This movie will shock and astound you. It follows the work of a county officer/firefighter/paramedic, Tim Harrison, who takes the calls concerning loose large cats, poisonous snakes, or anything else of the sort that are released by owners or escape from their enclosures. He works to remedy dangerous and unhealthy situations for these animals by serving as a placement coordinator where he can. During the film we meet an owner who loves his pet lions, but keeps them in extremely confined conditions that become progressively worse after one escapes and chases cars down the highway. We see the tragedies unfold until he decides it is no longer feasible to keep the remaining lions and permits Tim to assist rehome them. You get a peek into some of the exotic pet auctions that will leave you with haunting images of primates, hyenas, and bears being sold like cattle to people with no sort of permit or certification. The reptiles people have access to is unbelievable. After seeing this film one realizes the importance of having laws in place to control this trade.
The Elephant in the Living Room
2010
Action / Documentary
The Elephant in the Living Room
2010
Action / Documentary
Keywords: suburbsuburbialion cubpythondeadly snake
Plot summary
The Elephant in the Living Room takes viewers on a journey deep inside the controversial American subculture of raising the most dangerous animals in the world, as common household pets. Set against the backdrop of a heated national debate, director Michael Webber chronicles the extraordinary story of two men at the heart of the issue - Tim Harrison, an Ohio police officer whose friend was killed by an exotic pet; and Terry Brumfield, a mentally unstable man who struggles to selfishly raise two African lions that he loves like his own family in a small cage in his backyard. He does not understand the controversy over "owning" wild animals; the reality is, he keeps them for himself, not because he thinks it puts the lions in a good situation. In the first of many unexpected twists, the lives of these two men collide when Terry's male lion escapes its pen and is found attacking cars on a nearby highway. Winner of 5 Best Documentary Awards, the film courageously exposes the shocking reality behind the multi-billion dollar exotic pet industry with stunning photography, inspiring storytelling and unprecedented access into a world rarely seen, right in our own backyard.
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Very informative documentary about the horrors of the exotic pet trade and the tragic lives of the animals involved.
Horrid and depressing
This is about half-wits who keep tigers, lions, chimpanzees... as pets – for the same reason that normal people have normal pets as in dogs and cats. They don't seem to realize that these pets will get bigger and significantly stronger – and that essentially these are wild animals.
One feels extremely sorry for the two lions (a lion and lioness) kept in a make-shift cage by railroad tracks. Here are animals that should be roaming the savannah for miles and miles and are kept in a rusty cage forced to lie in their feces. We actually see the lion die on camera, he is electrocuted due to faulty wiring. It's so depressing.
We also get these constant news clips of people who are maimed or killed by their "pets" – crocodiles, chimpanzees, venomous snakes...I felt most of those depicted in this film should have been prosecuted for cruelty to animals. It's all so horrid and dismal.
Well done
As someone in America who frequently watches Animal Planet and the National Geographic channel with my wife, this is not a subject that I was unfamiliar with. And I must say it was a very well done story. The fact that it takes place primarily in the Dayton, OH area was an excellent choice, because if stuff like this happens so frequently in a non-major market like Dayton (no offense to Dayton intended),this kind of thing must truly be happening all over the United States.
Before I saw this film I thought it would show multiple stories of people having exotic animals. It really focuses on just one story, about a guy with two (then six) lions, and the story is such an interesting one that I was glad that's what they did. You do see news clips about other exotic animal attacks, some shows/supermarkets where exotic animals are sold (all legal, by the way),and some wacky people from Nevada (one couple, and one "professor") who defend ownership of exotic animals. As they say in the movie, this is a disaster waiting to happen