What do you do when your neighbor’s pet lion breaks through the fence, and it’s not the first time?
It’s a look at America’s most quietly insane obsession: raising wild predators in suburbia.
Thanks to Daily Doc reader Katie Yu for reminding me that this one was made before “Tiger King” (which my colleague Rob ranked 95/100).
This one is wild, sad and somehow even American.
Trailer for “The Elephant in the Living Room”
You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up
- Brumfield’s lion gets loose and begins attacking cars on an Ohio highway. A trucker calls 911 mid-attack.
- One scene shows a venomous snake bite that nearly kills a man, and he refuses to give up the snake after surviving.
- Tim Harrison reveals a case where a lion was accidentally electrocuted in someone’s basement. Yes, basement lion deaths are apparently a thing.
- Some owners simply “release” their giant snakes into the wild. One scene shows a Burmese python eating a deer whole in Florida.
Watch “The Elephant in the Living Room”
You can stream it via Amazon Prime or Apple TV paid subscriptions. Find the latest streaming options here.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 85/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 84/100 (Users); 83/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: Michael Webber directed this 96-minute doc. He’s also behind “The Conservation Game,” which picks up where this story leaves off.
Release Date: April 2010 (at the Nashville Film Festival)
My Review of “The Elephant in the Living Room”
The Setup
It opens in Ohio, where exotic animal ownership is barely regulated. We meet two unforgettable characters: Tim Harrison, a former cop turned wildlife crusader; and Terry Brumfield, a soft-spoken man raising a 400-pound African lion in his backyard.
Brumfield sees his lion as a support animal. Harrison sees a disaster waiting to happen. Their stories collide when the lion escapes—twice—and attacks cars on the highway.
More Highlights from the Doc
- Tim Harrison was inspired to take action after a friend was killed by an exotic pet. He now runs rescue missions across the Midwest.
- The doc uncovers how many states still have zero laws preventing people from owning deadly wild animals in residential homes.
- We see Harrison trying to rescue a baboon, a gator in a bathtub, and dozens of pythons in makeshift home terrariums.
- Terry Brumfield struggles with mental health issues. The lion helps him cope with depression, which adds heartbreaking complexity to the film.
Cameos – Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- The doc shows law enforcement training sessions where first responders are taught how to shoot a tiger—because it happens more often than you’d think.
- There’s a real statistic: At the time of filming, there were more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the wild globally.
- When Terry Brumfield’s lion dies (from illness), he gets a tombstone for it—carved with the lion’s name, Lambert.
- The film hints at what would happen two years later: the infamous 2011 Zanesville animal massacre, when a man released dozens of exotic animals into the wild before dying by suicide.
Wrap Up
“The Elephant in the Living Room” is one of the best early warnings we got about exotic pet ownership. It’s sad, strange, and unforgettable.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc