Kuya Kim's Animal Kingdom

Kuya Kim Atienza Talks About His Love for Animals and Dishes Advice on How to Get Rid of Your Animal Phobia.

- Yvette Tan

Kim Atienza, who everyone fondly calls “Kuya Kim,” is a mainstay on national television, regaling viewers with trivia and informing them of the weather on TV Patrol on weeknights and further educating them on Matanglawin on Sunday mornings. “Three or four times a week, I’m able to bring an animal, an object of trivia, so the trivia segment of TV Patrol is fortified and made even more exciting,” Kuya Kim says.

It’s hard to catch Kuya Kim without an animal nearby. The TV host is known for his love for animals, particularly exotic ones. In fact, his first pet was a snake! “When I was a young boy, I bought a reticulated python from Cartimar for R50. It bit me and escaped,” he says with a laugh. “But I’ve always been interested in exotic animals, mainly because I grew up in a house full of aquariums because my dad was a tropical fish breeder; that was his hobby. I like seeing things inside aquariums, so that’s how my exotic taste started.”

That one snake grew to a menagerie of over a hundred animals. “I have 46 dogs and I have many, many reptiles, because I also breed tortoises,” says Kuya Kim, who just hatched a clutch of about 60 tortoises. “Maybe 15-20 snakes and about 12 lizards and about 15-20 turtles also. All in the house. I am very fortunate to have a property with a big garden.”