Analysis of the "Elephant in the Living Room" Documentary:
Insider’s Point of View

By Zuzana Kukol, REXANO, April 2011

Since REXANO was featured in this exotic animal documentary, we eagerly awaited its theatrical release on April 1st, 2011.

The Story:

The movie follows an Oakwood, Ohio public safety officer Tim Harrison, who is a failed former exotic animal owner. He freely admits he gave up his pet lioness years ago, when she grew too big and he couldn’t handle her. It is not clear how he went from a failed pet owner to an exotic expert, but it appears he is self-taught, just like most private exotic animal owners are.

Tim claims that over 10 years ago, he used to receive less than 10 calls a year regarding exotic animals, but that nowadays the number is over 100 calls per year (one must wonder if the reason is because more people have cell phones nowadays?).

The movie doesn’t give us the breakdown of how many of these calls ended up with real animals being sighted and captured, and how many were just a case of mistaken identity by liquored up house wives. In any case, the movie only offers old pictures or supposed re-enactments of very old cases, mostly Tim catching or holding gators, or the famous case where two kids were playing with a Gabon viper in a garage (It is strange that there is no media coverage of the gaboon story, other than Tim claiming it happened in his interviews). When it comes to the recent reports of women calling in claiming to see big cats at large, the cat is never found.

The documentary shows bizarre silly footage of Tim holding a catch pole with snare, which would not be of any help catching a scared cougar, even if there was one. Since there was no escaped big cat to be filmed, the camera lingered way too long on Tim sitting in almost Buddha position amid moving green grass, with the pole resting in his lap. These artsy yoga moments reveal Tim’s concerns over two lions owned by Terry Brumfield, a depressed disabled truck driver, who got the cubs without any forethought. The cubs, especially the male Lambert, helped him with his depression.

Even though Terry truly loved his lions, it is impossible not to get angry at him. After his male lion escaped his poor caging and chased cars on a nearby road, Terry successfully recaptured him without incident. However, afterwards his two lions, a male and female, were housed in a nasty horse trailer where four cubs were born, bringing the total of lions to six (one cub died shortly after). Tim Harrison and his crew helped Terry rebuild the cages, but even the reconstructed caging was nasty, and not worthy of a "king". With the continual showcasing of Terry’s lions in horrible living conditions and not showing responsible owners’ caging, the viewer undoubtedly believed that all private captive lions live in such deplorable conditions.

The Propaganda:

Tim Harrison spoke in absolutes and falsely claimed there were no "happy ends" pertaining to private exotic and wild animal ownership. The movie kept showing estimates of the number of private exotic cats in captivity, 15,000, without attribution where this number came from, and which species of exotic cats it included. The number of pet reptiles was estimated over 7.3 million, without mentioning that the vast majority are the small, harmless critters. This subconsciously created an impression in the viewer’s mind that we have 15,000 hungry lions and tigers and 7 million venomous snakes and large constrictors just waiting to be released out on the streets.

In another scene, Tim browses through Animal Finder Guide (AFG) issues, which is basically a publication for exotic animal owners to read about animal care or post want/sell ads. The exotic community is constantly criticized for Internet sales, but it seems like the paper publication is under the same attack. The fact is, the majority of animals currently for sale in AFG are exotic hoof stock, not big cats or apes (which is sad as it shows the trend with bans, we have fewer breeders and buyers). Tim shows few examples of big cats given away for free. However, those were not exotic pet cats; those were exotic cats from a USDA licensed facility that is closing and the facility is looking for another USDA facility to place their animals at no charge.

He then showed AFG pages with few pictures. One of the pages showed baby tigers; however, this is an ad for milk replacement formula, not a tiger for sale ad. Another was a cover picture of a white tiger with Christmas theme. This tiger was definitively not for sale, since this is our 13 year old tigress Pepper when she was younger, and we provided this picture to AFG for their 2008 Christmas issue. Pepper is still with us and we have no intention of ever selling her!

Many talk show hosts are criticized in the documentary for having ‘wildlife warriors’ bring the live animals on the show and treating them like pets. Tim points out the AFG article about Randy Miller, written before his grizzly bear Rocky killed his cousin Steve. Tim criticized the wrestling pictures and he blamed these TV talk-shows for making these predators look too cuddly. Again, this grizzly was not for sale.

AFG ad for Milk Replacement Formula, NOT Tigers for Sale	AFG Christmas Pet Tiger Cover, NOT Tiger for Sale	AFG Grizzly Article, NOT Grizzly for Sale

The Hidden Cameras:

While ominous music played, director Mike Webber followed Tim with his hidden camera to the reptile show. In one case a father and young son buy a small alligator or crocodile, and in another case a father and small son buy a large 10 foot constrictor. In both cases, the film crew talked to the kid and asked if that was his new pet, and of course in both cases kids said that it was indeed their new pet. This is the same kind of joking that occurs when parents are buying a new car, and the salesman jokes with the kid if this is his new Ford Cobra, Dodge Viper, Mercury Cougar or Jaguar.

Venomous reptiles for sale were properly packaged at the show with red tape and label attached. After Tim bought a venomous Puff Adder, he took it outside and did exactly what he criticizes others for doing: he removed the snake from the plastic container with the help of a hook, and then handled it with his bare hands, while milking it with a hook. No mention of anti-venom is made in case the ‘snake out of a box’ escaped and bit somebody by accident.

In other instance, the hidden camera went to the Amish animal auction. The most exotic animal you can see there was a baby cougar or small monkey, but not one single full grown chimp, tiger or bear was shown.

The Annoying Misinformation vs. the Facts:

An Ohio Emergency room doctor, who is given too much camera time ranted about how he experienced more exotic and wild animal related human injuries and fatalities in this country than in Africa, where he supposedly worked for fifteen years.

Since I am not sure how much he has really seen of Africa, I am left to wonder how much of his absurd statement was based on fact, or was he simply grand standing for the cameras. For you see, wild animals in Africa (lions, hippos, elephants, crocodiles, water buffalo, snakes, etc.) kill thousands people each year. Deaths are under reported, since many in Africa never make it to the hospital, as the severely injured simply die in the brush

In comparison, since 1990, captive big cats kill on average one person per year in USA, captive venomous snakes 0.9, captive non-venomous snakes 0.5, captive elephants 0.8, captive bears 0.25 and captive non-human primates 0. Keep in mind, those killed by exotic wild animals intentionally placed themselves in situations where they come into direct contact with the animals, knowing the risks and dangers of working with them—no one has ever been killed by a privately owned roaming lion or tiger in suburbia. He goes on about how a friendly firefighter is ‘very’ dead by his venomous pet snake. What about all the "very dead" firefighters that died fighting fires or by other un-natural causes?

It is interesting to point out, that the lion owner, Terry Brumfield, tragically died in Fall 2010, when his car collided with a train. He didn’t die as a result of an exotic animal attack; he died in traffic accident which kills up to 45,000 people each year in USA, which equates to approximately 123 deaths each day.

Then there were the complaints that people have to license dogs but not lions. The reason why domestic dogs and cats receive rabies shots is due to public health/safety issues—not to control the animal population. The fact is all mammals can get rabies, the only animals the rabies vaccine is officially approved for in the USA are domestic dogs, cats, ferrets, cattle, sheep and horses. The dog licensing requires proof of rabies vaccination. Since the rabies vaccine is officially not approved for most mammals, the local ’dog tag type’ licensing is not mandatory either for these species.

The Positive:

Florida Fish and Wildlife agent Bill Stiffler was quoted as having no problem with people owning large snakes or tigers if they do it responsibly. Unfortunately, this was followed by footage with more agents finding a Burmese python in Everglades, and when no legal home is found for it, the python was killed with a shotgun. I was hoping the meat was used to feed some human or animals, and not wasted.

