Barbara ‘Bala’ Fisher
Barbara ‘Bala’ Fisher
Barbara ‘Bala’ Fisher is a former tiger caretaker, who appears on Netflix's Tiger King as an ex-partner of Bhagavan Antle.
Biography
Fisher was born in 1979.
She was 19 when she decided to work full time.
Later, she decided to run off with the circus and discovered T.I.G.E.R.S., Bhagavan Antle’s reserve.
She applied for the apprenticeship, and was accepted.
Soon, she moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
She joined Antle’s group in 1999 and her name was soon changed to Bala Crockett.[2]
Barbara told Elle:
"He hired me back in 1999.
I got terrible grades in high school and couldn't get into college.
I was 19 at the time, and dying to do something cool.
We had dogs and cats and pet rats growing up.
I was an animal lover and a longtime vegetarian, but it's not like I had aspirations to be a tiger trainer.
Tigers weren't even my favorite animal.
Somehow, I stumbled on Bhagavan's Myrtle Beach Safari website.
He was also a vegetarian and a yogi, which I admired.
I was really into transcendental meditation back then."[7]
"I thought to myself: "He's just like me!" I called him up on a whim, and he hired me on the spot.
He had two young kids, Tawny and Kody, who were four and nine then.
I had experience babysitting children, and ended up taking care of them."[7]
According to Iowa Informer, Barbara also allowed Antle to dictate how she’d cut and color her hair.
She even agreed to get breast implants, allegedly because the park preferred to showcase "sexy" women:
Fisher also told Elle about her routine:
I quickly developed a work routine: Wake up in the morning, clean cages, and defrost meat for the animals.
I'd do landscaping and repairs, and then feed the tiger cubs.
That was always my favorite part.
I have no idea how many I raised, there were so many.
I think about them all the time.[7]
The environment started getting toxic for her, and she received some help from the outside in 2006.
She’d gone back to Iowa for a couple of weeks, in November 2006, for her grandfather’s funeral.
By spring 2007, she’d decided to leave, and Antle told her to stay back till the end of August when tourists would thin out.
By mid-August, she left Antle’s organization.
At the time, she was pregnant.
She said:
“I still remember the feeling of leaving.
I was crying, but my heart was filled with absolute joy.
There was a baby in my belly that felt like a guarantee that I would never have to return.”[2]
"After giving birth to my son, [Antle] was one of my first calls from the delivery room.
It was like calling a relative."[7]
As per the latest reports, Barbara is back in Ames, Iowa and lives with her husband and three sons. She told Distractify:
"Right now I’m married with three beautiful children and I work at a preschool.
I’m studying Early Childhood Education at the university in my town.
I like to make things, and to write things, and to sing with my friends.
I have nothing to do with the animal world anymore outside of my two dogs and my cat."[4]
When asked if Antle had contacted Barbara, she replied:
"He hasn’t tried to contact me in a few years, not since he first heard I was writing something about my experience there.
He tried to intimidate me into not publishing it.
It was published in spite of his threats and he stopped bothering me."[4]
The article she wrote, "How to Make an Extremist" was published in the Iowa Informer in 2017.[4]
Fisher told about her experience of participating in Netflix's Tiger King
When the Tiger King filmmakers called me, I was hesitant to participate.
But I realized I had to say something.
I was terrified of becoming a meme, but I really liked [director Rebecca Chaiklin].
We spoke on the phone several times, and she seemed intent on getting the story right.
I trusted her.
The film crew was at my house for hours.
They had so much footage.
I had no idea how I was going to come out looking, but when I watched it with my husband for the first time, I felt relief.
I was delighted by how real Bhagavan appeared in the series.
He didn't put on a facade.
This was the real him.
I wanted—and needed—the world to see that.
I feel like I'm finally being understood and finally being heard.
I hope the takeaway from Tiger King is that this is an unregulated world where people can get away with anything they want to.
Now maybe we can do something about the treatment of the animals.[7]