Powerful Women Do Powerful Things

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

GreatHERgood Claims to Support Powerful Women, So Why Are They Running PR for Black Jaguar White Tiger?

In our last Note we discussed, at length, the ability that propaganda and public manipulation has to mislead the masses into believing things that are entirely fabricated, and how Black Jaguar White Tiger’s new website and image is doing just that. Today we’re going to look at the company behind BJWT’s new, tidier and more palpably “politically correct” website and social media posts.

The cover photo of Greathergood’s Facebook page declares that “Powerful Women Do Powerful Things”

Setting aside the fact that founder Jackie Berlowski is posing with a captive wild Serval cat (which obviously goes against everything CWW stands for in a conservational sense) the statement itself is inspiring only on the face. Very powerful women might do very powerful, and terrible, things. Being “powerful” doesn’t make you a good person. For example, if you’re in a very powerful position, but you use that position to support and promote someone who is a tyrant that abuses others at will, then you’re nothing but a stooge to that tyrant.

When Greathergood and BJWT announced that they would be working together, it was, unsurprisingly, accompanied by photos and videos of Berlowski at BJWT playing with cubs and monkeys inside the house dubbed “Stage 1” by Serio. Same exhausted, overdone, inspiring story that every other celebrity touts after visiting BJWT. Go play with the captive wild animals, then tell everyone how amazing the foundation that lets you play with the captive wild animals is.

Greathergoods post discussing their work on "one of our clients"

The use of "MAJOR win" is beyond coincidental since Serio uses the exact same words.

BJWT announcement of BIG (read MAJOR win) renovations to their website shortly after Greathergood's post about working on "one of our clients".

Those who understand the reality of BJWT immediately trekked over to Greathergood’s Facebook page to share their concerns and try to explain that handling captive wild animal is not conservation, and that BJWT is not a sanctuary, but rather a petting zoo for the wealthy and well connected. Predictably, the majority of commenters criticizing BJWT and Berlowski’s choice to support Serio and BJWT were blocked and their comments deleted. Berlowski, it seemed, had already drunk the BJWT koolaid. Or, perhaps, it’s simply a matter of her already being connected to BJWT.

After all, the vast majority of celebrities who support BJWT either grew up with Serio in Beverly Hills, or met him through social events of the same ilk. You won’t find non-celebrities in the field of conservation or ethical conservationists associating with BJWT, or Eduardo Serio. Former animal traffickers, and commerce conservationists selling ideas rather than ethical conservation, like David Yarrow, and model Cara Delevingne, sure. But earnest conservationists devoted to the welfare of the animals, not the prestige of interacting with them? Nope.

Good PR can’t buy you ethical support, just lots and lots of manipulated fans.

For example, one of the new “PC” posts presumably put up by Greathergoods looks like this:

Post from the BJWT Instagram dated April 14 2019 *we have no way of knowing that a Greathergood employee posted this, but it was posted after Greathergood took over PR for BJWT.

It’s very poignant, the image of receiving a battered animal with no understanding of the situation, and you’re left to make choices you don’t have enough information to make, a valiant effort by a hero in unknown territory making their way toward victory.

It’s a complete lie, of course.

But in reality, THIS was what Serio formally announced to fans the day he received Achilles.

Either Serio knew all these things then, and the new post is lying, or he didn't know any of these facts when he received Achilles and he was lying to fans by stating this. Either way, lies are being told to fans.

Serio even explained that the tiger had fallen off a balcony at his home, and that’s how his legs had been broken. But hey, a good PR campaign creates its own facts, right?

More surprising than Berlowski’s ignorant support of BJWT as a pseudo-sanctuary (she’s a PR and media professional, not a conservationist) or even the misleading spin her company is putting on established facts, and the rewriting of other information (hey, PR creates “reality” to sell a product) is her choice to enter into business with Eduardo Serio, someone who has repeatedly, consistently, and very, very publicly, specifically attacked women, lesbians, gays, as well as using racial slurs, and offering outrageous suggestions regarding anyone with mental or physical deficiencies.

Berlowski’s Greathergood tags Ellen DeGeneres, gushing about her. Too bad that according to Greathergood’s new client, Eduardo Serio lesbians, are inherently unhappy because they’re unnatural, and don’t have “real sex” which leads them to being mean and stupid. Serio has stated as much multiple times, often ranting in live videos in particular about any woman who criticizes BJWT, suggesting that all of them are just frustrated lesbians who need a man to release their sexual frustrations (or whores who sleep around, one extreme or the other) Maybe Greathergood’s Berlowski can pass this advise on to Ellen?

Greathergood also recently tagged Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington. No stranger to change-ups and conflict, Huffington nevertheless is currently a devout supporter of the LBGTQIA movement (her former husband is bisexual) and has publicly called for more such folks to take positions of power and influence. Meanwhile, Serio has on many occasions in live feeds, blamed LGBTQIA peoples (he did not use politically accurate references to them) for the failings of America and #planetstupid insisting that women are now raising boys too gay and that lesbians are unstable, and need sex instead of being in charge of anything. Maybe Berlowski would like to ask Huffington for her opinion on supporting someone who says things like that about the LGBTQIA community?

