The Tiger Next Door

First Run Pictures

R1 DVD

Dennis Hill keeps tigers – that’s right tigers, and he keeps them in his back yard. He has been known to have up to thirty of them as well as other wild cats, bears as well as domestic pets. He has split his small town community of Flat Rock, Indiana right down the middle. There are those who support him on what seem to be political ground; they talk about freedom, the evils of too much government control and so on. On the other side are local families and businessmen who are worried a tiger will escape and run the four minutes to Flat Rock and cause havoc. For some fifteen years he has run his business but after repeated concerns about the way he keeps his animals from animal refuges which have been picking up the pieces, the government steps in. His property is inspected and he loses his license to keep exotic animals. He is given 30 days to find homes for the majority of his animals and only then will a permit be considered for three wild cats be considered.

The film follows the experiences of Dennis as battles against the government to keep what he considers to be “his animals”. We get insight into his journey to his present stage in life including a battle with drug addiction and brushes with the law. At first the viewer seems sympathetic to Dennis, he seems like a little man battling against all odds and one who clearly loves his animals. However as the story progresses the conditions and health of the animals begins to weigh on the viewer and my opinion certainly began to change.

A number of scenes brought home to me how much of this debate was about people’s rights instead of what was right for the animals. In the Town Hall discussion about Dennis’ license nobody discussed the health of the animals; it was all about their safety, business concerns or Dennis’ rights. It seems as though the primary concern was Dennis’ God-given right to own any animal he wants with little or no discussion of whether it is right to do so or worse, the consequences of owning, breeding, buying and selling exotic animals.

The second scene was the fiery argument between the owner of a wild cat refuge and Dennis. Dennis finally reveals his motives when he admits he gave up two large red tigers in his quest to breed an all-white tiger which would sell for many hundreds of thousands of dollars. The owner also confronts Dennis over the condition of his cats and reveals how one of the cats Dennis gave to the refuge had six abscessed teeth and died under surgery. It is also incredible that a person requires years of training to become a zoo keeper and yet an individual who seems to have little to no knowledge of zoology and worse seems to have no working relationship with his local vet can have over 30 wild cats in his possession.

As the documentary progresses I became more and more disenchanted with Dennis and his desire to keep wild cats and more concerned about the plight of these beautiful animals. In many ways The Tiger Next Door also brings into focus the laxity of laws in the U.S. about keeping wild animals. It seems that under the illusion of not encroaching individual freedom, the rights of animals have been ignored and these amazing creatures have been exploited for breeding, sale and trade and worse, sometimes for their meat and body parts. A frightening statistic is that there is now more tigers and wild cats in captivity in the U.S. than free in their homeland.

Even when Dennis has his license curtailed and can only have three wild cats one notices the conditions they are kept under and wonders if such conditions would be allowed for any domestic pet, never mind an exotic one. This is a challenging and thought provoking documentary which will trigger lots of debate and discussion.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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