Sometimes our criminal justice system is about punishing people and not reforming people.
Eric Goode
There are times when you do have to bring animals into captivity to save a species like California Condors, or Arabian Aurochs. But they have something called species survival plans, and they do it in a very thoughtful way and are careful with the genetics.
I spent my summers in Sonoma at my grandfather's ranch, we called it Rancho Rodeo.
So I'd say that the Doc Antles, the Jeff Lowes, these people were very guarded. Carole Baskin wasn't and Joe Exotic, wasn't, obviously, because he's such a narcissist and an egomaniac that he did so many things against his better judgment.
There is animal rights and animals rights organizations like PETA, then there's animal welfare, which is very different than animal rights.
What you do in Oklahoma with tigers in these roadside zoos would be frowned on if it opened in the L.A. basin or New York. I think it's a lack of education. And people believe we should be able to have a tiger, because this is America - who should stop us?
Unlike accredited zoos like the Bronx Zoo, San Diego Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo, these are private menageries, and these people are frightened and there is an existential fear that they are going to be shut down by the government, by PETA, by HSUS, by animal rights groups. So they, generally, are very guarded.
I guess you could say I'm a closeted animal person, because a lot of my life I did it in secrecy. I was always fascinated with exotic animals, particularly reptiles, from the age of 6 when I got a pet tortoise.
I spent countless hours hiking up and down Carriger Creek. That was a time of my life when I really connected with nature as a child, and my mom really promoted that.
The real takeaway should be to give your money to conservation programs around the world that are really working hard to save tigers in their range countries and not give your money to sanctuaries, which are really, effectively just caging tigers and cats.
I set out to expose the issue with big cat ownership in America and where that exploitation lies.
If hotels are replacing nightclubs, then they're replacing nightclubs for yuppies.
At the end of the day, the best sanctuaries are places like the Performing Animal Welfare Society in Northern California, where he really provides his tigers large spaces. And there are people in the private sector that do a really good job with animals.
The Standard in Hollywood, when you check in, they have that sort of Area-like vignette behind the front desk with someone sleeping behind glass. An actual person.
But I was just really blown away that you could just buy a snow leopard. For me, it was like buying a panda bear or a Komodo dragon.
If you keep more 230 tigers, it's like having 230 children, you don't really love them, you're just collecting them.
When something changes in Episode 7, you have to then begin moving things around, shuffling things backwards. Once you start moving material into it, that can derail your whole arc.
The tiger people, the reptile people, they all have sort of unique subcultures. Kind of like 'Best in Show.'
I probably spent about 40 percent of 2019 on a plane and filming.
But in this case people have hundreds and hundreds of animals, they have a menagerie. You can't possibly love that many animals. So, it's more about the ego and the pride of having all of these things sort of like a car collection or a gun collection.
I definitely have, on paper, an unorthodox career path. And from childhood onward, I was always fascinated by the outdoors and wildlife.
I kept a few turtles and tortoises and maybe a snake in my apartment in New York City, off and on. Maybe sometimes against my better judgment.
People fantasize about working with animals, and then they start doing it, and then they start to believe that they're indispensable and the animal loves them just as much they love the animal.
Later in life, I started an organization that works to save tortoises and turtles that are threatened, but in full disclosure, I still always had a fascination with people who kept animals.
I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special.
I was definitely an 80s fashion victim who drank the Kool-Aid.
Look, when we were building Area, we were so driven and focused, partly because none of us came from money.
I knew a notorious reptile dealer who would send me animals for Area. I regret that. I mean, the landlord had wolves and an arctic fox upstairs and quite possibly a tiger.
I did a CNN pilot but they decided I wasn't Anthony Bourdain.
Then I began filming a world that I knew quite a bit about. I was peripherally involved in that world much of my life - the exotic reptile world, the collectors, the dealers, the smugglers.
The reality of our world today is not every species can be left in the wild.
I'm not one who thinks that people should be locked up and thrown away the key.
I was a kid that loved reptiles and eventually started an organization dedicated to saving turtles and tortoises, called the Turtle Conservancy, where we protect land and basically do species conservation around the world.
Animal rights can be as extreme as not riding a horse, or not wearing leather, not having a pet at all. Animal welfare advocates are preventing the suffering of animals. And then there's conservation and species conservation and what conservation biologists do.
My focus personally has been to be a conservationist, which is to save species, protect wild lands, sometimes bring animals into assurance colonies in the wild - like California Condors for example - and put them back in the wild. It's very different from animal rights.
When I was in nightclubs, I thought they were a really important way for young people who come to New York to meet people and connect.
I can only imagine there still have to be nightclubs where 21-year-olds go.