Then there’s Serio’s ongoing attacks on women in general. Erika Ortigoza has dared to speak out against BJWT on multiple occasions, and in response, Serio has repeatedly posted her photo to his 6+ million Instagram followers, helpfully informing them that she’s a whore who sleeps with men in exchange for things, and has plastic surgery to look fake. CWW wonders what Greathergood thinks of those post? Oh, wait, as noted in our prior Note, those posts have now had all their captions removed to make them neatly PR safe….

Well, then there’s Serio’s ongoing (just pathetic, at this point) attack on the young woman who entrusted him with the temporary care of her Savannah cats. After she had second thoughts about leaving them with Serio (note that they’re hybridized cats, yet Serio instructed their owner to withhold that information upon import, and call them “house cats” on the customs documentation) and asked to be allowed to take them back earlier than expected (she was planning to move cross country, as we understand it, and instead of boarding the animals somewhere, she wanted Serio’s “expertise” to care for them) even though she hadn’t moved yet. Serio took offense and went from calling her a “lovely girl who trusted us with her kids” to “that crazy Savannah woman”.

After deriding her thoroughly on all his social media platforms, Serio then publicly posted, in writing, that he didn’t even want the cats, and would return the cats to her if she reimbursed him for $1600 USD. Again, let us reiterate that Serio posted these terms in writing, on a public platform where they were seen by millions of BJWT fans, and anyone else viewing BJWT’s social media pages. The young woman promptly PayPaled Serio the $1600, pleading for her cats to be returned to her. Serio, in all his megalomaniacal magnanimity, posted screenshots of his PayPal account, showing the transfer of money to him, from the owner of the Savannah cats, and captioned that photo (paraphrasing here) “Thanks for the donation to my 501(c)3, I’m keeping the money and the cats. You lose.”

It was, perversely, BJWT’s own fans, who stepped in at that point, commenting en masse to the effect that Serio had posted terms, the young woman had met those terms, and yet he was now going back on his word. Many fans suggested just giving the cats back, since he’d said he would if she paid him the $1600, which she had. Others pointed out that $1600 might meet the burden for larceny, since it amounted to a payment in exchange for the cats, and now he was withholding both.

Instead of taking the advice of his fans, Serio simply contrived an excuse, claiming that the young woman “still owes me $66” and that because she shorted him (even though he’s the one who cited precisely $1600, in multiple places WhatsApp messages, texts, on social media) that “the deal was off” and then he posted images of his PayPal account refunding the money. Of course “the deal” wasn’t for $1666 USD, it was for $1600 USD. But then Serio would have had to “admit defeat” and give the young woman’s cats back. Instead, he lied, and continued attacking her.

For years.

The duration of Serio’s pursuance of the young woman who entrusted him with her Savannahs is, perhaps, the singular best example of his obsessive need to dominate and control everything in his perceived sphere of existence. What began as a mistake on the part of a fan (former, now) of BJWT, and what was a bad fit for Serio as far as animals go (the cats did not like him, were not malleable and adoring in the videos he showed, but rather shunned him and avoided him or hissed) has now been drawn out into a multi-year sordid attack, with an extremely wealthy, and well connected older man pursuing, harassing and doggedly deriding a young, financially insecure woman. Serio even publicly stated (posted via screenshots of his messages with the young woman) that he didn’t want the cats. And yet he refused to give them back, even after their devastated owner paid him the money he demanded. It reads like a child custody horror story with ransoms paid, but children still withheld. Some three years or more into the situation, the young woman continues to struggle in paying basic bills (if she’s holding a job at all, what with Serio dragging her into court repeatedly, which we know he does because he posts #winning with veiled connotations about suing people whenever something happens) whilst Serio is jetting all over the world, to Miami, Milan, enjoying various fundraisers for BJWT, and side trips, as well as now having hired a female-owned PR company to help hide his public abuse toward other women, including the young woman who trusted him with her Savannahs. Oh, the bittersweet irony there.

We wonder what Greathergood thinks about all of those posts? Oh, wait, nearly all of the “crazy Savannah woman” posts have now carefully been scrubbed from BJWT’s social media posts….

Of course, when it comes to making money, Serio loves to play mix-and-match with financials. BJWT’s 990 from 2017 posted on their new website claims no employees while BJWT’s costs for 2018 posted in the same section of the new website lists numerous employees. Serio regularly advertises for donations through his nonprofit, even discussing in interviews (give time count for video) how BJWT relies on donations to help cover the cost of workers and security employees. Serio tells fans that he’s spends large amounts on employees, directing those fans to donate in order to support that spending, but then when he files taxes he tells the US government those employees don’t exist.

Photo, BJWT

Legally, the US nonprofit entity Serio is constantly promoting does not possess even one single solitary employee.

The workers and security Serio has are employed by the Mexican entity, Gran Santuario Mexicano Jaguar Negro Tigre Blanco, not the US nonprofit Black Jaguar White Tiger Foundation. But Serio never specifies this to fans. Instead, he posts the 990 forms for his US branch BJWTFoundation–which again, holds ZERO employees as per its nonprofit tax filings–and then follows it with a pie chart claiming that BJWT’s budget in 2018 paid for a minimum of $423,169.26 USD for “workers” and “security” forces.

