WINCHESTER — Celebrity animal trainer and zookeeper Bhagavan “Doc” Antle faces up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of four felony counts of buying endangered animals.

The verdicts were returned at 9:03 p.m. Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, where a 12-member jury — nine women and three men — had been hearing his case since Monday morning.

The jury also handed down not guilty verdicts on five additional misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, all of which were related to Antle’s purchases of lion cubs from a now-closed roadside zoo in Frederick County, Wilson’s Wild Animal Park, from 2017 through 2019.

Four additional animal cruelty charges filed against Antle were dropped early Friday morning by Judge Alexander Iden, who said no evidence had been presented to substantiate the claims.

Additionally, Iden dismissed all charges that had been brought against Antle’s two adult daughters, 36-year-old Tilakam “Tilly” Magnolia Watterson and 28-year-old Tawny Antle, saying on Friday morning the evidence presented was insufficient to warrant convictions. Watterson had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and Tawny Antle had been indicted on a single count of the same charge.

In the Winchester area, criminal cases involving the alleged abuse of animals often raise a great deal of public ire and occasional courthouse protests. The Antle case did not, which came as a surprise many people who work at the Joint Judicial Center on North Kent Street. There were no picket signs, no curious onlookers and no media coverage other than that provided by The Winchester Star.

The apparent lack of interest in the case was surprising considering that “Doc” Antle has national notoriety. He was featured in the first season of the highly popular Netflix documentary series “Tiger King,” and the third season of that show focused exclusively on him, his private zoo and allegations of his mistreatment of women.

“Doc” Antle and his Myrtle Beach Safari zoo have also come under fire nationally from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights groups due to the confinement of wildlife on the 50-acre preserve and the opportunities for guests to large sums of money to pet and interact with wild animals including lions, tigers, primates, elephants and more, some of which are juveniles.

“Now that a jury of his peers has convicted Antle of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking, PETA will push for a government crackdown on his chronic animal welfare violations and the termination of the federal licenses that keep his tawdry park in business,” PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet said late Friday night in an unsolicited statement emailed to The Star.

Prosecutor Michelle Welch of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office said the financially lucrative petting zoo at Myrtle Beach Safari is what compelled “Doc” Antle to maintain a steady supply of immature lion cubs that he purchased from Wilson’s Wild Animal Park near Winchester. She referred to the business arrangement as a “cub pipeline” that ran from Virginia to South Carolina.

“It’s about money,” Welch said. “That’s the motive.”

According to Welch, “Doc” Antle and Wilson’s Wild Animal Park’s then-owner, Keith Wilson, started doing business together in 2015, when it was still legal to buy and sell lions. But the practice was outlawed by federal authorities on Dec. 23, 2015, when lions were designated as an endangered species. From that time on, lions could only be traded between zoos and wildlife preserves if they were part of an established breeding program and had been issued appropriate permits by the United States government.

Mary Cogliano of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service testified on Thursday that neither “Doc” Antle nor Wilson filed permit applications with her office from January 2016 through August 2019, which is when a raid of Wilson’s Wild Animal Park brought an end to the business arrangement.

Welch said there were three illegal exchanges of lion cubs between “Doc” Antle and Wilson, with the transactions occurring in July 2017, May 2018, and July 2019.

Wilson, who is also charged in the case, testified on Thursday that Antle would pay him in advance for the lion cubs under the guise of making donations to his Frederick County roadside zoo. Wilson said Antle paid $2,500 to $3,000 per cub with the exception of the July 2017 transaction, when Antle traded three lynx kittens for three lion cubs.

“He always wanted them as young as possible,” Wilson said, noting that younger cubs are easier to handle and have a better time acclimating to human interaction. “He didn’t want them more than two or three weeks old.”

For that reason, Wilson said, he would take the cubs from their mother when they were 14 days old, which is nearly a year sooner than animal experts recommend. To lure the lioness away from her babies, Wilson said he would move her food and water so, after several hours, she would get hungry and thirsty enough to walk away from them.

Depriving the lioness of food and water, then transporting the cubs to South Carolina before they had developed a full immune system or the ability to maintain proper body temperature without the physical contact of their mother, is what prompted the animal cruelty charges against Antle. Watterson and Tawny Antle were charged because they allegedly picked up and transported lion cubs in July and August 2019.

Wilson is also charged with nine misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and 10 felony counts of selling an endangered species. He is expected to plead guilty to the charges this Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office has promised him special consideration at sentencing since he agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution.

“I made mistakes and I’m trying to get right,” Wilson said on Thursday when asked by Welch why he was testifying against “Doc” Antle and his daughters.

Defense attorneys Erin Harrigan and Eric Breslin, who represented “Doc” Antle, and Aaron L. Cook, who represented Watterson and Tawny Antle, countered that Wilson’s actual motivation was more likely self-preservation.

