Animal Planet's Call of the Wildman followed the mostly toothless, bowie-knife-toting "Turtleman"
Ernie Brown Jr. around the backwoods of Kentucky as he responded to calls from people needing
help with dangerous pests.
His unique style of catching dangerous prey, usually with his bare hands, quickly grew
a rabid fanbase, but the show abruptly stopped after its fourth season.
So what happened?
This is the untold truth of the Turtleman.
Hungry for turtles
Ernie "Turtleman" Brown Jr.'s hardscrabble lifestyle is all he's ever known, according
to an interview with Channel Guide Magazine.
Brown told the publication that he got his nickname at the age of 7, saying,
"We ran out of food one day, and my uncle came over and took me and my dad to these
old farm ponds, and he goes, 'I'll show you how to get some meat on the table.'
So he went out in that pond and turtles started bubbling up."
Shredder's got nothing on this guy.
Nothing but the tooth
Aside from his giant knife and wildman yelp…
"(yelling)"
...the Turtleman is also known for his dental deficiencies.
Most people start correcting their oral hygiene the second they make any TV money, but not
Turtleman.
Speaking with Syracuse.com, Turtleman laid out the three incidents that left him with
just seven teeth, saying,
"The first one, a guy swung a chainsaw around and hit me in the face while we clearing some
brush.
That took 189 stitches to sew me back up."
Next?
Turtleman lost a few more teeth in a car accident when he tried to, quote, "Dukes of Hazzard"
it over a ditch to avoid a tractor.
And the third attack on his chompers?
He was whacked by a piece of metal during a roofing job.
On top of being a crazy person who grabs wild animals with his bare hands, this guy is also
apparently a walking installment of the Final Destination movie franchise.
In addition to those injuries, he's been bitten at least 33 times by turtles.
At least once, he nearly bled to death after being bitten on the wrist.
In a separate attack, a turtle got a mouthful of Ernie Brown Jr.'s, um, little Turtleman.
Animal abuse
After a seven-month investigation into Call of the Wildman, Mother Jones revealed not
only the shady staging of the "rescues" on the show, but also some serious allegations
of animal abuse and neglect.
Citing multiple examples of alleged animal mismanagement, Mother Jones suggests the production
team was complicit in illegally drugging animals and failing to properly document wildlife
activities for Kentucky officials.
In one incident, the crew sedated a zebra which was procured from a local drive-thru
animal safari, which Turtleman then "caught."
In another, Turtleman cleared bats from an area that were intentionally placed there.
His activities resulted in the death of one bat, and possibly violated local laws that
prevent "bringing a bat to a new location for entertainment purposes alone."
Which is a very weird law to have to specify, but hey, things get weird when you're bored.
After the initial Mother Jones exposé, which was published between seasons three and four
of the show, Call of the Wildman saw a 43% drop in ratings.
Although there was never an official cancellation announcement from Animal Planet, the Turtleman
never returned after that dismal fourth season.
Not-so-live action
Despite well-documented instances of faking genuine animal captures, Turtleman insists
that he's the real deal, telling Channel Guide Magazine,
"People have been calling me fake, and there ain't no fake.
Go ahead and try it!
We're doing it live action.
We're there, doing our thing.
I'm catching animals, that's the way it is."
But while The Turtleman may be endearingly genuine, his TV show was not.
Animal Planet is remarkably open about this fact.
Animal Planet's Senior VP of Communications Patricia Kollappallil, addressed an episode
in which, quote, "a poisonous non-native snake was released into a city swimming pool without
proper authorization," by shifting blame to the show's producers, saying,
"We're clear we do dramatizations, so for us that wasn't news or controversial.
Sharp [Entertainment] did bring in snakes."
"There are times for a story line we need a particular animal, and we'll work with a
licenser to find the particular animal."
A show producer who spoke to Mother Jones confirmed the trickery.
"It was part of my job to call around people to trap animals at the direction of Sharp.
It's 100 percent fake."
Lost license
One thing about the Turtleman was definitely real.
For a time, Ernie Brown Jr. was a licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Officer in the commonwealth
of Kentucky.
That is, until he stepped out of bounds on TV.
In 2013, Turtleman was hit with a violation of his NWCO license after an episode in which
he wrangled a deer out of a store in exchange for "an authentic suit of armor."
One problem: deer did not fall under his jurisdiction as a nuisance officer, so the commonwealth
of Kentucky issued him a friendly reminder that if he was ever shown to mess with elk,
deer, wild turkey, or bear again, he could lose his license for three years, and possibly
receive a criminal citation.
Shortly after, inconsistencies were found in Turtleman's NWCO paperwork, and several
agencies, including the USDA and The Humane Society called for the cancellation of the
show.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife also confirmed to Mother Jones that Turtleman
was no longer licensed in the state as a nuisance officer, and though they wouldn't say why,
the answer is pretty obvious.
Turtleman Strong
Along with country artist Steve Oliver, Turtleman is in the process of putting together a series
of albums that will tell the story of his life.
True to his word, he recently dropped his first music video, "Turtleman Strong."
It's an ambitious undertaking for the Turtleman to say the least; he and Oliver have written
90 songs that they plan on turning into three albums.
"Ya'll ain't seen nothin' yet.
Turtleman's comin' back 2017.
Turtleman strong."
And with the recent appearance of Turtleman's own official YouTube channel, could this be
the resurgence of The Turtleman we've all been waiting for?
"If you subscribe to the channel, you'll never miss… any live action (yelling)."
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