Photo, BJWT

But those employees are paid not by the US nonprofit BJWTFoundation Serio is always referring to, they’re paid by Gran Santuario Mexicano Jauguar Negro Tigre Blanco.

To further confuse things, the BJWT website lists all costs in USD, but since BJWT is in Mexico, most of the monies spent will be in Mexican Pesos, not USD. In Mexican Pesos, the cost Serio claims for employees is a staggering 8,009,176.47 Mexican Pesos. We have no way of knowing what Serio pays his workers per hour, but with an exchange rate of $1 = 18.93 Mexican Pesos, he likely doesn’t pay them more and $5 USD per hour, equating to 88-100 Mexican Pesos per hour, which is currently the roughly exchanged minimum wage in Mexico City. After all, this is the same man who refers to those workers as “wetbacks”.

The kicker in all this is, Serio’s not lying to the IRS, he’s lying to his fans who are don’t seem to realize that there are TWO Black Jaguar White Tiger entities, the Mexican-registered one which employes workers, and the US one which claims zero employees, assuring that it’s the least taxed. Serio then takes the money from his US entity, and gives it to the Mexican entity via grants as listed on the US 990 form.

It’s no wonder that with all the donations from fans being pumped into a US company in US dollars (you can also donate in other monetary systems, but if you donate to the MX entity, Serio is not required to divulge those monies publicly. So in theory someone could hand him a huge sum of money in Mexican Pesos, and we’d never know it happened) that Serio’s got enough leftover to waste in his vindictive revenge campaign against the young owner of the Savannah cats, all while Greathergood helps him keep his image tidy.

Then there’s the posts wherein Serio labeled all the conservationists who wrote letters to the Colombian government, petitioning them to send circus lions to a real sanctuary instead of BJWT “Cowards”. After all, the majority of those conservationists were women, including Erika Ortigoza the whoring plastic surgeon junkie, and two were the “frustrated lesbians” Serio enjoys referring to as “Project Idiots”…

Now removed from BJWT

Now removed from BJWT

Now removed from BJWT

Now removed from BJWT

Now removed from BJWT

Now removed from BJWT

What would Greathergood think about those posts? About the faked, photoshopped photos that were part of them? Oh, wait, all of those images and captions have now been removed from BJWT’s social media platforms…

Or what about the young woman whose name, address, employment location, etc. Serio publicly posted (which we will not be posting here) stating that Colombia had issued a warrant for her arrest because she “interfered” with his attempts to get possession of the former circus lions? That young woman had to close her social media accounts afterward due to the attacks from BJWT fans, and faced weeks of harassment from them whenever she attempted to start new accounts because, hey, Serio had given them all her personal information and told them to attack her. And his statement that Colombia had issued arrest warrants for her? 100% lie.

Videos wherein Serio refers to his own workers as “wetbacks”, wherein Serio derides Pepe for wearing “gay boots” and posing with a dog for photos, which “looks gay” when posing with a tiger is what a real man would do, videos wherein Serio declares that parents should be forced to undergo testing before having children in order to avoid having kids born with mental or physical disabilities, all now removed from BJWT platforms.

Funny how all of the imagery, and contexts that would be damaging to someone’s PR, and which represent the precise opposite of what Greathergood claims to promote and support have now been removed from BJWT and Eduardo Serio’s social media platforms. But then, that’s what companies like Greathergood does. They’re hired to move in, and clean things up. We have no way of knowing precisely which images and videos Greathergood specifically removed, but we can know that it’s not possible for them to be involved in the social media accounts of BJWT without seeing these posts firsthand, because many of them were available until just the last couple of months. It’s not a coincidence that BJWT partnered with a PR company for the first time since it was founded and suddenly the more egregiously bigoted and hate-mongering posts began disappearing from their pages.

Bravo, Greathergood. Maybe you should reach out to Harvey Weinstein and offer to represent him while you’re at it. He could probably use the help revamping his image, and considering your efforts with Serio, you could probably do wonders for Weinstein.

Why Do Big Name Celebrities Constantly Get Big Passes?

When It Comes To Responsible Tourism Why Do Big Name Celebrities Get Passes?

Kim Kardashian is in the news.

Again.

For engaging in exploitive animal abuse with elephants.

Again.

Back in 2014, KK made unflattering headlines by attempting to take a selfie with an exploited baby elephant in Thailand. Although animal welfare groups did their best to use the incident as a teaching tool to highlight the systemic abuse suffered by the elephants used in the tourism industry, the majority of the population simply took it as an opportunity to laugh at the ultra-elite Kardashian.

Four years later, and KK is still making headlines, and still making uninformed and abusive choices. After photos of the famous-for-no-reason-other-than-being-famous celebrity surfaced showing her and her sister riding “rescued elephants” (and that oxymoronic statement really highlights the stupidity involved here) in Bali the animal community promptly stepped forward to criticize Kardashian’s decision to participate in the abuse of captive elephants.

This time, however, KK decided to “hit back” (as one article described it) in response to the deluge of public criticisms deeming her “ignorant” regarding the plight of captive elephants enslaved within the tourist industry. Unfortunately for little Kimmie, her version of “hitting back” turned out to be the equivalent of one of those “fingers over your thumb” toddler punches. Apparently the poor dear only knows how Instagram works, not Google, or Bing, or any other search engine which can be used to educate oneself about things like animal abuse in the tourism industry

In reply to a critical tweet by the rather brilliant Peter Egan, who happens to be the UK Ambassador for Animals Asia, Kardashian said:

“We visited an elephant sanctuary that has rescued these elephants from Sumatra where they would have otherwise gone extinct. It is an organization that is working to save these beautiful animals. We did full research before going.”