“You don’t want to go to jail, do you?” Breslin asked Wilson on Thursday.

“I’m not sure that anybody does,” Wilson replied.

Breslin said the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, which spearheaded the investigations of Wilson and “Doc” Antle, pressured Wilson to back prosecutors’ version of events because, in fact, no crimes had occurred.

Regardless of Wilson’s motivation, it appears he and “Doc” Antle are still on good terms. During a break in the trial following Wilson’s testimony on Thursday, he encountered Antle in a hallway and the two shook hands.

Harrigan said the prosecution of “Doc” Antle was politically motivated in response to a growing public outcry against wild animals being exploited for entertainment purposes.

“This has been an agenda in search of a crime from the beginning of the investigation,” Harrigan said during closing arguments Friday.

She maintained the lion cubs had been gifted to Myrtle Beach Safari as part of an ongoing breeding program to further propagate the species, and the money “Doc” Antle sent to Wilson was, in fact, donations for an expanded tiger habitat that Wilson hoped to build at Wilson’s Wild Animal Park. She said it “doesn’t make any sense” that Antle would jeopardize his multimillion-dollar business by illegally buying lion cubs, especially since he could legally acquire many other baby animals for tourists to pet.

“These were not sales,” Harrigan said.

To help make her point, she noted that Wilson’s male lion died in 2018 so “Doc” Antle sent him another one, along with $2,000 for the animal’s care, in order to continue the breeding program.

Welch countered that claim by saying “Doc” Antle’s true motivation was to maintain an ongoing supply of lion cubs in order to keep customers coming to his lucrative petting zoo.

Welch also argued that taking the cubs away from their mother before they were ready, putting them in government-approved animal crates and driving them to South Carolina constituted animal cruelty. However, Iden and the jury, after seeing evidence and hearing testimony from investigators and an animal welfare expert, decided those acts did not constitute cruelty.

“Doc” Antle now faces up to 20 years in prison because each of the felony counts of buying an endangered animal carry a maximum punishment of five years behind bars. Iden allowed him to remain free on bond pending sentencing on Sept. 14.

Meanwhile, “Doc” Antle faces more legal troubles in South Carolina. Federal authorities there charged him on June 3, 2022, with money laundering in a scheme reportedly tied to smuggling people over the Mexican border into the United States. His next hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina will be held in October.

WINCHESTER — Celebrity animal trainer and zookeeper Bhagavan “Doc” Antle faces up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of four felony counts of buying endangered animals.

The verdicts were returned at 9:03 p.m. Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, where a 12-member jury — nine women and three men — had been hearing his case since Monday morning.

The jury also handed down not guilty verdicts on five additional misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, all of which were related to Antle’s purchases of lion cubs from a now-closed roadside zoo in Frederick County, Wilson’s Wild Animal Park, from 2017 through 2019.

Four additional animal cruelty charges filed against Antle were dropped early Friday morning by Judge Alexander Iden, who said no evidence had been presented to substantiate the claims.

Additionally, Iden dismissed all charges that had been brought against Antle’s two adult daughters, 36-year-old Tilakam “Tilly” Magnolia Watterson and 28-year-old Tawny Antle, saying on Friday morning the evidence presented was insufficient to warrant convictions. Watterson had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and Tawny Antle had been indicted on a single count of the same charge.

In the Winchester area, criminal cases involving the alleged abuse of animals often raise a great deal of public ire and occasional courthouse protests. The Antle case did not, which came as a surprise many people who work at the Joint Judicial Center on North Kent Street. There were no picket signs, no curious onlookers and no media coverage other than that provided by The Winchester Star.

The apparent lack of interest in the case was surprising considering that “Doc” Antle has national notoriety. He was featured in the first season of the highly popular Netflix documentary series “Tiger King,” and the third season of that show focused exclusively on him, his private zoo and allegations of his mistreatment of women.

“Doc” Antle and his Myrtle Beach Safari zoo have also come under fire nationally from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights groups due to the confinement of wildlife on the 50-acre preserve and the opportunities for guests to large sums of money to pet and interact with wild animals including lions, tigers, primates, elephants and more, some of which are juveniles.

“Now that a jury of his peers has convicted Antle of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy to commit wildlife trafficking, PETA will push for a government crackdown on his chronic animal welfare violations and the termination of the federal licenses that keep his tawdry park in business,” PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet said late Friday night in an unsolicited statement emailed to The Star.

Prosecutor Michelle Welch of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office said the financially lucrative petting zoo at Myrtle Beach Safari is what compelled “Doc” Antle to maintain a steady supply of immature lion cubs that he purchased from Wilson’s Wild Animal Park near Winchester. She referred to the business arrangement as a “cub pipeline” that ran from Virginia to South Carolina.

