Research Into The Rare Species Fund Might Make Them Go Extinct (Despite Their Attempt To Thwart CWW’s Freedom Of Speech)
One of the greatest challenges facing our endangered wildlife is simply the failure of the public to properly research the numerous exploitive ploys being hocked on every street corner within the conservation industry. The explosion of social media in the last decade–and along with it, the “feel good and do what you want, and don’t respect anyone who knows more than you do, but is a “Debbie-downer” mindset–has given rise tot he most widely embraced and damaging exploitive, pseudo-conservation organizations ever seen. At no other time in the history of humanity has there ever been organizations celebrated by hundreds of thousands or millions of people for doing nothing but use and abuse animals, such as we now face. Some of the abusive and exploitive social media pseudo-conservationists are new, like Black Jaguar White Tiger, established specifically to take advantage of the surge in the social media world. Others, like Do Antle, and his family, of T.I.G.E.R.S. have been in existence for decades but are now enjoying a massive growth in their popularity, building false reputations as conservationists which have been eagerly embraced by a public too lazy, or ignorant, to complete even the most basic research about the exploiters they’re so willing to tout as helpful to the animals which are actually being abused by them.
Here is a chronological list of the USDA violations, complaints, fines, and issues of abuse attached to Bhagavan Antle (Doc Antle)
Our case in point regarding failure to research? A post from last week made on Instagram by Faulkner. With 121,000 followers on Instagram, Faulkner is, relatively speaking, a lightweight in the social media game. But with friends like @therealtarzann (whose follower count climbed to 4.8 million after he visited a private rhino farm (the owners of whom are actually pro-rhino horn trade) and called it conservation) @docantle and @Kodyantle, Faulkner understands that the fastest way to gain followers is to fake some conservation. Enter Faulkner’s Instagram post, which contained a photo of a tiger cub being coddled, and a video of the same, with text stating that Faulkner had already donated $5,000 to Doc Antle’s Rare Species Fund. Faulkner went on in their post to state that they’ll match other donations to the RSF up to $10,000 USD.
Text accompanying the post by Faulkner.
It’s unclear how many comments might have been made questioning the actions of Faulkner, as the majority of negative comments have been carefully deleted, including multiple responses to the handful of critical comments which do remain. Apparently Faulkner doesn’t “respect” those who know more than they do, and who is trying to educate them, either.
The circled replies have all been removed.
In addition to weeding out any negative comments, Faulkner was quick to defend their post, insisting that the cub shown was “rescued” and was being held “before it went to its natural habitat” challenging one commenter by asking “How much have you donated to conservation of animals?” And claiming that the Rare Species Fund is “making a huge difference in conservation”.
Comments questioning Faulkner's post.
If only Faulkner had bothered to do basic research (or if they cared more about the truth than getting followers) they’d know that they haven’t donated any money to conservation at all, they’ve just help support a decades-old empire of animal abuse and exploitation, which for the Antles, is a family affair. Doc Antle and his son Kody have even joked about their exploitation spanning decades, taking matching photos of themselves 30 years apart sauntering along with captive bred tigers on chain leashes.
From the 1980s, to the 1990s, to the 2000s and moving into the 2020s, Doc Antle and T.I.G.E.R.S. have bred batch, after batch, after batch of big cat cubs which are used for cub petting, before being sold off to parts unknown, or used as breeding stock for more cubs.
In almost 40 years not one single animals produced by the Antles, or involved with the Rare Species Fund has ever set foot in the wild.
Furthermore, the Antles persist in marketing genetically manipulated animals like Ligers as “natural” variants of big cats which are actually healthier and longer lived than non-hybrids, even though the issues associated with captive inbreeding of white tigers and hybrids have been scientifically proven and documented again, and again.
Since Faulkner insisted that the Rare Species Fund was “saving species” and “restoring them to a natural habitat” we performed a basic hashtag search of #rarespeciesfund on Instagram. Here are links to a *small* selection of what we found under the “recent” tab. They are now listed in links, rather than photos. Some posts contain multiple photos.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BstEGutgsGq/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=rvfzoxnhiwym
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmwcFJ1BvUO/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=p4eepu7x1tqj
https://www.instagram.com/p/Btq_pF0Akgu/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=r8pk7cpdactt
Paying to play with cubs, paying to swim with cubs, breeding more cubs for more people to pay to play with. All in the name of the Rare Species Fund.
Yeah, what is CWW thinking? The Rare Species Fund clearly has the corner on conserving big cats, and getting them back into their natural habitat!
Pay to play is the name of the game at the Samutprakarn Wildlife Park aka the Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo.
Of course, only the RSF refers to it as the Samutprakarn Wildlife Park in their promotional media pertaining to “hand delivery” of “the first uniquely colored tigers anywhere in Asia.” The rest of Thailand calls it the Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo, and it might sound familiar to readers because in December of 2018, it made International headlines when photos of its animal hit the airwaves, showcasing a long history of abuse and neglect.
Photo by Somchai Poomlard) Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1594182/rest-ordered-for-skinny-elephants-at-samut-prakan-zoo. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post Public Company Limited. All rights reserved.
Tiger at Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo photo taken by visiter.
And we aren’t the only ones pointing out the Rare Species Fund’s participating in importing tigers to abusive pits of misery like Samut Prakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo.
Yes, just a little research into the Rare Species Fund might well push it from rarity to extinction. And would that be just awful?
Please, please, kids, just do your own research. We’re not asking you to “listen to leadership you don’t respect” we’re just trying to get you to think for yourselves before you publicly devote yourselves to groups who don’t care about you, or the animals you’re trying to save. We’re sorry that real conservation is “boring” and doesn’t involve handling cubs, playing with big cats, and interacting with captive bred wild animals, but anyone who tries to tell you that holding cubs bred in captivity will save wild animals is lying to you.
Anyone who breeds wild animals in captivity, handles captive wild animals, and interacts with big cats, or other captive wild animals and claims that they’re doing so for the purpose of raising awareness about conservation and supporting conservation is lying.
Period.
No exceptions.