Oh, poor dear. KK is woefully out of her league in class, education, and intellectualism when it comes to taking on Peter Egan.

There is so much mind-numbing ignorance, and incorrect information in just those three sentences. Bear with us, there’s a lot to cover here.

“We visited an elephant sanctuary that has rescued these elephants from Sumatra where they would have otherwise gone extinct.”

Wow. Um, okay, let’s just dive in. To start with, the park where Kim rode the captive elephant is in Bali, not Sumatra. The highly endangered Sumatran elephant is indigenous *only* to Sumatra. For anyone who doesn’t understand the significance of this, Sumatra is part of the Sunda Islands (which are divided between the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and East Timor) Sumatra is located in western Indonesia. Meanwhile the island of Bali, where Kim rode the elephant, is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, and is located some 1,800 kilometers, or 1,100 miles (by air) to the west of Sumatra. Since the Sumatran elephant is exclusively indigenous only to Sumatra, this means that the “rescued Sumatran elephants” Kardashian is describing were actually removed from their homes, and hauled over a thousand miles to the island of Bali, which is not large enough to sustain any wild elephant population. On top of that, these elephants are actually invasive species, relative to the species which are indigenous to Bali.

And while the Sumatran elephant is highly endangered in Sumatra, with numbers around 2,000 or less, they are not extinct (yet) and the 27 kidnapped exported elephants that Kimmie played with have literally no helpful impact on the diminishing wild populations of Sumatran elephants still living in Sumatra. Sorry Kimmie-boo, that abusive tourist trap you dropped major coin on didn’t save anything from extinction.

“It is an organization that is working to save these beautiful animals.”

And just what organization was it that Kardashian visited? Although no story has named it, we were able to find out that it was the Mason Elephant Park and Lodge. Is it a sanctuary like KK claims? That would be a resounding hell no. Not unless your idea of a “sanctuary” is a for-profit venture dreamed up by a business man. Oh, the Park’s website is quite the pinnacle of carnival barker half-truths and misinformation. They’re careful to comport themselves with brainy-sounding information that seems legit to anyone who doesn’t dig deeper. They even make a point to list the Five Freedoms of animal welfare. But then, lots of things look good on paper, but we all know what happens to paper when you actually put it through the wash. In the case of Nigel Mason, and his elephants, this means that basically everything disintegrates with a little water.

Nigel Mason first arrived in Bali in 1980, where he “pioneered” (in his own words) “the adventure business” starting with white water rafting, then mountain cycling tours, and eventually the Elephant Safari Park, in 1997. That’s right the “sanctuary” Kimmie-dear is touting, started out as a safari park. And the first elephants weren’t “rescued” from Sumatra, they had already been bought by another individual and shipped to Bali. When Nigel Mason learned about them living in the Taro area he saw dollar signs decided to buy them from their original owner. Depending on what interview you read, Mason’s story of the first elephants runs the gamut from taking “pity on nine deserted and emaciated elephants that were being mistreated and exploited” (we’re not sure how they were both deserted, and at the same time being exploited) to simply being owned by “a person who had no idea what to do with them” but who readily sold them to Mason. This article even looks at MEPL as the extremely successful capitalist venture that it is, and here Mason forthrightly states that the first elephants he obtained had been bought to be used in a trekking outfit, but the owner ran out of capital, so Mason and his wife bought the elephants explicitly to add them to their adventure tours for diversity.

Likewise, the stories of the other elephants at the park differ depending on what article or interview you read. Sometimes Mason claims that he traveled to Sumatra and campaigned with the Sumatran government to save imprisoned elephants and whisk them away to Bali in a sort of black-ops rescue mission “despite the clear terrorist threats” while other articles state that Mason’s elephants came from “government-run “training camps” where wild elephants were rounded up and chained. The last ten elephants were bought “rescued” solely for the purpose of making the “documentary” Operation Jumbo, which documents the dramatic (but not very ethical, or practical) choice to long-haul truck elephants over 3,000 kilometers from their natural habitat in Sumatra, to the tourist hub of Bali, where, surprise surprise, they’re now being used as money-making tourist attractions. And breeding machines. Four babies born to the tourist trap and counting. Of course, each Sumatran elephant born not-in-Sumatra is being touted by Mason as a “conservation success” even though they’re part of a captive population which will never see their natural habitat of Sumatra.

“We did full research before going.”

Apparently in Kimmie-poo’s world “full research” just means checking the roster of the World Luxury Hotel Awards (for which MEPL won “Best Eco Lodge” in 2016 and 2107) because everything written in this note was located and verified in under one hour of Google research. Furthermore, we can tell you where MEPL is not listed as winning any trophies: MEPL is not considered ethical or humane by the Bali Animal Welfare Association. MEPL is not considered ethical or humane by sites like Backpacker Bible. MEPL is not considered ethical or humane by groups such as World Animal Protection, which has stated as recently as May, 2018 that a whopping 100% of Bali animal tourism venues fail to meet even basic animal welfare standards. WAP considers Bali in its entirety to be a “no-go for animal tourism” at this time. It’s even been suggested that Bali might currently be literally the worst destination for animal cruelty.