“It’s about money,” Welch said. “That’s the motive.”

According to Welch, “Doc” Antle and Wilson’s Wild Animal Park’s then-owner, Keith Wilson, started doing business together in 2015, when it was still legal to buy and sell lions. But the practice was outlawed by federal authorities on Dec. 23, 2015, when lions were designated as an endangered species. From that time on, lions could only be traded between zoos and wildlife preserves if they were part of an established breeding program and had been issued appropriate permits by the United States government.

Mary Cogliano of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service testified on Thursday that neither “Doc” Antle nor Wilson filed permit applications with her office from January 2016 through August 2019, which is when a raid of Wilson’s Wild Animal Park brought an end to the business arrangement.

Welch said there were three illegal exchanges of lion cubs between “Doc” Antle and Wilson, with the transactions occurring in July 2017, May 2018, and July 2019.

Wilson, who is also charged in the case, testified on Thursday that Antle would pay him in advance for the lion cubs under the guise of making donations to his Frederick County roadside zoo. Wilson said Antle paid $2,500 to $3,000 per cub with the exception of the July 2017 transaction, when Antle traded three lynx kittens for three lion cubs.

“He always wanted them as young as possible,” Wilson said, noting that younger cubs are easier to handle and have a better time acclimating to human interaction. “He didn’t want them more than two or three weeks old.”

For that reason, Wilson said, he would take the cubs from their mother when they were 14 days old, which is nearly a year sooner than animal experts recommend. To lure the lioness away from her babies, Wilson said he would move her food and water so, after several hours, she would get hungry and thirsty enough to walk away from them.

Depriving the lioness of food and water, then transporting the cubs to South Carolina before they had developed a full immune system or the ability to maintain proper body temperature without the physical contact of their mother, is what prompted the animal cruelty charges against Antle. Watterson and Tawny Antle were charged because they allegedly picked up and transported lion cubs in July and August 2019.

Wilson is also charged with nine misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and 10 felony counts of selling an endangered species. He is expected to plead guilty to the charges this Friday in Frederick County Circuit Court, and the Virginia Attorney General’s Office has promised him special consideration at sentencing since he agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution.

“I made mistakes and I’m trying to get right,” Wilson said on Thursday when asked by Welch why he was testifying against “Doc” Antle and his daughters.

Defense attorneys Erin Harrigan and Eric Breslin, who represented “Doc” Antle, and Aaron L. Cook, who represented Watterson and Tawny Antle, countered that Wilson’s actual motivation was more likely self-preservation.

“You don’t want to go to jail, do you?” Breslin asked Wilson on Thursday.

“I’m not sure that anybody does,” Wilson replied.

Breslin said the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, which spearheaded the investigations of Wilson and “Doc” Antle, pressured Wilson to back prosecutors’ version of events because, in fact, no crimes had occurred.

Regardless of Wilson’s motivation, it appears he and “Doc” Antle are still on good terms. During a break in the trial following Wilson’s testimony on Thursday, he encountered Antle in a hallway and the two shook hands.

Harrigan said the prosecution of “Doc” Antle was politically motivated in response to a growing public outcry against wild animals being exploited for entertainment purposes.

“This has been an agenda in search of a crime from the beginning of the investigation,” Harrigan said during closing arguments Friday.

She maintained the lion cubs had been gifted to Myrtle Beach Safari as part of an ongoing breeding program to further propagate the species, and the money “Doc” Antle sent to Wilson was, in fact, donations for an expanded tiger habitat that Wilson hoped to build at Wilson’s Wild Animal Park. She said it “doesn’t make any sense” that Antle would jeopardize his multimillion-dollar business by illegally buying lion cubs, especially since he could legally acquire many other baby animals for tourists to pet.

“These were not sales,” Harrigan said.

To help make her point, she noted that Wilson’s male lion died in 2018 so “Doc” Antle sent him another one, along with $2,000 for the animal’s care, in order to continue the breeding program.

Welch countered that claim by saying “Doc” Antle’s true motivation was to maintain an ongoing supply of lion cubs in order to keep customers coming to his lucrative petting zoo.

Welch also argued that taking the cubs away from their mother before they were ready, putting them in government-approved animal crates and driving them to South Carolina constituted animal cruelty. However, Iden and the jury, after seeing evidence and hearing testimony from investigators and an animal welfare expert, decided those acts did not constitute cruelty.

“Doc” Antle now faces up to 20 years in prison because each of the felony counts of buying an endangered animal carry a maximum punishment of five years behind bars. Iden allowed him to remain free on bond pending sentencing on Sept. 14.

Meanwhile, “Doc” Antle faces more legal troubles in South Carolina. Federal authorities there charged him on June 3, 2022, with money laundering in a scheme reportedly tied to smuggling people over the Mexican border into the United States. His next hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina will be held in October.