911 Animal Abuse

21 Search Results for "what's post?!"

• Vanishing Species~ Florida's d Vanishing Species~ Florida's dirty little secret

  • From: Witch33
  • Description:

    In Feb ,2009 Jeffery Harrod and Barabra harrod owners of vanishing Species signed a plea agreement with USDA reducing a $27,000 fine for repeat violation down to a measly $3,700 fine with $100.00 a month installment. Since that time the harrods have continued to violate this plea agreement yet USDA does nothing. In fact USDA never came back to enforce there own plea agreement and pull the plea deal off the table.

    5 months ago

  • Views: 195
  • Forum: Animal Abus...

• Liger in Green Cage 1 Liger in Green Cage 1

  • From: 11233455987
  • Description:
    A real, not photoshopped liger.
  • 7 months ago
  • Views: 196
  • Not yet rated

• ‘Positive reinforcement’ doesn ‘Positive reinforcement’ doesn’t come from whips

  • From: Guatemala
  • Description:

    
    Wild-animal circuses do not and cannot provide humane conditions for animals. Circuses say they have every incentive to treat animals well.
    
    By: Christine Coughlin, Duluth News Tribune
    
    This week, the wild-animal circus makes its annual appearance in Duluth. Along with the glitter and laughs is the growing controversy over the practice of using wild animals for entertainment. Animal circuses are often met with protesters, letters to the editor and requests for a humane alternative.
    
    So what's the fuss?
    
    Wild-animal circuses do not and cannot provide humane conditions for animals. Circuses say they have every incentive to treat animals well. In reality, every incentive exists to make animals perform. By whatever means necessary, the circus must ensure wild animals will execute their stunts.
    
    In circus programs and on Web sites, the industry reassures the public it uses positive reinforcement on the animals. Yet, during shows, audiences watch as big-cat trainers crack whips while cats do tricks. Elephants are accompanied by men with bullhooks, sticks with sharp metal hooks on one end. No matter how they're marketed, whips and hooks are not positive reinforcement. They serve as continual reminders to the animals of what could happen if they don't comply.
    
    And that's just what can be seen at circuses. What about training sessions held behind closed doors or out of our sight?
    
    Much of what's known about training and discipline in circuses has been brought to light by former circus employees and undercover investigators. Through eyewitness testimony and videotapes, the public has learned of horrific abuses behind the scenes. Several weeks ago, closing arguments were heard in a Washington, D.C., federal district court trial, in which it was alleged Ringling Bros. abused its endangered Asian elephants with bullhooks and prolonged chaining, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. In that case, videotapes were shown, and five former employees testified against Ringling. A decision in the case is expected this spring.
    Prolonged chaining and unnatural confinement of circus animals may be more debilitating over the long term than abusive training and discipline. Wild animals in circuses routinely spend up to 20 hours a day on short chains or in small cages. Osteomyelitis, a painful and life-threatening disease affecting the feet and legs of elephants, is correlated with prolonged standing on concrete and is found only in captive elephants. Stereotypic behaviors — like repetitive rocking, bobbing and pacing — are in response to confinement, are indicative of physiological stresses, and are commonly seen in circus animals and not in animals in the wild.
    
    Animal circuses do not teach children about the normal behaviors of healthy animals. They do not teach about the conservation challenges faced by those working to protect the animals in their native environments. What animal circuses teach is that it's acceptable to separate individual animals from their families, to train them with harsh tools, and to hold them in intensive confinement, denying them every instinct to move and roam freely, as nature intended.
    
    Many parents are choosing to take their children to circuses without animals. Animal-free circuses are on a growing list of entertainment options, and are increasing in popularity.
    Let's take the best of what the circus has to offer — acrobats, stunts, clowns, music — and leave the wild animals where they belong, in the wild. Animal circuses offer moments of entertainment in exchange for lifetimes of misery. They are not worth it.
    
    CHRISTINE COUGHLIN of Minneapolis is a member of Circus Reform Yes, a Minnesota nonprofit that advocates for animal-free circuses.
    
    http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/118676/

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 259

• L & L Exotics More Animals Sei L & L Exotics More Animals Seized

  • From: Guatemala
  • Description:

    Horses, pigs, and more found to be in unsanitary conditions at Copley site.

    By Bob Downing
    Beacon Journal staff writer
    

    Published on Saturday, Apr 04, 2009

    A Summit County judge has ordered that additional domestic animals be taken from Lorenza Pearson in Copley Township.

    Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter issued a permanent injunction against Pearson and his ex-wife, Barbara Pearson-Brown, on Friday for keeping animals in unsanitary conditions. They are permanently barred from keeping exotic animals.

    The two were also found in contempt of court and each was fined $150.

    Hunter's 10-page order allows the Summit County Health Department and Copley Township to remove six horses, three goats, four pigs, three pot-bellied pigs, 20 ducks, one calf, five guinea fowl, seven chickens and pigeons from the Columbus Avenue property.

    No action has been taken to remove the animals, said Bob Hasenyager of the Summit County Health Department.

    Hunter cited the lack of fresh water for the animals; lack of a wastewater system; garbage, litter and manure strewn throughout the property; manure piles near food; rodent problems; and the open-burning violations noted in March 12 testimony.

    ''The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that defendants have continued to maintain their property and to harbor domestic animals on this property in such a manner as to create an absolute nuisance,'' Hunter wrote.

    The judge cited the pair for contempt because they had violated her May 9 order by bringing additional domestic animals onto the property.

    The judge said she would waive the fines if Pearson and Pearson-Brown cooperate with authorities.

    ''We're very pleased with the court's ruling . . . and hope that Judge Hunter has written the final chapter in what's been a long legal fight,'' said attorney Irving Sugerman, who represents Copley Township.

    Efforts to contact Pearson, Pearson-Brown and attorney William Whitaker were unsuccessful.

    On May 9, Hunter had ordered the removal of Pearson's exotic animals from L&L Exotic Animal Farm.

    She ruled that the animals posed a threat to public health and safety because of the poor conditions of their cages. She ordered the operation shut down and the animals seized. They included eight black bears that were shipped to an animal sanctuary in Colorado.

    Pearson had earlier removed three tigers, a wolf hybrid, a lion and a number of pit bulls from his farm.

    A lawsuit, filed by Copley and the health department, said Pearson failed to comply with 2003 court orders to improve the site. In 2007, a federal administrative law judge found Pearson guilty of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. He was found guilty of 26 violations and his federal license to exhibit exotic animals was revoked. The judge called the conditions of the animals deplorable.

    Between 1999 and 2005, Pearson had as many as 82 animals at the same time, mostly exotic cats and bears.

    In 2002, the Agriculture Department cited Pearson for 900 violations of its animal-care rules.

    ---

    Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.

    A Summit County judge has ordered that additional domestic animals be taken from Lorenza Pearson in Copley Township.

    Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter issued a permanent injunction against Pearson and his ex-wife, Barbara Pearson-Brown, on Friday for keeping animals in unsanitary conditions. They are permanently barred from keeping exotic animals.

    The two were also found in contempt of court and each was fined $150.

    Hunter's 10-page order allows the Summit County Health Department and Copley Township to remove six horses, three goats, four pigs, three pot-bellied pigs, 20 ducks, one calf, five guinea fowl, seven chickens and pigeons from the Columbus Avenue property.

    No action has been taken to remove the animals, said Bob Hasenyager of the Summit County Health Department.

    Hunter cited the lack of fresh water for the animals; lack of a wastewater system; garbage, litter and manure strewn throughout the property; manure piles near food; rodent problems; and the open-burning violations noted in March 12 testimony.

    ''The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that defendants have continued to maintain their property and to harbor domestic animals on this property in such a manner as to create an absolute nuisance,'' Hunter wrote.

    The judge cited the pair for contempt because they had violated her May 9 order by bringing additional domestic animals onto the property.

    The judge said she would waive the fines if Pearson and Pearson-Brown cooperate with authorities.

    ''We're very pleased with the court's ruling . . . and hope that Judge Hunter has written the final chapter in what's been a long legal fight,'' said attorney Irving Sugerman, who represents Copley Township.

    Efforts to contact Pearson, Pearson-Brown and attorney William Whitaker were unsuccessful.

    On May 9, Hunter had ordered the removal of Pearson's exotic animals from L&L Exotic Animal Farm.

    She ruled that the animals posed a threat to public health and safety because of the poor conditions of their cages. She ordered the operation shut down and the animals seized. They included eight black bears that were shipped to an animal sanctuary in Colorado.

    Pearson had earlier removed three tigers, a wolf hybrid, a lion and a number of pit bulls from his farm.

    A lawsuit, filed by Copley and the health department, said Pearson failed to comply with 2003 court orders to improve the site. In 2007, a federal administrative law judge found Pearson guilty of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act. He was found guilty of 26 violations and his federal license to exhibit exotic animals was revoked. The judge called the conditions of the animals deplorable.

    Between 1999 and 2005, Pearson had as many as 82 animals at the same time, mostly exotic cats and bears.

    In 2002, the Agriculture Department cited Pearson for 900 violations of its animal-care rules.

    ---

    Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 238
  • Not yet rated

• AZA Says Wild Animals Make Bad AZA Says Wild Animals Make Bad Pets

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    
    Why Wild Animals Don't Make Good Pets
    
    Exotic creatures like chimpanzees, pythons, kinkajous and scarlet
    macaws have captured the hearts of animal-lovers looking for
    companions; but keeping exotic animals as pets can come with hidden
    costs, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
    
    (Vocus) February 19, 2009 -- Exotic creatures like chimpanzees,
    pythons, kinkajous and scarlet macaws have captured the hearts of
    animal-lovers looking for companions; but keeping exotic animals as
    pets can come with hidden costs - both for people and animals. Wild
    animals have lived for thousands of years without the direct
    influence of humans. They are adapted for survival in complex, wild
    environments. They are not well adapted to living with humans or in a
    house.
    
    What's wrong with having a wild animal as a pet?
    
    You can't provide the right home for them.
    
    Wild animals have complex behavioral, social, nutritional and
    psychological needs. Most people cannot meet the needs of wild
    animals kept as pets. Wild animals need to be with members of their
    own species.
    
    Apes are a special concern.
    
    Apes, including chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and
    gibbons, are intelligent, sensitive, and highly social animals. As
    our closest living relatives, they are fascinating, and ape infants
    are appealing. These attributes make apes popular as performers in
    commercial entertainment, advertising programs and, sometimes, pets.
    But this popularity and attractiveness masks the often cruel and
    dangerous practices commonly required for making apes compliant in
    such appearances. When kept as pets, apes can unexpectedly cause
    severe injury when natural instincts trigger fear, aggression, or
    other powerful responses. (see:
    http://www.aza.org/AboutAZA/presentanimalspolicy/ )
    
    Taking them from the wild can endanger the species.
    
    Parrots are the world's most endangered family of birds due to
    devastation from the international pet trade. The enormous global
    demand for these and other exotic pets is fueling the illegal capture
    and trade of millions of birds, mammals and reptiles annually, most
    of which die while being captured or transported.
    
    You could get hurt.
    
    Keeping wild animals as pets can be dangerous. Many can bite,
    scratch, and attack an owner, children, or guests. Animal owners can
    be legally responsible for any damage, injuries or illnesses caused
    by animals they maintain. Finding new homes for large, hard-to-handle
    animals can be difficult, if not impossible, particularly since most
    zoos are unable to accept them.
    
    You could get sick.
    
    Wild animals can carry diseases dangerous or fatal to humans.
    Diseases include rabies, distemper, herpes viruses, salmonella,
    polio, tuberculosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and bubonic plague.
    Wild animals also harbor parasites, such as intestinal worms and
    protozoa.
    
    It would probably be illegal.
    
    Many state, county and city ordinances prohibit the ownership of wild
    animals as pets.
    
    What types of animals do make good pets?
    
    Dogs, domestic cats, guinea pigs, domestic rats and mice,
    domestic gerbils, common hamsters, domestic rabbits, domestic
    chinchillas.
    
    Interesting insects like African millipedes or Hissing
    cockroaches.
    
    Responsibly captive-bred parakeets, canaries, cockatiels, doves,
    and pigeons.
    
    Responsibly captive-bred reptiles and amphibians such as red-
    footed tortoises, lizards (bearded dragons, leopard geckos), snakes
    (corn snakes, king snakes, ball pythons) and frogs (White's tree
    frog, ornate horned frog, fire-bellied toad, red-eyed tree frog).
    
    Tropical fish that are captive-raised or collected from
    sustainable wild populations make good pets. Look for certification
    of sustainability from the Marine Aquarium Council when you buy
    tropical fish for your home aquarium.
    
    Visit a shelter
    
    Millions of dogs and cats are destroyed each year because they
    don't have homes. Shelter directories such as PetFinder are excellent
    places to find adoptable animals near you.
    
    Founded in 1924, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a
    nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos
    and aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and
    recreation. Look for the AZA logo whenever you visit a zoo or
    aquarium as your assurance that you are supporting an institution
    dedicated to providing excellent care for animals, a great experience
    for you, and a better future for all living things. With its more
    than 200 accredited members, the AZA is a leader in global wildlife
    conservation, and your link to helping animals in their native
    habitats.
    
    ###
    Contact Information
    
    Jackie Marks
    Association of Zoos and Aquariums
    http://www.aza.org/
    301.562.0777 +236

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 379

• 3 Southwest Ranches FL Think B 3 Southwest Ranches FL Think Big Cats Are Trophies

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    #62
    Yesterday
     
    
        Barbara wrote:
        I live on a major road in Broward County and can tell you many times during thunderstorms, celebrations with fireworks, sudden loud noise(such as a fire truck) there are loose dogs just running to get away. They climb fences, go through windows, etc. Many times over the last 34 years I have brought them into my yard, just so they won't be killed on this road. I can't IMAGINE dealing with dangerous wild animals. Around here, most people don't even like the ducks.! For the last few weeks, I have had a very tall (and loud) goose at my house every day. I don't know where it came from, but follows me everywhere
    
    DID YOU GET GOOSED BY THE GOOSE?
    Bingo
    
    Miami, FL
       
    
    #63
    Yesterday
     
    
        Snaggle Puss wrote:
        Heavens to MergaTroid ... Exit -- Stage Left!!!
    
    I was wondering if anyone else remembered old Snaggle. He is the only cat I want in my living room.
    
    
    Pompano Beach, FL
       
    
    #64
    Yesterday
     
    it's people like them that ruin it for everyone else.
    like on casual Fridays at the office. one person comes in with a torn pair of jeans and its back to tie and suit thanks.
    miamiman
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    #65
    Yesterday
     
    an idiot is born every minute.
    Barry
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    #66
    Yesterday
     
    
        Barbara wrote:
        I live on a major road in Broward County and can tell you many times during thunderstorms, celebrations with fireworks, sudden loud noise(such as a fire truck) there are loose dogs just running to get away. They climb fences, go through windows, etc. Many times over the last 34 years I have brought them into my yard, just so they won't be killed on this road. I can't IMAGINE dealing with dangerous wild animals. Around here, most people don't even like the ducks.! For the last few weeks, I have had a very tall (and loud) goose at my house every day. I don't know where it came from, but follows me everywhere
    
    Many women appreciate an occasional goose.
    
    
    Pompano Beach, FL
       
    
    #67
    Yesterday
     
    the neighbors should really get a petition going to have the "Kitty" put in a zoo where it belongs. not only will it be safer for our children, but its the best thing for the wild cat. it belongs someplace with others like it where it is free to run and move around. some people realy have no brains. Lily
    
    United States
       
    
    #68
    Yesterday
     
    
        Barbara wrote:
        I live on a major road in Broward County and can tell you many times during thunderstorms, celebrations with fireworks, sudden loud noise(such as a fire truck) there are loose dogs just running to get away. They climb fences, go through windows, etc. Many times over the last 34 years I have brought them into my yard, just so they won't be killed on this road. I can't IMAGINE dealing with dangerous wild animals. Around here, most people don't even like the ducks.! For the last few weeks, I have had a very tall (and loud) goose at my house every day. I don't know where it came from, but follows me everywhere
    
    Barbara, there was a story recently about someone who actually had a 'pet' goose. It had wondered into their yard and kind of adopted the family and it became their pet until some cold-hearted (kids, i think) decided to kill it.
    
    Maybe it just wants to be your friend.
    Mike Clayton
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #69
    Yesterday
     
    That house must smell lovely.
    Lol
       
    
    #70
    Yesterday
     
    
        DeShawna wrote:
        we got 4 pits cause them pits are real pets. we train them so nobody animals mess with us. the pits will eat a lynx for lunch so aint no lynx no real animal unless it can beat a pit and we train our pits to win. we even add gunpowder to their food to tuffen them up cause them pits be for real. we also train them
    
    Wow. Are you mentally retarded, or did you just bash your face against the keyboard when you were typing that?
    The Dude
    
    Indianapolis, IN
       
    
    #71
    Yesterday
     
    A buddy of mine has a serval and as we all know... people with Exotics are humans with no identity and looking for attention. They think it’s cool and different (ego is in control). Thank you. Amen. The Dude.
    Crazy
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #72
    Yesterday
     
    Please tell me why this is allowed? I guess if you have money and can afford a big house you can pay your way into owning one of these. What happens when it gets loose and eats someones face off then what? Go to the zoo lady!
    Average Joe
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #73
    Yesterday
     
    
        DeShawna wrote:
        we got 4 pits cause them pits are real pets. we train them so nobody animals mess with us. the pits will eat a lynx for lunch so aint no lynx no real animal unless it can beat a pit and we train our pits to win. we even add gunpowder to their food to tuffen them up cause them pits be for real. we also train them
    
    Your pit bulls got nothing on my .45! I've never had to pull or use my weapon in the 14 years I've carried, but if an animal (human type) threatens me, they'll have a bad day. I think most animals act better than a lot of the "humans" out there, so I would only hurt an animal as a (very) last resort. If these people are properly trained and licensed to have the exotic cats, more power to them. I have no problem with educated people saving the life of a wild animal and caring for it. The biggest problem in S Florida are the humans, not the pets.
    ILovemykids
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #74
    Yesterday
     
    
        Evil Killers wrote:
        Those folks are real losers. Their homes are full of cat and goat crapping and must stink to high hell. Not to mention that one day the cat will be **** off and rip somebody's arm off. Good riddance!
    
    Well said!!
    Selfish Selfish Selfish
    
    Miami, FL
       
    
    #75
    Yesterday
     
    This should be banned. No one needs a large wildcat. Just morons trying to feed their own egos like Tony in Scarface.
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    Florida grandma
    
    Chicago, IL
       
    
    #76
    Yesterday
     
    
        DeShawna wrote:
        we got 4 pits cause them pits are real pets. we train them so nobody animals mess with us. the pits will eat a lynx for lunch so aint no lynx no real animal unless it can beat a pit and we train our pits to win. we even add gunpowder to their food to tuffen them up cause them pits be for real. we also train them
    
    I hope someone from an animal welfare organization notes the abuse of putting gunpowder in a dogs food!!
    Boca
    
    West Palm Beach, FL
       
    
    #77
    Yesterday
     
    
        DeShawna wrote:
        we got 4 pits cause them pits are real pets. we train them so nobody animals mess with us. the pits will eat a lynx for lunch so aint no lynx no real animal unless it can beat a pit and we train our pits to win. we even add gunpowder to their food to tuffen them up cause them pits be for real. we also train them
    
    Are you pitting me!
    Defender
    
    Atlanta, GA
       
    
    #78
    Yesterday
     
    Oprah Miracles and the New Earth
    by Erwin Lutzer
    
    Get it,
    Read it,
    Learn about it.
    wise son
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #79
    Yesterday
     
    My Mom told me to stay out of cat houses.
    Tutor
    
    Chicago, IL
       
    
    #80
    Yesterday
     
    If these wild animals were meant to be domesticated they would have home contsruction skills. It's dangerous and disrespectful to the animals' instincts.
    Justified
    
    Delray Beach, FL
       
    
    #81
    Yesterday
     
    
        Tony the Tiger wrote:
        Not so grrrrrrrrrreat!
        What a stupid article to put in the newspaper to frighten the people of South Florida. These animals should be removed immediately to a zoo....I would be a nervous wreck living in S.W. Ranches. Someone better remove these animals now before someone gets killed or eaten. Let the owner live at the zoo with them; be their zookeeper but stay the hell away from our homes. Would anyone like to have dinner at her home? I don't think so.....you might turn out to be dinner for them!
    
    Your a complete idiot. A zookeeper isn't anymore qualified than these people. Do you know what's involved in owning this animals? No, probably not. But just act like you live a in perfect utopia of your community. You think someone owning a cat is a threat to society down here? LOL! Get a reality check. Look at the thugs we have here committing murder, killing innocent people, cops, and all the rest of the scum that makes up S. FL. Get a life, some people should be scared to live here this area alone. Head over east to the hood and see whats scarier...
    Merlin the Wizard
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #82
    Yesterday
     
    There ought to be a law.
    
    It's time to abort the Right to endanger others by bringing wild animals into a human environment.
    
    Too many loose screws in too many humanoids.
    
    I thought Obama was going to fix this?
    Merlin the Wizard
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #83
    Yesterday
     
    wise son
    Hollywood, FL
    
    Especially without a condom...which will protect you in a wild environment.
    Dryback
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #84
    Yesterday
     
    
        Haywood Jablomey wrote:
        you wouldn't by any chance happen to have gold teeth and dreadlocks, would you?
    
    I assume "DeShawna" and "her" post were a joke.
    Jon
    
    Kennesaw, GA
       
    
    #85
    Yesterday
     
    No one better blame that animal when it gets bored and decides to attack the stupid white trash owner.
    Southern Cane Alum
    
    Ocean Springs, MS
       
    
    #86
    Yesterday
     
    Nothing like spending 100s of thousands of dollars to buy a house that is to be used as a giant litter box. Nice--I bet the place smells amazing.
    Rich g
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #87
    Yesterday
     
    Most if not all people should not have big cats, However there are exceptions,
    1-they live in sw ranches, good large spread.
    2-animal was rescued, purchased from a shelter that rescues them and finds responsible class II license holders to keep them
    3-lynx's are not that large, its not a tiger, lion, leopard....big difference.
    4-I had a serval cat which is a bit smaller but still wild, I had to build a secure enclosure in backyard, Do the 100 hrs at a big cat rescue, and take the test for the license.
    5-It was a rewarding if not demanding project. He long gone now but I would not of traded the experience for anything. One last thing, socialization with humans while young is so important to having a large cat providing you have the skills and infrastructure or yes tragedy can occur.
    
