PA]

♪♪

- [Carney Anne]
Hey, Tim, it's Carney Anne.

Let me just preempt this
by saying it's not good news.

I just received back a response
relating to my request

for records about
that roadside zoo

connected to Jack Hanna.

The response
that I received from

US Fish and Wildlife Service,

it says that they can
neither confirm nor deny

if any such records exist.

So I just--
this is gonna be a dead end.

It would take years
to litigate this.

[sirens wailing]

- [Howard] Hey, Tim.
It's Howard Baskin.

Listen, last time we talked,

it sounded like you
were right on track

to get these other Ohio zoos
to send letters

to Senator Portman's office.

And, you know, our folks in DC
just came from the office,

and they have not received
not a single one

from any of these zoos.

I don't know what's happened,

I don't know
if the Columbus Zoo

or Jack's got to these zoos,

and applied some kind
of pressure, or what.

So, you know, we haven't
received anything.

I don't know where things stand,
so could you give me a call

and let me know
where things are?

- [Jack] We're trying to stop
a lot of that.

And the animal also probably,
I would say,

are in quite numbers,

not like a lot of cats
throughout the world.

We have some issues
with the hunting for jungles.

It's very difficult to even
find these cats, everybody.

[TV clicks off]

[dog barking]

[phone buzzing]

- My phone's exploding.
We got all kinds of texts.

Said I gotta get
in contact with him,

something about Joe,
Joe Exotic.

I've gotta pull over
somewhere here,

drive down here,
and see if I can

get out of the traffic
a little bit here.

Hey, Rus,
what's going on here?

I'm gonna put you on speaker
real quick here.

All right, man,
what's going on?

- [Rus] Are you near a--
are you near a computer?

- No, no, I'm out
on the road right now.

- [Rus] They've got the news,
breaking news,

that Crazy Joe got indicted.

- What was the indictment,
do you have any idea
what the indictment is?

- [Rus] Well, it was something
about a federal charge

where the FBI was
looking at him for...

it was like murder for hire.

- Oh, my gosh.
It was a murder hire for who?

There's numerous people
he's threatened.

- [Rus] Well, in Florida.
- Oh, Florida.

- [Rus] Maybe he got friends
in Florida,

because they said it
was out of Florida.

- Ohh.
- And you know...

- That could only be one person
down there or two.

- [Rus] Yeah, or two.
- Wow.

- [Rus] So, they're not
naming the person.

In the indictment,
it said Jane Doe.

- The US Attorney's office
is leading the investigation.

Joe Exotic is known
for his connection

to the Greater Wynnewood
Exotic Animal Park,

though today he was
arrested in Florida,

the same state
as his alleged indictment.

- [Man] Federal indictment
conceals the identity

of the woman, referring
to her only as Jane Doe.

The murder plot was
apparently foiled

when federal agents moved in
to arrest Joe after he...

- It's gotta be Carole Baskin

down at Big Cat Rescue,
Tampa, Florida,

with her husband, Howard.

It's gotta be her,
because Joe Exotic

has been out to get her
over the years.

She's right on the front line.

She's also one of the architects

of the Big Cat
Public Safety Act,

which is just getting ready
to go to a subcommittee hearing

for the House
of Representatives.

What a coincidence!

It's a situation where somebody
is trying to shut her up.

- Carole Baskin better never
ever see me face to face.

- Joe Exotic has said many times
that he's gonna take out--

he actually on one
of his TV shows,

he'd actually showed himself
shooting an effigy of Carole.

He said, "What I'm gonna do
to her, I'm gonna cap her ass."

Pow!
[gun bangs]

- That is how sick and tired
of this shit I am.

- I gotta call her,
I gotta find out,

I gotta hear her voice,
and find out from her
how she's doing.

Is there anything we need to do?

'Cause Carole's
the bravest person I know.

- [Carole] Big Cat Rescue.

- Hey, Carole,
this is Tim Harrison.

I need to ask you a question.

My phone just exploded up here.

I've just found out
about this indictment.

Are you Jane Doe?
- [Carole] Yes.

- Wow.

- We got a call
from the FBI saying

that my life
was in imminent danger.

Joe had hired a guy to come
to Florida and kill me.

