Marcus Cook of Zoo Dynamics or Zoo Cats

Check for yourself to see Marcus Cook meets the sanctuary standards for an accredited animal refuge. Read USDA's 41 page complaint against Marcus Cook HERE See an interactive online map of exotic cat owners . See people being stupid with big cats, endangering themselves and others HERE . See the awful conditions that many captive cats endure HERE .

Government, experts question tiger breeder's practices

Photoe Courtesy:

Marcus Cook, the man who brought a pregnant white tiger to Duluth with a traveling carnival, said it was sad but natural when the tiger's four cubs died two days after they were born.

He vowed his own veterinarians would look into the case.

"Our team is absolutely explicit," he said Thursday, the day the cubs died.

Cook, an exotic-animal breeder from Texas, said three veterinarians who work for his company, Zoo Dynamics, "will leave no stone unturned."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is launching its own investigation into the deaths. And this isn't the first one.

Just two months ago the USDA issued a complaint against Cook for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act.

The department said, in the complaint, there are "repeated instances" of Cook's failure to provide "adequate veterinary care, food, water, or housing to animals."

The complaint went on to say those failures "have resulted in injuries to animals and to the public."

Ron Tilson, a tiger expert at the Minnesota Zoo who advises all accredited zoos in North America, is one of Cook's many critics.

"It's immoral, it's unethical," Tilson said of Cook's breeding practices. "Certainly the animal rights and humane societies have come out and said it's a form of animal abuse, therefore it's cruel to animals."

Tilson said he agreed with that assessment and that the mere breeding of white tigers is not natural.

To maintain that color, Tilson said, the cubs have to be inbred , which means they lose genetic protection against a number of diseases.

"And there are many other things, including cleft palates, and crossed eyes, and curved spines, and shortened feet, and all of those things would put a wild tiger at a disadvantage, so it wouldn't live," he said.

Tislson said the last white tiger born in the wild was observed in 1951.

In the case of the four dead cubs in Duluth, Cook said Thursday it wasn't his fault.

"We know that it is not anything that has to do with animal care, or keeper error, or facility structure, anything of that nature," he said.

Cook didn't return KARE11's call Friday.

Cook's company is based near Dallas.

He also has been sued by the Texas attorney general, and Cook was ordered to stop operating as a nonprofit.

The Texas attorney general called Cook's business practices "deceptive."

Scott Goldberg Kare 11 News SGoldberg@kare11.com

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_ar ticle.aspx?storyid=259295

Ti ger exhibit operator faces charges

Published Saturday, July 07, 2007

While the reasons four white tiger cubs died this week at a traveling exhibit in Duluth still are unknown, the operator of the exhibit faces numerous charges by the USDA for mistreating his animals, as well as putting them in a position that has caused injuries to the public.

Marcus Cook, who has told the News Tribune he is both the senior animal specialist and senior zoologist with Texas-based Zoo Dynamics, said Friday that allegations against him are “99.9 percent are completely incorrect, unfounded or misrepresented.”

He also said that he never lets the public handle his tigers.

But a complaint filed in May by the U.S. Department of Agriculture claims Cook has supervised numerous animals that received improper veterinary care and had numerous untreated health problems, and that he allowed the public — including children — to handle tigers. The charges date from 2002 to 2007.

Also, in 2003 the Texas attorney general’s office obtained an emergency court order to prevent Cook and the company he was then associated with, ZooCats, from exhibiting tigers.

The attorney general’s office wanted to stop the company from putting the public in harm’s way for allowing “children and adults to touch and hold them [tigers] without regard for disease or possible public harm,” according to a news release from the attorney general’s office.

The office also claimed that ZooCats lied about connections with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and was set up as a false nonprofit, using publicly donated money for profit-making purposes.

As part of Cook’s agreement with the attorney general’s office, ZooCats was dissolved and Cook must not represent that he has a good safety record. He also must not tell people he has a bachelor’s degree in zoology. He was ordered to pay $100,000.

Cook has denied making any misrepresentations.

Cook’s tigers have been involved in at least three biting or attack incidents, the most recent in June 2006 in Texas when, according to news reports, a Bengal tiger escaped its cage and mauled a yard worker, who required 2,000 stitches as part of his treatment and recovery.

Cook said Friday that the man had a history of mental illness and signed a statement saying he was attempting to commit suicide.

Cook said the two tigers at his exhibit are in good health, but he referred all questions about the cause of death of the tiger cubs that died Thursday to Dr. Kelly Manzer, who he said was a veterinarian with Zoo Dynamics. Manzer did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

Zoo Dynamics released a statement Friday saying it suspected the tiger cubs’ deaths were caused by congenital defects.

Ron Tilson, director of conservation at the Minneapolis-based Minnesota Zoo, said all white tigers are inbred. Tilson said white tigers can trace their origins to a white tiger captured in India in 1951, which mated with one of its daughters, which had a recessive gene to create another white tiger.