    Lily
    
    United States
       
    
    #88
    Yesterday
     
    There is no other way to put it. These people are Morons. That is not open for a debate.
    Krazy Kat
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #89
    Yesterday
     
    I commend them for saving the cat and raising it. As for what the neighbors think, obviously most here are not aquainted with Southwest Ranches, there are all types of animals as everyone has plenty of land and that is why they choose the area. I have to laugh at the comments of how the animals will turn on them. That is a rare instance, what isn't rare are human children turning on their parents and murdering them. I would rather take my chances with the animals.
    JMF
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #90
    Yesterday
     
    
        DeShawna wrote:
        we got 4 pits cause them pits are real pets. we train them so nobody animals mess with us. the pits will eat a lynx for lunch so aint no lynx no real animal unless it can beat a pit and we train our pits to win. we even add gunpowder to their food to tuffen them up cause them pits be for real. we also train them
    
    Obviously you are an uneducated, naive animal abuser. You should be locked up and taught how to speak english and spell. I hope one of your pit bulls bites your head off for retribution.
    jrr
    
    Astoria, NY
       
    
    #91
    Yesterday
     
    amazing how regardless of size, cat behavior is the same. my cat does the head butt thing and loves when I rub under his armpits...but dont touch his lower belly. Amazing! god bless them for taking the cat in.
    SUEY
    
    Pompano Beach, FL
       
    
    #92
    Yesterday
     
    While these folks are at it, why don't they house serial killers? Same difference really. Both are extremely dangerous and can kill at any second for no apparent reason. That's why felons are housed at maximum security prisons. Wild animals are housed in zoo's. I have to say the laws of this state really need to be revised to account for the stupidity of it's citizens...
    lylo
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #93
    Yesterday
     
    Not a humane way to treat wild animals! Wake up crazy people... http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
    Slippery Soap
    
    Miami, FL
       
    
    #94
    Yesterday
     
    These animals deserve to be free so we can hunt them for sport.
    Lily
    
    United States
       
    
    #95
    23 hrs ago
     
    
        Southern Cane Alum wrote:
        Nothing like spending 100s of thousands of dollars to buy a house that is to be used as a giant litter box. Nice--I bet the place smells amazing.
    
    'giant litter box'.....LMAO!!!
    
    Probably the best post yet!!
    
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #96
    23 hrs ago
     
    That donkey and those goats are starting to look pretty appetizing.
    
    Sasha
    Karen
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #97
    23 hrs ago
     
    I hope the owners get bitten and learn their lessons. Get a life
    Que
    
    Miami, FL
       
    
    #98
    23 hrs ago
     
    Loco gringos!
    Stinky
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #99
    23 hrs ago
     
    I bet her house smells like a zoo.
    Chris
    
    Richmond, TX
       
    
    #100
    23 hrs ago
     
    Caring for these animals whose habitats have probably been destroyed by man's greed and carelessness shows that there are some decent people out there. I'm a million times more worried about some nutbag with a gun breaking into my house or trying to rob me than I am about a lynx killing me. Man is the most dangerous animal of all. Most of these posts just validate that statement.
    Lori W
    
    
    #101
    23 hrs ago
     
    Funny Snaggle Puss (brings back memories). These animals are not meant to be housepets and as beautiful as they are, they do not belong in somebody's home. I feel that those owners are being irresponsible simply by having the big cats as house pets. We have seen here in South Florida (not to mention the Las Vegas act) how quickly these beasts can turn, sometimes without provacation. I feel that the practice of owning wild animals as pets should be outlawed completely.
    Joe
    
    Lakeland, FL
       
    
    #102
    23 hrs ago
     
    Probably won't be long before we are reading that he did kill you.
    Joe
    
    Lakeland, FL
       
    
    #103
    23 hrs ago
     
    
        Que wrote:
        Loco gringos!
    
    I guess if this were a hispanic family and someone used the phrase "crazy **** " there would be hell to pay.
    Idiot
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #104
    23 hrs ago
     
    
        Que wrote:
        Loco gringos!
    
    Crazy chi chi man. Go back to your daddy Castro.
    DeShawna
    
    Delray Beach, FL
       
    
    #105
    22 hrs ago
     
    
        Haywood Jablomey wrote:
        <quoted text>
        you wouldn't by any chance happen to have gold teeth and dreadlocks, would you?
    
    in fact, i am grilled up and my cousin work at the oakland pk flea market and hes going to grille up the bottoms. a few of my cousings got dreads but i dont so your only part right.
    miamiman
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #106
    22 hrs ago
     
    
        Que wrote:
        Loco gringos!
    
    not loco but stupid gringos i bet he also pays to have his wife serviced while he watches
    DeShawna
    
    Delray Beach, FL
       
    
    #107
    22 hrs ago
     
    
        JMF wrote:
        <quoted text>
        Obviously you are an uneducated, naive animal abuser. You should be locked up and taught how to speak english and spell. I hope one of your pit bulls bites your head off for retribution.
    
    we got them pits trained so nobody been bitten. its more a business so we gotta do what we gotta do. we got them fenced in pretty good so it isnt anything plus nobody going to ever break in. peace out!
    
    my pet
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #108
    22 hrs ago
     
    I have a laughing Hyena as a pet. I can tell the worst joke and his sided still splits.
    my pet
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #109
    22 hrs ago
     
    side
    my pet
    
    Hollywood, FL
       
    
    #110
    22 hrs ago
     
    my other pet is a very rare jackalope.
    Dave
    
    
    #111
    22 hrs ago
     
    All is I can say is I am glad these crazy people dont live by me.
    miamiman
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #112
    22 hrs ago
     
    i have a snake in my pants
    Sam Yosemite
    
    Aiken, SC
       
    
    #113
    21 hrs ago
     
    I've been told one of these wild animals resides 3 doors down from my house ( in a gated community ). I am eagerly awaiting a clear shot. BTW, the owner is a certified looney.
    MJC
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #114
    21 hrs ago
     
    Talk about an absolute retard. I hope this cat eats her alive!!!!
    RDC
    
    West Palm Beach, FL
       
    
    #115
    19 hrs ago
     
    My Rhodesian Ridgeback (rescue) could take that cat out. She probably wouldn't...she's too lazy to get off the couch and do it...but she could if she wanted to.
    
    United States
       
    
    #116
    19 hrs ago
     
    I got gators in the living room.
    Frosty
    
    United States
       
    
    #117
    19 hrs ago
     
    
        Sam Yosemite wrote:
        I've been told one of these wild animals resides 3 doors down from my house ( in a gated community ). I am eagerly awaiting a clear shot. BTW, the owner is a certified looney.
    
    People that want these pets think of them like they think of their car, their blackberry, their big screen tv.
    
    They are possessions. They love to Define Themselves by their possessions.
    
    Translation?
    You're right, certified looney tunes.
    dick
    
    United States
       
    
    #118
    19 hrs ago
     
    If you watch the movie, she says, The cat has freedom.
    
    I think not...
    
    Run of the house maybe...
    dick
    
    United States
       
    
    #119
    19 hrs ago
     
    
        MJC wrote:
        Talk about an absolute retard. I hope this cat eats her alive!!!!
    
    Did you see near the end of the video the llama stroll through the bedroom?
    Lily
    
    United States
       
    
    #120
    18 hrs ago
     
    
        dick wrote:
        <quoted text>
        Did you see near the end of the video the llama stroll through the bedroom?
    
    Yeah, wasn't that wild?? LOL
    Crazy
    
    Boca Raton, FL
       
    
    #121
    17 hrs ago
     
    Animals belong in the wild, not in your living room! When some child gets killed or attacked, the county will get sued and that will be the end of that!
    Tom K
    
    Shawnee, KS
       
    
    #122
    15 hrs ago
     
    The HSUS is a terrorist organization, not a credible source of information. They are not qualified to hold an opinion. Look up John Goodwin.
    typicalswranchre sident
    
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
       
    
    #123
    14 hrs ago
     
    sw ranches preserving the rural lifestyle! if that is letting a wild animal bang your wife while you watch!!! shoot first ask questions later! beastality is illeagal isn't it? Where are all the tree huggin peta liberals on this one!!!!!!!
    the city council and mayor probablely gave the burks a permit to don this. douchebags!!!!!!!
    
    
    
    Carole Baskin
    
    Hudson, FL
       
    
    #125
    13 hrs ago
     
    If you pay taxes, you are paying for people to abuse wild animals for their own egos' sake. The Florida Wildlife Commission does not inspect twice a year, but if they did, it would cost the tax payer 300.00 and the permit fees aren't even half that. When big cats escape, it is the tax payer (YOU) not the low life exotic owner, who pays for all of the police, animal control, etc. to clean up behind them. Visit BigcatRescue dot org/big_cat_news.htm to see how often these wild animals escape, maul and kill. Wild animals should not be bred for life in cages.
    yasmine
    
    Delray Beach, FL
       
    
    #126
    12 hrs ago
     
    
        Carole Baskin wrote:
        If you pay taxes, you are paying for people to abuse wild animals for their own egos' sake. The Florida Wildlife Commission does not inspect twice a year, but if they did, it would cost the tax payer 300.00 and the permit fees aren't even half that. When big cats escape, it is the tax payer (YOU) not the low life exotic owner, who pays for all of the police, animal control, etc. to clean up behind them. Visit BigcatRescue dot org/big_cat_news.htm to see how often these wild animals escape, maul and kill. Wild animals should not be bred for life in cages.
    
    find a new cause treehugger. its a free country. get back to watching Nancy Grace
    jake
    
    Miami, FL
       
    
    #127
    11 hrs ago
     
    I can only imagine the smell.
    Barbara
    
    
    #128
    10 hrs ago
     
    So, what DO YOU DO with these animals when they are spooked by a thunderstorm, fireworks and the big one-a major hurricane? I know how dogs react. What DO YOU DO when you have visitors or someone working on the property? THE POOR MAILMAN?!!!! I'd be afraid to leave the house-no telling WHAT I'd come home to
    

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• Jaguar mauls Catoctin zoo work Jaguar mauls Catoctin zoo worker

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    January 18, 2009 Thurmont near Frederick, MD:  32-year-old Deborah Gregory of Severn was in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma unit after she was attacked by a jaguar at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo, a private zoo in Maryland that encourages up-close encounters with its animals. "She was inside the jaguar enclosure and hadn't secured the area where she was working," said Harold Domer, executive director of Frederick County Animal Control. The woman suffered several bite wounds, he said, and her condition was critical Sunday evening.  Two jaguars were in the enclosure at the time.  Marc Bekoff, a retired University of Colorado professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the author of "The Emotional Lives of Animals," said "She's lucky she's alive. You're keeping these wide-ranging carnivores in prisons. You never know what's going on in the heads of these animals." Jaguar mauls Catoctin zoo worker Originally published January 19, 2009 By Karen Gardner News-Post Staff

    THURMONT — A female zookeeper was in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma unit after she was attacked by a jaguar Sunday morning at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo. "She was inside the jaguar enclosure and hadn't secured the area where she was working," said Harold Domer, executive director of Frederick County Animal Control. The woman suffered several bite wounds, he said, and her condition was critical Sunday evening. Two jaguars were in the enclosure at the time, and both since have been quarantined, according to a statement from the zoo. The woman, whose name was not released by the zoo, was performing maintenance in an area that would normally be secured, when a 300-pound male jaguar entered the area and attacked her just before 11 a.m. The Catoctin Zoo said in a statement that staff members responded to her call for help and were able to move both animals to another part of the enclosure, secure the site and perform first aid. Jason Schultz, assistant chief of the Thurmont Ambulance Company, responded and treated the woman at the scene. He would not comment on her injuries. She was then flown by helicopter to Shock Trauma. "The jaguar went through whatever normally secures one area from the other, and the jaguar entered the area where she was," Domer said. Both jaguars are current on their rabies shots through September of this year, Domer said. An Animal Control officer was called to the scene shortly after 11 a.m. because of the bite wounds, he said. The zoo has not had many incidents but has always been cooperative, he said. Domer plans to meet with the zoo's executive director, Richard Hahn, on Monday. A jaguar killed an employee of the Denver Zoo in early 2007 when the young woman left the door to the jaguar enclosure open. The animal was subsequently shot and killed. Marc Bekoff, a retired University of Colorado professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the author of "The Emotional Lives of Animals," said zoo employees never should leave an enclosure housing a predatory animal unsecured. "She's lucky she's alive," he said of the Catoctin Zoo employee. "In times like these, you hate to blame somebody, but not securing an area is not a good thing to do. You're keeping these wide-ranging carnivores in prisons. You never know what's going on in the heads of these animals." Such accidents tend to happen on weekends and holidays when zoos have less staff, he said. He has worked in wolf sanctuaries, and said work inside an animal's enclosure is always done in teams of two to prevent potential mishaps. Large carnivorous animals require a lot of care and maintenance when kept in captivity, he said. The Catoctin Zoo has 450 animals on 35 acres.

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  • 1 year ago
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• Tiger Truck Stop Noose Tiger Truck Stop Noose

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:
    By Tiffany Craig Investigative Reporter
    .
    
    
    Published: Mon, September 24, 2007 - 4:33 pm Last Updated: Mon, September 24, 2007 - 5:28 pm
    
    Tiffany Craig

    Ray Rigsby took his camera. He knew that Jena, Louisiana would offer lots of memories. "I wanted to capture these things and bring it back. At the same time, it's what I tell my grandkids." But a mid-trip tire change would offer another picture. A service truck showed up to help with a noose dangling on the back. "I took a look and I said I see it but I don't believe it. That's when I reached in my pocket cuz I had my camera on me and snapped it."
    
    The truck came from the Tiger Truck Stop Inc in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. Gary Dotch, a military vet, says he was sickened by the sight. 'It means that man cares absolutely nothing about me the service that I have done for him and the country. It doesn't mean anything to him because my skin is black." Outraged, both men contacted the press and wanted to share their experience.
    
    With help from the picture, News 5's Tiffany Craig found the truck driver. He says his name is David but wouldn't give his last name. He says it's only four inches long and was a prank between friends. "It's been there for 2 and a half years and it was a joke. It was a joke between me and a friend of mine. We've been playing jokes on each other for about 3 years now." He says his wife made him take it off Thursday night after watching coverage from Jena.
    
    No one from the trip in Mobile is laughing. They say it's a chapter from the past that no one should have to see again.

    http://www.wkrg.com/local/article/noose_hanging_from_service_truck/5424/

    This is to be expected from people who treat tigers so poorly as props at the Tiger Truck Stop.  There is no compassion for life.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
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• Tiger's fate discussion gets u Tiger's fate discussion gets unruly in hallway

  • From: CaroleBaskin
  • Description:
    • Tiger's fate discussion gets unruly in hallway
    • By GREG GARLAND
    • Advocate Westside bureau
    • Published: Dec 17, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

    PLAQUEMINE — The battle over the fate of a tiger on display at a Grosse Tete truck stop turned ugly at an Iberville Parish Council meeting Tuesday night as opposing sides nearly came to blows outside the council chambers.

    Animal welfare activists who are trying to get the 550-pound Siberian-Bengal tiger relocated to a sanctuary and Tiger Truck Stop owner Michael Sandlin and a group of his employees each made their case in brief remarks to the council.

    But when the groups spilled out into a hallway for an interview with a television crew, a fracas erupted.

    Members of both sides hurled insults and shouted at each other.

    One of Sandlin's workers, a woman, had to be physically restrained several times from attacking an animal rights activist who called her "an inbred."

    After several minutes of angry exchanges, a police officer was summoned to restore order and escort the animal welfare advocates to their cars.

    The issue of what to do with the tiger was not on the council's agenda, but members agreed to let one representative from each delegation have three minutes to state their cases.

    Sky Williamson, an independent animal welfare advocate from Florida who has spearheaded efforts to relocate the tiger to a sanctuary, told council members the tiger needs to be moved for his own health and safety and to protect the public.

    She said Sandlin has been cited numerous times by federal officials for improperly caring for the tiger and that displaying him as a roadside attraction is "disgraceful."

    But Sandlin, who has kept tigers at the truck stop for 20 years, told the council that his tiger, "Tony," is well cared for and should remain where he is.

    "Please do not give in to animal rights activists who think they know what is best for the tiger," Sandlin said. "Do not let Tony be taken away from the only home he's ever known."

    Outside the council's chambers, rhetoric became more heated until a police officer restored order.

    Whether the council is called upon to make a decision on the tiger depends on what happens at a hearing later this month.

     

    Sandlin won a temporary restraining order Tuesday to prevent state wildlife officials from seizing and relocating the tiger. A hearing on his request for a permanent injunction is set Dec. 29.

    Sandlin wants council members to amend an ordinance that prohibits the ownership of exotic animals to "grandfather" in his truck stop.

    The delegation of animal welfare activists at Tuesday's meeting included four representatives of Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary on the outskirts of Tampa, Fla., who flew in to attend the council meeting.

    Williamson is not affiliated with that group.

    Carole Baskin, the founder and chief executive of Big Cat Rescue, said a barred, concrete cage at a truck stop isn't a suitable environment for a tiger and that the tiger should be moved to an accredited sanctuary like the one she runs.

    Speaking before the council meeting, Baskin said that her group has been in contact with state wildlife officials about taking Tony in at the sanctuary. She said Big Cat Rescue, a nonprofit organization, has 133 big cats on 45 acres.

    Baskin said Sandlin "has the opportunity to send the tiger someplace very nice" but chooses instead to keep it in a harmful and unsuitable environment.

    Referring to Sandlin's lawsuit, she said, "It's not at all about what's best for the cat but about what's best for Michael Sandlin."

    Sandlin is trying to buy time to get changes made to an Iberville Parish ordinance on exotic animals, which would allow him to keep the tiger.

    "A large portion of the business at Tiger Truck Stop comes from customers stopping to view the tiger exhibit," his lawsuit seeking an injunction stated.

    "Mr. Sandlin will suffer irreparable harm if he is required to relocate his tiger," the suit stated. "If he is forced to relocate the tiger or if the tiger is seized then he will most likely be prevented from bringing it back to the State of Louisiana."

    http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/36281259.html
    
    --
    For the cats,
    
    Carole Baskin, CEO of Big Cat Rescue
    an Educational Sanctuary home
    to more than 100 big cats
    12802 Easy Street Tampa, FL  33625
    813.493.4564 fax 885.4457
    
    http://www.BigCatRescue.org
    SaveTheBigCats@gmail.com

  • Blog post
  • 2 years ago
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• Doc Antle Doc Antle

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    Bhagavan Antle

    AKA "Doc" Antle (but he's no intellectual)

    Page 35 of Alan Green's book Animal Underworld: "An animal handler who has claimed to also own an Exxon tiger is Bhagavan Kevin Antle, who was an assistant to Jack Hanna during his appearances on Good Morning America and Late Night With David Letterman. Known alternatively as Kevin Bhagavan, Kevin Antle, Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle, Ghagavan Antle, and Dr. Kevin Antle (he supposedly earned a doctor of natural sciences degree from the Chinese Science Foundation), Antle also claimed to own the MGM lion, even though Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. sent him a cease-and-desist letter, and he implied in his literature an affiliation with Greenpeace, until he was told to cease and desist. Antle is a self-described big-cat conservationist who presides over The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS), which operates a mobile petting zoo, leases tigers for TV commercials, and charges people at shopping malls and festivals to have their pictures taken with an animal. Antle hauls around a crossbred lion and tiger to such places as casinos in Biloxi, Mississippi. He is also known for owning a lion that, in 1991, had to be pulled off a terrified model during a photo shoot in Manchester, New Hampshire. That same year, the federal government charged Antle with repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including substandard housing for big cats, and to settle the charges he agreed to pay a $3,5000 fine. He was also cited in Massachusetts that year for illegally displaying his cats, and he was threatened with arrest and confiscation of the animals if he didn't immediately leave the state. What's more, Antle was the target of an unsuccessful 1991 Tennessee lawsuit regarding his alleged beating of a Bengal tiger with a wooden shaft."

    In an article he wrote for the Phoenix Exotic Wildlife Association in 2005 Antle claimed to be a medical doctor saying, "I still think this is your right to have your own tiger and to be killed by your own tiger. Just keep it in a cage forever and don't let anyone else near you or watch you have it happen. I know this rambled on a bit but I was trying to make several points that are hard to explain. I often say that as an MD., I can talk you trough [sic] taking out someone's kidney, but I can not talk you through tiger training. You have to live it to understand it. Dr. Bhagavan Antle"

  • Blog post
  • 2 years ago
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• Predator World 911 call Predator World 911 call

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    Calls to 911 reveal panic at animal park; staff says tigers didn't attack
    
    by Abby Wuellner, KY3 News
    Story Published: Aug 5, 2008 at 3:43 PM CDT
    
    Story Updated: Aug 5, 2008 at 7:02 PM CDT
    
    By Gene Hartley
    
    Video
    
    
    To read a statement from the park on Tuesday, click here.
    
    
    To hear the 911 tape, click here.
    
    BRANSON WEST, Mo. -- Investigators from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture were at the Branson Interactive Zoo and Aquarium on Tuesday. They’re investigating what the Stone County sheriff says was a tiger attack on a teenager on Monday afternoon.
    
    The victim, Dakoda Ramel, 16, remained in critical condition on Tuesday afternoon at a hospital in Springfield. Employees at the animal park, which used to be called Predator World, spoke out about the case and said they’ve learned more about what happened from witnesses.
    
    A Stone County 911 emergency center tape reveals the sense of panic at the park in the moments after the accident took place.
    
    "What's going on?” a call-taker asked.
    
    “We have a tiger attack and a bad one!" said a caller.
    
    In the hectic moments after a tiger bit Dakoda’s leg, neck and face, no one could tell exactly what happened.
    
    “He’s not bleeding. He’s just, just deep, deep lacerations,” said the caller. “He is not conscious that we can tell.”
    
    Later, someone at the park said he was breathing.
    
    “Yeah, he’s breathing lightly, yeah, shallow breathing,” the caller said.
    
    The owner of Branson interactive Zoo and Aquarium, Breck Wakefield, hasn't consented to an interview. He said in a news release on Tuesday that an eyewitness account is helping the staff put the pieces together.
    
    "He entered the enclosure on his own to take pictures for a customer,” Sharon Sargent, a biologist at the animal park, said in an interview outside the park office on Tuesday. "The only people who saw it stated he fell and the cats had not attacked."
    
    That's the point at which the tiger approached, Wakefield’s news release says, after the fall knocked the teen unconscious. After that, the news release says, “a female tiger approached, grabbed him by the neck and dragged him to what she would have felt was safety . . . Contrary to reports, she was not holding him in water but was rather holding his head above water by his neck. Dakoda never moved or made a sound.
    
    "While there is no doubt being dragged by a 300-pound animal with 2-inch canines contributed to his injuries greatly, thee is also no doubt he would have not survived an aggressive attack involving his neck. Also, only one cat was ever involved."
    