Even people who patronized MEPL in recent months had plenty of regrets and warnings about the abuse that goes on there:

“The elephants are chained to a spot with a radius of around 8 feet. The only time they are unchained is for the various activities including elephant riding and elephant safari.” –September 2018

Map of the MEPL the "elephant resting pads" are listed under 51 (underlined and circled in red)

“The elephant equivalent of Sea World. Elephants chained all day, no freedom. Only released to give rides and Bull hooks being brandished by Mahouts ready to use them.” –September 2018

“All the elephants are chained to the ground by a 2 foot chain and can barely move . The only time they appear to get "walked" is when tourists get their rides. The mahouts use bull hooks on all the elephants to make them bend down, walk a certain way and do what is needed to put on a good show for tourists . They hide this well , but once you notice it you can't unsee it . They are CONSTANTLY stabbing the sharp metal bull hook into the elephants heads and behind ears. The elephant acts are repetitive and it feels like a cruel merry go round where they are exploited for money.” –September 2018

Example of the small, incredibly sharp but easily concealed prongs used to abuse the elephants into submission. Photos taken from reviews of MEPL.

Example of the small, incredibly sharp but easily concealed prongs used to abuse the elephants into submission. Photos taken from reviews of MEPL

“Was dismayed when we first arrived to see a small area with several sand circles, each with an elephant chained to the middle, most were rocking back and forth on the same spot. I have several videos of the elephants doing this - if you read up on this you can see rocking is a sign of abnormal mental behaviour of animals in captivity.” –August 2018

“This place sells itself as a "sanctuary for elephants", but this is completely false. It is yet another cruel animal attraction. Elephants here are forced to perform acts and carry tourists around on elephant rides. Elephant rides are NOT comfortable for the animal and cause long-term damage to the animal's spine. The elephants are also chained on metre long chains before their performances.

They lie to guests about the "reasons" for chains and elephant rides. It was heartbreaking to see the elephants. I regret not researching this place properly.” –August 2018

“The elephants are chained up to 2 foot long chains alone all day until they are needed for rides. During the ‘Elephant Introduction’ they started by explaining that the elephants weren’t treated like circus animals here but then went on to make them paint, crush coconuts and other little unessesary ‘tricks’. The worst part about this place is the lies they feed us to convince us that these elephants are happy. They are absolutely not and it was heartbreaking.

Each little cabin had a chained elephant outside as if it was a statue.” –August 2018

“1. All elephants, unless they are being forced to take photos or paraded in the 'talent show', are CHAINED TO THE GROUND. The image on the website shows a lady being massaged by a pool with elephants dotted in the background with NO chains.....this photo gives a dishonest view of what it is like.

2. The 'Talent Show'. I can't express enough how horrifying it is to see a creature of that size perform tricks that are completely unnatural for their size and habitual nature. They sat bolt upright on a log....scooped up a man on his head and played football....I was in tears and we left after the first 3 'tricks'...which was 3 tricks too long. They do this out of fear and because their spirit is broken, not because they want to or find any pleasure in it....all for the pleasure of the paying tourist. It's abhorrent and should not be allowed in this day and age.

3. The animals had chunks out of their ears and you could see where they had been spiked by their keepers if they disobeyed their orders. So not only are they chained up, they are spiked and harmed to do what the trainer wants them to do.” –April 2018

Performance at MEPL

Example of "tricks" elephants at MEPL are forced to perform.

Again, all of the information found within this article was located, and verified in under one hour.

One. Hour.

But apparently Kim Kardashian’s thumbs were in casts, so she couldn’t type into a search bar before going on her luxury vacation. Or maybe she’d just gotten her nails done. Or maybe, here’s a shocker, she just doesn’t care.

After all, Kardashian got what she wanted out of the elephants she helped abuse. A little limelight, a little attention, some nice conflict. And ratings, hits, and follows. And in the end, that’s all she cares about. That’s literally how people like Kardashian make their money.

And until big name animal welfare and conservation organizations start calling out big name celebrities, nothing is going to change.

Until those same animal welfare and conservation organizations start drawing a hard line on matters like animal exploitation for tourism, public opinion is still going to be mixed.

For example, Steve Irwin publicly supported MEPL back when it went by the name of Elephant Safari Park, and since becoming MEPL the lodge has been listed in the top ten most unique hotels in the world by National Geographic and the Discovery Travel Channel. This, in spite of the fact that elephants are forced to give up to 17 rides a day to paying tourists and spend the rest of their lives chained up. But being “unique” does not mean being “ethical”.

We have to stop overlooking egregious faults while rewarding irrelevant fluff.

If animal exploitation and abuse is going to end, the double standards applied to big celebrities, and big networks have to end as well.

When You’re Too Popular To Give A Crap About Reality.

When You’re Too Popular To Give A Crap About Reality.

By all accounts, Shaquille O’Neal is a pretty likeable guy. He almost always has a smile on his face in media photos, he’s never been shy about using his position and wealth to help other humans. And on a professional level, he seems well liked by everyone, teammates, opponents, and others in the industry.