“They’re all so highly inbred almost to the level of brother and sister,” said Tilson who, because of that, believes breeding white tigers is inhumane.

“This is abuse; this is not natural. It’s doing something that is contrary to what nature would order,” he said. “They are producing cubs that are not doing well simply for the sake of making money.”

Tiger cubs born in captivity do generally have a higher mortality rate. Cubs handled by humans have a higher chance of death, said Tammy Quist, executive director of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minn. Wildcat Sanctuary is the only accredited big cat sanctuary in the Upper Midwest.

“A traveling exhibit is not a good situation for tiger cubs to be in,” Quist said. “Who hauls around a pregnant tiger in a trailer from Texas to Minnesota?”

Cook said he never allowed the public to touch or handle the cubs, and he never allows people to touch the adult tigers. People can pay to feed them, but that is done by handing food over a gate with a pair of tongs.

Though Cook told the News Tribune on Thursday that a veterinarian from the Lake Superior Zoo examined the cubs the morning before they died, Dr. Louise Beyea said that was not true.

Instead, she said she saw the cubs only after they died to provide a referral for them to be transported to a facility for diagnostic results.

Beyea did not know where the animals were sent. Beyea also said she did not know what caused their deaths but that, based on a limited observation, she did not see “any abuse or mishandling” on the part of Zoo Dynamics.

Under Minnesota law, municipalities don’t have to examine traveling animal exhibits’ safety records.

BRANDON STAHL covers health. He can be reached at (218) 720-4154 or by e-mail at bstahl@duluthnews.com.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/a rticles/index.cfm?id=45627&section=homepage

Misinformation Fed to the Press About White Tigers by Marcus Cook and his staff (notes are corrections to article)

The stars are the cubs with stripes

Duluth News Tribune
Published Thursday, July 05, 2007

The refrain of “Why can’t we keep one?” was heard Wednesday from the tiger tent at the Mighty Thomas Carnival in Duluth, where dozens showed up to ooh and ah over four newborn cubs.

One male and three female royal white Bengal tigers were born Tuesday between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to proud parents Gita and Splash, according to Zoo Dynamic zoo handler Steve Lopez. The cubs were born in a hay-lined, 10-by-10-foot cage in the carnival’s tiger tent.

There are only about 400 white tigers in the world, said Zoo Dynamic senior zoologist Marcus Cook, more than 200 of them living in confinement in the United States.

Senior zoologist Marcus Cook with Zoo Dynamics of Dallas holds a male royal white Bengal tiger cub. The cub was one of four born Tuesday at the Zoo Dynamics exhibit at the Mighty Thomas Carnival in Duluth. There are about 200 royal white Bengal tigers in the United States. (Royal White Bengal Tiger was a name coined by the magic act Sigfried and Roy. There are no purebred Bengal tigers in the U.S. and all white tigers are the product of inbreeding and crossbreeding Bengal and Siberian species)

Mama tiger
“All white tigers, wherever you see them, whether in movies or at the zoo, have been born in captivity,” said zoo handler Carlos Lopez. “My goal is to get the word out that these guys are dying.”

He blames the scarcity of white tigers on poachers and the fact that there is no place to reintegrate them into the wild because of deforestation. He added that the survival rate in the wild for white tigers is only 11 years, compared to the 20 to 25 years common in captivity. (There hasn't been a white tiger spotted in the wild since 1951 and no white tiger has ever lived past kittenhood in the wild)

Although the cubs haven’t been named yet, Cook said two might be called Stars and Stripes for their nearly patriotic birthday.

Each cub weighs between 2 and 2½ pounds and will spend the next six months with its mother.

“By then [six months], each tiger will be about 18 inches high and weigh about 80 pounds,” said Carlos Lopez. “After they are six months old, they will gain one pound per day until they are fully grown.”

Fully grown royal white Bengal tigers can range from 221 to 453 pounds for females and from 419 to 569 pounds for males, according to information from Zoo Dynamic.

For now, the cubs’ only job is to eat and sleep. They won’t open their eyes or be able to walk for nearly two weeks, Carlos Lopez said.

This was Gita’s second litter. Her first two male cubs were born on June 8, 2005, and are living at the Amarillo (Texas) Wildlife Refuge .

“She is a really good mom,” Carlos Lopez said.

Not all animal lovers are enthused about the breeding of white tigers.

A program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, called the Save the Tiger Fund, points out on its Web site that the tiger species survival plan “has condemned breeding white tigers because of their mixed ancestry.”

A white tiger can be born only when both parents carry a gene for white coloring, which occurs naturally only once every 10,000 births, according to lairweb.org.

“To produce white tigers … directors of zoos and facilities must continuously inbreed, father to daughter, to granddaughter, and so on,” the Save the Tiger Fund Web site states.

Save the Tiger Fund says that the issue “is a contradiction of fundamental genetic principles… [which is done] for economic rather than conservation reasons.”

But Cook has a different point of view.