And they were able to put
an undercover FBI agent in place

for Joe to then hire so that
they could keep track of him.

- Wow.

- [Woman] The US Attorney's
Office alleges that Exotic

openly discussed
his plot to kill,

eventually hiring a person
to carry out the murder.

That person was
an undercover FBI agent.

- [Carole] Yeah, I'm really glad
that they've got him in jail,

but I tell you what, he's just
the dumbest one of them.

There's a lot
of really bad people out there

that are a whole lot more
dangerous to those of us

who are working
to protect these cats.

- I'll tell you what, Carole,
is there anything
you need from us?

- [Carole] I couldn't live
with myself

if I allowed bullies like him

to stop us from protecting
these big cats.

So just keep doing
what you're doing.

[intense music]

♪♪

[people shouting]

[helicopter blades whirring]

♪♪

[fireworks banging]

[people cheering]

- We've come here
up to Massillon High School.

This is where
the infamous Obies are.

For the last 45 years or so,
they bring a tiger cub here

for them to use
as their mascot.

- We're going to talk about
Olive in just a minute,
but Dave...

- [Tim] For the last three weeks
on a couple different
TV shows...

- Aww!
- All right.

- ...they've been using a tiger
by the name of Olive.

- Here with his friend Olive,

Animal Planet's big cat expert,
Dave Salmoni.

- We're gonna try to see
if they're gonna bring

a tiger cub out here.

And we're gonna see
if it's Olive.

We personally came up here,

'cause I wanna find out.

♪♪

[cheering and applause]

[indistinct chatter on PA]

Here she comes, guys.

[audience cheering]

[air horn blowing]

[audience gasping]

Absolutely barbaric.

The same tiger cub

that was used on all those shows
by animal experts,

bang, here it is,
Olive's here.

And who's with it?

Grant Kemmerer.

It's just disgusting.

It just makes me want to
just push through those people,

get that tiger cub,
and just rescue it.

And take it to a sanctuary
where it needs to be taken to.

And, you know, we can't do that
'cause it's not illegal.

It's not illegal.

You know, we're in
a hostile environment already.

We've got some of their
supporters over here

listening to what I'm saying.

Everybody's texting,
you can see them watching us.

People are giving me
the evil eye, staring me down.

The word's out.

You know, it's no different
than going to

the dangerous
wild exotic animal auctions.

They don't want you
filming anything

because they don't want anybody
to know what's going on.

It's like this--
this secret.

It's the same,
same feeling here,

what happened to us
at the auction.

And getting the evil eye
as we're speaking right now.

They're making the phone calls.

[tense music]

- Who you with, bud?

Hey, this gentleman
needs to move on.

- Sir, please move along.

- [Tim] We've got some
of their supporters

over here right now,
some of the boosters,

listening to what I'm saying.

- Move on, sir, that's what
I'm asking you to do.

- You know, trying to
kick us out, throw us out.

It's not gonna happen.
It's not gonna happen.

He actually understands
that we're there.

We're just a few steps
behind him right now.

He's feeling that breath
on the back of his neck.

The footsteps are coming,
times are changing,

and he knows it.

- Go! Now!

You, go!

- [Tim] After all these years,
and all the Obies they've had,

nobody can tell us
what happens to them

after they're done with them.

- [Man] You have to go.

- [Tim] They just vanish.

- [Man] Why are you filming?

- And now little Olive
is Obie 47.

We need to try to rescue Olive,

and get her out of that cycle.

Thing is, is I can't do it.

'Cause we've already
exposed ourselves.

I'm gonna need an inside man.

I'm gonna need somebody
that's in that world

to be able to reach in
and get Olive,

and rescue her from that.
And that's what I need.

And I think...

I think I might have the person
that can do that.

[leaves crunching]

- [Cy] Good morning, Grant,
my name is Cy.

I have Union Ridge
Wildlife Center

incorporated here
in Southeastern Ohio.

Here, Liz.

My tigers enjoy an incredible
open facility,

16 feet high
with 4-foot cantilever

with climbing platforms
that step to 12-foot high.

[keyboard clacking]

I'm looking to replace
a young tiger

we had to euthanise
earlier last year

after suffering
from a brain tumour.