But there’s another side to the all-smiles-friendly-guy Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq owns several pet big cats, and regularly visits, and supports facilities which breed, inbreed, exploit, abuse, and sell for profit, big cats of various species and hybrids.

It’s important, before we go any farther, to understand that the majority of the public (literally, billions of people) either don’t care, or don’t understand, that what Shaquille, and other celebrities who engage in the exploitation of captive wild animals are doing, is exploitation of those animals. This is why it’s vital for those of us who do understand to raise awareness whenever possible. Only when the general public reacts in an adverse way, rather than in a supportive and praising manner, can we hope to cultivate within people like Shaq a new perception of their actions.

So back to the fact that Shaq owns big cats. By his own words, Shaq first got “involved” with big cats somewhere around 2005. It’s only been in the last 3-4 years that videos of him with the tigers have really hit social media, but according to this 2015 article, Shaq stated that he owned tigers, and had owned them at the time of the interview for some 10 years already. Of course, the two tigers he keeps as pets are billed as “rare white tigers”. “Rare” only in the purview of the often intentionally-ignorant public. Anyone who has engaged in Google could explain the fact that white tigers are neither “rare” nor “endangered” but are, rather, the product of repeated and intentional inbreeding to cultivate recessive genes. The creation of white tigers also creates immense by-products, those by-products being normal colored tigers, and deformed white cubs which must be euthanized. For each adorable, normal looking white tiger cub you see, there are usually multiple average colored tiger cubs, and deformed tiger cubs which were either sold as offal and/or pets, or euthanized due to their deformities lost in the background. Think of white tiger cubs as the milk in the dairy industry, and the normal colored tiger cubs as the calves. In order to get a white tiger cub, you must produce a large number of undesired cubs which are then simply disposed of as waste product, just as bull calves are disposed of in the dairy industry.

Example of the sort of genetic abnormalities not uncommon in the inbreeding of white tigers.

If the fact that Shaq owns two inbred tigers (and is extra proud of it) doesn’t repulse you, there’s also the fact that just recently Shaq presented his pet liger to fans on his Instagram account. That’s right, Shaq is now the happy owner of a genetically twisted inter-species crossbred (and in many cases also inbred) pet big cat. According to O’Neal only two people in the world own a liger, him, and the Prince of Dubai. We presume that Shaq means there are only two private owners of ligers in the world. Because thanks to folks like Doc Antle (to whom Shaq is also connected, but more on that later) ligers have become the “pretty much my favorite animal” of countless members of the public. Heck, Antle and several other exploiters, even posit that ligers could become their own species of big cat in the future, and with their breeding programs. Never mind that many ligers are sterile. Never mind that many ligers are born with either visible, or invisible deformities. Never mind that many ligers live shortened lives, wrought with medical complications.

Scientific facts don’t seem to matter when you’re Shaquille O’Neal, and you decide to buy yourself the must-have exotic pet of the moment!

Apparently moral and legal quandaries don’t matter for folks like Shaq, either. Most, if not all, of the big cat “experts” Shaquille pals around with have faced citations for abuse of the animals in their care, USDA failings, inappropriate husbandry and some have faced even more serious legal issues. Joe Exotic Maldonado Passage (he also goes by Joe Schreibvogel) was recently arrested on two counts of murder for hire.

Joe Exotic in times past.

Yet days after Exotic was arrested and indicted, Shaq spent the weekend visiting the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, which was owned, at one point, by Exotic. After GWEAP was forced to shutdown after multiple allegations of animal cruelty, and abuse, it was purchased by Jeff Lowe, another well known abuser and exploiter who has also faced multiple accusations of animal abuse in various locations. On our prior posts regarding Joe Exotic and GWEAP, several people have commented insisting that Exotic is not, and never was, president of the park, nor has he ever held any similar position. We are still working to verify these claims. Many sources, however, including Wikipedia (we’re citing it simply because it’s one of the most referred to references sources on the internet) state that Joe Exotic is the president or CEO of GWEAP. Once we’re able to verify Exotic’s current relationship with GWEAP we will update you.

Regardless of Joe Exotic’s present connection to–or lack of connection to–GWEAP it is a verified fact that Shaquille has been friends with Exotic since before he managed to lose the original version of the park. There are multiple videos floating around which show Shaq visiting Exotic, and playing with big cats. And since Shaquille is still frequenting GWEAP and interacting with its big cats, he’s now associated with Jeff Lowe. Lowe, himself, fields charges of abuse regarding the animals in his care on a regular basis. Yes, he still holds a license to possess and exhibit exotic animals, but only in spite of the efforts of numerous captive wild animal advocates who have pled with the USDA to terminate Lowe’s license. Just this year, in May, PETA petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to decline the renewal of Lowe’s license.