    Shortly thereafter, staff members used carbon dioxide canisters to ward off the animals and remove the boy.
    
    "We have two puncture wounds on the neck, one big one on the leg, a big gash on the leg. It’s not bleeding from the leg. His neck is bleeding,” a caller says on the 911 tape.
    
    That's the condition in which he was airlifted to Springfield, where he remains in critical condition.
    
    "At this time, we believe this to have been a tragic accident,” said Sargent.
    
    What exactly led up to the accident remains unclear. In a news release on Tuesday, the park said Dakoda was violating the park’s policy by being in the tiger cage.
    
    Those who saw it say Dakoda went into the pen to take a picture for a tourist. Why he did it will remain the unknown until Dakoda can speak for himself.
    
    "Once he can talk to us, if he was doing something wrong, he'll admit it,” said Sargent.
    
    The other detail that remains unclear to some is whether this tiger actually "attacked." Wakefield’s news release says Dakoda was an intern at the park. Sargent said he’s been around these animals since they were a couple days old.
    
    Wakefield’s news release says the people at the park don't think the tiger was trying to attack; if that had been the case, the tiger would have killed him. That contradicts the person who called 911 and told the call-taker that the tigers were attacking Dakoda.
    
    The staff isn’t doing anything to isolate the tigers from visitors. They say this was an incident that happened in a tiger pen, and they don't believe anyone is at risk, provided protocol is being followed.
    
    Wakefield’s news release says the park closed immediately after the attack and the staff asked visitors to leave before going to the hospital in Springfield. That contradicts interviews that a reporter did with visitors on Monday who said they weren’t asked to leave. Sheriff Richard Hill also said the park remained open except for the tiger exhibit.
    
    The news release praised other staff members for moving quickly to help Dakoda and keep the tigers away from him by "acting bravely and without regard for themselves, not being sure if this was a full attack or not."
    
    The park says it was a "tragic accident and we are not considering at this time to put down the cats as Dakoda's family has made it clear this is not what he would have wanted."
    
    Also Tuesday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote a letter to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to ask for an investigation of the incident and the revocation of Branson Interactive Zoo and Aquarium's license to keep wild animals. The letter to the USDA came from PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Va.
    
    PETA said the park, formerly known as Predator World, has a history of "dangerous incidents." It said a black leopard bit an 18-year-old volunteer on the arm on Nov. 20, 2004; two wolves escaped on Feb. 15, 2007, with after which one was shot and killed after being free for two months and the other was never found; and escapes of a fox and a grizzly bear. PETA said Predator World was fined $2,000 in 2003.
    
    http://www.ky3.com/news/local/2629 2324.html

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  • 2 years ago
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• Ellijay Wildlife Craig Cylke Ellijay Wildlife Craig Cylke

  • From: CaroleBaskin
  • Description:

    ELLIJAY, Ga. -- Most people know Criag Cylke simply as "Grizzly". He's raised abandoned bears and nursed injured predators. Now, he's scared the animals he loves could soon be euthanized.

    "We're down to the point now, this will probably be our last week, this coming week," Cycle said.

    The Ellijay Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is the largest in Georgia, and one of just a handful that can handle large animals. The wildlife sanctuary lost its federal funding. Now, private donations have slowed to a trickle. The animals go through two tons of dog food and two tons of meet every month. The non-profit organization is $300,000 in debt.

    "If we go down, there's not going to be many places for these animals," he said. "In fact, the bears that you see here today, the state will probably have to put down because there's no home for them."

    It's devastating news to Chris Enfinger. He came for summer camp one year and kept on coming. He's now a volunteer. "Just to see them, after all the time I've spent with them, just to get put down because they can't go anywhere, that would be really sad for me."

    Dr. Lyn Lewis is a vet at the Appalachian Animal Hospital. They donate about $40,000 in care every year. He says the sanctuary is a safety net for all of Georgia. "The wildlife would suffer," he said. "We already have endangered species in this area. I firmly believe that this sanctuary keeps many of those animals from going extinct in this region."

    Cykle and his wife haven't taken salaries in three years. They've sold off personal assets to keep these animals fed and keep their doors open.

    Now, the money is gone. Some of the animals have no where to go. The center is days away from closing. And still, the man called "Grizzly" tenaciously holds on to hope.

    "We have a hope. And that hope is our Georgia people and our lovely neighbors in the surrounding states. If they just hear the message of what's happening here, then they can make a difference."

    Click here to help the Ellijay Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary.

    View Julie's Photo Gallery of the Sanctuary.

    http://www.11alive.com/news/loc al/story.aspx?storyid=119350&provider=email

    Carole's letter to the reporter:

    Dear Julie,
    
    I don't know Craig Cylke, but would be wary of any sanctuary that is breeding animals. The US Fish & Wildlife service specifically states that accredited sanctuaries do NOT breed. As someone who has been involved with saving big cats for the past twenty years, I can assure you that there are no legitimate breeding and release programs for big cats and never will be because there isn't habitat for them to survive and raising and releasing captive born cats isn't possible without tremendous danger to the public.
    
    I found this on Cylke's website after reading your article:

    We at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary are working to reestablish the eastern puma in the wild through our captive breeding and release program. At this time, we are working on strengthening the bloodlines of our four eastern pumas and 13 western cougars through selective breeding as deemed necessary. However, our goal of releasing puma offspring to the wild cannot be achieved until funding is raised to create a 5-acre natural habitat in which puma mothers will raise their cubs for two-year periods without direct human contact prior to release. Thanks to a generous donation from the Howard Buffet Foundation, we now have the land needed. The remaining cost for habitat preparation and maintenance is $235,000
    

    
    I emailed him and told him that if he has to close we may be able to house some of his cats, but none of his cougars could be Eastern panthers, so none of his cats should be bred. There is no good reason to breed cats for lives of confinement and deprivation. The images of the enclosures from your report was heartbreaking.
    
    Time and time again I have seen "sanctuaries" plead to the public to send money or they will have to kill the animals. Looking at their 990s online at Guidestar it looks like they have gotten a lot of money in the past (although I have never heard of federal funding for what they do and knowing the particulars on that would be interesting). Unfortunately, it is usually just bad management and the inability to plan properly that causes so many animals to end up in such deplorable situations.
    
    The questions I would really like to see exposed are the following:
    
    Why is is that "sanctuaries" and those who profess to "love" the big cats are so violently opposed to legislation that would end the private trade in them as pets and collectibles? My goal is that places like Big Cat Rescue no longer need to exist and my path to that goal is by asking for legislation that bans the breeding, sale, trade and collecting of these great cats. As a result, I may be the most hated person in the big cat "industry" and yet most of the people who spend so much time trying to discredit me with their lies and insinuations claim to be in the rescue and sanctuary business. Why isn't ending the abuse the most important goal of those who claim to be saving big cats from abuse?
    
    Why are big cats being born in sanctuaries when there isn't enough sanctuary space for all of the unwanted big cats?
    
    Why would a sanctuary take a cat from a breeder who isn't going to stop breeding? I don't know if this is the case at Ellijay, but it seems to be prevalent in the industry.
    
    Online polls show that 92% of the public are opposed to inbreeding an animal just to get a unusual coat color, but they clamor to see a white tiger?
    
    More here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cats/w ild/white_tigers.htm
    
    Where do all of the babies from last year go? When you look around at all of the places who advertise baby lions and tigers, where do they all go for the next 20 years?
    
    More here:
    
    http://www.bigcatrescue.org/000new s/0articlesbybcr/2008ManEatingLions.htm

    
    
    http://www.bigcatrescue.org/000new s/0articlesbybcr/2008DyingToBeHeld.htm
    
    

    It costs Big Cat Rescue between $5,000 and $7,500 per year to provide proper care for a big cat. Multiply that by the number of big cats in these pseudo sanctuaries and roadside zoos and then compare it to their annual budgets.
    
    Lack of accountability. Most of these places hide behind their USDA licenses as if it were a badge of honor, but if you visit the abusers page on www.911AnimalAbuse.com you will see a repeating pattern of facilities having USDA violations reported year after year, for six years in some cases, before the USDA takes action. Meanwhile the USDA keeps renewing their licenses. Why does USDA renew licenses each year of facilities that have failed to meet even the more minimal of standards? To give you an idea of how low the standards are, the size of cage for a tiger only has to be big enough for the cat to stand up and turn around.
    
    What does it cost the tax payer? When less than 1/10th of one percent of the public owns exotic animals, why do tax dollars fund entire governmental departments to regulate an industry that is unneeded and inhumane? What are the actual costs to tax payers for all of the reporting, licensing, enforcement and the clean up costs after these places allow escapes or they go belly up?
    
    62% of the people polled say that seeing big cats in cages has done nothing to cause them to donate to conservation in the wild. Almost all of the places that use big cats for income will cite that noble cause as their excuse, and yet how much of the money they raise is actually put to work in saving the habitats?
    
    The tiger is the best example of how this doesn't ring true. No big cat is more commonly kept in zoos and back yard menageries and yet with less than 4,000 left in the wild and one being poached per day, it is obvious that this great cat will disappear in the next few years. All of the cats who were born in cages for the last hundred years did nothing to stop the onslaught. I believe that the practice of keeping cats in cages has actually led to their demise in the wild. If you can have the convenience of driving a few miles to see a tiger in a cage, then why protect them half a world away where you may never see them?
    
    

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• Comments on St. Pete Times Lio Comments on St. Pete Times Lion Menu

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    by Diane Jul 7, 2008 7:10 PM
    Words can not say how sickened I was when reading this. I believe this restaurant has nothing to be proud of. This is one restaurant the lovely town on Dunedin should be ashamed of. People indeed will eat anything. Yuck!

    
    by Cara Campbell Jul 7, 2008 6:45 PM
    "Farm raised" lion? What a revolting thought. How low can human beings go? Maybe the reporter's next culinary adventure could be humans. After all, there are more of us and we're not endangered. This was beyond the pale.

    
    by Tara Jul 7, 2008 6:34 PM
    What's going on here? What's wrong w/this story: The St. Pete Times choosing to recycle itself and its reporters into cheap publicity writers-marketers? How much $$ did this item earn you? Where is your journalistic integrity? All Sold Out?

    
    by Pat Jul 7, 2008 5:50 PM
    I contacted South Africa's Campaign Against Canned Hunting. They confirmed the lion meat can only have come from the canned hunt industry, where lions are raised to be killed - for a fee - by tourists. Check out http://www.cannedlion.co.za

    
    by Darlynn Jul 7, 2008 5:34 PM
    It's just great you're thrilled with eating other beings. I personally can't wait til we start raising people for food. It will give the phrase "She was a great piece of a**" new meaning. Too bad humanity has become oblivious to everything not them.

    
    by Diane Jul 7, 2008 5:26 PM
    This is disgusting. Everything reported in this story was disgusting. The decadence of all. Unbelievable. I am sorry for the writer whose past vegetarian diet has been changed for this! In hope no lion will ever report on human flesh taste. Shame

    
    by Holly Jul 7, 2008 5:26 PM
    This is beyond irresponsible with fuel costs,food crisis going on across the globe. The cocky,proud attitude this restaurant&its sampler are disturbing,crude&selfish to say the least.God's majestic creatures reduced to ribs on some idiots plate.

    
    by JimBob Jul 7, 2008 5:24 PM
    Aren't African Lions endangered???

    
    by John Jul 7, 2008 5:17 PM
    I'm an ex-vegetarian who is now an omnivore who eats a little meat now and then. But the notion of eating lions, such grand animals barely surviving humanity's onslaught, truly sickens and angers and repulses me.

    
    by susan Jul 7, 2008 5:11 PM
    Perhaps they haven't seen the UN or Pew reports that say the eating meat is unsustainable. Eating lions? So sad that anyone would pay to do something so irresponsible.

    
    by KIM Jul 7, 2008 4:57 PM
    I PERSONALLY THINK THE IDEA OF EATING ANY OF THESES ANIMALS IS OUTRAGEOUS.HOWEVER GO TO OTHER COUNTRIES &ASK THEM ABOUT EATING COWS PIG CHICKENS & THEY PROBABLY THINK THE SAME . ITS A FREE COUNTRY & AS LONG AS PEOPLE PAY FOR IT THEY WILL SERVE IT

    
    by Nikki Jul 7, 2008 11:59 AM
    In times of INSANE resource scarcity and sky-rocketing fuel costs, SHIPPING WILD ANIMAL MEAT ACROSS THE GLOBE is irresponsible at best. We're faced with environmental crises of epic proportions - OPEN YOUR EYES! Eating meat period must stop.

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• Zoo Animals Sold to Public Zoo Animals Sold to Public

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    How some of America's best zoos get rid of their old, infirm, and unwanted animals
    By Michael Satchell

    Deep amid the weeds and trash alongside Interstate 35, rusty cages and flimsy wire enclosures hold what's left of a former roadside zoo: six primates, three or four New Guinea singing dogs, a few exotic birds, and several African meerkats. The saddest residents are two rare white-handed gibbons, small apes listed as an endangered species. But the male-female pair is imperiled for another reason. They are the neglected castoffs from one of the nation's top wildlife institutions, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y.
    
    The two gibbons were discovered by a reporter one recent broiling day in a filthy cage with no water and a few scraps of rotten fruit. Their plight points to a little-known practice by some of the nation's premier zoos: dumping surplus, old, or infirm animals into a vast, poorly regulated-and often highly profitable-network of substandard, "roadside" zoos and wildlife dealers who supply hunting ranches and the exotic-pet trade.
    
    Though these small zoos, along with traveling circuses and other animal shows, are licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, their inhabitants often exist in cramped compounds and tiny cages with poor protection from the elements, marginal food, and spotty veterinary care. They typically get little psychological enrichment beyond a tire swing, a plastic ball, and a few dead tree branches. Half crazy from boredom and lack of exercise, the highly social primates and cooped-up predators often mutilate themselves and spend hours pacing to and fro and biting the bars of their cages. With summer in full swing and people staying closer to home, Americans are flocking to the nation's big zoos. There are 205 such facilities accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, and they attract some 135 million people a year - 6 million more than attend major-league sporting events. Most of these zoos provide spacious natural habitats and expert care. But when animals begin to age and become less attractive, and curators have to make room for the spring crop of new babies, many big zoos give the old-timers the bum's rush. "Dumping animals," says Richard Farinato, head of captive wildlife protection for the Humane Society of the United States, "is the big, respectable zoos' dirty little secret."
    
    Zoos accredited by the AZA must abide by a code of ethics restricting animal transfers to other AZA members or to unaccredited zoos with the "expertise, records management capabilities, financial stability, and facilities required to properly care" for the animals. But a U.S. News investigation found that even some of the nation's most highly regarded zoos violate those mandates through transfers, sales, and loans of exotic animals to substandard zoos and to private animal breeders and dealers.
    
    The magazine's inquiry is based on an examination of the tightly restricted, interzoo International Species Information System database, which tracks transfers of 129 species of mammals, as well as interviews with dozens of state and federal regulators, zoo employees, and animal welfare activists. Records show that some leading AZA members-including zoos in Washington, D.C.; the Bronx; San Diego; Honolulu; Memphis; Atlanta; Denver; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Buffalo; Phoenix; Montgomery, Ala.; and Kansas City, Mo.-have shipped mammals and exotic birds to roadside zoos that were below AZA standards. Some have also provided animals to dealers who reportedly sell to private hunting ranches, animal auctions, and exotic-pet owners.
    
    Besides the AZA rules, a 1966 law passed by Congress specifies care, feeding, and other requirements for the treatment of exotic animals and mandates that the Department of Agriculture enforce the statute. But a reporter and photographer who visited more than two dozen small zoos around the nation found a pattern of callous treatment and government neglect. Some examples: Four big cats died after the USDA recommended their owner place his two cougars, four tigers, two adult lions, and a young lion in Don and Dee's Exotic Zoo, a roadside facility in Manson, Iowa. The cougars died, apparently from malnutrition, and Steven Bellin, a USDA veterinarian, then inspected the zoo in November 2000. U.S. News obtained copies of Bellin's inspection reports and correspondence. "All but the young lion are on concrete flooring without bedding materials of any sort," Bellin wrote. "Ambient temperature was approximately 35 degrees. . . . There was no food on the premises for the large cats. . . . [Water bowls] were filled with either frozen or brackish water, carcass materials, and/or debris. Housing arrangements, lighting, and sanitation fail to meet the minimal federal standards. All seven of the large cats . . . appear thin/gaunt and somewhat emaciated. The female African lion recently failed to eat for three days. This animal might die if not treated."
    
    Bellin gave the zoo owners six weeks to improve conditions. He apparently did not seek emergency removal of the animals or try to have the zoo closed down. A few days after his inspection, the female lion killed and ate the male. A male Bengal tiger also died after splintered turkey bones punctured its intestinal tract because it had no drinking water to flush them through its system. Before it expired, the tiger chewed its metal water bowl to pieces. "I believe [the bowl] that was torn apart . . . was a response by the animal to the deep, agonal pain [caused] by the tissue-penetrating bones," Bellin wrote. "I believe that the tiger was starving . . . and died in severe pain in the cold without a shelter or bedding." The USDA fined Don and Dee's $500 and revoked its license. The local county attorney, Ann Beneke, sought to prosecute the owners on cruelty charges but was forced to drop the case when the USDA refused to allow Bellin to testify. He failed to respond to a U.S. News interview request.
    
    Before it failed financially, the New Braunfels Zoo obtained exotic mammals and birds from several AZA zoos, including the Bronx, Washington National, San Diego, Honolulu, Buffalo, and Santa Barbara. In November 2000, eight months after one of the zoo's two owners says he quit in disgust at the animal neglect and other deteriorating conditions, it received the two white-handed gibbons from Syracuse's Rosamond Gifford Zoo. "They would have a good home and be well taken care of in a warmer climate," Anne Baker, the zoo's executive director, said in explaining the transfer. "We got two AZA references, and New Braunfels described their animal collection, their staff, and veterinary resources. We would assume there is a level of honesty."
    
    There wasn't. And Baker could have easily discovered the fact. A local U.S. Agriculture Department inspector, Elizabeth Pannill, had begun documenting many of the problems at New Braunfels and eventually filed seven detailed inspection reports. When a reporter told Baker about the declining conditions at the zoo, including the principal owner's selling loaned birds and mammals without permission, Baker replied that she had checked with Pannill and was assured that the gibbons were in good condition.

    The reporter told Baker he would visit the long-closed zoo and report back to her. "I'll be anxious to hear what you find," she said. "I'm concerned." After finding the gibbons in their filthy cage, the reporter left two telephone messages for Baker. She failed to return the calls. Pannill, the USDA inspector, was forbidden by superiors to discuss the matter, but U.S. News obtained copies of several of her E-mails. "The curator [Baker] that sent the gibbons to NBZ knows the situation out there," Pannill wrote. ". . . I have even suggested she might want to relocate them . . . [and] also told the curator of my concerns and problems. She told me they had been given to NBZ . . . so they would NOT take back. I really wonder why zoos don't ask for a copy of the last USDA report before they send animals out."
    
    Baker is the current chairman of the AZA's animal welfare committee and is scheduled to become the organization's vice president next year and to lead the organization in 2004. When she was finally reached on the New Braunfels matter, she said: "This was a bad call on my part; I will readily admit that." At the AZA-accredited Phoenix Zoo, director Jeff Williamson required non-AZA zoos and dealers to sign an agreement that his animals and their offspring would not end up "in animal auctions, canned hunts, the pet trade, invasive biomedical research, or any other situation contrary to the AZA code of ethics." In November 2000, Williamson sold 17 male ibexes-an exotic goat popular with trophy hunters-to a Texas wildlife dealer and breeder who reportedly supplies animals to hunting ranches. After U.S. News asked Williamson if he had ever checked on his ibexes, he made several attempts to reach the dealer and says his calls were ignored.
    
    After several weeks, Williamson finally received a telephone message saying the ibexes were alive, but he has been unable to verify that. The experience has moved him to change the Phoenix Zoo policy. In future, no animals will be shipped to nonaccredited zoos or any dealers, and all old or surplus animals will be retired under the zoo's jurisdiction. Says Williamson: "We are not going to get ourselves into this situation again."AZA Executive Director Sydney Butler acknowledges that member zoos have violated the ethics code in the past. "I don't think it happens anymore," he says. "People will know about these things. If it does happen, it's an innocent transaction."
    
    U.S. News showed Butler a series of American Association of Zoo Veterinarians inspection certificates that document AZA zoos' shipping of mammals and exotic birds to roadside zoos that fall below AZA standards and to dealers who reportedly supply animals to the exotic animal underground. Butler replied: "We always try to improve." Even leading AZA members acknowledge the organization has done a poor job of enforcing its animal-transfer code. "Reputable zoos have written policies saying animals won't go to anything other than an AZA institution," says Ron Kagan, director of the Detroit Zoological Institute. "Numerous animals born in our institutions have . . . ended up in circuses, breeders, or private hands. We can't undo the past, but we can be a part of the solution."
    
    The inherent weakness of allowing non-AZA disposal of surplus animals, as the Syracuse zoo's Anne Baker learned, is that a great deal must be taken on faith. Some 2,500 roadside menageries, safari parks, circuses, breeders, dealers, and other exhibitors are licensed and inspected by the USDA. But weak federal regulations and a crazy-quilt pattern of local and state wildlife laws leave only a thin skein of protection for the animals. Virtually anyone can obtain a permit to exhibit, breed, and sell exotics; no qualifications are required.
    
    Slap on the wrist: Commercial animal exhibitors, dealers, breeders, and biomedical testing labs are governed by the 1966 Animal Welfare Act. The law sets minimal standards for food storage, housing, and veterinary care. It has no cruelty statute, has weak enforcement provisions, and provides for only token fines. On the critical issue of cage size, the law stipulates only that animals must have enough room to stand, turn around, and maintain a normal posture, making it perfectly legal to keep a chimp in a broom closet or a lion in a cage the size of a powder room. For years, leading animal welfare organizations have lobbied Congress for more humane standards and tougher enforcement. "There's no aggressive investigation and no consistent follow-up," complains Cindy Carroccio, director of the Austin Zoo, an accredited sanctuary that houses unwanted or confiscated exotics. "They're scared of litigation, they don't allow their inspectors to testify even in the worst cruelty cases, and they refuse to close the bad places down."Often, it's not just a matter of will but of bodies. Last year, the USDA had fewer than 100 inspectors to keep tabs on about 9,000 licensed facilities from zoos to animal testing labs. In some years, the number of USDA inspectors has fallen as low as 64.
    