Ultimately I'm looking
for a young female

between six months
and a year of age,

and I would be happy

to share any photos
of my facilities, et cetera.

Many thanks in advance, Cy.

[keyboard clacking]

It's become quite frustrating

because some of
the conversations we've had,

Grant keeps-- keeps moving
forward with other topics

whenever I bring up
any thought

of placing one of his cats.

We've talked about
pelicans, beavers,

otters, lions...

...squirrel monkeys.

Hasn't ever replied
about any, uh, tiger.

Did go as far as saying

I'd give my left arm
for the last year's Obie.

Nothing.

No mention of the tigers.

So we're just gonna have
to go to Grant's house

and see what he has.

[tense music]

♪♪

Okay, so I just sent Grant
a text, that says,

"Hi, Grant, I had told you about
an Arctic great horned owl.

Think you might like to use him
in your programs."

He got back right away,
"Wow, very nice, congrats.

I'll take one."

[phone line trilling]

- [Tim] Hey, how you doing?
- Good.

So I just got done
with my afternoon with Grant

over at his house.

- [Tim] Did you find
anything about Olive?

- No.

- [Tim] Did you have
free range on the property?

- No, Olive is not there,

and there weren't any--
there weren't any young tigers.

- Wow, Olive should be there,
should be with him,

because he was the last one
seen with her.

- No, it's... it's not.

- [Tim] That's what
I was worried about.

If we didn't get that cat
and intercept her,

it's gonna be dead.

So we have no idea
where she's at.

- Correct.

- [Tim] That means
we've gotta problem.

Did he have 15
or 16 big cats around there?

Because he told me
he had 15 or 16 big cats

that stay there,
they're at his location.

- There's only three tigers
and one lion.

- [Tim] Wow.

So he's moved a lot
of animals out of there.

- Correct.

- [Tim] He told me a lie then.

Because he said
straightforward,

"They come here,
and they stay here.

"They don't go anywhere else.

That's the way it works."

- No.

- They're nocturnal.
They're a solitary cat...

- They're found in...

- So how much are they
just like a house cat?

[lion cub growls]
[audience laughs]

- [Jack] Here you go.
Thank you very much.

- [Letterman]
Thank you very much.

- His story is,
to me, conflicted.

He told me too many stories,
and he didn't even realise it.

I'm just starting to,
you know, match the things up.

[camera clicks]

- [Tim] You get a photo?
- I didn't, but my kid did.

My kid got photos of all--
of all three cats.

- [Tim] Excellent.

- But he had to be conspicuous
about that,

because that was
the only part of the property

that he had us turn away from.
- [Tim] Wow.

Now there's something really
suspicious going on there.

[lighter clicks]

- What if he had tiger cubs
there today,

and that's why
we couldn't walk over there?

He made a few oops
this afternoon with his stories.

He didn't keep
his stories straight.

Reflecting upon the visit,

when you look at everything,
the cages,

the types of animals
that are there...

a lot of things
don't really add up.

[lion growling]

[people laughing, chatting]

- Something of interest here.

Something that just came about

within the last couple of weeks.

Grant Kemmerer
and Wild World of Animals

have been cited
for five different violations

in, uh--
in the State of New York.

He's allowed several people
at private parties

at a residence to come
into contact with big cats,

which is a clear violation
of the law of New York.

- This is Wyatt,

this is a cat that's been used
as an ambassador animal.

And here it is
at a private party in New York.

- There you go.
- Wow!

- Get interactive.
- You know what
this is for real?

This is such an honour
and a privilege.

- Of course it is.
- To just be around
this majestic animal.

- "Caused or allowed
direct contact

with a juvenile tiger."

- [Tim] Let's go the next here.
Ah, look at this at this
family portrait.

Oh, my gosh.

- "Caused or allowed
direct contact with a lion."

- [Tim] Oh, my gosh.
- Wow.

- And another juvenile tiger.

- [Man on video] What's up?

- In contact with people during
a party at a private home.

What's that got to do
with conservation?

- [Grant shouting]
- What's he doing?

Shoving him around,
grabbing him, dragging him.

What are they doing now?
They're teasing him.

Oh, they're hitting him.
Look at him, whack!

