Quotes from Eric Goode

I set out to expose the issue with big cat ownership in America and where that exploitation lies.

Look, when we were building Area, we were so driven and focused, partly because none of us came from money.

I spent my summers in Sonoma at my grandfather's ranch, we called it Rancho Rodeo.

I did a CNN pilot but they decided I wasn't Anthony Bourdain.

I probably spent about 40 percent of 2019 on a plane and filming.

Animal rights can be as extreme as not riding a horse, or not wearing leather, not having a pet at all. Animal welfare advocates are preventing the suffering of animals. And then there's conservation and species conservation and what conservation biologists do.

There is animal rights and animals rights organizations like PETA, then there's animal welfare, which is very different than animal rights.

At the end of the day, the best sanctuaries are places like the Performing Animal Welfare Society in Northern California, where he really provides his tigers large spaces. And there are people in the private sector that do a really good job with animals.

When something changes in Episode 7, you have to then begin moving things around, shuffling things backwards. Once you start moving material into it, that can derail your whole arc.

My focus personally has been to be a conservationist, which is to save species, protect wild lands, sometimes bring animals into assurance colonies in the wild - like California Condors for example - and put them back in the wild. It's very different from animal rights.

I definitely have, on paper, an unorthodox career path. And from childhood onward, I was always fascinated by the outdoors and wildlife.

Then I began filming a world that I knew quite a bit about. I was peripherally involved in that world much of my life - the exotic reptile world, the collectors, the dealers, the smugglers.

I knew a notorious reptile dealer who would send me animals for Area. I regret that. I mean, the landlord had wolves and an arctic fox upstairs and quite possibly a tiger.

There are times when you do have to bring animals into captivity to save a species like California Condors, or Arabian Aurochs. But they have something called species survival plans, and they do it in a very thoughtful way and are careful with the genetics.

Later in life, I started an organization that works to save tortoises and turtles that are threatened, but in full disclosure, I still always had a fascination with people who kept animals.

I'm not one who thinks that people should be locked up and thrown away the key.

I would say the big cat people see tigers as sort of a status symbol, as you would a Ferrari or fancy car collection. They have the animals to elevate their position. It makes them special.

If you keep more 230 tigers, it's like having 230 children, you don't really love them, you're just collecting them.

The real takeaway should be to give your money to conservation programs around the world that are really working hard to save tigers in their range countries and not give your money to sanctuaries, which are really, effectively just caging tigers and cats.

Sometimes our criminal justice system is about punishing people and not reforming people.

But in this case people have hundreds and hundreds of animals, they have a menagerie. You can't possibly love that many animals. So, it's more about the ego and the pride of having all of these things sort of like a car collection or a gun collection.

I guess you could say I'm a closeted animal person, because a lot of my life I did it in secrecy. I was always fascinated with exotic animals, particularly reptiles, from the age of 6 when I got a pet tortoise.

I kept a few turtles and tortoises and maybe a snake in my apartment in New York City, off and on. Maybe sometimes against my better judgment.

But I was just really blown away that you could just buy a snow leopard. For me, it was like buying a panda bear or a Komodo dragon.