    However much the numbers fluctuate from year to year, the agency's inspectors have not exactly established a reputation for rigorous enforcement. The department does not record the number of animals it has seized or zoos it has shut down. A USDA spokesman recalled five confiscations since 1997 in the western United States involving exotic animals in roadside zoos, and just one since 1995 in the eastern region. That's about one a year, nationwide. "We are not in the business of putting people out of business," says Daniel Jones, who supervises USDA animal inspections in three states. "The courts look at it as putting a man out of his livelihood." Evidently, higher-ups at the Agriculture Department see little problem with any of this. Chester Gipson, the USDA's deputy administrator of animal-care services, declined a request by U.S. News to discuss the inspections process. His predecessor, Ron DeHaven, blamed "radical animal-rights groups" for exaggerating concerns about inadequate or abusive care of exotic animals. "We have taken very stringent enforcement actions against roadside zoos, [but] we can't be at every facility every day," he says. "It was never the intent of Congress to establish conditions [for appropriate animal care]; and for me to comment on the law is inappropriate and counterproductive to the way our system works."
    
    Auction block: The way the system works would make many of the moms and dads and their bright-eyed charges who so enjoy a trip to the local zoo blanch. In some cases, animals from big zoos pass through places like the Lolli Brothers exotic animal auction in Macon, Mo., reputedly the biggest of its kind in the United States. At the recent May sale, the action was fast and furious with a veritable Noah's ark collection-monkeys, zebras, camels, wildebeest, ostriches, kangaroos, Russian boars, giant tortoises, parrots, peacocks, even boa constrictors-hustled through the auction ring. A 12-year-old female chimp drew a bid of $10,500, a cuddly 3-month-old lion cub raised just $800, and a baby wallaby went for $1,200. For three days, the auctioneer's gavel rose and fell. At the final hammer, the sale grossed more than $1.5 million. Altogether, 3,225 animals were hauled away by new owners from as far away as Canada, Florida, California, and Mexico to a new and likely grim existence in the exotic underground. Sometimes, as the New Braunfels case shows, AZA zoos dispense with the fig leaf of a middleman and dump surplus animals directly into unaccredited zoos through breeding "loans" or donations. There are hundreds of these substandard roadside menageries nationwide, mostly run by owners with scant knowledge of the animals' natural behavior or needs. Rescued animals housed by accredited wildlife sanctuaries in Austin and San Antonio provide stark examples of abusive conditions in the exotic-animal underground. Molly, a guard lion chained up for years in a Dallas drug dealer's house, has put on over 100 pounds in her new home. When another lion named Nayla wasn't lying down with a lamb at a biblically themed traveling circus, it spent its life squeezed into a 4-by-8-foot cage. Carnivores of every kind hobble painfully around their spacious compounds, victims of leg-breaking metabolic bone disease caused by the cheap, all-poultry diets fed to them by exotic-pet owners and roadside zoos. Monkeys and apes are missing tails and limbs. Some have torn out hunks of fur in fits of self-mutilation brought on by years of close or solitary confinement. Roadside zoos often operate on thin profit margins. But some raise money-and gain the imprimatur of legitimacy-by declaring themselves "sanctuaries" or "preserves," obtaining 501c (3) nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service and soliciting public donations to "save an endangered species." The nation's 60 or more legitimate, accredited sanctuaries don't breed or sell animals, but these other so-called pseudosanctuaries allow their wildlife to mate and then sell the offspring or add to their collections-often exacerbating the substandard care.
    
    Tax-exempt "preserves": Noah's Land Wildlife Park in Harwood, Texas, currently under USDA investigation, calls itself a sanctuary, enjoys tax-exempt status, and solicits donations. When Cheri Watson took over in 1998, Noah's Land was in bad shape. Watson lacked the money-and enough paying customers-to improve things. She gained nonprofit designation in May 2000, but conditions aren't much better. "We took in way too many animals," she says, "including four tigers that had been kept in a two-horse trailer for six months [that was] never cleaned out." Watson allowed her cats to breed. Within two years, Noah's Land produced 26 new tiger cubs, infuriating regional accredited sanctuaries already swamped with unwanted Bengals. America now has an estimated 10,000 or more generic tigers in roadside zoos and backyard cages, virtually all of them mutts with no conservation value and often suffering painful physical defects from inbreeding.The 275-acre Noah's Land has 48 big cats, six bears, several primates, between 200 and 300 exotic deer and antelopes, and scores of feral pigs that are fed to the predators. Some of the caged animals exist in grim squalor, including cell-like cinderblock cages, but Watson rejects offers by legitimate sanctuaries to take them. "We're still having growing pains," she says. "We haven't got a foothold on the fundraising yet, but we will improve."
    
    Another pseudosanctuary was run by Joan Byron-Marasek. For more than 20 years, she kept up to two dozen tigers in a private, tax-exempt "preserve" behind her home in central New Jersey. "I feel it's my mission to save these animals from extinction," she says. "I know I'm doing it better than any other place." Hardly. In 1999, after one of her cats escaped and terrified the neighborhood, authorities brought in a Bronx Zoo curator to evaluate her Tigers Only Preserve. He declared it the "worst facility that I have ever seen," with malnourished tigers, rotting deer carcasses, and rats everywhere. The state quickly moved to shut her down, and Byron-Marasek finally lost her three-year legal battle in May. Her 24 tigers are now headed to the Wild Animal Orphanage, an accredited sanctuary in San Antonio.
    
    Those are the lucky ones. In May, seven men were indicted in Chicago for killing 17 tigers and one leopard to sell their skulls, hides, meat, and other body parts, which can bring $10,000 or more per animal. Six tigers and one leopard were rescued. Big cats are now so common in the United States-there may be more pet tigers in Texas alone than survive in the wild worldwide-that cubs can be purchased for a few hundred dollars, and adult tigers are virtually worthless. Alive, that is. There's no ready solution to the problems, but some zoo officials say that for starters, AZA-accredited zoos should take greater responsibility for assuring the lifelong welfare of their charges. "Any animal that devotes its life to being an ambassador for its own kind-even against its will-is owed a decent retirement," says Terry Maple, director of Zoo Atlanta and a former AZA president. "Zoo animals are held in trust to the service of humanity, and we shouldn't banish them to a terrible fate just because they have outlived their usefulness."
    
    Wash your hands: Petting zoos -- A random survey of a Pennsylvania petting zoo by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found 51 visitors, mostly children, contracted potentially fatal E. coli 0157:H7 over a three-month period in 2000. Symptoms included bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. One 3-year-old nearly died after losing both kidneys and 80 percent of her colon and large intestine. Other zoo-related outbreaks caused by petting feces-covered animals have been tracked in Ohio, Washington State, Wisconsin, Ontario, and the United Kingdom.
    
    Source: staff myREBAdog@att.net (Lisa Marie)

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• Richard Hahn Richard Hahn

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    Richard Hahn

    was the only person to speak out in the press in defense of Dennis Hill. His reputation explains why:

    UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (U.S.D.A.)
    
    IN RE: ZOOLOGICAL CONSORTIUM OF MARYLAND, INC., AND RICHARD HAHN.
    United States
    47 Agric. Dec. 1276 (1988)
    
    Case Details
    Printible Version
    Summary: Exhibitor who engaged in recurring pattern of noncompliance with standards governing structural strength, food storage, ventilation, maintenance of facilities and enclosures, cleaning, housekeeping and interior building surfaces, but who made good faith effort to achieve compliance, is properly sanctioned with $1000 civil penalty, 20-day suspension, and cease and desist order.
    
    Judge Initial decision issued by John A. Campbell, Administrative Law Judge. Decision and order issued by Donald A. Campbell, Judicial Officer. delivered the opinion of the court.
    
    
    Opinion of the Court:
    

    Decision and Order

    This is a disciplinary proceeding under the Animal Welfare Act, as amended (7 U.S.C. s 2131 et seq.), and the regulations and standards issued thereunder (9 C.F.R. s 1.1 et seq.). On March 16, 1987, (then Chief) Administrative Law Judge John A. Campbell (ALJ) issued an initial Decision and Order suspending respondents' license for 20 days, and thereafter until compliance is achieved, assessing a civil penalty of $1,000, and directing respondents to cease and desist from numerous practices involving the care and housing of exhibited animals, including sanitation, structures, and housekeeping functions at respondents' facilities.

    On May 22, 1987, respondents appealed to the Judicial Officer, to whom final administrative authority has been delegated to decide the Department's cases subject to 5 U.S.C. ss 556 and 557 (7 C.F.R. s 2.35). [FNa] On June 17, 1987, complainant filed a petition in opposition to respondents' appeal, which petition also contains a cross-appeal for increased sanctions. The case was referred to the Judicial Officer for decision on July 21, 1987.

    *1277 Based upon a careful consideration of the record, the initial Decision and Order is adopted as the final Decision and Order in this case, with several changes too trivial to itemize. Additional conclusions by the Judicial Officer follow the ALJ's conclusions.

    ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE'S INITIAL DECISION

    Preliminary Statement

    This is a disciplinary proceeding under the Animal Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C. ss 2131-2156 (hereafter called the "Act"), instituted by a complaint filed May 5, l986, by the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (hereafter called "APHIS"), United States Department of Agriculture. The complaint alleges that the respondents willfully violated the regulations and standards issued pursuant to the Act, 9 C.F.R. s l.l-3.l42, regarding sanitation, structure, and housekeeping functions at respondents' facilities.

    **2 An answer was filed on behalf of respondents on June 3, l986. There was no response to the jurisdictional allegations of the complaint, however, respondents denied the substantive allegations and any willful violations of the Act.

    A hearing was held in this proceeding on October 22 and 23, l986, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. On December l6, l986, the hearing was reopened to retake testimony which was given on the morning of October 22, l986, and lost by the reporter. John D. Griffith of the Office of the General Counsel, United States Department of Agriculture, appeared on behalf of complainant. Richard Hahn appeared on behalf of himself and respondent Zoological Consortium of Maryland. At the close of the reopened hearing the time was set for the filing of briefs.

    Hereafter transcript references will be cited Tr. (page number), while complainant's exhibits will be cited Cx #, and respondents' exhibits as Rx #.

    Findings of Fact

    1. Respondent, Zoological Consortium of Maryland, Inc., is a corporation with its mailing address at l30l9 Catoctin Furnace Road, Thurmont, Maryland 2l788; is and at all times material herein was, an exhibitor within the meaning of that term as defined in the Act and subject to the provisions of the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder; and is, and at all times material herein was, licensed as a Class C licensee under the Act.

    2. Respondent, Richard Hahn, is an individual whose business mailing address is l30l9 Catoctin Furnace Road, Thurmont, Maryland 2l788. Respondent Hahn, at all times material herein, was an exhibitor within the meaning *1278 of that term as defined in the Act, and subject to the provisions of the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder.

    3. Respondent, Zoological Consortium of Maryland, Inc. is (and at all times material herein was) owned, managed and controlled by Respondent Hahn. Respondent Hahn established its policies and directed its activities, including those which constitute the violations of the regulations and standards found herein. The zoo has been in existence since l933 and respondent Hahn has been its director since l966.

    4. On January 25, l985, Nancy E. Wiswall, Veterinarian In Charge, APHIS, sent respondent Hahn a letter concerning prior deficiencies. (Rx 6, Tr. ll4) The letter reads in part as follows:

    I am pleased to see that you have made substantial progress toward bringing your exhibitor's premises into compliance with the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). I have received the most recent report of inspection of your place by Dr. Ulysses J. Lane, Veterinary Medical Officer for Veterinary Services, and Mr. Charles Langenfelder, Area Compliance Officer. I note that in your letter of intent, November l5, l984, you agreed to correct the remaining few deficiencies by December 3l, l984.

    x x x x x x

    The report of alleged violation which was pending against you at our headquarters in Hyattsville, Maryland, will be dismissed. However, if in the future we find a major violation of the regulations or standards of the AWA, we will review the matter for possible prosecution. We hope that this will not be necessary.

    x x x x x x

    **3 5. APHIS inspected respondents' facilities on June 20, l985, and discovered numerous violations of the regulations and standards issued under the Act. (Cx 7)

    6. APHIS reinspected the respondents' facilities (Cx 3) on July 30, l985, and found that six deficiencies noted during the previous June 20 inspection had been corrected, while five deficiencies still existed (Finding 6 a-e below).

    The inspection also disclosed five new violations (Finding 6 f-i below).

    The inspection of July 30, l985, disclosed the following violations of section 2.l00(a) of the regulations (9 C.F.R. s 2.l00(a)) and of the standards issued under the Act (Cx 3):

    a. The facility housing the muntjacs was not structurally sound. The frame was not square and was buckled in several places. Although the inspector did not physically probe the structure, it appeared in possible danger of collapse. Tr. l6, 227, 267-269, 299-304; Rx l, Cx l6.

    *1279 b. Indoor housing facilities of the primate holding area had a strong odor of ammonia and were not adequately ventilated. A second fan was added at a later date by respondents to improve ventilation. Tr. 226-227, 269-270, 305- 309.

    c. Interior surfaces in the primate holding area were not substantially impervious to moisture. Approximately 8 out of l8 walls were in need of painting. Subsequent inspection disclosed some evidence of painting. Tr. 8l, 270-271, 3l0-312.

    d. Primary enclosures for primates contained holes with sharp edges. The holes were located in stainless steel walls, were smooth and not jagged. Tr. 27l-272, 228-229, 353-354; Rx 2.

    e. Primary enclosures for primates contained an excessive accumulation of excreta. The inspector noted some improvement on the July 30 inspection. Tr. 271-272, 3l7.

    f. The facilities housing the mountain lions, bobcats, jaguar, leopard, bengal tigers, black leopard, and the sun bear were not maintained in good repair and did not protect the animals from injury. [FN1]

    Among other things, there were cracks in dens, rusting enclosure fences, sharp ends on wire fencing enclosing silos, and flimsy floor with rusting iron bars in Bengal Tiger den. Tr. 5-6, l0-l5, 27-29, 36, 272-275; Cx 9, l2, l4, l5.

    Respondents attempted, and did correct, some of the deficiencies. Tr. 88-90, 95, l65, l73, 205, 208, 230; Rx 5, l0.

    g. The facility housing the camel was not maintained in good repair. Tr. 7, 9, 229, 273; Cx l0, 11, Rx 3.

    h. The facility housing the coyote cubs was not clean and was not maintained in good repair so as to protect the animals from injury. Tr. 275. Subsequently, respondents removed a broken wire used to hold a water dish to avoid injury to the cubs. Tr. 230; Rx 4.

    i. Supplies of food were not stored in such a way as to protect them from infestation and contamination by vermin. Although respondents maintained a permanent facility for the storage of animal feed, the problem involved open bags of food found in the primate enclosure. Tr. 236-237, 252-253, 276-277, 340-34l; Rx 11, l2.

    **4 7. Inspections conducted after July 30, l985, disclosed some deficiency corrections, a recurrence of earlier violations, and new deficiencies. Cx 20, 2l, 22, 23, 24.

    *1280 Conclusions

    All contentions of the parties raised in this proceeding, whether or not specifically mentioned herein, have been considered in the light of the record evidence.

    By reason of the findings of fact, it is concluded that respondents have failed to maintain their facility in compliance with, and have willfully violated, section 2.l00 of the regulations and sections 3.75, 3.76, 3.78, 3.8l, 3.l25 and 3.l3l of the standards.

    These violations warrant the imposition of a $l,000 civil penalty, a 20-day suspension and prohibition continuing until full compliance is achieved, and the cease and desist provisions requested by complainant.

    Discussion

    The evidence adduced at the hearing demonstrates that respondents violated standards governing structural strength, storage of food, ventilation, maintenance of facilities, maintenance of primary enclosures, cleaning of primary enclosures, housekeeping, and interior building surfaces. These violations were not minor items that may have been momentarily deficient. Rather, the respondents' failure to meet the requirements of the standards was a recurring problem.

    During the inspection on July 30, l985, there were numerous violations, many of which were recurring. Although some corrective action was taken by respondents from time to time, each inspection disclosed that new items at the facility were in violation. The Act, regulations and standards contain minimum requirements which must be met by licensed dealers at all times.

    Review of the record as a whole indicates that the principal problem concerns respondents' failure to fully bring the facilities into compliance with the regulations and standards issued in accordance with the Act. This problem is best illustrated by the testimony of Dr. Nancy E. Wiswall at pages l03 through l09 of the record:

    We have the history of violations that have -- some of which have not been corrected, others which have been corrected temporarily. Seldom have they lasted. There has been no sense of real improvement during those four years. We've repeated what's gone on over and over again. We've gone in, we've seen deficiencies, we've gone back.

    On each inspection there has been deficiencies. There's never been a time in four years that there haven't been deficiencies. And this is with four veterinarians going in there, so it's not just one inspector's views on that.

    On each re-inspection we see certain deficiencies have been corrected, others that wouldn't be. Some of those that were corrected were again deficiencies the next time. Some of these deficiencies that are in here were deficiencies four years ago.

    *1281 x x x x x x

    I think that for myself and for the inspectors who have been out there, there has been a decreasing belief in Mr. Hahn's good faith. I think each of the veterinarians that have been out there have initially -- has believed Mr. Hahn's good intentions, and then found that what he said he would do he does not do. And what he --in some cases what he says he will do has been done in a very band-aid type temporary fashion.

    **5 And so each of the four inspectors, I think, have very honestly tried to communicate with Mr. Hahn as fully as possible and have believed that he would respond to the deficiencies that are cited and not only in response as a reaction, but that he understood what he needed to do to have the place in compliance that did need for an inspector to come up there and point them out.

    And I think that what I have seen is that each of them have gotten disillusioned with the fact that he didn't follow up. And I have felt the same way. He seems to be very familiar with what needs to be done. He's been a licensee for many years, and we all understand that he's got financial limitations. He has problems getting and keeping employees.

    But ultimately it doesn't serve as an excuse to be continually out of compliance. And there I see no change. I see no -- I see a degree of improvement, but it's still not enough to bring it into compliance.

    x x x x x x

    Mr. Hahn has limited resources and yet he will not reduce the number of animals he has. If he had less animals, he would have a much better opportunity to care for them so that the animals in the facilities would be under compliance. And I see no way over the four-year period that I've been involved with this facility that he understands what the situation is, too many animals for the resources. And he will not modify that.

    The first witness called by the complainant at the hearing was Dr. Michael David, D.V.M., a Veterinary Medical Officer with APHIS. Dr. David testified about conditions at the respondents' facility which he observed during the course of an inspection on July 30, l985. During this inspection, Dr. David observed ventilation problems in the primate house, noting that there was a very strong odor of ammonia which would eventually lead to respiratory lining irritation in the primates. Primary enclosures in the primate building had peeling paint and eroding surfacesand *1282 the enclosures were not substantially impervious to moisture and therefore could not be properly cleaned and disinfected. Dr. David also testified regarding cleaning and sanitation in the primate enclosure stating that there were excessive accumulations of excreta which posed a health hazard for the primates.

    Dr. David also testified regarding exotic animals other than primates that were present at the respondents' facility on July 30, l985. Dr. David testified that the enclosure housing the muntjac needed reinforcement in that the frame was not square and that it would collapse if given time. He testified that when he inspected the facilities housing the mountain lions, bobcat, jaguar, leopard, bengal tigers, and the sun bear, he discovered that there was significant rusting of the fencing which resulted in broken and sharp edges which could lead to potential injury and laceration. Dr. David testified that the jaguar and black leopard dens had significant cracks which made it difficult to sanitize the dens, thereby increasing the potential for injury to the animals. He discovered other conditions in violation of the standards such as buckled fencing around the camel enclosure, which created a risk of injury to the animal, a coyote cub in a cage with a broken water rack with sharp edges located where the animal could be injured, a coyote cub enclosure which was full of excrement, spilled feed and water, and open feed bags in the primate holding area which created a risk of contamination of the area by roaches and other vermin. (Tr. 269-277)

    **6 Accompanying Dr. David on the July 30, l985, inspection was Ms. Susan Horowitz, a Compliance Officer for APHIS, whose testimony corroborated the findings of Dr. David.

    Assertions contained in respondents' brief that the regulations are imprecise, and that the inspectors were inexperienced, are without merit. The record discloses no infirmity in the language of the regulations and standards as it pertains to the violations considered here. Likewise the record demonstrates that the inspectors were qualified to conduct the inspections, and that the procedures followed were proper.

    On the other side of the coin, and as respondents note in section V(A) of their brief, there was no evidence of animal abuse or inhumane treatment of animals at respondents' facilities. Moreover, respondents' exhibits 9 and l0 indicate an in-house program of animal care and facility maintenance by respondents. (Tr. l99-2l9, 243-249)

    Dr. Joseph Irwin, associate editor of National Geographic Research, a scientific journal of the National Geographic Society, testified on behalf of respondents. Dr. Irwin is an expert on primates, who also had some familiarity with the Act at the Brookfield Zoo where he was curator for primates for the Chicago Zoological Society. (Tr. l49-l52, l70-l73)

    Dr. Irwin acknowledged existing deficiencies at respondents' zoo (Tr. l54-l56, l73) but testified that primate enclosures will always have a strong odor regardless of the ventilation system in use, and that primates quickly scratch up the walls after painting. (Tr. l55-l56). Further, Dr. Irwin described many outstanding features of the zoo: rare primates, and the unusual *1283 spider monkey island. (Tr. l58-l62). Dr. Irwin cautioned that a total aseptic environment is not good for animals in captivity. (Tr. l64)

    Dr. Irwin also discussed the development of plans and future funding for improvements at the zoo (Tr. l57-l58), and suggested that the imposition of a $6,000 penalty would adversely affect future improvements at the zoo. (Tr. l63)

    Respondent Hahn testified that he had made over $25,000 in capital improvements to the facility over the past two years, and spoke of future plans to obtain funds for future improvements. (Tr. 240-24l).

    Sanction

    The testimony on behalf of respondents, while indicative of good intentions to improve the facilities, does not excuse the violations which existed during the July 30, l985, inspection.

    Further, the warning letter of January 25, l985 (Finding of Fact 4), informed the respondents that further major violations of the regulations or standards would be reviewed for possible prosecution. Notwithstanding this notice, the respondents continued to operate their facility in violation of the Act, regulations and standards as charged in the complaint.

    The Secretary's established sanction policy for disciplinary cases arising under the Animal Welfare Act and similar statutes provides that it is the Department's policy to assess severe sanctions for serious violations of the Act and the regulations and standards. In re Esposito, 38 A.D. 6l3 (l979). This policy is intended to deter further violations by the present respondents and other persons subject to regulations, in order to achieve the remedial purposes of the Act. See, In re Christ, 35 A.D. l95 (l976); In re Worsley, 33 A.D. l547 (l974).

