Before Netflix’s ‘Tiger King,’ Jeff Lowe’s big cat plans stirred SC controversy
Five years before a cooped-up America became captivated by Netflix’s “Tiger King,” one of the series’ characters had big plans in Beaufort County.
The docu-series has been a smash hit as homebound viewers seek distraction from news of the coronavirus pandemic. “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” tells the bizarre tale of Joe Exotic, the operator of an Oklahoma animal park now serving a lengthy sentence for plotting to murder a big cat activist.
Jeff Lowe, who appears later in the series as the new owner of the park, is the former owner of Beaufort Liquidation in northern Beaufort County. He ran afoul of county officials in 2015 as the result of plans to exhibit tigers and lions he kept in enclosures on the property not far from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
Hundreds of people did ultimately come to see the seven tigers and two lions Lowe housed in his warehouse on Parker Drive.
County officials contended Lowe’s operation was for all practical purposes a zoo and violated zoning for the property. Lowe defiantly pushed ahead and shrugged off threats of pricey fines for displaying the animals.
He told The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette at one point that if he couldn’t display the lions and tigers, he would convert the property into an animal sanctuary closed to the public.
“I’m going to fill this place. Absolutely fill it with animals,” Lowe told the newspapers, according to a past report. “They (the county) think they’re going to discourage me because I can’t show them to people, but that’s not what this is about. This is about housing animals and giving them lives that are safe and secure.”
Spoiler alert: Lowe ultimately moved to Wynnewood, Oklahoma, to work with Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joe Schreibvogel. Lowe eventually took over ownership of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park amid Joe Exotic’s financial troubles.
Lowe is also portrayed as a key player in Schreibvogel’s eventual imprisonment on two counts of murder-for-hire and 17 counts of federal wildlife crimes.
According to the Netflix docu-series, Lowe collaborated with federal agents to goad Schreibvogel into paying $3,000 to Lowe’s employee, Allen Glover, to “assassinate” Big Cat Rescue owner Carole Baskin. Glover took the money, but would eventually flee to his home state of South Carolina without carrying out the murder.
Schreibvogel had at one point told The Beaufort Gazette and The Island Packet before Lowe’s move that Lowe “has absolutely no ties to us.”
Lowe and his wife plan to open a new business this summer to display the animals called Oklahoma Zoo, they have said on the company’s Instagram page.
‘Read the whole story’
The series features another South Carolinian: Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who runs Myrtle Beach Safari, also known as The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.).
The show’s second episode delves into Antle’s business and lifestyle. One former employee, Barbara Fisher, details a cult-like work environment with low pay, as well as Antle’s simultaneous relationships with employees who began working at the safari as teenagers. “Tiger King” Schreibvogel accuses Antle of euthanizing tiger cubs once they age out of the safari’s interactive events.
The final episode of the show notes that Antle’s facility was raided last December in connection with three juvenile lions his facility received from a Virginia zoo that is under investigation for animal cruelty, according to law enforcement communications.
Prior to the series airing, Antle told the Myrtle Beach Sun News that Fisher had a “highly distorted sense of reality” and denied accusations of euthanizing cubs. He took to Instagram Wednesday to say he was “very disappointed” in the “Tiger King” series.
“It is important to understand that this series is not a documentary,” Antle wrote. “It’s sensationalized entertainment with paid participants.”
Lowe seemingly addressed the series in a much shorter Thursday Instagram post to the Oklahoma Zoo page: “Read the whole story, not the reader digest version.”