Lowe’s issues go back years, with a laundry list of citations including unfit and insecure enclosures, and leaving animals unsupervised in inappropriate conditions (in 2016 tiger cubs were found roaming in a house located on the GWEAP facility grounds) and in June of 2013 Lowe was investigated by the USDA for the deaths of 23 tiger cubs in the span of seven months. Nevertheless, that same USDA has yet to withdraw Lowe’s licenses. Then there’s the fact that back in 2013 there was a mirrored situation involving Low and Joe wherein Lowe (still operating a decrepit “zoo” in South Carolina) repeatedly claimed to be a partner in Exotic’s Wynnewood park, GWEAP, while Exotic admitted that Lowe had visited his park, he emphatically insisted that Lowe “has absolutely no ties to us.” Fast forward to 2018 and now Lowe–who bought GWEAP after it was shutdown and Joe Exotic lost it–is claiming the exact same thing about Joe, in spite of the fact that Exotic is referred to as being partnered with, or president of the park.

Jeff Lowe with one of his own inbred hybrids, which he calls a liliger.

Both Lowe and Joe Exotic and their considerable laundry lists of exploitation and abuse pale in comparison to Shaquille O’Neal’s association with Doc Antle, of T.I.G.E.R.S. With literally decades of abuse and exploitation behind him (spanning multiple states, no less) few men have been able to turn animal abuse into a commercial business the way Doc Antle has. But that’s not for lack of trying on Antle’s part. He’s all too happy to take on apprentices, teaching them the same bunk science, and behavior he’s based his own empire on.

It was one of these apprentices named Robert Johnson who provided the inbred white tiger to Shaq for this 34th Birthday party. You know, the one he dragged down a red carpet while dressed like a old school gangster.

Johnson has also provided captive wild animals for handling at events like Obama’s inauguration, movies, and live shows. That’s kind of what he does. Breed captive wild animals, and then use them to make money. This includes ligers. Ligers like the one Shaq presented to his fans recently. Just where Shaq purchased his liger remains a mystery. With Antle breeding them constantly, however, the inbred hybrids are no longer just the stuff of legend. They’re quickly becoming the new hotness. And with Shaq now advertising his personal liger like the newest model of must-have cuddliness, things are only going to get worse.

Robert Johnson

Johnson’s teacher, Doc Antle.

Likewise, with ignorant, but very popular morons like Shaquille O’Neal (who has been repeatedly, and consistently berated by former fans trying to make him understand how keeping tigers and ligers as pets is exploitive and wrong, to no avail) continue to associate with abusers like Antle, Johnson, Joe Exotic, and Jeff Lowe those abusers are only going to continue to grow their followings, and continue to abuse and exploit the captive wildlife who cannot escape them. Even know, an entire new generation of abusive exploiters like the infamous “Real Tarzann” are modeling themselves after the likes of Antle, and younger generations are all too happy to buy into the lies.

The "Real Tarzann" who just surpassed 3 million followers on Instagram, and who constantly tags Doc Antle, and promotes him.

Today’s Foolishness Is Tomorrow’s Tour Tickets.

Today’s Foolishness Is Tomorrow’s Tour Tickets.

In the words of the immortal (and abusive, exploitive, and capitalist) P.T. Barnum, “There’s a fool born every minute.” Today, that fool happens to be the young, award wining singer Demi Lovato.

At a glance, Lovato’s visit to Black Jaguar White Tiger, where she cuddled with “rescued” cubs could be dismissed as complete, if epically vast, ignorance. However, a read through the gushing article by the Daily Mail which covers her visit reveals the more lurid (and less surprising to anyone who’s researched BJWT and it’s notorious founder, Eduardo Serio) truth of the matter. It’s all about connections, back scratching, and publicity.

Demi Lovato at Black Jaguar White Tiger

You see, Ms. Lovato is preparing for a North American tour with DJ Khaled. And Khaled is best pals with good old Eddie Serio. Yes, they go waaaay back. Back to Eddie’s days as a Hollywood socialite. You know, before he ever started buying, er, pardon me, “rescuing” big cats, and keeping them in his closet. How better to drum up a little publicity for one’s North American tour than to spend a little time playing with the pet big cats of your costar’s old buddy? Get your fans all stirred up, and, hey, Black Jaguar White Tiger’s stats have been fading somewhat of late. They could use the pat on the back.

After all, Eduardo Serio’s currently juggling somewhere around $500,000.00 in unaccounted for donations to that little 501(c)3 of his. About $69,000.00 of that money was intended for lions he was supposedly going to “rescue” from Colombia. Lions that he was also supposedly going to “rescue” last year. Another chunk, $74,889.00 was thrown at him so that he could single-handedly parade around Mexico, salvaging his country from the grip of the tragic earthquake. Last we heard about that was some blankets Eddie supposedly bought with his own money, and a few promises that he’d “give the money to the best places”. $161,599.00 was raised via GoFundMe supposedly just to pay for the cats Serio already has. And of course, the Foundation has never formally posted any detailed financials, as American 501(c)3’s are required by law to do. So, yeah, a flashy young attractive star hoisting around adorable baby big cats would be a great distraction for the fans of BJWT.

Cue Eddie’s buddy, DJ Khaled, who is conveniently preparing a North American tour with just such an attractive young woman. And, of course, the scheme is working grandly. Ms. Lovato promptly posted a photo of herself on Instagram rubbing noses with a young lion cub, which has already garnered over 1.3 million likes, and some 6,500 comments. In her description, Lovato says the cub was “rescued” but, of course, we know it was secured, just like every other cub at BJWT through Serio’s persistent connections with illegal traders, and sellers, solely for the purpose of that for which it’s being used: to take photos with guests.

