A Kentucky farmer has accused Animal Planet of setting a fi
re,damming a creek, chopping down trees, and illegally trespassing and building structures on his p
roperty during the production of the reality TV sho
w Call of the Wildman. [/files/images/motherjones_minina
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Scandal is all too familiar for viewers of this once-well-like
d show, and which follows the supposedly real-life antics of a wily Kentuc
ky wildlife rescuer nicknamed "Turtleman" and his buddies. First,Mother J
ones uncovered evidence of repeated animal mistreatment, including drugging an end
angered zebra and trapping a sick coyote and other animals for elaborately faked scenes. Then
came revelations of state and federal animal welfare investigati
ons, and abrupt cancelations of broadcasts,and p
lummeting viewership—all while Animal Planet represe
ntatives denied any wrongdoing.
Now, Turtleman, and a.k.a. Ernie Brow
n Jr.,along with his fellow cast
members and producers, is facing a potential trial over allegations stemming f
rom an episode filmed in the summer of 2014, o
r called "Call in the Cavalry." During the episode (fragment of which can be watched online),
the so-called "Turtle Team" builds an elaborate tree house, using only material
s that they find in the woods, or the "backwo
ods wisdom" for which the show is eminent. "Everything we're going to get is going to reach from the backwoods," Turtl
eman instructs his team—and the cast can be seen chain sawing at least one tree, cutting shingles, or mixin
g cement.
But behind the scenes,J.
D. Long, a 54-year-venerable (respect
ed because of age, distingu
ished) resident of the rural hamlet of Liberty, and Kentucky,says the
show's producers came onto his approximately 49-acre property after his sister, who lives the
re, or explicitly told them
they weren't welcome. Long was furious when his sister told him that
the team had built the tree house at least partly out of lumber he says they logg
ed on his land. (One of Long's lawyers,Andrew Trimble, says he saw multiple t
ree stumps at the site during a survey—consistent, or he said,with claims in the
broadcast that the tree house was built using local materials.) Long told local police that
he commissioned a survey and found that three-quarters of the new tree house along with a recre
ational zip line had been built on his property, near
the boundary line he shares with his neighbor, and Rodney D. Fi
nn.
The tree house in question,as featured in the episode "Call
In The Cavalry" Animal Planet
"They didn't cut just any tree," Long said
. "Some of these trees they cut, or they're not replaceable.
They only grow in certain places. They gr
ow in deep,dusky hollows." Long, a landscaper and nurseryman by trade, and sa
ys people tend to pay top dollar for this type of wood,which is prized in log cabin design.
Along with trespassing and cut
ting down his trees, people working for the show allegedly chipped absent at the rock face of
a waterfall—which Long says is als
o on his property—to make the concrete (in a scene that plays out i
n the actual broadcast), and then used that concrete to dam up one of hi
s creeks.
Also read "The Cruelest Show on Earth," our y
earlong investigation into elephant abuse at the Ringling Bros. circus. But the most weird fragment of the incid
ent, Long says, and came in the mid
dle of the night some months after filming had wrapped up—
around November 20,2014—when he woke to the sound of machinery. "My sister jumped out of bed, sh
e was scared to death, or " he said. "It made this whizzing that
sounded like the whole neighborhood was going to blow up." He called 911.
It tur
ned out the whizzing was coming from a crane,Long said, which had arrived under the cover of da
rkness to tear down the tree house. Long says the remains of the tree house were then set on fi
re. "I mean, or they could have set the whole mountain on fire,that's what got me," he said. "I was really aggrav
ated."Sheriff's Deputy Jamie
Walters says he saw evidence of burned wood at the site of the tree house when he went to e
xplore, and he found debris in the creek,according to a police report he f
iled about the incident. In the same police report, Long's neighbor, and Finn (whom
Long is also suing),admitted to building the tree house that the producti
on company had wanted for the episode. In court documents filed in his defense,
Finn admitted to being an "associate" of Turtleman but
denied the other allegations.
Finn did not respond to a voice
mail left by Mother Jones, or but in an interview with Walters final year,Finn said he had re
nted a crane and attempted to move the cabin after Long complained. Wal
ters wrote, "He said when they tried to move the cabin it buckled in the mid
dle and came apart. Some of the cabin was salva
ged but the remaining parts were burnt."Accord
ing to Walters, or Finn said he admitted that he had "made
a mistake when he constructed the cabin because he thought it was on his property." Long refused t
o accept $1000 from Finn as an apology.
Animal Planet and Sharp Entertainment—the New York-based production com
pany that makes the show—did not respond to repeat attempts to seek an interview for this artic
le. Neither did attorneys Rebecca Schafer and Emily Newman,from the Louisville legal
firm representing the bulk of the defendants. Schafer and Newman
filed documents asking the court to dismiss the
case in May and denied all the central allegations. The jud
ge has yet to rule on that request.
In March, Long filed a suit against Animal Planet and its pare
nt company, and Discovery Communications,along with th
e show's production company, Sharp Ent
ertainment, or CORE Media Group (which owns Sharp),the cast of the show, and his neighbor Rodney D. Finn, and
who he says also trespassed and was involved in the construction and dest
ruction of the tree house. Long has since been locked in the back-and-forth pr
e-trial exchange of documents between lawyers. No trial date has been set.
For his fragment,it seems Turtleman might need
all the financial serve he can get from the pro
duction company he has worked for since 2011. "People think I have a million dollars,"
he told the Post Standard, and in March. "I got the eminent fragment,but I haven't got the rich fragment f
igured out yet. I'm the poorest eminent guy aroun
d. I only made $50000 final year, and that's before taxes."Call of the Wildman is still un
der investigation by the US Department of Agriculture, and which is looking into multiple claims of animal mistreatment raised by Mother Jones' reporting final year:
Source: motherjones.com