    **7 Giving due consideration to all of the four factors contained in the Act, 7 U.S.C. 2l49(b), i.e., size of the respondents' business, gravity of the violations, good faith, and history of previous violations, the sanctions imposed are appropriate, reasonable, and necessary to achieve the remedial purpose of the Act, and to deter respondents and others from similar violations. Further, in view of the nature of the violations considered here, the order issued herewith is consistent with the Department's severe sanction policy, and at the same time will not stifle respondents' plans for future improvements after compliance with the Act is achieved.

    ADDITIONAL CONCLUSIONS BY THE JUDICIAL OFFICER

    Respondents contend on appeal that the ALJ's findings and conclusions are not adequately supported by the record, but the record abundantly supports the ALJ's findings and conclusions. In fact, the proof here surpasses *1284 the preponderance of the evidence, which is all that is required. [FN2] Other recent Animal Welfare Act decisions illustrate this proper standard (e.g., In re Hickey, 47 Agric. Dec. ____ (May 27, 1988), appeal docketed, No. 88- 7281 (9th Cir. July 22, 1988) and see In re Sabo, 47 Agric. Dec. ____ (Mar. 15, 1988)). Respondents' arguments on appeal, in this respect, merely reargue matters that were fully considered and correctly decided by the ALJ.

    Respondents contend that their violations were not willful, but a violation is willful if the violator intentionally does an act which is prohibited, irrespective of evil motive or reliance on erroneous advice, or acts with careless disregard of statutory requirements. [FN3] Respondents' actions certainly fit within this definition of willful. But, assuming, arguendo, that they did not, respondents' actions would still warrant a suspension order because respondents had received a prior warning letter, which fulfills the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. s 558(c)). This principle was recently restated in the Rodman case (In re Rodman, 47 Agric. Dec. ____ (May 27, 1988)), as follows:

    V.

    Respondents' Violations Were Willful.

    Under the Administrative Procedure Act, a suspension order cannot be issued unless the violations were willful or a prior warning letter was sent. Specifically, the Act provides (5 U.S.C. s 558(c)):

    Except in cases of willfulness or those in which public health, interest, or safety requires otherwise, the withdrawal, suspension, revocation, or annulment of a license is lawful only if, before the institution of agency proceedings therefor, the licensee has been given--

    (1) notice by the agency in writing of the facts or conduct which may warrant the action; and

    (2) opportunity to demonstrate or achieve compliance with all lawful requirements.

    Respondents' violations were willful, within the meaning of that term in the Administrative Procedure Act. As stated in George Steinberg & Son, Inc. v. Butz, 491 F.2d 988, 994 (2d Cir. 1974):

    **8 *1285 Moreover, the "second chance" doctrine would apply only if the violations had not been willful. It is clear enough that under s 9(b), doing an act which is prohibited and doing it intentionally "irrespective of evil motive or reliance on erroneous advice" or "acts with careless disregard of statutory requirements" are willful. See Goodman v. Benson, 286 F.2d 896, 900 (7th Cir. 1961); see also United States v. Illinois Central Railroad Co., 303 U.S. 239, 243, 58 S.Ct. 49, 82 L.Ed. 518 (1938).

    Similarly, in Goodman v. Benson, 286 F.2d 896, 900 (7th Cir. 1961), the court held:

    Petitioner urges his denial of trading privileges amounted to a suspension of a license, and that section 9(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C.A. s 1008(b), was violated. We do not reach that question for the same section excludes cases of wilfulness. We hold the petitioner's conduct was wilful within the meaning of section 9(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act. We think it clear that if a person 1) intentionally does an act which is prohibited,--irrespective of evil motive or reliance on erroneous advice, or 2) acts with careless disregard of statutory requirements, the violation is wilful. Eastern Produce Co. v. Benson, 3 Cir., 278 F.2d 606, 609.

    Respondents contend that the sanctions are too severe, but they are consistent with the Department's long-established policy to impose severe sanctions for violations that are repeated or that are regarded by the administrative officials and the Judicial Officer as serious, in order to serve as an effective deterrent not only to the respondents but also to other potential violators (see In re Parchman, 46 Agric. Dec. ____, slip op. at 67-77 (May 28, 1987) (90-day suspension and $10,000 civil penalty), aff'd, No. 3701 (6th Cir. July 22, 1988); In re Spencer Livestock Commission Co., 46 Agric. Dec. ____, slip op. at 213-51 (Mar. 17, 1987) (10-year suspension and $30,000 civil penalty), aff'd, 841 F.2d 1451 (9th Cir. 1988)).

    All of respondents' other arguments have been considered, including Respondents' Opposition to Complainant's Cross-Appeal Regarding Sanctions (July 16, 1987), and are found to be without merit, even though not specifically mentioned.

    Complainant's cross-appeal seeks to have the ALJ's sanction increased to that originally sought by complainant, viz., a $6,000 civil penalty and a 60-day suspension. Complainant is, of course, correct that the Department's severe sanction policy anticipates that the Judicial Officer will place great weight upon the sanction recommended by agency officials (Inre *1286 Esposito, 38 Agric. Dec. 613 (1979)). On the other hand, the Judicial Officer also places great weight upon the findings of fact, conclusions and order of the ALJ, whose job it is to examine the evidence of record and the credibility of the witnesses (In re Spencer Livestock Commission Co., 46 Agric. Dec. ____, slip op. at 174 (Mar. 19, 1987), aff'd, 841 F.2d 1451 (9th Cir. 1988)). Thus, in reviewing the sanction imposed in the initial decision, the Judicial Officer looks to ensure that the congressional objectives are met, and that the remedial purposes of that Act are achieved, such that respondent, and others will be deterred from future noncompliance with the Act, and its standards and regulations.

    **9 In a recent case, the three objectives of the Act were set forth from its legislative history (In re Hickey, 47 Agric. Dec. ____, slip op. at 13 (May 27, 1988), appeal docketed, No. 88-7281 (9th Cir. July 22, 1988)), as follows (emphasis added):

    The Animal Welfare Act was enacted in 1966 to achieve three objectives:

    "The purposes of this bill, as amended, are (1) to protect the owners of dogs and cats from theft of such pets, (2) to prevent the use or sale of stolen dogs or cats for purposes of research or experimentation and (3) to establish humane standards for the treatment of dogs, cats and certain other animals . . . by animal dealers and medical research facilities." (Senate Report No. 1281, June 15, 1966; 2 U.S. Cong. & Admin. News 66, at 2635.)

    In 1976 the Act was amended (Pub L. 94-279) to restate and explain those objectives, which are at the heart of this proceeding.

    Class "C" exhibitors are included within this mandate for "other animals" by the regulations (9 C.F.R s 1.1(w) and (aa)).

    Respondents committed numerous housekeeping violations, which were for the most part trivial within the concept established in In re Zartman, 45 Agric. Dec. 174 (1985). Moreover, this aging zoo's structures are showing some of the ravages of time, and need repair. The seriousness, however, results from the continuous nature of the violations. I believe respondents made good faith efforts to achieve compliance, but the requirement is compliance. The sanction herein should be sufficient to chasten respondents to do a better job in the future, and to achieve full compliance.

    In summary, respondents have had continuous housekeeping problems, and need to refurbish or repair aging structures at this somewhat elderly facility. Respondents raised plausible (but nonetheless unacceptable) excuses, reasons and defenses to each of these points.

    The Act (7 U.S.C. s 2149) requires that sanctions be imposed only after due consideration of four factors: business size, gravity of violations, good faith, and history of previous violations. Although respondents'business *1287 is probably large relative to some other private exhibitors, respondents' zoo in real terms is not that large. The violations, while serious, did not directly endanger the lives of any animals, or involve imminent injury to patrons. There were no resultant hurt, abused, or sick animals disclosed in the record. Respondents did not exhibit any cruel or inhumane treatment of their animals. As already stated, I believe that respondents did act in good faith to comply, albeit ineffectively. Respondent Hahn had been in charge of this business for about 20 years, and had had no regulatory problems until this complaint. The zoo was established in 1933, long before passage of the Animal Welfare Act.

    The ALJ properly applied the above criteria to the facts herein, and imposed the proper sanction which "is consistent with civil penalties assessed in other comparable cases" (In re Robinson, 42 Agric. Dec. 7 (1983)). The $1,000 civil penalty assessed against respondents, together with the 20-day suspension, are adequate to serve as an effective deterrent to future violations by respondent and others.

    **10 In affirming the ALJ's sanction, which is substantially less severe than that recommended by APHIS, I caution that no one should misconstrue that respondents' violations are not serious. The violations are serious. However, cease and desist provisions herein will operate with the 20-day suspension properly to achieve full compliance. This sanction allows APHIS to prevent the lifting of the suspension until respondents achieve full compliance, which was the very reason that these housekeeping violations became serious.

    The civil penalty of $1,000 is appropriate because of respondents' good faith attempts to comply.

    For the foregoing reasons, the following order should be issued.

    Order

    Respondents shall comply with each and every provision of the Animal Welfare Act, 7 U.S.C. ss 2131-2156, and the regulations and standards issued thereunder, 9 C.F.R. ss l.l- 3.l42, and shall cease and desist from any violation thereof. In particular, respondents, their agents and employees, directly or through any corporate device, shall cease and desist from:

    1. Failing to construct and maintain structurally sound indoor and outdoor facilities as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.l25;

    2. Failing to provide adequate ventilation for indoor housing facilities as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.76;

    3. Failing to maintain interior building surfaces in indoor housing facilities that are substantially impervious to moisture as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.76;

    *1288 4. Failing to maintain primary enclosures in good repair so as to protect nonhuman primates from injury as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.78;

    5. Failing to remove excreta from primary enclosures as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.8l;

    6. Failing to maintain facilities for animals other than nonhuman primates so as to protect the animals from injury as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.l25;

    7. Failing to clean primary enclosures so as to protect the animals from contamination and injury as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.l3l; and

    8. Failing to store supplies of food so as to protect them from infestation or contamination by vermin as required by 9 C.F.R. s 3.75.

    Respondents are hereby assessed a civil penalty of $l,000 to be paid not later than the 90th day after service of this order, by certified check or money order made payable to the Treasurer of the United States, and sent to John D. Griffith, Esq., United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the General Counsel, Room 2014, South Building, Washington, D.C. 20250-1400.

    Respondent Zoological Consortium of Maryland, Inc.'s license is suspended for 20 days and thereafter until it demonstrates to APHIS that it is in compliance with the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder. When respondent Zoological Consortium of Maryland, Inc., demonstrates to APHIS that it is in compliance with the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder, a supplemental order will be issued in this proceeding, upon the motion of APHIS, terminating the suspension after the expiration of the 20-day period.

    **11 Respondent Hahn is prohibited from directly or indirectly engaging in business in any capacity for which a license is required under the Act for a period of 20 days and thereafter until he demonstrates to APHIS that he is in compliance with the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder. When respondent Hahn demonstrates to APHIS that he is in compliance with the Act and the regulations and standards issued thereunder, a supplemental order will be issued in this proceeding, upon a motion of APHIS, terminating this prohibition after the expiration of the 20-day period.

    The cease and desist provisions of this order shall become effective the day after service of this order on respondents, and the suspension provisions of this order shall become effective on the 30th day after service of this order on respondents.

    FNa The position of Judicial Officer was established pursuant to the Act of April 4, 1940 (7 U.S.C. §§ 450c-450g), and Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1953, 18 Fed. Reg. 3219 (1953), reprinted in 5 U.S.C. app. at 1068 (1982). The Department's present Judicial Officer was appointed in January 1971, having been involved with the Department's regulatory programs since 1949 (including 3 years' trial litigation; 10 years' appellate litigation relating to appeals from the decisions of the prior Judicial Officer; and 8 years as administrator of the Packers and Stockyards Act regulatory program).

    FN1 Combines allegations 6 and 7 of the complaint.

    FN2 See Herman & MacLean v. Huddleston, 459 U.S. 375, 387-92 (1983); Steadman v. SEC, 450 U.S. 91, 92-104 (1981); In re Rowland, 40 Agric. Dec. 1934, 1941 n.5 (1981), aff'd, 713 F.2d 179 (6th Cir. 1983); In re Gold Bell-I&S Jersey Farms, Inc., 37 Agric. Dec. 1336, 1346 (1978), aff'd, No. 78-3134 (D.N.J. May 25, 1979), aff'd mem., 614 F.2d 770 (3d Cir. 1980).

    FN3 For an extensive discussion of the meaning of the term willful, as applied by the Department, see In re Shatkin, 34 Agric. Dec. 296, 297-314 (1975).

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• Marcus Cook of Zoo Dynamics or Marcus Cook of Zoo Dynamics or Zoo Cats 2

  • From: TheirVoice
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    Man mauled by tiger remains hospitalized

    DALLAS, June 21 (UPI) -- A man remained hospitalized in Dallas Wednesday after being mauled by a Bengal tiger at a facility that supplies exotic animals to zoos and exhibitions.

    The incident happened last Friday at Zoo Dynamics. Part-time employee Don Roberts was mowing a strip of grass when the 300-pound tiger jumped a fence and attacked him, The Dallas Morning News reported.

    The sheriff's office told the newspaper a power failure allowed the animal to jump an electrified fence. Roberts said the tiger attacked as he ran to warn another employee it was on the loose.

    The company, which has had exotic animals on its 5-acre property for 15 years, said it is investigating how the mauling occurred.

    A hospital spokesman said Roberts was in the intensive care unit through the weekend and was in good condition Tuesday. He lost an ear, had claw marks all over his body and needed thousands of stitches.

    The tiger is under quarantine and the victim reportedly does not want to press charges against the facility

    http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060621-104855-3483r

    State halts roving big cat exhibit

    

    Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has obtained an emergency court order in Kaufman County to stop a traveling hands-on exhibit featuring wild jungle cats and cubs.

    Abbott on Friday said the action was taken to prevent harm to the public from exhibits put on by ZooCats Inc. The nonprofit organization brings animals such as tigers, leopards, lions and cougars to exhibit at children's birthday parties, weddings, commercial and media events and educational settings.

    In addition to the emergency court order, the charitable assets of ZooCats and related nonprofits, as well as operator Marcus Cline-Hines Cook, have been frozen. District Judge Howard Tygrett also named Dallas attorney Robert Trimble as temporary receiver.

    Trimble will oversee placement of the wild cats and other animals in the professional care of the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Boyd, northwest of Fort Worth .

    "This operator deliberately downplayed the potential danger of these animals, as well as the group's safety record and trainer qualifications, letting children and adults touch and hold them without regard for disease or possible physical harm," said Abbott in a statement. "This dangerous deception against the public, and the organization's false assertions about its charitable intentions, led our legal experts to conclude that we needed to act quickly."

    ZooCats officials were not immediately available to comment.

    ZooCats has exhibited the animals at the Mesquite Rodeo, Six Flags Over Texas, the Dallas ArtFest and various private schools. It has also set up show booths at a number of events in North Texas where children and adults may hold and feed the animals and have their pictures taken for a fee.

    The principal facility housing the animals, which also include wolf pups, a bear and a zebra, is near Kaufman. ZooCats obtains its animals through donations from zoos, sanctuaries and refuges, but the group also buys them from exotic breeders.

    Cook has made public claims about his group's perfect safety record. But, according to Abbot, ZooCats has been cited numerous times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violations such as failing to keep the adult animals under the control of a trained animal handler and for failure to maintain structurally sound facilities to prevent escape.

    The attorney general said the organization also falsely claims to be distributing charitable funds it collects for its services. It purports to represent, and donate funds to, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Save the Tiger Fund, and wildlife programs underwritten by Irving-based Exxon Mobil Corp.

    But, said Abbot, these organizations claim no affiliation with ZooCats and have not given Cook permission to use their logos or trademarks in exhibits. Cook also has falsely claimed an affiliation with the Dallas World Aquarium, the attorney general said.

    Abbot said he also suspects that Cook has misappropriated charitable assets for personal use and will ask the court to correct this abuse of public funds.

    The state will request civil penalties under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Texas Nonprofit Corporations Act. Also requested are attorneys' fees and reimbursement of investigative costs associated with the case.

    ZooCats related nonprofits, which are also named in the lawsuit, include Zoological Studies Group, ZooCats Zoological Systems, Specialized Species Humane Society Inc., Zoo America Inc., and Technology Specialities and Research Group Inc.

    
    
    2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

    ZooDynamics Exhibitor Has Abysmal History of Mistreating Animals, Endangering Public

    August 11, 2005

    Contact:

    Amy Rhodes 757-622-7382

    Miles City, Mont. - Today, PETA sent an urgent letter to the Eastern Montana Fair president, urging the implementation of a strict policy prohibiting exotic-animal displays at the fair, which opens on August 25. PETA's request comes after the group learned that the carnival booked for the fair, Thomas Carnival, includes an attraction called Zoo Dynamics (formerly called ZooCats). Zoo Dynamics, owned by Marcus Cook, has been cited numerous times by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and the big-cat display has resulted in injuries to members of the public.

    In 2003, the USDA filed charges against Cook for alleged AWA violations including using a cattle prod to stun a tiger as a means of discipline, exposing young animals to excessive handling, causing animals trauma and harm, unsupervised public contact, mishandling an injured zebra, dozens of instances of unsafe handling of dangerous animals during public exhibition, allowing a bear cub to be teased with a stick, filthy enclosures in disrepair, exposing animals to extreme heat and inadequate ventilation, failing to provide minimum space, food and water, and failing to comply with veterinary care requirements.

    Cook was recently charged with unsafe handling by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after one of his tiger cubs bit a woman at a car dealership in Tampa . PETA filed a formal complaint with the USDA after obtaining photos of two of Cook's tiger cubs at the dealership with bloody abrasions around their noses and eyes. Another cub used by ZooCats bit an employee while on display at Six Flags Over Dallas in 2002 and the exhibit was later removed from the park.

    Animals used for photo ops are often still babies and are typically forcibly removed from their mothers, causing extreme stress to both mother and baby. When they outgrow their "cuteness," exotic animals are often sold at auctions, where they may be purchased by "canned-hunt" operators or people who kill them illegally for their body parts.

    "The Eastern Montana Fair would do the animals and the public a favor by banning exotic-animal acts," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "Tearing babies from their mothers for stressful and potentially dangerous public contact isn't wholesome family entertainment."

    PETA's letter to the Eastern Montana Fair president is available upon request. For more information, please PETA's Web site WildlifePimps.com.

    Big-cat exhibitor Marcus Cook of ZooCats and Zoo Dynamics is traveling the country with Thomas Carnival, which operates at local and state fairs. Cook charges a fee for visitors to have their photos taken with tiger cubs.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees animal exhibits, filed charges against Cook, in part for allegedly failing to handle animals safely, failing to protect animals from temperature extremes, and using a cattle prod to stun a tiger as a means of discipline during an exhibit.

    In February, Cook was charged by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission with unsafe handling of wildlife after it was revealed that a visitor to an exhibit at a car dealership was bitten by one of his tigers. Another cub used by Cook bit an employee while on display at Six Flags Over Dallas in 2002

    Group Sends USDA Photos of Displayed Cubs With Bloody Facial Sores

    For Immediate Release:
    March 10, 2005

    Contact:
    Amy Rhodes 757-622-7382

    Tampa, Fla. - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched an investigation of exotic-animal-trainer Marcus Cook for possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. PETA contacted the USDA about a woman who was reportedly bitten on the hand by one of Cook's tiger cubs. According to news sources, on February 12, Sandra Hopps-Caraballo received two puncture wounds on her hand during a controversial photo op with the cub at the Tampa Bay Auto Mall on Tampa Road. Cook, who does business as Zoo Dynamics, was exhibiting two adult and two baby tigers at the dealership when the incident occurred. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission charged Cook with unsafe handling of captive wildlife.

    PETA also complained to the USDA that the two cubs had bloody abrasions on their noses and around their eyes and provided photos of the tiger cubs' marred faces to aid in the investigation. PETA has asked the auto mall to ban exotic-animal displays from its properties.

    Cook has been cited by the USDA for failure to provide veterinary care, failure to provide shelter from inclement weather, inadequate ventilation, filthy cages, failure to provide minimum space, and improper handling during public exhibition. In 2002, Six Flags Over Dallas dismissed Cook's tiger exhibit over concerns for public safety. In August 2004, Cook was charged in federal court with conspiring to violate laws pertaining to wildlife. Cook was named, along with eight others, in a 55-count indictment that alleges that the accused bought or sold more than $200,000 worth of endangered or threatened animals between 1999 and 2003, violating interstate provisions of the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act.

    Tiger cubs used in traveling acts are prematurely removed from their mothers, denying them proper nutrition and maternal care. If the animals survive the stress of transport and handling, exhibitors typically dispose of them a few months later when they become more difficult to handle, replacing them with new cubs. Since 1990, there have been at least 177 dangerous incidents involving big cats in 36 states.

    "Besides the cruelty of taking baby tigers away from their mothers, these cats become ticking time bombs when constantly subjected to handling and stress," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "The best way to protect the cats and the public would be to revoke Cook's license to operate."

    The Federal Wildlife Officer

    REGION 3
    Paul Beiriger, Regional Rep
    
    Nine Individuals Indicted on Wildlife Related Charges

    Minneapolis - In a 55-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury, a Racine, MN, couple faces additional charges related to their operation of an animal park and animal brokerage business. In addition to the charges against Kenneth G. Kraft and his wife, Nancy L. Kraft, seven others were charged with various wildlife related charges.

    The grand jury charged the Krafts will conspiring to violate a number of laws including the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. The Endangered Species Act generally makes it unlawful to buy/sell in interstate commerce animals that have been designated as either endangered or threatened. The Lacey Act generally prohibits the interstate sale or purchase of endangered or threatened animals with a market value in excess of $350, and it also makes it unlawful to make and/or submit a false record or label for any endangered or threatened animals in interstate commerce from 1999 to 2003.
    
    The other individuals charged by the grand jury on wildlife-related charges were: Robert E. Baudy, age 80, from Bevilles Corner, FL; Marcus Cook, from Dallas, TX, and the operator of Zoocats, Inc.; Troy Allen Hyde, from Bozeman, MT, the operator of Animals of Montana, Inc.; Hans Jakob Lueck, age 50, from Shoreline, WA, the operator of Wild Eyes Animal Adventure and Photography in Montana; Merle Multhauf, age 50, from Emerald, WI, Craig Perry, from Center Point, IA, the operator of Perry's Wilderness Ranch & Zoo; and James F. Rienow, age 55, from Suamico, WI, an animal broker and taxidermist.