Ken Foose, who is the owner of an exotic pet store in Las Vegas, was quoted saying that as long as we are irresponsible, our enemies will be banning us [private owners] and the public will fear us. This was interrupted by different kinds of footage, including U.S. Senator from Florida, Bill Nelson, handling the python skin during a hearing on the  proposed "python ban"..

We/REXANO were portrayed fairly, but the movie didn’t have enough of PRO exotic footage. We were glad they included the scene where I quoted statistics that on average only one person in USA dies as a result of captive big cat attack, but over 45,000 people die in traffic accidents each year.

The End:

When the male lion, Lambert, tragically died by electrocution, Terry makes the decision to send the three surviving lions to The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) in Colorado, whose owner Pat Craig gained notoriety in the exotic animal community by threatening to euthanize his animals for many years, unless people send him donations. So the lions went from one owner in need of money, to another owner who also relies on donations to keep the animals.
The movie showed footage of the lions being released in huge grassy habitat. According to their website TWAS has 15 habitats, ranging in size from 5 to 25 acre, and about 300 carnivores, meaning, the animals are rotated, and spend most time in smaller cages, not the large habitat featured in the documentary.

The TWAS living conditions for the lions were definitely an improvement over Terry’s place, where you also wonder about the safety of humans after seeing the electric fuse box that can only be called a ‘wire mess’. However, emotionally, it was a terrible move for the lions, which went from one place with an owner they were attached to, to a place with hundreds of animals, where they will not receive the individual human love and care they were accustomed to from Terry.

The parting scene went overboard when the male stars of the movie formed a praying man hugging circle wishing for a safe trip.

The Conclusion:

Only seven people were in the movie theater on Friday night in Las Vegas, five of them were us, the insiders. If the poor attendance continues everywhere, we don’t have to worry too much about this movie until it is aired on Animal Planet, at which point this propaganda film will undoubtedly sway the uninformed general public that all exotic pet ownership is “evil.”

If Webber wanted to only show the touching developing story between Terry and Tim and nothing more, he should not have included all the sensational captive exotic animal attack news clips throughout the movie. He should have only featured these two men, so it would be clear to the audience that there was no hidden agenda to the story.

If Webber wanted to show the bigger picture by including the sensationalized news clips, he should have included more PRO exotic footage; for example, showing footage of our proper big cat cages to show how responsible exotic animal owners build quality enclosures. Instead, mostly the “bad stuff” was featured, and the viewer will unfortunately leave the theater with the wrong impression that Terry is the typical big cat irresponsible owner, which is far from the truth.

Terry was a great choice for a tear-jerker documentary—a man with problems who owned dangerous animals, needed help to save them, and of course, the hero Tim Harrison, playing the role of the savior, comes to Terry’s rescue.

In reality, Terry was a horrible choice for the exotic animal community in general, as it painted us as weak, irresponsible people, who cannot handle the responsibility and pets we love so much, and that unless we get outside help, we are incapable of going on and making it on our own.

For the movie to be really fair (aka boring for ratings), a strong responsible person should have been cast against Tim Harrison and Terry Brumfield. Unfortunately, this movie, even if well intentioned to bring the attention to the occasional bad owner, will not help us, and has a potential to seriously hurt the exotic animal community in general.

The Final Thoughts:

The Humane Society of the United States, HSUS, was a financial backer of this documentary. The documentary ended with a photo from January 2011, with Tim Harrison and the president of HSUS Wayne Pacelle by his side, celebrating outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland’s 90-day Ohio emergency executive order to ban exotic animals. No mention is made of Terry Brumfield, who died in a un-sensationalized, under-reported, traffic accident in September 2010.
REXANO learned on April 2, 2011, the day after we saw the movie, that the new Gov. John Kasich’s administration will not renew the order, after concerns were raised with the rule’s short & long-term funding and enforcement, since the Ohio Division of Wildlife does not have the legal authority to regulate non-native dangerous wild animals. Kasich also wants to develop new rules in a transparent way with public input. For the recent updates, go to REXANO Ohio legislative alerts page.

Official Elephant in the Living Room website.

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