With Serio literally subletting the “biographies” of his cats to his fans and followers (I’m not being facetious, he’s literally set up an email account so his fans can submit biographies of his animals, because, he says, he’s too busy rescuing more to keep track of them) the actual origins of the animals at BJWT are not only up for debate, but also constantly changing. In fact, one only needs to peruse the submitted biographies already posted to the BJWTBios Instagram page to realize that virtually every biography documented contains gross inaccuracies, and many, if not most, also contain the phrase “Eddie said” which brings us right back to the lack of documentation.

Eddie “says” a lot of things. When Karma died, “Eddie said” she wasn’t actually sick, and was going to be fine. Then “Eddie said” she had to have surgery. Then “Eddie said” she had to have surgery. Then “Eddie said” the surgeons found dead intestines, and a piece of wood. Then “Eddie Said” Karma came through surgery fine, and was doing great. Now, two years later, “Eddie says” that there was no wood found in Karma’s intestines. Now “Eddie says” that Karma did not live through surgery, but died on the operating table. Now “Eddie says” that no one, the vets or anyone else, knows why Karma died. So when, exactly, was Eddie telling the truth?

Is the “rescued” lion cub Lovato is holding in her Instagram photo from a zoo, as so very many of BJWT’s cubs are? I wonder if it was “rescued” the same way this cubs “rescued” from the zoo owned by Eddie’s friend were. Does anyone remember those cubs? Rocky and Rambo? Hmm? Their “biographies” were recently posted, describing how they were “rescued” because the people who owned them gave them up. Funny. Back when they were just “box babies” the story was that they’d been removed from their mothers at a zoo so as to save them. There was also a third cub, who died right after their public reveal, and which was immediately forgotten. At the time, Eddie declared that he’d “rescued” the cubs from a zoo, and because he “didn’t have room” for their mothers, he’d taken the cubs. After weeks of having fans ask about the mother lions, after weeks of fans questioning the mothers and if they were suffering, Eddie admitted that the mother lions were fine, because his friend Gustavo owned the zoo. Meaning that those lionesses were never in danger, and their cubs never needed to be removed in the first place. Yet Serio did remove the cubs solely for the purpose of using them to make money off his fans.

The Daily Mail article delicately suggests that BJWT is “controversial” and references a Daily Beast article as evidence of the “controversy” of BJWT’s actions. It’s a truly laughable attempt to “cover their bases”. The Daily Mail didn’t bother linking to BJWTWatchdog, where hundreds of researched and documented problems surrounding BJWT are available to the public. Neither did the Daily Mail bother to reference the few, but well researched articles written by conservationists–not just other fluff media outlets–which in great detail explain everything that’s wrong with BJWT and Serio’s ongoing actions. Neither did the Daily Mail bother mentioning the fact that at least on very prominent, and completely factual article, was removed after Serio attempted to legally threaten the author of that article because it showed BJWT in a very poor light. Maybe the Daily Mail is afraid of Serio’s temper. Well-rounded reporting doesn’t seem to matter these days.

And speaking of threats, for someone who describes themselves as a “feminist” Lovato must wear her feminism like she does designers shows–only when they match her current outfit. After all, she posed happily for a photo op with Eduardo Serio when Serio has repeatedly attacked women with such condescending savagery that even his own followers have called him out on it. Serio even published the private information of a young American woman after his fans offered to kill her to get her out of Serio’s way. Ms. Lovato claims to support mental health, and wants to spread awareness about it. She, herself, has been diagnosed as bipolar. One wonders if she’s intentionally overlooking the fact that Serio has repeatedly referred to anyone with mental health concerns as “crazy”. One wonders if Ms. Lovato is intentionally overlooking the fact that Serio has publicly suggested that couples undergo genetic testing in order to avoid giving birth to “defective” children with mental disease. Or any other disease. Ms. Lovato works with a number of international groups supporting the sort of children Serio believes should never be born. Ms. Lovato also supports gay rights, meanwhile, Serio publicly derides gays, transgenders, and anyone else who does not fit within the perimeters of mainstream heterosexuals.

Is it really possible that Demi Lovato cares so little for the truth that she’s ignoring the fact that Serio, and everything he stands for, is in direct opposition of all the things Lovato herself supports? Or does Lovato just not give a shit about the fact that by visiting BJWT, she’s actively supporting, and advertising a homophobic, xenophobic, exploitive capitalist who’s willing to happily destroy anything and anyone who thwarts their plans? I mean, honestly, she could have just had coffee with the current President and posted a photo of herself, and she’d have achieved the same thing. Or maybe Ms. Lovato knows what Serio’s really like, and she just doesn’t care because, hey, North American tour coming up with Serio’s good friend DJ Khaled! Might as well get as much attention as she can before the tour gets underway, right?

Whatever the reasons behind Ms. Lovato’s ill-conceived visit to BJWT, and her beaming photo with founder Eduardo Serio, one thing is certain. There’s a fool born every minute, and Ms. Lovato just joined their ranks. We can only hope she comes to realize the reality of BJWT’s lies and abuse. She’ll never speak out about it, even if she does, celebrities never do, because they fear Serio’s connections with Hollywood, which could tank careers. But it’d be nice to think she might educate herself, and avoid making the same mistake twice.