According to Bailey, when producers told her they had the baby raccoons, Bailey says she warned that holding them without their mother or proper care put them at fatal risk, and she volunteered professional help. Not wanting to be associated with the show, Bailey helped negotiate a new location at Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuary.
But by the time filming wrapped, the cubs were so sick that Broadbent staff took them to Bailey. Animal Planet and Sharp say the raccoons featured in the episode were brought to producers in two groups, from two separate nuisance calls. Entries written under Ernie Brown Jr. Nicole Paquette, vice president of wildlife protection for the Humane Society of the United States HSUS , says that moving the wallaby across state lines without a proper permit—especially for commercial purposes—could also violate federal regulations on interstate trafficking of wildlife.
Kentucky law prohibits wantonly failing to provide adequate food, drink, or health care to an animal. The Animal Legal Defense Fund has ranked Kentucky as the worst state in the country for animal protection for the last seven years in a row, in part because of weak enforcement. Turtleman is invited by the owner, Velma Trayham, a. Animal Planet and Sharp acknowledge that the bats were placed in the salon for the purpose of filming, but they claim that it happened legally. Texas law allows people to remove bats from their homes or businesses, though Jonah Evans, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told us that bringing a bat to a new location for entertainment purposes alone is not allowed.
In the weeks after the shooting, documents show, Animal Planet contracted a pest control company to remove dead bats from the salon. Sharp says only one dead bat was recovered, and that it was a different species than the bats they brought in. But Jamie and another individual with direct knowledge of the arrangement say that a pest control company was required at least twice, and Mother Jones has seen documents indicating that Sharp paid for bat removal service on two separate occasions; both sources say one dead bat was definitely the same species as the bats Turtleman chased.
Trayham declined to be interviewed. The salon has since closed. He rides in hot pursuit of the animal in the flatbed of his pickup, brandishing a lasso; eventually he corners the zebra and tackles it.
But behind the scenes, things were far murkier. Production sources told me that the zebra seemed woozy during filming; it could barely walk. In a phone interview, Clay confirmed that he supplied the zebra, but denied using sedatives. It gives everybody a job or something to do. But AHA supervision is not required on nonunion sets, and the group says Call of the Wildman has never invited the group to monitor animals.
Sharp says that it now employs an animal handler with a USDA exhibitor license to enforce its new guidelines, which it made available to Mother Jones. But prior to these changes, say the sources, Animal Planet asked untrained staff members to handle animals and to make ethical judgments about using them.
In one episode, Turtleman is called in to track down a mink vandalizing a putt-putt course in Lexington, Kentucky. Because of scheduling issues, the mink was kept caged for up to a week at the home of a local production staffer, Will Johnston, according to two sources who worked on the show.
Johnston declined to comment. Prior to season three, occasionally, staff members were asked to supply food or water or to accompany a licensed officer in the transport of animals. They remember the old Animal Planet that was dedicated to true education about animals and conservation. Asawin Suebsaeng. Zaineb Mohammed. Mother Jones. Isabela Dias. Abigail Weinberg and Dan Friedman. Nathalie Baptiste. Fairtrade America.
Fernanda Echavarri. Ali Breland. Mayukh Sen. Matt Simon. Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use , and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners.
Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? We're a nonprofit so it's tax-deductible , and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. We noticed you have an ad blocker on. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter. I think this is a bad TV show, a badly scripted reality show. Animal Planet should know better," Bailey told LexGo. Although there was never an official cancellation announcement from Animal Planet, the Turtleman never returned after that dismal fourth season.
In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine , Turtleman insisted he's the real deal. Go ahead and try it! We're doing it live action. We're there, doing our thing. I'm catching animals, that's the way it is," he said. But the production company who brought the Turtleman into America's living rooms, according to Mother Jones , produces " guided reality " shows in which they find bold personalities, and then "heavily produce their stories.
Animal Planet is actually remarkably open about this fact, as proven in statements made by Patricia Kollappallil, senior vice president of communications, who addressed an episode in which "a poisonous non-native snake was released into a city swimming pool without proper authorization," according to LexGo. Sharp did bring in snakes. There are times for a story line we need a particular animal, and we'll work with a licenser to find the particular animal," Kollappallil said.
Mother Jones also claims that "Sharp producers even go so far as to make fake animal droppings using Nutella, Snickers bars, and rice," as well as spoke with show producers who under the protection of anonymity said, "It was part of my job to call around people to trap animals at the direction of Sharp It's percent fake.
The past tense being the important emphasis there. In , the year before the show stopped shooting new episodes, Turtleman was hit with a violation of his NWCO license after an episode in which he wrangled a deer out of a store in exchange for "an authentic suit of armor. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife also confirmed to Mother Jones that Turtleman was no longer licensed in the state as a nuisance officer.
The official spokesperson for the department stopped short of saying specifically why that action was taken, although he did say of the show, "They shouldn't be doing anything in Kentucky. Though it was never clearly spelled out that Turtleman became too much of a liability, the abrupt end of the show that same year pretty much speaks for itself.
It's been years since the Turtleman shot new episodes of his show, but he's still a beloved figure nationwide. According to his Facebook page, the Turtleman made his first visit to Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, Kentucky where he shot a video showing himself learning how to make lemonade with one of the vendors.
It's not exactly the "live action" of him catching a beaver that's chewing away the supports of a collapsing mine , but he does do his signature yell while he's mixing the drink, so the flare is still there. He was also on hand at the Harrison County Recreation Complex in Clarksburg, West Virginia where fans lined up by the hundreds to meet the wildman. He's the same thing off camera as he is on camera, and it's exciting. I don't care about celebrities, but this dude I care about," one eager fan told The Exponent Telegram while waiting to meet him.
Maybe there's still a path back to TV stardom for the Turtleman—you know, just in case the lemonade stand doesn't work out. In fact, Earl Brown Jr. In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine , Brown talked about the origins of his nickname. I was amazed, and I said, 'Daddy, let me try,'" he said. With his claim that he's now been catching turtles this way for " nearly 40 years ," that would put his date of birth somewhere around , which is not exactly a historical time period associated with people scavenging for food in this way.
But it does explain a claim Brown casually tosses out in another interview with Syracuse. I got the famous part, but I haven't got the rich part figured out yet. I'm the poorest famous guy around. If you could tell my fans to send my stamped, self-addressed envelopes I'd appreciate it. I try to answer each and every one. Aside from his giant knife, raccoon-tail cap, and wildman yelp, the Turtleman is also known for his dental deficiencies.
Most people start correcting their oral hygiene the second they make any TV money , but not Turtleman. And sure, the natural inclination here is to think "His family was diving into ponds for dinner, there's no way they ever went to the dentist," but it seems nature didn't even have a chance to rot out those chompers, because a series of gruesome accidents did it first.
Speaking with Syracuse. The first one, a guy swung a chainsaw around and hit me in the face while we clearing some brush. That took stitches to sew me back up. I lost a few teeth there," he recalled. Okay, yep. That's awful. Wait, there's more? I tried to gas it like the Dukes of Hazzard to get over a ditch and into a cornfield. I didn't make it over the ditch. Since this man's life has been marked with a unique and terrifying inclination towards mortal danger, it should be no surprise that a turtle almost killed him once.
He actually told Channel Guide Magazine that he's been bitten 33 times by the deceivingly docile-seeming creatures, "and every one of them hurt like heck.
I almost bled to death. He kept the bite stories rolling with another example of when a snapper got him in "the place down yonder. Isn't almost dying from turtle bites hilarious, y'all?!
Controversies and goofy stories aside, the Turtleman seems to have a genuine and admirable interest in helping people.
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