    According to the indictment, the Krafts advertised their interest in buying, selling, and trading exotic wildlife, including endangered and threatened animals through several means, including the Internet and a national exotic animal publication "Animal Finders' Guide". The Krafts bought and sold numerous protected animals, including tigers, grizzly bears, and leopards. They had sources and customers around the country, including, but not necessarily limited to: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
    
    The indictment alleges that at the same time the Krafts were illegally buying and selling protected wildlife from their property in Racine, MN, under a number of different names, they also operated an animal park called BEARCAT Hollow. BEARCAT Hollow stands for Beautiful Endangered and Rare, Conservation and Therapy. The Krafts solicited donations, memberships, and other forms of sponsorships for BEARCAT Hollow by representing that the funds raised would go to feed and otherwise support the animals of BEARCAT Hollow, but they failed to disclose that the animals at the Racine, MN, property were regularly bought and sold as inventory of Kraft Game Farms or Kraft's Animal Escapades.

    Because protected wildlife may not generally be offered for sale, bought, sold, or transported in interstate commerce, the Krafts allegedly made false records and false identifications of the wildlife involved in the transaction on forms of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to the indictment, Nancy Kraft told at least one person that, for instance, the Krafts would make an illegal sale of a protected grizzly bear appear lawful by declaring the animal to be a "Syrian grizzly," believed by the Krafts not to be protected, on the federal APHIS Form 7020. The Krafts are also alleged to have falsified records in order to hide their illegal activity by claiming the transactions were a "donation" or "breeding loan" instead of the sale or transfer of animals.
    
    The indictment also charges Kenneth Kraft with witness tampering for allegedly instructing a person to lie to federal officials and maintain that animals he bought from Kenneth Kraft had been illegally donated rather than illegally purchased.

    If convicted on the conspiracy or wildlife-related charges, the Krafts and the other defendants face a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. If convicted of tampering with a witness, Kenneth Kraft could face a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. Any sentences would be determined by a judge based on the federal sentencing guidelines.
    
    The case is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Koch is prosecuting the case. Criminal indictments are only charges and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    The Christian Science Monitor

    Trouble at wild-animal parks? Study cites lax US regulations for private exhibitors.
    By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor August 31, 2006

    The grainy picture, taken at a private wild-animal park, shows a girl reaching out to pet, or grab, the tail of a full-grown leopard. How will the leopard react?
    As the debate over private ownership of exotic pets intensifies in the US, attention is also beginning to fall on private wildlife exhibits that display "big cats" like lions, tigers, and leopards.

    
    TIGER HUG: Gloria Johnson with Casanova at her Havana, Fla., farm. As states ban private custody of exotic pets, some owners seek USDA licenses.
    PHIL COALE/AP/FILE
    
    Licensed by the US government, these parks are required to put "significant barriers" between visitors and big cats. But there's enough gray area in the law so that some facilities permit close contact with the animals, including touching them - sometimes with tragic results.

    In the year since 17-year-old Haley Hilderbrand was fatally mauled while posing for her senior photo with a leashed tiger at a Kansas wild-animal park, pressure has grown at federal and state levels to explicitly ban public contact with big cats at facilities that are licensed and regulated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    In April, Kansas became the first state to ban direct contact between humans and potentially dangerous animals at wildlife exhibits. It also joined 21 states that prohibit private ownership of certain big cats.

    Last month, Rep. Jim Ryun (R) of Kansas introduced legislation in Congress to beef up the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which governs animal safety at USDA-regulated facilities. His bill would prohibit direct contact between big cats and the public and require the USDA to write public-safety regulations for exhibitor licensees.

    Activists say AWA rules are too weak to ensure that the animals are securely kept and well maintained - or to protect humans from the animals on display. "We're not even that critical of the USDA because it doesn't really have the authority it needs to deal with the public-safety problem," says Greg Wetstone of International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a Yarmouth Port, Mass., animal rights group.

    About 5,000 lions, tigers, and other big cats are kept by nearly 700 USDA big-cat licensees in the United States. Someone seeking a license to exhibit tigers is subject to requirements similar to those for someone seeking a goat license, IFAW reported last week, after a year-long investigation of such facilities.

    As a result, in states where private ownership of exotic animals is banned, people can legally keep their animals by getting a USDA license as an exhibitor. In a rising number of cases, license applicants are mom-and-pop outfits building animal collections.

    "These animals are dangerous, and it takes a lot to contain and feed them," says Mr. Wetstone of the IFAW, which included in its report the grainy photo of the girl touching the leopard. "So some folks decide to make a few bucks and escape state rules barring them as pets. They go get a USDA license."

    The IFAW report - which looked at 42 wild-animal exhibits in 11 states, all USDA-licensed - cites these problems.

    • Most of these big-cat facilities are "structurally unsound."

    • Most allow public contact between people and big cats.

    • "Vermin and grossly inadequate sewage disposal" are often evident. Meat fed to big cats is often rotten.

    • Many facilities have no attendants at big-cat exhibits, and some "allowed children to work as attendants."

    In the past decade, there have been 13 big-cat-related incidents in Florida, 12 in Texas, six in California, and five each in Illinois, Nevada, Minnesota, and Kansas. Since 1990, 13 people have died in these incidents, IFAW says.

    A USDA spokesman says AWA regulations are adequate to keep the public safe and are zealously policed by its team of inspectors.

    "There is no public-safety crisis," says Darby Holladay with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Whenever any incident occurs, the USDA animal-care program looks into it. If there's a possible violation of the Animal Welfare Act, enforcement action is taken."

    The process can be slow. In the case of the park in Kansas where Hilderbrand was mauled, the USDA has yet to decide on whether to revoke the operator's big-cat license.

    Critics of the IFAW report say it fails to deliver specific violations at specific facilities. "I don't think it's a well-informed report," says Marcus Cook, spokesman for the Feline Conservation Federation, which represents big-cat exhibitors. "If they know something, let's report it. If you've got a valid complaint, let's make it to the USDA. Don't just throw a bunch of numbers out there."

    An IFAW member says the group has more than 2,000 photos documenting the violations cited in its report. "Our staff member was at [one] facility when a leopard bit the finger off an untrained worker," says Josephine Martell, a principal author of the report. "You can't just say, 'here's the tiger. Take care of him. I'm going to get some coffee.' But that's what's happening."

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    L & L Exotics

    Check for yourself to see if they meet the sanctuary standards for an accredited animal refuge. 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 .

    USDA Finally takes away license from Lorenza Pearson of L & L Exotics

    Lions and tigers and bears denied

    
    Ruling prohibits Copley Township man from selling or displaying exotic animals

    
    By Bob Downing

    Beacon Journal staff writer

    
    A federal administrative judge has ruled that a Summit County man cannot exhibit or sell exotic animals.

    Lorenza Pearson, who operates L&L Exotic Animal Farm in Copley Township, apparently will be allowed to keep his lions, tigers, bears and other animals under the ruling by Victor W. Palmer, a U.S. Department of Agriculture administrative law judge.

    In a 47-page ruling signed on April 6, Palmer revoked Pearson's federal license to show and sell exotic animals and ruled that Pearson is permanently disqualified from obtaining such a license.

    Palmer rejected a request by the Agriculture Department that Pearson be fined $100,000 for failing to care for his animals in compliance with federal rules.

    The orders will take effect May 11, barring an appeal by Pearson.

    Efforts to reach Pearson and his attorney, William T. Whitaker, on Friday were unsuccessful.

    Pearson was cited by Palmer for 26 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act between Jan. 5, 2000, and Feb. 22, 2006.

    The violations ``were in every sense egregious, obvious violations of the (federal) act and the regulations that substantially endangered the health and well-being of the animals Mr. Pearson kept at his facility for exhibition,'' Palmer wrote.

    ``The fact that many of these violations were often uncorrected and persistent requires, in addition to the issuance of a cease-and-desist order, the revocation of Mr. Pearson's exhibitor license as the only effective way to prevent their future occurrence.''

    The judge called the conditions for the animals ``deplorable.''

    ``Inadequate drainage of pens housing the animals was a chronic problem that was never fully remedied and the animals frequently had to endure the discomfort of staying wet,'' he wrote.

    ``When water receptacles froze in the winter, the animals had no water to drink. In the summer when water was accessible, the water receptacles were dirty.

    ``If the hibernation of the bears that he denned in forced hibernation was interrupted, there was no food or water available to them. And some of the bears were kept, as were some lions and tigers, in enclosures that were too small for their comfort.''

    Palmer rejected Pearson's defense that his problems with federal inspectors stemmed from his failure to cooperate with veterinarian Norma Harlan in an investigation of another exotic-animal exhibitor. That led federal inspectors to seek revenge against him through repeated inspections, Pearson claimed.

    It is not clear whether Pearson will be permitted to keep his license during an appeal.

    Termination of the federal license also could mean that the inspections of Pearson's facility on Columbus Avenue by federal inspectors will end.

    On June 14, 2002, the Agriculture Department cited Pearson for 900 violations of its animal-care rules. He was accused of committing numerous, willful violations of federal rules, including inadequate medical care and nutrition, dirty conditions and inadequate facilities.

    Pearson faced a fine of up to $3,750 per violation.

    Between 1999 and 2005, Pearson had as many as 82 animals at the same time -- mostly exotic cats and bears, Palmer said in his report.

    The number of animals that Pearson had varied at times, but he had a medium-sized exotic animal operation, Palmer noted.

    Testimony in the case was heard in Akron in September 2003 and June 2006.

    Conditions at the Copley site were horrible, according to veterinarian Dr. Albert Lewandowski, who works at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and accompanied federal inspectors on a 2005 inspection.

    ``The facility is squalid,'' he wrote in a report. He said he was shocked that a USDA-licensed operation would ``have facilities as bad as this.''

    He said Pearson's facilities were ``dirty, unkept, uncared for, just general neglect, just a facility that had been neglected not just recently, but for a long period of time. The animals were living under conditions that just weren't appropriate for any type of animal.''

    In 2005, seven of Pearson's bears were judged to be undernourished and suffering from malnutrition. They were confiscated by federal inspectors and removed from Pearson's care.

    Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com .

    http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/ 17078038.htm

    Wild-animal case languished nearly 3 years

    Wednesday, June 21, 2006

    Karen Farkas

    Plain Dealer Reporter

    Akron -- As federal inspectors issued citation after citation accusing Lorenza Pearson of raising exotic animals in deplorable conditions at his Cop ley Township farm, he was immune from sanctions because it took almost three years for officials to resume a hearing.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a complaint against Pearson and the L&L Exotic Animal Farm in 2002, but the process to revoke his license stagnated after the hearing was temporarily halted in September 2003. When the hearing resumed Tuesday, Pearson faced 953 violations of the Animal Welfare Act, from February 1997 through February 2006.

    Federal officials cited scheduling problems and the need to appoint a new administrative judge to hear the case as reasons for the delay.

    Pearson and his attorney, William Whitaker, maintain that the Copley Township facility is safe for animals and people.

    Federal officials said they removed seven bears in May 2005 because of lack of adequate food and veterinary care, and a Summit County judge ordered the removal of 27 exotic cats, including tigers and lions, in 2004 because of poor handling of animal waste.

    During a Feb. 22 visit, a federal inspector reported Pearson had 18 animals: eight bears, six tigers, two lions, a black leopard and cougar. The inspector believed Pearson was hiding more, he wrote in a complaint.

    Violations cited in that visit, which were similar to citations from previous inspections, included holes in a perimeter fence. Animals were not being fed well; were kept in pens that were unsafe and too small; and were not receiving adequate food and water, the complaint says.

    The inspector said he failed to adequately care for a black leopard and a female tiger with a lame hind leg. The only food for the 10 large cats was a dead animal that was contaminated with dirt, hay and feces, records show.

    Pearson was notified in October 2005 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it intended to terminate his Animal Welfare Act license. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied renewal of his captive-bred wildlife registration in February 2004.

    Even if Judge Victor Palmer rules his license should be revoked, Pearson can appeal, with the license remaining in effect until appeals are exhausted, a federal lawyer said.

    Pearson's operation has come under increasing scrutiny following the unrelated May 22 escape of a 500-pound black bear from an Ashtabula County animal compound. The bear mauled a 36-year-old woman. Two days later a fire ignited by a space heater in an iguana terrarium destroyed Pearson's Columbus Avenue home and killed a bear cub, two tiger cubs, two iguanas and many birds.

    The farm made national news in 1983 when Pearson's 2-year-old son was killed by a Bengal tiger.

    Ohio law provides virtually no oversight of wild-animal breeders. Some legislators have said they will introduce a bill calling for regulations.

    The Animal Protection Institute, a national advocacy organization, asked legislators Monday to ban ownership of dangerous wild and exotic animals in Ohio. It said owners allow people to have direct contact with dangerous animals.

    While people are in danger, the animals are also suffering because of poor care, Zibby Wilder, spokeswoman for the agency, said Tuesday.

    She said that the USDA does not have enough inspectors and that the Pearson case illustrates how the government does not act, even after years of violations.

    "Even when they are inspected, they are given a fine or have a hearing and nothing happens," she said. "It's not a priority until someone gets hurt."

    To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

    kfarkas@plaind.com, 1-800-628-6689

    http://www.cleveland.com/ne ws/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/summit/115087876815 0920.xml&coll=2

    Animal exhibitor accused of neglect
    
    Copley exotic creature keeper to face 953 complaints in court

    
    By Mary Kay Quinn
    Beacon Journal staff writer
    
    The owner of an exotic animal farm on Tuesday will face federal officials who claim he committed 953 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
    
    Lorenza Pearson, owner of the L&L Exotic Animal Farm in Copley Township, will face U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in Summit County court.
    
    Pearson, who needs a federal license to exhibit exotic animals, could lose that license and be fined up to $2,500 each time he is found in violation.
    
    Pearson was in the news last month when a fire blamed on a space heater destroyed his house. Two tiger cubs, a bear cub, two iguanas and some small
    birds died.
    
    The alleged violations date to 1997, and many concern lack of veterinary care and adequate structures for the animals.
    
    ``Many of these -- and other -- violations continue to this day,'' according to the USDA complaint filed in March.
    
    The USDA notes that Pearson has owned anywhere from 26 to 82 animals at the times he sought renewal of his USDA license.
    
    As recently as February, Pearson had 18 animals -- eight bears, three white tigers, three ``orange'' tigers, two lions, one black leopard and one cougar at
    his Columbus Avenue property.
    
    County officials initiated action that led to the removal of 29 animals in June 2004, while the USDA removed seven bears in May 2005.
    
    Failure to provide veterinary care to the bears was among the reasons the USDA seized them, according to the complaint.
    
    Many of the 119 alleged violations of veterinary care standards appear to deal with record keeping, but in one instance, the USDA claims Pearson didn't get a
    veterinarian to treat a tiger with a lame hind leg.
    
    He also didn't watch the animals on a daily basis, according to the USDA, and in January 2001 he was unaware that one of his tigers had died.
    
    The USDA found fault with structures and fences on the property.
    
    In February, the USDA found holes in the perimeter fences that surrounded the enclosures of six tigers.
    
    Sometimes the animals were in danger, according to the USDA. The USDA also claims that cages had protruding wires that could hurt animals, and that between
    1997 and 2001, some animals -- including tigers and lions -- were in enclosures that were too small for normal posture and for freedom of movement.
    
    Food could be bad, too, the USDA claimed. It said that in June 2000 Pearson provided ``old decaying food contaminated with maggots'' to 26 tigers and lions.
    
    As for Pearson, losing his home has been difficult, said his lawyer, William Whitaker. But he has been working hard, he said, and someone is always on site
    to take care of the remaining animals living behind the burned house.
    
    Pearson could not be reached for comment. Mary Kay Quinn can be reached at 330-996-3778 or mkquinn@thebeaconjournal.com .

    Two years after trucks hauled away 29 exotic animals, the Pearson's are right back at it:

    Tiger cubs die in house fire

    3 wild animals die in Copley house fire
    USDA investigating breeder's business
    Thursday, May 25, 2006
    John Horton
    Plain Dealer Reporter
    Copley Township- A black bear cub and two tiger cubs died inside their cages Wednesday morning as flames swept through the Summit County home of a wild-animal breeder, fire officials said.

    The blaze consumed the residence of Lorenza Pearson, but did not damage the nearby pens of L&L Exotic Animal Farm, fire Chief Todd Chambers said. State records show Pearson held eight black bears on the property. Pearson's son said 10 large cats - including lions and tigers - also share the property.

    The fire comes two days after a 500-pound black bear escaped an Ashtabula County animal compound and mauled a 36-year-old woman, raising questions about the safety of wild-animal facilities.

    Both businesses are under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, officials said Wednesday.

    The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is investigating Mark Gutman's Grand River Fur Exchange in Ashtabula's Hartsgrove Township to determine whether the operation requires a federal license, said Robert Willems, an animal-care specialist.

    Gutman breeds and sells a variety of wild animals, and he holds a state license that was renewed in March. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

    A pending USDA case against Pearson claims numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act at his Copley Township farm, including inadequate housing for animals. The complaint covers a period between May 1998 and November 2001. A hearing before a federal administrative judge is set for next month in Akron.

    In 2004, officials removed wild and exotic animals - including bears, tigers and lions - from Pearson's farm after a judge deemed the operation a public nuisance. The issue involved the handling of animal waste.

    In 1983, a 250-pound Bengal tiger that served as a pet killed Pearson's 2-year-old son inside the family's home.

    Ohio law provides virtually no oversight of wild-animal breeders, a situation that has drawn increased attention following Monday's bear escape in Ashtabula County. Statewide, there are 57 bear breeders with 130 bears, according to a report provided Wednesday by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

    Pearson's farm is second in bear population. The largest is Sam Mazzola's animal rescue center in Lorain County.

    Pearson declined to comment Wednesday. His son, Lorenza Pearson Jr., 30, of Bath Township said operations like L&L Exotic Animal Farm can be safe "if it's done right."

    Plain Dealer reporter Steve Luttner contributed to this story.

    To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

    jhorton@plaind.com 800-962-1167

    http://www.cleveland.com/news /plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1148545846278060 .xml&coll=2

    Trucks haul away 29 exotic animals from L & L Exotics owned by Lorenza Pearson

    1983 one of their tigers killed their own two year old son

    Posted on Wed, Jun. 09, 2004

    June 9, 2004 Copley Twp. Ohio : Trucks haul away 29 exotic animals. Pearson's L&L Exotic Animal Farm loses bid to keep lions, tigers, leopards. This is not the first time the farm has drawn attention from the law and from the media, reported Costen. In 1983, tragedy struck when a 250-pound tiger killed Pearson's 2-year-old son.

    By Craig Webb and Carol Biliczky

    Beacon Journal staff writers

    COPLEY TWP. - Lorenza Pearson could only stand by and watch as his so-called pets -- and source of income -- were loaded one by one onto a convoy of trucks Wednesday at his exotic animal farm.

    From just after sunrise to just before sunset, a small army of volunteers from animal sanctuaries around the country and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture toiled to lure the menagerie of 29 exotic animals, ranging from tigers to black leopards, into portable cages that were loaded onto waiting trucks and hauled away.

    Some of the animals resisted the temptation of raw chicken, snarled at the volunteers and paced back and forth in their cramped cages on Pearson's L&L Exotic Animal Farm on Columbus Avenue .

    Copley Police Chief Mike Mier said the process was a slow one to ensure that neither the handlers nor the animals were harmed. He said one particularly agitated tiger and a lion had to be tranquilized before they could be moved.

    Wednesday's court-ordered seizure of the animals has been simmering for years as county and federal authorities sparred with Pearson over conditions at his farm where exotic animals were bred and kept between gigs at area fairs and carnivals.

    While the animals were being loaded onto trucks awaiting transport to four animal sanctuaries in Colorado , N orth Carolina , Pennsylvania and Indiana , Pearson made one more bid in court to keep his farm intact.

    But Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove rejected the plea of Pearson's attorney to vacate her Tuesday order for the removal of the animals.

    ``Enough is enough,'' she said forcefully. ``There is a time when the Board of Health's order must be enforced.''

    This was the latest chapter in Pearson's extensive battleto keep wild animals, despite concerns about environmental hazards, complaints from neighbors, a mauling and even a death on his property.

    Appeal planned

    Pearson's attorney, William Whitaker, said he would appeal the judge's decision to the 9th District Court of Appeals.

    At the hearing, he said the court's decision ran afoul of his client's constitutional rights, and that the township, county and health board had acted in secret.

    He told the court he didn't even have a copy of the court order permitting authorities onto Pearson's Columbus Avenue property Wednesday morning.

    ``There isn't a single bit of evidence that he hasn't complied,'' with the court's order, Whitaker said.

    But Irving Sugerman, law director for Copley Township , said Pearson has had two years to meet the health board's orders to keep his animals.

    ``He does not have a wastewater collection treatment plan and he's had two years to do it,'' Sugerman said.

    After the hearing, Sugerman denied Pearson's allegation that the township wanted to close his farm so that it could establish a housing development behind him on Wright Road .

    ``That's absolutely false,'' Sugerman said. ``That's the most absurd comment I've heard of. That's never even been discussed.''

    Pearson, wearing a T-shirt bearing illustrations of wild animals, said before the hearing that he would understand the judge's decision if he had been cruel to his exotic wildlife -- but he hadn't been.

    ``This is all about housing on Wright Road ,'' he said. `` Nobody wants to live next door to big cats.''

    Animals in good shape

    William Sheperd, a veterinarian from the Western Pennsylvania N ational Wild Animal Orphanage south of Pittsburgh , said there's no question the animals were well cared for. He looked over each of Pearson's animals at a makeshift clinic set up on the property.

    Aside from a couple of the big cats suffering from teeth problems, Sheperd said, most of the animals were in fairly good shape.

    The problem, he said, is cramming wild animals into a hodgepodge of cages that cover an area of less than two acres that includes Pearson's ranch-style home.

    ``This removal needed to be done,'' he said.

    Sheperd's sanctuary agreed to take in two white tigers and a black leopard.

    Custody of the animals was turned over to animal sanctuaries handpicked by the USDA on the condition that the animals not be bred or destroyed.

    The animals divvied up on Wednesday included 15 tigers, two spotted leopards, one black leopard, 8 African lions, one cougar, one lynx and one female Himalayan sun bear.

    Another of the beneficiaries was the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point , Ind.

    Dave Hodge, director of the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky who also volunteers at the rescue center, agreed that the cramped conditions on Pearson's farm were not a healthy environment for the animals.

    ``The attitude (here at Pearson's farm) seems like they are out to make money,'' he said.

    Pearson's namesake son, Lorenza, took exception to that notion.

    Pointing to his parents' small home, where the gutters are about to fall off and at the older cars parked around it, Lorenza asked: ``Does this look like they are making a lot of money?''

    If anything is about money, the son said, it is the government coming in and seizing valuable animals like the white tigers and leaving behind nine black bears that aren't worth a dime.