- Look at how, like,
he's swatting his face.

[tiger groans]
- Oh, my gosh.

- [Man on video] It's okay.

- These are the same cats
that he was on TV with

saying these aren't pets.

- [Grant] That's why
they're just not a pet.

It's never gonna be a pet.

- And he takes them out
the very next weekend or so,

whenever this happened,
takes them in a basket,

like you would take
puppies or kittens,

to a birthday party.

[keyboard clacking]

- And look at all this too.
"New pet?"

Look, "I want one."
- [Tim] "I want one."

"Hanging with the baby tiger
and the family."

This is the two faces
of conservation right here.

Wyatt's on TV being used
as an ambassador animal,

"Oh, you've gotta
respect these animals."

- [Jarod] This is Wyatt
right here, he's a Bengal tiger.

- And then this right here.
[tiger growls]

- [Woman on video] No!
- [Man on video] It's okay.

[sinister music]

♪♪

- If you take the tiger
that Jack had

on "Good Morning America,"

and you line it up next to
the tiger who was in a backyard,

put those side by side,

look at the stripes,
they match up perfectly.

That's a 100% match.

This is Gus, this is the tiger
we've been looking for.

- [Jack]
This is a Siberian tiger.
And all these tigers,

the American Zoological
and Aquarium Association,

they're in the SSP program.
Now these animals...

- The alleged SSP tiger
that Suzi Rapp

of the AZA's
Animal Welfare Committee

has on the end of a leash
on a national TV show,

for a small backyard party
in New York.

- Wow.
- [Tim] That is enough
right there

to blow the lid off
of all this.

- [Carney Anne]
Tim, it's Carney Anne,

you're not even
gonna believe this.

I just got those records
from New York

related to this illegal
exhibitions and public contact.

So Mr. Kemmerer's attorney
has picked three people

to solicit letters of reference.

And the letter I've got
right here on top is

from Suzi Rapp, Vice President
of Animal Programs

at the Columbus Zoo
and Aquarium.

- Oh, my God!

- [Carney Anne] "We found
Kemmerer to be highly competent,

"very knowledgeable
and experienced.

"And for this reason
we consistently used them

and their animals
for programs."

- Wow!

- [Carney Anne] And according
to Suzi Rapp, she,

and I quote, "Would consider
Wild World of Animals

to be at top-notch
institution."

So that's the Columbus Zoo...
- Wow!

- ...coming to the defense
of their boy

in a letter he included
to the State of New York

begging them
not to revoke his license.

[lion growling]

- I've been saying for years
that the Columbus Zoo,

Jack Hanna, they have to have
that private breeding.

If the Big Cat
Public Safety Act was passed,

straight from their words
from their mouth,

"We can no longer
do our business."

That's why they need
these backyard breeders.

The genie is out of the bottle,

and there's no way
they could put it back in.

- Well, there's nothing
more rewarding than

working or volunteering
in the animal offer world,

but it doesn't come
without risk.

I've been personally threatened
physically with my life.

I've been threatened
with litigation.

I've been just slandered online,
via social media and other ways.

At one point we were directed
by our attorneys

to check underneath our car
every day before we started it,

for fear of our life
that we were,

you know,
in risk of physical harm.

That's their only means
of stopping you

from exposing them.

And they'll stop at nothing.

- [Woman]
A dramatic day begins

as big cat owner,
Joe Maldonado-Passage,

better known as Joe Exotic,

will face Carole Baskin
in federal court.

According to the FBI,
the murder plot was foiled

when undercover agents
intervened.

Joe also faces 17 federal counts
of animal abuse.

- [Man] Oklahoma is one
of several states

that allows private ownership
and unregulated breeding

of big cats.

States like Nevada,
North Carolina, Wisconsin...

- [Woman] The big cat battle
rages on today

in the United States
on the same day

that Joe Exotic's
criminal trial

reaches a fever pitch
in Oklahoma.

Big cat advocates here
in Washington DC

will testify before Congress

in an effort to put an end
to private ownership.

- The Big Cat Public Safety Act
was first introduced last month.

This is the first time
though it's been discussed

in a hearing on Capitol Hill.

First responders
tell me they hope

this isn't the last time.

