Tiger Talk with Carney Anne Nasser

This episode is Carney Anne's presentation for the 2021 Symposium on Sports, Animals, & Ethics. Many don't know that Carney Anne has a degree in sports law and previous experience working with an NFL team's legal department. So, in this unique opportunity to participate in the intersection of sports law and animal law, Carney Anne delivers a timely discussion about the trend in pro-athlete encounters with tigers and other big cats at roadside zoos and how these encounters not only further exploitation of endangered species and contribute to the exotic pet trade, they technically violate common league rules and contract provisions that are meant to prohibit players from engaging in dangerous activities off-field, off-court, off-pitch, or off-ice. Thanks to symposium directors Profs. Sam Morris (University of Miami-Ohio) and Gabriela Tymowski-Gionet (University of New Brunswick) for allowing this cross-post. NOTE: The episode references slides and photographs. This presentation is also available as a video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcC0v2RkSuI.

On June 24, 2021, Carole and her husband, Howard, and I were in Washington, DC, with award-winning director Michael Webber, Tim Harrison, Keith Gad, Russ Muntz, Jeff Kremer and other professionals who appeared in the award-winning documentary, The Conservation Game. After we returned from a standing-room-only screening for federal legislators, lobbyists, NGOs and other members of the political community in the Capital (as well as a busy day of television interviews -- more so for Carole than for me), Carole and I had a chance to catch up on June 28 to digest the impact that the film has already had despite not being released quite yet, discuss the Big Cat Safety Act (which Carole has championed for more than 20 years), and also dive into her fearless tech-savvy and entrepreneurial spirit which truly sets her apart from most in the animal protection world. While many others continue business as usual, Carole is constantly looking for ways to adapt, evolve, and innovate -- whether it's leveraging emerging technologies like crypto, NFTs, and VR, or fluency in all available social media platforms (from Facebook to TikTok to Clubhouse), I have always admired Carole for bringing her spirit of entrepreneurship to animal advocacy. We also discuss what Carole believes is the most significant change we have seen for big cats since Joe Schriebvogel Maldonado Passage was sentenced to 22 years in prison in January 2020.

It's been a little over a year since I started Tiger Talk during Covid-19 isolation. In that year, we've seen every single roadside zoo owner (Joe Exotic, Jeff Lowe, Tim Stark, Doc Antle) featured in Tiger Talk (but for Mario Tabraue in Florida) end up in prison, indicted for animal cruelty and wildlife trafficking, shut down, fined for federal animal law violations. Just this past week, federal agents confiscated 68 big cats from Jeff Lowe's Tiger King Park (which was 100% of Jeff Lowe's remaining big cat inventory). Thankfully, all of those tigers, lions, and other big cats are headed to reputable, accredited sanctuaries. But most exploited cats will not be so lucky. That's why the documentary work that Alex Tello and Sam Tello at Tellus Films are doing is so important. They bring the stories of the cats and the sanctuaries to life so we all have a greater understanding and appreciation for the work that the sanctuaries are doing and what needs to happen for us to help our sanctuaries out and prevent them from getting overwhelmed by irresponsible big cat owners. Just in the past 3 months, three tigers have been confiscated from suburban Texas neighborhoods -- now more than ever, we need to ensure that our federal legislators pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act. So, join Alex and Sam and me for a discussion about everything from their work to our predictions for the role of technology and AI in conservation and the future of zoos and the role of magicians in America’s tiger crisis. We cover a lot of ground in an hour - join us!

On September 12, 2020, Carney Anne was invited to participate on a panel of experts including Carole Baskin (Founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue), Dan Ashe (CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and former Director of US Fish & Wildlife Service), Ellie Armstrong (PhD candidate at Stanford University), Carson Barylak (Campaigns Director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare), Steve Winter (Nat Geo award winning wildlife photographer), and Sharon Guynup (Nat Geo award winning journalist who, with Steve Winter, did features for Nat Geo exposing Tiger Temple in Thailand as well as America’s road side zoo industry) for the Freeland Film Festival. Listen as the panel addresses questions about tiger trafficking, welfare, conservation—including links to organized crime.

Episode 23 is a mashup of Carney Anne’s recent Chicago WGN Radio, News 8 Las Vegas, and BYU radio interviews about Tiger King, roadside zoos, legal developments, conservation, legal loopholes, and the lucrative exotic pet trade.

#BlackLivesMatter. This episode is a departure from our usual big cat content; but it is the only content I felt was appropriate to share in the days following the murder of George Floyd and the hate crime against Christian Cooper. As an animal lawyer, I have been using federal FOIA and state public records laws to obtain law enforcement and other government agency documents, records, video, and photographs for the past decade. It is my hope that by sharing that information here, you will feel empowered as an advocate for racial justice and the other social changes that you feel passionate about. For access to your state’s open records law, visit this page: https://www.nfoic.org/coalitions/state-foi-resources/state-freedom-of-information-laws. If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].

Life of Pi. Gladiator. Water for Elephants. These are all movies that used big cats or an elephant and they each involved horrible abuse behind the scenes. On episode 21 of Tiger Talk, I talk to Lewis Crary, the Assistant Manager of Animals in Films and Television at PETA. Lewis and I used to work together in the Captive Animal Law Enforcement Department at the PETA Foundation many years ago and we reconnection to have a discussion about how American Humane Association's (AHA) "No Animals Were Harmed" designation is utterly pointless--starting with the shocking reality that the AHA is actually funded by the Screen Actor's Guild. We get into some specific examples of movies you've all heard of and the horrible abuse of big cats, elephants, and great apes used in those movies. We come to the conclusion that there is no humane way to use exotic animals in entertainment and the industry standard going forward needs to be CGI.

For Tiger Talk's 20th episode, I bring you a conversation with Jessica Blome, the lead attorney on a precedent-setting Endangered Species Act citizen suit that resulted in a court order for the removal of tigers and lions from a horrific roadside zoo in Iowa where animals were being starved and denied veterinary care while being forced to live in feces encrusted cages. The "Cricket Hollow Zoo Case" paved the way for numerous other endangered species act citizen suits that have resulted in the rescue of literally DOZENS of tigers. More ESA citizen suits are pending as we speak -- including against Tim Stark and Jeff Lowe, who you saw featured in Tiger King. So, Jessica and I will answer what an ESA citizen suit is, how it works, and what other legal tools animal lawyers like her are using to put these bad actors out of business for good.

On this episode of Tiger Talk, I’m sharing a conversation I had on the Rocket Podcast (“Accelerated Geek Conversation”) with co-hosts Brianna Wu, Christina Warren, and Simone de Rochefort. We talked about Tiger King, themes of misogyny and sexism in the docuseries and the resultant backlash against Carol Baskin, and close it out with how Brianna and I connected through our participation in Porsche auto racing. It’s fun, informative, and fast paced!

Rachel Nuwer is an award-winning science journalist who makes prolific contributions to sources like the New York Times, Nat Geo, Audubon, and more. I first met Rachel while she was doing research for an excellent investigative piece called The Strange and Dangerous World of America’s Big Cat People (available on longreads.com), and subsequent chats leading up to her New York Times article, Why Tiger King is Not Blackfish for Cats, and her podcast with Outside Magazine journalist, Peter Frick-Wright called Cat People. Rachel’s book, Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking, is yet another of her contributions to science journalism and she is part of the growing groundswell of reputable journalists who are calling out Tiger King for the lack of apparent integrity with which it was made.