    ``Maybe next time they should go down to the Akron Zoo and take some of their animals,'' he said. ``This is all about them pulling their authority.''

    Sugerman said the remaining black bears that were also ordered removed by Cosgrove will go once federal officials locate an appropriate place for them.

    ``Bears are harder to place than the cats are,'' he said, adding that they hope to move them within three weeks.

    With 25 years of working with exotic animals apparently nearing an end, Pearson said he was upset.

    Cosgrove's order prohibits him from having any more such animals at his farm.

    ``Who wouldn't be'' upset, he said. ``But the only thing I'm thinking about is what's going on right now.''

    Craig Webb can be reached at 330-723-7119 or cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com. Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.

    2 7 Exotic Animals Seized From Farm

    News Net5.com7:18 p.m. EDT June 9, 2004 - The city of Copley seized 27 animals from an exotic animal farm Wednesday, reported N ewsChannel5's Jonathon Costen.

    The lions, tigers, and leopards lived on L and L Exotic Animal Farm, which is owned by Lorenzo Pearson.

    The city and the health department says they shut down the farm because it is a nuisance, saying that it is difficult to dispose of the animal waste on the relatively small piece of property.

    Pearson's son says the family is being victimized, and that the removal is really about politics.

    SLIDESHOW:Animal Refuge Raid

    Other supporters say that the city is picking on the Pearsons, and that the animals were loved and well-cared-for on the farm.

    In a last minute effort, Pearson's attorney filed a motion to keep the animals.

    But Judge Patricia Cosgrove upheld the removal of the animals.

    This is not the first time the farm has drawn attention from the law and from the media, reported Costen. In 1983, tragedy struck when a 250-pound tiger killed Pearson's 2-year-old son.

    Charges against Pearson were dropped.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5175870/

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• Gloria Johnson Gloria Johnson

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    Gloria Noble Johnson

    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 .

    Why is Gloria Johnson trying to discredit Big Cat Rescue?

    I had contacted Gloria Johnson after a complaint came in from Tallahassee about her backyard zoo. As someone who started out as an ignorant exotic pet owner myself I figured that Gloria did not mean any

    To my knowledge, no one ever grew in the opposite direction. A lot of us who now understand that you can't exhibit a dangerous exotic animal like a pet (whether in person or in photos of us touching the animal) without causing people to want one too. Most people who run accredited sanctuaries started out as buyers and breeders and thought we were doing a good thing, but learned that we were not. I can't name a single person, who started out knowing what we know now, and practicing that belief, that then went backwards and decided it was okay to breed, buy or sell wild animals for life in cages. People either mature to the belief that these animals are too magnificent for lives of deprivation and confinement, or they just don't grow at all. Gloria is passionate and I wanted to see her really make a difference for the cats.

    The following is not intended as an attack. I would still like to help Gloria on her path to a better understanding of what her actions do to the animals. I do not doubt her sincerity, only her understanding. The information here is mostly her own words as of 2006 and is posted only to illustrate why she is angry that we are active in Tallahassee. She even posted a blog site that is called the Animal Rights Activists Slammer Blogsite where she encourages people to rail against anyone who would speak out to protect animals. Big Cat Rescue is working hard to stop the breeding, selling, buying, trading and public contact with exotic cats so that places like ours do not have to exist.

    Gloria Johnson has a pet white tiger and two pet cougars. She claims to have bought them for education purposes, but to show others your pets and tell them they shouldn't buy big cats as pets is not an effective way to curb the problem. She claims to have rescued Casanova pictured here, but she told Der Spiegel that she mortgaged her house to pay Robert Baudy $5000.00 for him because white tigers usually sell for $15,000.00. Gloria wrote to me on 3/1/06 saying Cassanova was not given to her but rather, "I worked hard at raising the money from donations for a discounted price Baudy quoted me." She bought Cassanova at a time when Robert Baudy was under investigation by USDA for the death of a volunteer and his killing of a tiger. Just a few months after defending her purchase from Savage Kingdom, Robert Baudy's license was permanently revoked by USDA .

    This is what she says on her web site about acquiring her white tiger : "Casanova was facing the possibility of not finding a home when the breeding center where he was born began the process of ceasing operations. After spending 3 whole days with him there, Gloria Johnson called all of the tiger lovers she knew while in Casanova's cage and raised enough money to take him home and give him as happy a life just like her cougars!"

    In the photos below you can see the kind of education she does; walking a 6 month old tiger on a leash outside, on the school lawn and within a few inches of children, many of whom where confined to wheel chairs. USDA does not consider a leash a proper restraint for a big cat and Florida state law prohibits contact with a Class I cat. Der Spiegel reported that the cat weighed 100 lbs at the time. Anyone could have reached out and been bitten in the following scenes that occurred at the Gretchen Everhart School in Tallahassee, FL on Nov. 2, 2005. The bigger issue here however is the message being conveyed. Telling children that big cats make bad pets while walking them on leashes and bottle feeding them in front of everyone is not only a hypocritical message, but also does nothing to teach children about the true nature of these animals in the wild. No wonder so many people are mauled and killed each year when they see this sort of activity. More on the number of people mauled and killed here: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/big_cat_news.htm

    Florida boasts the best laws in the nation regarding captive wildlife, but they can't be everywhere preventing this sort of activity and when they do discover it, there is little they are willing to do about it because there is no where for the animals to go and if they confiscate and kill it is political suicide.

    Italicized words are not Gloria's.

    

    The following are Gloria's own words about how she came to own these cats and what her attitudes are toward those who would stop the breeding, buying and selling of exotic cats.

    From: GJPanthergirl@
    Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2005 12:05 PM
    To: MakeADifference@BigCatRescue.org
    Subject: Confusion and Frustration

    
    Dear Carol,

    After I spent most of the afternoon thinking and writing to you, I turned on the TV just in time (by accident) to see "growing up tiger" about a sanctuary out west somewhere and it documented the 2 babies from birth to their first birthday. The husband/wife team just talked documentary style while the babies ran around the house or took bottles. The tears poured down my face as I remembered how many times that was me - I just can't seem to let go - right now if I were to be honest with you I would tell you that what would make me the happiest person would be to have some tiger babies toraise. Its the empty nest syndrome I guess. I literally feel it in my stomach and ache for a baby.

    When the show was over I pulled out my own video of Sasha and Sergei, just one pair of the many tigers that have lived with me. It was an hour long and it upset me when it was supposed to bring happy memories. I miss them so much. Carol, I can't let go! I'm not Christian, although I am religious, and that bond that is formed when those little babies are in my arms, to me, is something god-given. It transcends all that is material in this world. Yes, it even transcends love between a man and woman. (Feeling that, that is why my man of 11 years broke up with me)

    Okay, now I've purged a little and cried a little over my coffee, I feel a bit better. Thanks for listening, I know you understand. What really set me off this morning (I slept until 10:30!), was, after going out to say good morning to Sugar and Lakota as I always do even before dressing or making coffee, I then got the Sunday paper. I read about St. Francis Wildlife Refuge raising $28,000 at an event last night! It made me sick. In this town people just blindly give St. Francis support when all they know is that he (Jon) saves wounded wild animals (squirrels, skunks, raccoons, ducks, baby birds, turtles, etc., etc, but mostly birds). Last year when I desperately needed some money I worked for him (he's 10 minutes or less away). I was appalled!! Half the birds in outdoor "huts" (all dark, no sunlight) are completely rehabilitated, can fly perfectly and should have been released ages ago.

    Inside the place is filthy, when I picked up an aquarium full of hatchlings to eye-dropper feed them, underneath were, I swear, hundreds of german cockroaches. They even crawled up my arms. Every cage and every pile of newspaper for lining the cages is swarming in roaches. When we washed the towels in hot water and bleach it didn't even kill them. They just jumped right out when you got the towels out for the dryer. He has domestic dogs and cats that belong with the Humane Society. I've been in the cages with the dogs, they're healthy, playful and friendly. He's always crying for money and giving fundraisers where he brings birds of prey and people just fork out the money. If they would just go and look they would probably file complaints.

    I can't get any recognition for what I do . Yes, I admit this is partly jealousy, but its just not fair and there's not a thing I can do about it. If I came out, by name, with bad words about St. Francis all of Tallahassee would hate me. (Jon didn't even send me my last pay check after asking twice I gave up). This is a good example of the press screwing things up, they "slant" him to be a "savior."

    When I was just learning from Baudy and there were "glamorous photos" of a blonde with full grown tigers, they did an article on the Sunday front page and inside were about 8 full color large photos - this was nothing more than "Lobbyist falls for Big Cats." (the title proves it was for puresensationalism) I didn't have Cougar Ridge Center then, which hasa real purpose! Sure people tell me its wonderful what I'm doing, but can I get any press coverage now to start raising funds? Hell No!

    GLORIA

    2/28/06 Gloria emailed saying "You took a photo of me and "Nadia" in a lovely pose, and in big bold letters with an arrow, said NOTE TIGER CHAINED DOWN. You know that is a lie. That was simply her hook from her collar to her leash which was in my hand." Note: USDA's policy does not consider a leash to be a proper restraint.Pound for pound a tiger is 12 times stronger than a man. She went on to say, " It's time Carole, remove that crap, ALL OF IT ABOUT ME, or you will pay the consequences."
    

    Where did all of those tigers she raised end up? The above was a letter she sent me just before she went out and got Casanova She said she had to sell her car because she can't make ends meet, but took in a cat that will cost her 8,000. a year to care for if she does it right. Where will these cats go when she can no longer care for them?

    Poster Child for those who circumvent pet laws by getting a USDA license

    The Christian Science Monitor

    
    By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor August 31, 2006

    The grainy picture, taken at a private wild-animal park, shows a girl reaching out to pet, or grab, the tail of a full-grown leopard. How will the leopard react?
    As the debate over private ownership of exotic pets intensifies in the US, attention is also beginning to fall on private wildlife exhibits that display "big cats" like lions, tigers, and leopards.

    TIGER HUG: Gloria Johnson with Casanova at her Havana, Fla., farm.

    As states ban private custody of exotic pets, some owners seek USDA licenses.

    PHIL COALE/AP/FILE

    Licensed by the US government, these parks are required to put "significant barriers" between visitors and big cats. But there's enough gray area in the law so that some facilities permit close contact with the animals, including touching them - sometimes with tragic results.

    In the year since 17-year-old Haley Hilderbrand was fatally mauled while posing for her senior photo with a leashed tiger at a Kansas wild-animal park, pressure has grown at federal and state levels to explicitly ban public contact with big cats at facilities that are licensed and regulated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

    In April, Kansas became the first state to ban direct contact between humans and potentially dangerous animals at wildlife exhibits. It also joined 21 states that prohibit private ownership of certain big cats.

    Last month, Rep. Jim Ryun (R) of Kansas introduced legislation in Congress to beef up the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which governs animal safety at USDA-regulated facilities. His bill would prohibit direct contact between big cats and the public and require the USDA to write public-safety regulations for exhibitor licensees.

    Activists say AWA rules are too weak to ensure that the animals are securely kept and well maintained - or to protect humans from the animals on display. "We're not even that critical of the USDA because it doesn't really have the authority it needs to deal with the public-safety problem," says Greg Wetstone of International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a Yarmouth Port, Mass., animal rights group.

    About 5,000 lions, tigers, and other big cats are kept by nearly 700 USDA big-cat licensees in the United States. Someone seeking a license to exhibit tigers is subject to requirements similar to those for someone seeking a goat license, IFAW reported last week, after a year-long investigation of such facilities.

    As a result, in states where private ownership of exotic animals is banned, people can legally keep their animals by getting a USDA license as an exhibitor. In a rising number of cases, license applicants are mom-and-pop outfits building animal collections.

    "These animals are dangerous, and it takes a lot to contain and feed them," says Mr. Wetstone of the IFAW, which included in its report the grainy photo of the girl touching the leopard. "So some folks decide to make a few bucks and escape state rules barring them as pets. They go get a USDA license."

    The IFAW report - which looked at 42 wild-animal exhibits in 11 states, all USDA-licensed - cites these problems.

    • Most of these big-cat facilities are "structurally unsound."

    • Most allow public contact between people and big cats.

    • "Vermin and grossly inadequate sewage disposal" are often evident. Meat fed to big cats is often rotten.

    • Many facilities have no attendants at big-cat exhibits, and some "allowed children to work as attendants."

    In the past decade, there have been 13 big-cat-related incidents in Florida, 12 in Texas, six in California, and five each in Illinois, Nevada, Minnesota, and Kansas. Since 1990, 13 people have died in these incidents, IFAW says.

    A USDA spokesman says AWA regulations are adequate to keep the public safe and are zealously policed by its team of inspectors.

    "There is no public-safety crisis," says Darby Holladay with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Whenever any incident occurs, the USDA animal-care program looks into it. If there's a possible violation of the Animal Welfare Act, enforcement action is taken."

    The process can be slow. In the case of the park in Kansas where Hilderbrand was mauled, the USDA has yet to decide on whether to revoke the operator's big-cat license.

    Critics of the IFAW report say it fails to deliver specific violations at specific facilities. "I don't think it's a well-informed report," says Marcus Cook, spokesman for the Feline Conservation Federation, which represents big-cat exhibitors. "If they know something, let's report it. If you've got a valid complaint, let's make it to the USDA. Don't just throw a bunch of numbers out there."

    An IFAW member says the group has more than 2,000 photos documenting the violations cited in its report. "Our staff member was at [one] facility when a leopard bit the finger off an untrained worker," says Josephine Martell, a principal author of the report. "You can't just say, 'here's the tiger. Take care of him. I'm going to get some coffee.' But that's what's happening."

    On Dec. 4, 2006 Der Spiegel used Gloria Johnson as an example of how Americans expose school children to deadly animals in the name of education. More Here

    From her wish list on her web site as the thing she most wants:

    Wish List as of 1/06:

    • Our first goal is to get a new Florida Panther baby (cost $500-$1000) . This will also require funding for food, vitamins and medical care.

    No reputable person would be breeding and selling baby Florida Panthers so to have what she wants she will have to support the pet trade.

    Gloria was appointed to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Captive Wild Animal Technical Assistance Group. Her quote from the first day of sessions sums up the attitude of the majority of the committee when she said in defense of creating regulations that would serve her and other exotic animal owners and violate the publics' safety, "We shouldn't have to cow-tow to the public."

    From: GJPanthergirl@
    Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2005 9:12 PM
    To: MakeADifference@

    
    Subject: Re: FWC letter
    

    BTW, all State Agencies promulate their own rules by Adivosry committee advice or testimony from the public. If there is a committee I will do everything to be on it. I think the makeup should be a majority of animal people. The general public knows squat about these important issues !

    GLORIA JOHNSON

    From: GJPanthergirl@
    Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 12:41 PM
    To: MakeADifference@
    Subject: Re: Baby lion

    
    Carole, I don't see anything bad in this story. We all know that these cats are extremely fragile, more so than domestic cats and we all have lost one (or more) before despite our best efforts. I'm finding myself spending hours trying to "read between the lines" on what you want. True you did send me rules with supposed Big Cat Rescue suggestions. But those suggestions were already law. After I saw a few like that I didn't finish reading because it was too confusing. I'm having to guess where you want to go and that is a waste of time.

    What if we don't agree at all? Do you still want to sit down with me? I believe in compromise and get the impression that you are a caring individual capable of it. But also, I know many "animal rights activists" who you can talk to until you're blue in the face and it is a total waste of time. Please don't take offense, try to put yourself in my shoes. I just need concrete statements of what you want todo/change. Could you just send me a simple list. Forget about Rule or Statute numbers just tell me simply: I want: - this - this and - this. And then we will really know if we are on the same page.

    I'm starting to have some concerns. I definitely will not condone anything that is a "ban". Also, you will feel much better if you stop focusing on the sensationalism of news articles. Get out and find all the many, many people like me who love and enrich their animals lives.

    

    These animals have wild instincts but they are not wild animals. There is an important distinction here.

    p.s. I don't know Marcus Cook, but I do know that all little babies rub their noses against the walls and look "beat up". This happens even when their in their home cat-a-tats. Its a baby thing and they obviously don't hurt themselves because they do it again. FCF does many wonderful things to help teach and actually work in native lands to preserve endangered species.

    GLORIA

    She was referring to this photo that she defended.

    Lakota's Courage

    by Gloria Johnson

    My 4 year old female cougar, Ashukalee (Sugar) was very sick as a baby and was never socialized (by my choice) to do public appearances away from home. Therefore to do the educational programs I so wanted I needed a baby. This is why I came to own Lakota. He came from C.W. Wathen's Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia .

    When I first saw him, he seemed so fragile I was almost afraid to pick him up. It was as if I'd never done this before. Lakota was only 4 weeks old - so young! This was my baby and I would not be giving him back as I do the tigers I work with for Robert Baudy. I had also never had a single baby. With no sibling, he looked to me for everything. And I fell into a paranoid "new mom" syndrome that had me stressed at every hiccup. Fortunately I had friends from the FCF, like Bobbie and Jessica Bean, Mindy Stinner, Lynn Culver and Tracy Wilson, who were always there to take my calls and reassure me.

    He was a happy baby, playful and energetic and very affectionate and as the weeks passed, I saw him change quickly. He came home with little nubby ears, like a teddy bear. Soon afterwards his ears were bigger than him! At 7 lbs. he ruled the roost. Since he had proved he knew how to use the litter box, I let him roam the house. He loved my house cats and he loved to sleep with me.

    Lakota was very smart. His bottles were heated in the microwave and any time he heard it beep he would come running in anticipation of food. He took to the harness and leash very easily and fell in love with Sugar when he met her.

    Our first visit to a school was to a private school for gifted children - the brightest of the bright. I was as very nervous but they were warm, polite and helpful and he was very well behaved and sweet. He got in my lap and hung his little paws over my knee and watched them all very fascinated. I left so fulfilled! They made me feel so appreciated and they understood the message I was trying to share with them. I received the most beautiful thank you letters too.

    Our next class visit would require a three hour drive and an overnight stay. My mother went with us to help drive. The previous April I had been diagnosed with a broken L5 vertebrae and was healing from a bone graft and I still was having severe and constant pain. This appearance would involve about 5 times as many students as our first time but also went very well.

    After my surgery in April, it had been Sugar who inspired me to get out of bed. Pain was relentless. It was worse than before the surgery. The only thing that gave me any solace was to lie with her. To be close to her, to feel her warmth and hear her purr, as if she knew I was in pain and not feel I was a burden to her as I felt I was to all of the people in my life. But try as I might I felt myself slipping quickly into the deep depression that comes from chronic pain. I was definitely at the end of my rope. Yet I kept trying to keep up with my school programs, training of Lakota and writing my book which has been purchased by Lyons Press. I had responsibilities that must be met for my life to be complete. But truthfully, I didn't know if I could. Even in the best of times pain was stealing all of my joy.

    In November the annual Thomasville Plantation Wildlife Arts Show was coming to Georgia . Mark Kelso, one of my favorite painters, would stay with me so he could photograph and sketch Sugar and Lakota. C.W. would also stay with me because he was providing all the animals for Jim Fowler and I would help C.W. take care of and show the animals. I would once again be reunited with my favorite white tiger who used to sleep in my bed, but was now 350 lbs. I should have been thrilled, but wrenching pain just the week before had me on the floor in tears wondering how I would ever manage to perform all the duties of hostess, animal keeper, trainer, exhibitor and teacher. I prayed this weakness would pass and I would find the old me again. All of my guests arrived as planned and the first day showing the animals with Jim Fowler was a huge success. As Jim spoke C.W. and I arose out of the ground on a rising stage behind him in with surprise animals. The white tiger, of course, was the exciting finale!

    According to an email that Linda Hunnicutt sent out by accident to the entire Yahoo list (when she thought she was only sending it to a friend of hers named Karen) Gloria Johnson is the person responsible for funding a web site that is devoted entirely to disseminating false and misleading information about Big Cat Rescue. The following is the entirety of that email: end #mainContent

    ----- Original Message -----

    From: lndmonk@aol.com

    To: monkeyyardsale@yahoogroups.com

    Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 3:11 PM

    Subject: Re: [monkeyyardsale] Caorle Baskins.

    In a message dated 3/10/06 3:06:36 PM Central Standard Time, lndmonk@aol.com writes:

    No Vernon didn't I did... with Vernons information..lol.... and with all the messages we have sent out, (you and me) she is being removed from the commission board and they will be doing a TV expose' on her next week.. the tv crew is out at Vernons now.. he keeps calling me and having me speak to the reporter on behalf of simply simian... so we are in the forefront anyway.... Gloria is the one that wanted the website.. she is our ace in the hole, a professional lobbyist.. doing a crack up job at it too.. and she is thinking we are angels as we put that site up for her.. she was supposed to send you a check for the cost a few days ago.. so when you get it that is what it is for... not a membership... from Gloria Johnson...

    I thought this was going to Karen please you guys keep this quiet...

    Monkey Transport Fund ( March 2006)
    SIMPLY SIMIAN INC.
    
    Repo-Pac
    
    Grannys against Peta
    Warrior Grannys strike against Peta.

    Check for yourself to see if Gloria Johnson meets the sanctuary standards for an accredited animal refuge.

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• Phoenix Exotics Part 5 Phoenix Exotics Part 5

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    From: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    [mailto:Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob Nevin #bios
    Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:04 AM
    To: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin: Video of ShereKhan free

    This leads me to believe that Carol is mis informing the public so that she can set the rules of owning exotics on her terms as other groups like PETA and HSUS are doing.

    THEREFORE we must resolve an action that we as a group must stand up together to
    fight off these vicious lies and mis information and to band together to help
    those folks (NOT FIGHT AGAINST) who are at risk for having their animals taken
    away and fight against laws banning or highly restricting exotic animals.

    Why in the world are we not suing PETA and Carol for making up lies? funny but I
    feel like we are getting walked over and stomped on. Are there any Legal Eagles
    out there that can come up with some way to shut these organizations down?

    

    From: "Z" < tigers9@...
    Date: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:56 pm
    Subject: RE: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin: Video of ShereKhan free zbrubruff

    Just not to create confusion, the tape was made at Carol's place,Wildliofe
    on easy Street,NOT Dennis place one week after Carol got ShereKhan from
    Dennis. SK is obviously normally behaved healthy tiger cub.
    Z

    

    
    From: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    [mailto:Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bob Nevin
    Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:04 AM
    To: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin: Video of ShereKhan free

    I got the video from Z and I thank you. I see someone who is playing with SK

    (for short) as a cub in a small water tub. Cubs are different from adults duh but in my humble opinion this animal not a candidate for removal from the property unless the rescuers and prove without a reasonable doubt (my grandfather was a municipal judge) that the cats where mistreated in any way

    shape or form and given adequate care and security. From what I saw in this tape I saw a person playing with a cub more gently and caring than an adult mother tiger would. This leads me to believe that Carol is mis informing the public so that she can set the rules of owning exotics on her terms as other groups like PETA and HSUS are doing.