Do we know where all the tigers
are in the United States,

or the lions,
or any of these big cats?

- We don't know,
we can't follow it.

There's so many
backyard breeders,

and that's what
this law's about,

stopping the backyard breeders,
making it so the law enforcement

can do something about it,
can step in and stop this.

- The Big Cat Public Safety Act

would end the ownership
of big cats

as exotic pets,
and prohibit exhibitors

from allowing the public
to have contact with them,

keeping these majestic animals
and the public safe.

Well, we all love
these iconic species.

It's important to remember
that they're wild animals,

and they shouldn't
be kept as pets,

or treated like
petting zoo animals.

- These dangerous animals are
often kept in small spaces

that are entirely inconsistent
with their needs.

And rescue operations
have demonstrated

the extreme abuse enabled
by the pet big cat trade.

- With this Big Cat
Public Safety Act,

I never thought I'd ever see it

where it's actually
going to be voted on,

and it could be
through the House.

If it gets through the House,
it's amazing.

- Congressmen,
this committee in particular

must continue to work towards

protecting wildlife
at home and abroad,

if we hope
to preserve biodiversity

for future generations.

In particular,
I'd like to thank...

- This really I thought would
never happen in my lifetime.

And with this happening
has a lot to do

with all the organizations
out there,

has to do with all the people
that just love big cats,

and the people
that actually paid attention.

And right now we have
an opportunity

to stop all this madness.

And it is...

it's the greatest feeling
in the world.

- Other animal
welfare organizations,

because lions and tigers
do not belong

in urban apartments,
or in cages,

and suburban backyards.

- As the member designated
of Nevada,

I inform the House
that Miss Titus will vote yes

on HR1380.

- Miss Kaptur of Ohio who
will vote aye on HR1380.

- Mr. Patrick
will vote yes on HR1380.

- I inform the house
that Ms. Pingree will vote yes

on HR1380.

- I have never met
an animal welfare advocate,

myself included,
that has stopped.

- 965, I inform the House
that Mr. Price will vote yes.

He will vote yes on HR1380.

- And I consider it a privilege

to be able to take on
the challenge and not turn back.

- Best decision
that we've ever made.

And something I couldn't
be more proud of,

and I'll continue to do it
till the day I die.

[dramatic music]

- Breaking news just in to NBC4,

Jack Hanna is announcing
his retirement

from the Columbus Zoo.

This will be effective
at the end of the year.

- Are you shocked by this
at all, Colleen?

- I was because he's had
that status for so long,

and they say it's just time.

- Who else is going to do
the animal segments now?

- Now we're getting
to the point,

that the new generation
coming along right now,

and the next generation
after that,

I have high hopes, high hopes
that this is gonna stop.

And to me,
that makes me feel like,

you know, everything we did,

it's all been worth it
to watch this new generation.

- [Robert Irwin] Hey, guys,
so these are leopard cubs.

- [Jimmy] These are leopards?

- So these are
little baby leopards.

Aren't they amazing?
[audience laughs]

They're so cute,
aren't they?

[indistinct chatter on TV]

There you go.

[sinister music]

♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪

- [Woman] Today,
from Santa Barbara, California,

a bombshell new film
launches its world premier

to a sold-out crowd
of moviegoers and reporters.

The film sheds light
on a previously unknown

dark corner of the big cat...

- [George] The family
of the director emeritus
of the Columbus Zoo

has revealed that he's
been diagnosed with dementia,

and will no longer
take part in public life.

- [Woman] Jack Hanna is said to
be taking his final public bow,

after four decades of...

- [Woman] The Columbus Zoo
releases a statement today

expressing that now,
under the new leadership

of Jerry Borin,
they are publicly supporting

the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

Congress is expected
to cast a final vote

on the federal bill
later this year.

The statement comes
directly on the heels

of Jack Hanna's announcement...

- [Woman] Joe is serving
22 years inside

the Federal Medical Center
in Fort Worth, Texas,

for wildlife violations and
a plot to kill Carole Baskin.

- [Man] And now,
in his first prison interview,

Joe says he's counting
on Carole to get him out.

- [Joe] To get a pardon,

I would support
the Big Cat Safety Act.

♪♪