People were locked up in their homes, searching for ways to pass the time as they were unable to work or socialize during the early stages of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Though we doubt they expected it to become such a runaway hit, Netflix’s release of the insane documentary series Tiger King was well-timed on March 20.
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The true crime series was so nutty that it essentially claimed the entire North American consciousness for a week or two that spring. Two more seasons followed in 2021. Since then, stories about big cat conservation and trade have been rare in North America — until this week, when a Florida man was stopped at customs trying to import over $1 million in exotic animals, to the disbelief of the fellas on Nightcap.
The man was denied entry at the border by both customs and the CDC. He even posted his receipt for the purchase of the animals on Twitter. The tweet was shown by Shannon Sharpe on his podcast. It has since been deleted, as we were unable to find it online. Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson could not believe what he was hearing, calling the man—who fancied himself some sort of Tiger King 2.0—a “fool”.
“My grandma always said a fool and their money shall soon part ways. You know you can’t domesticate them animals, you’re not a part of no circus, you probably don’t have a license to have them animals anyway, you don’t have the permits. I don’t even know what you need to have those animals just randomly if you’re not part of the circus,” a baffled Johnson remarked.
The receipt detailed exactly what animals the man bought and attempted to bring into Florida. The list included one male African lion for $378,000, one female African lion for $260,000, one male Asian tiger for $400,000, and one female adolescent black bear for $150,000. The total there, for my mathematicians, is $1.188 million for that quartet of megafauna.
Johnson seemed just as frustrated with how this Florida man went about his business as he was with the staggering price tag. Ochocinco found it even more foolish because the man had to have known what would happen at customs.
“Come on man! You just wasted a million dollars! You know good and well them animals wasn’t getting through customs man! … How are you gonna sneak a lion and a bear—come on man, stop playing,” he continued, sporting an even more confused face.
Shannon Sharpe also jumped in to point out that this is actually a more common phenomenon than people might think. People have tried to sneak everything from monkeys to turtles into the country. There was even a story about a man in China last year who tried to smuggle 100 live snakes.
“People be trying to sneak monkeys and snakes and turtles and stuff they know they not supposed to have! … When you got that kinda money and you don’t give a F, you do crazy stuff like this.”
Sharpe wrapped up by saying anyone was welcome to send him a miniature goat or a miniature cattle. But, in bringing up the Siegfried and Roy catastrophe, he reiterated how silly the purchase of big cats was: “What am I gonna do with a lion? A lion will take down a 1,000-pound Cape buffalo! What is a 200-pound man gonna do to a lion?”
As the saying goes: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
