May 26, 2021
“During the time he was on the run, Stark did this Facebook live where he railed against the judges, officials, animal rights, activists. He claimed that together, all of these people had conspired to deny him the right to own and breed exotic animals. He taunted law enforcement. He waved a hand grenade in front of his phone. Keep in mind, he's driving down the highway during this hour-long Facebook live. And he was also saying that he was willing to die for what he believed in.” – Sharon Guynup
Sharon Guynup is a journalist, author and a National Geographic Explorer. Her most recent article in National Geographic, ‘Tiger King’ stars’ legal woes could transform cub-petting industry, focuses on the five stars of the docu-series, The Tiger King and what’s happened to them since the show premiered last March.
Sharon’s been on the podcast before, the last time was a couple of months before the pandemic and before the Tiger King took over the world. She and her partner, photographer, Steve Winter had spent two years investigating tigers in the United States, for a 30 page piece called, The Tiger Next Door, for December 2019’s issue of National Geographic. It involves the criminal underworld, wildlife trafficking, murder, and thousands of captive tigers living sad pathetic lives all over the USA. America has a serious problem with captive wildlife, and what we’ve done to tigers is cruel, dangerous, and absolutely unnecessary.
Since then, and since the Tiger King, much has changed, not only for tigers in the US, but for the majority of the stars of the show. Most of them are either in court, prison, or have had their animals seized or are dealing with a combination of all three.
Sharon is a hero for tigers. She has been reporting on them for years, mostly tigers in the wild, until 2016, when her investigation into the famed Thai Tiger Temple for National Geographic published strong allegations of illegal wildlife trade, causing Thai officials to confiscate the 147 tigers living at the temple and shut the operation down.
From there, she moved onto to the tiger disaster in the US. Every time one of these owners of roadside zoos and tiger petting attractions go down, the future looks better for tigers, but it’s not over. There are ways to combat the crisis right now. The first is to not participate in any wildlife tourism that includes selfies with wildlife or any type of handling of wild animals, and the second is to get behind and support The Big Cat Safety Act.