“People that believe that are anti-zoo people and need to do the research,” he said. A lot of the inbreeding took place in the 1950s, he said, when people still thought it was OK to hunt tigers because they weren’t endangered. Since then, zoos have been trying to fix the problems of endangerment and inbreeding, Cook said.

“Gita and Splash are five generations back and clean on the tree,” Cook said. He said breeders are using new technology to correct mistakes of the past.

One of the ways they are doing this is through out-breeding, he said — mating animals less closely related than the average of the population. (This outbreeding is the cross breeding of Bengal and Siberian lines which creates a hybrid that is not of any conservation value to either the Bengals or the Siberians in the wild. Much like breeding a Doberman to a Poodle.)

But carnival visitors Wednesday weren’t thinking about the tigers’ biological issues.

“Tigers are amazing,” Cook said. “We often refer to them as edutainment: both educational and entertainment.”

And the viewers had the same opinion.

“I think they are really cute and cuddly,” said 8-year-old Dalton Levy of Duluth. “And I think they have really cool colors.”

He said he learned lots about cats and a little about tigers at school, but in real life, “they are really cute.”

His cousin agreed.

“My favorite thing about the tigers is that they are big and fast,” said 7-year-old Jantzen Levy.

The tigers will be at the carnival until Sunday and, though the cubs get their nourishment from their mother, the public is allowed to feed Gita and Splash for an extra few dollars.

Kendra Lisdahl and Crystal Starstead both fed the tigers pieces of raw pork and couldn’t contain their excitement.

“I like tigers,” Starstead said, “and the babies are beautiful.”

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/a rticles/index.cfm?id=45459&section=homepage

Man on the mend after tiger attack

By Kent Miller

The victim of Friday's tiger attack at a private facility between Terrell and Kaufman is recovering at Methodist Medical Center at Dallas after being flown there by air ambulance after the attack.

Don Roberts was mauled Friday by a Bengal tiger that had escaped its cage when an electric fence failed at Zoo Dynamics located on River Oaks Drive of off State Highway 34. Roberts said he was attacked while attempting to warn a Zoo Dynamics employee that the exotic cat was loose.

“The tiger jumped me as I ran to a nearby cage where the employee was working,” Roberts said in a prepared statement. “I've worked there before and know that being cautious and following safety guidelines are important. I'm very aware of their [large exotic cats] awesome power and have a healthy respect for the dangers they pose. Accidents sometimes happen.”

Roberts continues to recover at Methodist Medical Center but hopes to go home soon.

“The healing process may take a little time but I'm comforted to know my actions stopped the attack and may have helped others escape injury,” the statement read. “I look forward to returning home and getting back to my normal routine.”

The tiger, which was housed with other exotic cats at the facility, apparently jumped a failed electric fence and attacked Roberts on the grounds between the caged tiger habitat and a perimeter fence on the outside edge of the property, according to a Kaufman County Sheriff's report.

Sheriff's department spokes-woman Sharlie Davis said the facility also houses panthers, leopards and other exotic animals.

She said the facility, to her knowledge, has never had one of the cats escape.

The tiger was being held in quarantine at the facility for observation.

http://www.kaufmanherald.com/ articles/2006/06/22/news/news02.txt

Man recovering in Dallas from tiger attack

DALLAS -- A man who was attacked by an escaped Bengal tiger at an animal sanctuary last week was in good condition at a Dallas hospital Wednesday.

Officials said Don Roberts, a part-time employee at Zoo Dynamics, was doing yard work between two fences at an exotic animal facility in Kaufman County when he noticed the escaped tiger.

Roberts said the tiger pounced on him as he ran to get help.

"The healing process may take a little time," said Roberts, who remained at Methodist Dallas Medical Center after he suffered numerous claw marks and cuts that required about 2,000 stitches. "I look forward to returning home and getting back to my normal routine."

According to the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department, the tiger escaped when power at the facility failed and the tiger was somehow able to leap an electrical fence.

Officials at Zoo Dynamics, which has maintained exotic animals on the property for about 15 years, said they were investigating. The business provides exotic animals to zoos.

The facility currently has eight tigers and three other big cats behind fences up to 18 feet tall, operations director Marcus Cook said. The escaped animal was captured and remains under quarantine.

http://www.chron.com/disp/stor y.mpl/metropolitan/3989937.html

Tiger attacks worker at Zoo Dynamics

KAUFMAN, Texas A tiger chased down and mauled a man at an animal sanctuary in Kaufman County last week.

It happened Saturday, and witnesses say the man is lucky to be alive.

Donnie Roberts says he was doing landscaping at the animal sanctuary when the 300-pound Bengal tiger got Roberts' arm in its jaws.

He says the tiger threw him down on his hip and got on his neck.

Roberts says he thought the tiger would kill him, but managed to stay calm. He prayed and was somehow able to get the tiger off him.

The tiger ripped off his ear and left claw marks over his body.

Roberts says he believes he has about two thousand stitches.

Now the animal is being quarantined.

http://www.kltv.com/Global/st ory.asp?S=5057863&nav=1TjD