    THEREFORE we must resolve an action that we as a group must stand up together to fight off these vicious lies and mis information and to band together to help those folks (NOT FIGHT AGAINST) who are at risk for having their animals taken away and fight against laws banning or highly restricting exotic animals.

    Why in the world are we not suing PETA and Carol for making up lies? Funny but I feel like we are getting walked over and stomped on. Are there any Legal Eagles out there that can come up with some way to shut these organizations down?

    

    From: "Z" < tigers9@...
    To: <Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 12:04 PM
    Subject: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin: Video of ShereKhan free

    I just made 2MB mpeg video of ShereKhan from Carol's tape Big Cat
    Companions, and who ever wants to see it email me privately and I will
    send it to u so u can see how she is lying on her website. I don't know Dennis
    Hill, but this is disseminating lies against him (in my humble opionion)what
    she is saying on her website .
    All I am interested is the truth, and all u breeders/dealers on this list,
    see this story and be careful who u sell to, money is not everything, u need
    to fight these lies some scamstuaries tell about their animals and how they
    got them.U guys have USDA transfer papers, PROVE it how some sanctuaries
    are buying pets not rescuing, u have the official proof.
    Z
    Tigers9@.. .
    Read and compare with video

    http://www.bigcatrescue.org/big_cat_ news_files/2005/sherekhanownershutdn.htm

    

    From: "Z" < tigers9@...
    Date: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:18 am
    Subject: RE: [Phoenix_Exotics] What's the rest of the story? zbrubruff
    
    I just read what she had to say about Shere Khan on her website, this is the tiger featured in the video I have, Big Cat Companions that Carol and Don used to sell back then.
    They show tiger on the tape, tiger looks great, they say they just got him a week prior making this tape from loving a home and that his 'only' problem was he was biting.

    Then they admit this is their first tiger.Carol and Don obviously had no idea how to train a tiger , it is normal for young animals like this to be biting, but judging/looking at the tape Shere Khan was NOT bad at all. Dennis Hill needs to fight this accusations, using this tape would be a good start,the tape shows that 1 week after arriving to Carol his conditions was great, if he was as sick as carol claims on her website, he codln't look so
    good on the tape, especially since she herself narrates it how loving tiger's previous home was,. Can u please fwd this email to Dennis? If Dennis is bad, carol needs real facts not lies to shut him down
    Zuzana

    

    From: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    [mailto:Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Marsha
    Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 2:36 AM
    To: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [Phoenix_Exotics] What's the rest of the story?

    Carole (Lewis) Baskin of Big Cat Rescue has recently sent out an appeal to shut down Shere Khan's breeder, Dennis Hill of Indiana. Shere Khan arrived at Wildlife on Easy Street as a cub in 1995. He is the star attraction at BCR. I hand fed him a couple of chicken legs back before they started using tongs. WHY the sudden campaign more
    than 10 years later? What's the rest of the story???

    http://www.bigcatrescue.org/big_cat_news_files/2005/sherekhanownershutdn.htm

    

    From: "Gini" < ginival@...
    Date: Sun Jan 8, 2006 6:29 pm
    Subject: Tigers9...Carole Lewis Baskin tape ginigoneape
    
    Could you please copy the tape you speak of and mail it to me? I will be happy to pay you to do this. Carole is here in my area and her 'missing' ex was a friend. I have a file on her and we have been looking for a copy of this tape that she sold along with her book about keeping exotic cats as pets. She is buttering up all the local county commissioners and speaking out against us and we want to be able to show them her true character. Yes, of course people can 'change' but she has so much in her past that accumulatively you have to at least wonder about her credibility and character. Contact me at home please.
    Gini

    

    From: lndmonk@yahoo.com
    Date: Fri Jan 6, 2006 11:09 pm
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Dear Carol of former Wildlife on Easy street lndmonk

    In a message dated 1/6/06 9:22:53 PM Central Standard Time, otaije@...
    writes:

    http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/iss ues/alert/?alertid=8349821&queueid=[capwiz:
    queue_id_

    I did just taht and wrote a letter: copy below:

    Thank you for using Big Cat Rescue Mail System

    Message sent to the following recipients:
    Carole Baskin
    Message text follows:

    Linda Hunnicutt
    secretary
    Simply simian inc
    po box 671
    winnie, TX 77665-0671

    January 6, 2006

    [recipient address was inserted here]

    Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

    Mr. Ken Hagan
    County Commissioner - District 2
    County Center, 2nd Floor
    Tampa, FL 33602

    Dear Commissioner Hagan,

    Please support the proposed rezoning application RZ 06-0115 for Big Cat
    Rescue.

    Carole baskins has used her cats for her own profit for years, she
    threatened to kill her husband who was a millionaire and when he had
    restraining orders put on her he dissappeared? Never to be found yet she
    acquired his estate thoruhg what has been reported as a fake will. she
    has been written up by the USDA for abuse of animals in her care and now
    wants the public support? My God what a lot of nerve..

    Why has her husbands dissappearance never been fully investigated?

    Did the cats eat well in 1997:?

    Thank you for considering my request that support Big Cat Rescue in their
    rezoning application RZ 06-0115.

    Sincerely,

    Linda Hunnicutt
    409 6734891
    secretary
    Simply simian inc

    _Simply~Simian Inc._ ( http://www.simply-simian.com/index.html )

    

    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Z and others re: Carole Lewis Baskins leiloublue

    In a message dated 1/6/2006 2:36:39 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
    ginival@... writes:

    Let's not forget that this self-righteous woman who speaks of ethics and morals is still the main suspect in the 1997 disappearence of her millionnaire husband, Don Lewis who has been declared dead, although his body has never been found. He filed for a restraining order (which was denied) after she threatened to kill him just weeks before he
    disappeared!

    She will blame all her previous breeding and selling for pets on Don, who conveniently isn't here to defend himself, but It was Carole who dealt directly with a local pet shop on buying baby bobs and servals.

    Her website is full of lies about the origin and treatment of her cats as well as her rantings about other private owners, as many of her former volunteers can attest to. If anyone wants to read more on this hypocrite contact me privately.

    

    From: BOB PITT < azooforu@...
    Date: Fri Jan 6, 2006 2:27 pm
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Dear Carol of former Wildlife on Easy street azooforu

    Hell no her ground ain't strong !!! Her whole place is on a former land fill. material still pushes up thru the ground. Call her what she is a slum lord and animal WHORE !!!

    

    --- SOUTHZOO@... wrote:

    I'd say that this "East Coast Tippi" type is quite aware that her transparency would be seen by our group. To take such high moral ground, one would think she'd be first in line to explain to us how wrong we are. Maybe her ground isn't so strong. What
    is it? The truth shall set you free?

    Rhonda

    

    From: Z < tigers9@...
    To: MakeADifference@...;
    info@...
    Cc: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 08:58:03 -0800
    Subject: [Phoenix_Exotics] Dear Carol of former
    Wildlife on Easy street

    Dear Carol, since (in my humble opinion) you happen to be one of the most
    hypocritical&controversial person in exotic animal world, I have been watching you for a while, I remember your "guests sleeping with the big cats for lots of $$$ in your cottages " business venture to your selling horrible quality video tapes on how to breed and raise exotic cats pets ( YES, I own your tape) .

    You bought and bred many exotic cats, you had a volunteer badly injured by leopard in 1998, so I don't understand what made you one day to turn around and become a god and 'non profit rescue' and criticize the rest of us ethical exotic owners. Remember the saying: people who throw rocks shouldn't live in glass houses? You have a very colorful past, not a very good resume for a wannabe preacher.

    And while you criticize others, you have $50 dollars a head feed the tiger business venture http://www.bigcatrescue.org/feeding_tours.htm
    with welded fence (4x4 inch?) where visitors can easily put there hand
    inside the tiger cage during their feeding ? See the video:

    http://www.tampabays10.com/aroundth ebay/aroundthebay_article.aspx?storyid=23
    278

    You criticize Phoenix members, while you yourself keep the animals in cages and engage in activities that can be dangerous and you do it for the entertainment/amusement of people who pay you.

    When we invited you to speak at our Phoenix Exotics Las Vegas meeting this year, this was your reply (posted on our website with your permission):
    http://www.phoenixexotics.org/p2006meeting.html
    CEO of Big Cat Rescue an Educational Sanctuary Home ,Carole Baskin was also invited to be a Guest Speaker for the upcoming 2006 Phoenix exotics Annual Meeting. "Phoenix Exotics has long stood for everything that I oppose when it comes to ethics. I cannot imagine your group would invite me there for anything but a stoning. I speak for the
    animals, not for the selfish people who would breed them for life in cages for their own
    amusement, regardless of their lame justifications for it. "

    Sincerely
    Zuzana Kukol, VP
    www.phoenixexotics.org
    http://www.phoenixexotics.org/

    

    From: lndmonk@aol.com
    To: monkeyyardsale@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 3:11 PM
    Subject: Re: [monkeyyardsale] Caorle Baskins.

    In a message dated 3/10/06 3:06:36 PM Central Standard Time, lndmonk@aol.com writes:
    No Vernon didn't I did... with Vernons information..lol.... and with all the messages we have sent out, (you and me) she is being removed from the commission board and they will be doing a TV expose' on her next week.. the tv crew is out at Vernons now.. he keeps calling me and having me speak to the reporter on behalf of simply simian... so we are in the forefront anyway.... Gloria is the one that wanted the website.. she is our ace in the hole, a professional lobbyist.. doing a crack up job at it too.. and she is thinking we are angels as we put that site up for her.. she was supposed to send you a check for the cost a few days ago.. so when you get it that is what it is for... not a membership... from Gloria Johnson...
    
    I thought this was going to Karen please you guys keep this quiet...

    Monkey Transport Fund ( March 2006)
    SIMPLY SIMIAN INC.
    Repo-Pac
    Grannys against Peta
    Warrior Grannys strike against Peta.

    

    From: "Ray" < rrooney@ucwphilly.rr.com ...
    Date: Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:26 pm
    Subject: Carole Baskin Slams Lion Movie runeraion

    Even South Africa isn't safe from her...

    Inbred Lions Shouldn't Be Glamorized

    I am appalled at the ignorance behind the creation of such a film and those who would support it about how the white lions are produced. If the average person is equally uninformed then this sort of propaganda will surely lead to more suffering as all of the back yard breeders start trying to fill the new need for white lions by inbreeding their cats to the point of deformity and death. To learn more about how the white coats are created in lions and tigers read more at: http://www.bigcatrescue.org/white_tigers.htm

    Carole Baskin, MakeADifference@... [13 Mar 2006 15:26]

    http://www.bizcommunity.com/Content/Comment.aspx?l=196&c=11&cci=22879

    

    From: Bigcats10@aol.com
    Date: Thu Mar 16, 2006 2:35 pm
    Subject: RE; Expose on BCR bigcats10

    Hi Folks,

    An expose on BCR should air tonight at 5pm EST on Baynews9. It could change,
    but as of right now this is the schedule.

    Vicki

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• Phoenix Exotics Part 3 Phoenix Exotics Part 3

  • From: TheirVoice
  • Description:

    From: BOB PITT < azooforu@...
    Date: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:30 pm
    Subject: Re: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] PETA release, circus elephants azooforu
    
    I say screw it !! I'm going after Lisa Wathan
    tomarrow. We'll see what she knows and from where she learned it... PETA is no biggy here, my lane is ½ mile back in the woods and the cats could always use some extra vitamin K in their diet.

    

    --- Ray < rrooney@ucwphilly.rr.com ... wrote:

    None of these people had any real experience when they started. Tippi, Asvestas, Baskin, Quist, the AR people, etc.

    It doesn't take any knowledge or talent to cage up an animal and throw food
    at it and never do anything else with it. Or to issue press releases and say
    how cruel captivity is.

    What's galling is seeing them treated like the ultimate fount of knowledge
    and hearing them damn every other person who has these animals, some of whom
    know a hundred times more.

    Their fallback position is always that the rest are sinners and immoral and
    shouldn't be exploiting and having these animals anyway.

    But nobody in the old media examines _their_ credentials. They take their
    claims as truth and other AR people vouch for them.

    But anyone who opposes them has to prove who they are, get belittled, brushed off, etc.

    Aren't double standards great?

    Ray

    

    From: < tigers9@...
    To: <Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Monday, February 20, 2006 3:03 PM
    Subject: Re: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] PETA release,
    circus elephants

    Well, when u think aboit it what EXPERT credentials do peopel like Baskin
    or Quist have, Quist wnats to enlarge her place and get tigers, but what
    does she REALLY know abouthandlign tigers? Just because she has one old
    tiger, played with few cubs and witnessed few tiger transports???
    These peopel look down onus but we pet owners or trainers withhands one
    with big cats have more experience then peope like Quist.
    Z

    

    
    
    From: "Ray" < rrooney@ucwphilly.rr.com ...
    Date: 2006/02/19 Sun PM 09:09:42 PST
    To: <Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] PETA release,
    circus elephants
    
    I seem to recall looking into her last year and only finding her being an
    expert desk jockey. No actual animal experience and no credentials. Maybe
    well-read, maybe not. Just a long history with every AR group. They seem
    to share her or something.
    
    Like some celebrities who are famous for being famous (Paris Hilton) these
    experts are "experts" because they say they are and others say they are.
    
    Ray

    

    From: "chimps" < chimps@...
    Date: Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:47 pm
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] FL: Carole's take on Saturday luvgr8apes
    
    Too funny, Linda! <big grin ;)

    I was set up by several of the protesters.. One a blonde which I will not mention her name faked herself off to me as Carole Baskins asking me what I had in my car and did I have a monkey in there.. I caught myself and just uttered a couple of profane words and walked away.. lol.... Then of course Vernon just had to try to make me use the more gutter lingo which I happen to know quite well on occasion by telling me that we had a little problem, my monkey which was in his wifes care had opened the cage and was up in a tree.

    

    From: Linda Hunnicutt
    To: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:54 PM
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] FL: Carole's take on Saturday

    I was there and only saw about 3 cars go into the Cat Rescue. I did see the
    fake Bill Clinton emerge and he did look like the real thing, only thing was
    missing was his girlfriends dress did not have the stains on it.....! And he
    was not smoking a cigar. Now as far as us doing her a favor? Don' t think so.
    Even one of the candidates for office read our literature and grabbed a sign
    with us. Yep that is true. have photos to prove it. I have never seen such a
    populated area to have a Big Cat rescue located in. It amazed me to think of
    her telling legislators how dangerous a cat in the back yard is and how it could
    hurt the public yet she is right there in the middle of restaurants and malls
    and she has had an escape.. And she had no news coverage either.. Except for the
    TampaTribune was called about the fire truck and Ambulance that drove in there
    with lights flashing and sirens going? Never did find out about that either?&nb
    from harrassing her took the flyers and eased up on us after getting a glance at
    that information.

    All in all it was a good demonstration other than the fact my temper was
    already known and I was set up by several of the protesters.. One a blonde which
    I will not mention her name faked herself off to me as Carole Baskins asking me
    what I had in my car and did I have a monkey in there.. I caught myself and just
    uttered a couple of profane words and walked away.. lol.... Then of course
    Vernon just had to try to make me use the more gutter lingo which I happen to
    know quite well on occasion by telling me that we had a little problem, my
    monkey which was in his wifes care had opened the cage and was up in a tree. Of
    course that didn't phase me a bit.. Yeah right. Well they got me pretty good and
    learned a few new words I suspect..lol.

    It was a fabulous occasion as far as I was concerned, I got to put faces
    with names and learned there are a lot of very dedicated people working to
    prevent our losing our animals and made me even more determined to do the most
    that is possible with what we have to work with. There will be a next time
    with more time to prepare and we will expose her to the people who seem to be
    blind to her shortcommings.

    Keep tuned in folks it ain't over till the fat lady sings and I haven't even
    taken the first voice lesson yet....Linda

    

    From: Tim Stoffel < tim@...
    Date: Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:07 am
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Re: Carole Baskin/Lewis ?from year 2000 timbalionguy

    On Sat, 2006-02-18 at 18:27 -0500, Ray wrote:

    The game is played this way: demonize your opponents to keep people from supporting them. Teach them that they are nuts, sickos, etc. That keeps people from coming together to fight you.

    It's worked for thousands of years.

    And this is about the only sure-fire thing that will work against AR.

    For the lions,
    Tim Stoffel

    

    From: Tim Stoffel < tim@...
    Date: Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:57 am
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carole- BCR comments back at us in Business week timbalionguy
    
    On Thu, 2006-02-16 at 23:56 -0500, SOUTHZOO@... wrote:
    _http://app.businessweek.com/UserComments/get_revi ews?productId=3163_
    (http://app.businessweek.com/UserComments/get_revi ews?productId=3163)

    Nickname: Carole Baskin CEO Big Cat Rescue
    Review: While those who own exotic animals often claim to love them as they would their own children, I don't think they would agree that children should be bred for the amusement of others, kept in cages and then auctioned off to the highest bidder or abandoned when the family's situation changes.

    I wonder if Carole loves any of her animals? If someone walked in there and killed half of her cats, I bet her response wouldn't be 'good riddance'!

    What these people love is the attention that their pets solicit for them. The question is not: Can some people provide a proper home? but is: Should countless animals have to suffer so that the very few can have them as pets?

    She's probably one of those that believe that 90 percent of exotic animals die in the first two years.

    For the lions,
    Tim Stoffel

    

    From: Tim Stoffel < tim@...
    Date: Tue Feb 14, 2006 3:38 am
    Subject: RE: [Phoenix_Exotics] CWPA Deadline is March 2 timbalionguy
    
    HOW DO WE GET THIS CAT-MURDERER TO SHUT UP? She sounds just like someone else we know.

    BTW, how did the protest go outside her place a couple days back?

    For the lions (who I hope aren't found in her place),
    Tim Stoffel

    

    From: "Z" < tigers9@...
    Date: Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:39 pm
    Subject: RE: [Phoenix_Exotics] CWPA Deadline is March 2 zbrubruff

    Carol Baskin is urging people to remove USDA exemptions.
    Z
    http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alert id=8445421
    <http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?a lertid=8445421&type=ML
    &type=ML

    Stop Interstate Sale of Big Cats as Pets
    After his pet tiger escaped and was shot Tarzan was able to get a 40.00 USDA
    permit to buy more baby tigers. Please help us stop this sort of insanity.

    In 2003 a law was passed that made it illegal to sell big cats across state
    lines as pets but the law lacked the technical teeth to be enforced. The
    Senate unanimously passed S.1415 to correct that flaw last year but the
    House hasn't adopted the language yet and time is running out. Despite the
    House not doing their part to end this dangerous activity, the US Fish and
    Wildlife Service has proposed rules that would help end the trade in big
    cats, and they are considering input until March 2, 2006. Their proposal has
    some flaws that you can help us fix. One flaw is that anyone with a 40.00
    permit from USDA is exempt. Please Take Action by and let your government
    know this is important to you.
    To read the entire proposed Rule go here:
    http://www.bigcatrescue.org/laws/2006FederalRegist er.htm but be sure to
    come back here to help us with your brief letter.
    http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alert id=8445421
    <http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?a lertid=8445421&type=ML
    &type=ML

    

    From: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    [mailto:Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ray
    Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 11:46 AM
    To: Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [Phoenix_Exotics] CWPA Deadline is March 2

    From Captain West:

    All,

    I have attached a Federal Register notice regarding the federal Captive Wildlife Safety Act and the US Fish and Wildlife Service's interpretation of its content. We will not meet as a group before the closing date for comments which is on March 2nd, 2006 so please accept this as an FYI and comment personally to the USFWS if you desire.

    See you at the next meeting.

    John
    Captain John D. West
    Division of Law Enforcement
    Investigations Section
    "Patrol, Protect, Preserve"
    (850) 488-6253
    E-mail: John.West@...
    Website: www.MyFWC.Com

    

    From: "Ray" < rrooney@ucwphilly.rr.com ...
    Date: Sun Feb 12, 2006 4:12 pm
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin runeraion
    
    Y'know, I was so busy yesterday I forgot about the protest.

    There isn't a word about it in the media.

    

    From: "Heather M" < grizzly_bear_mom@...
    To: <phoenix_exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 10:55 AM
    Subject: [Phoenix_Exotics] Carol Baskin

    What ever happened at the protest yesterday? Also, I toured her facility
    a few weeks ago what a wreck, I cant believe the State of Florida and the
    USDA allows her caging.
    Hog rings!! I wouldn't house large hook bills in caging secured with hog
    rings. There is no way these cages meet the structural sound criteria of
    the state of Florida. .
    Who is she to criticize anyone? Heather

    

    From: "Ray" < rrooney@ucwphilly.rr.com ...
    Date: Thu Feb 9, 2006 8:49 pm
    Subject: Re: Fw: [Phoenix_Exotics] I need something cleared up Regarding our posts runeraion

    But the state could pass some laws covering sales to the public so this
    bears watching.

    And fighting.

    Unconstitutional laws get passed all the time. They get enforced until
    someone stands up and makes an example of themselves in court.

    Never say never.

    Ray

    

    From: < Bigcats10@aol.com
    To: <Phoenix_Exotics@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 7:16 PM
    Subject: Re: Fw: [Phoenix_Exotics] I need something cleared up Regarding our
    posts

    In a message dated 2/9/2006 2:52:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
    ARIGERMAN@... writes:

    as for possible new law, i have already lobbied the group that counts FWC
    uit does not wanr it and it will work through legislative people

    Exactly, and FWC has full authority to regulate exotic wildlife.

    The proposed action is listed on Ms. Baskin's website which was initiated
    by her.
    _http://www.bigcatrescue.org/blog.htm_
    (http://www.bigcatrescue.org/blog.htm)

    

    From: "Bob Nevin" < bob@...
    Date: Thu Feb 9, 2006 2:32 pm
    Subject: Re: [Phoenix_Exotics] Florida iluvclydesda...
    
    What's the deal with these people?!

    We had a 10' boa constrictor or python for a 6th grade classroom pet in
    Elementary school and no one blinked an eye. Now if your neighbor has one
    people freak!! More small pets get squashed by cars than get swallowed by a
    pet snake. Give me a break. Oh now I see they want to lump in other exotics
    in as well.

    This society has gotten so into safety and sterilization, its driving me
    nuts! Here is the latest safety craze at my supermarket, seat belts for the
    shopping carts - required!!! ugh

    One thing I need to stress regarding this bill is the breeding situation.
    Banning breeding will highly limit the amount of genetic diversity in an
    animal population. Though controls can be made so that the animal breed
    doesn't overpopulate, banning breeding outright will not fix the problem.
    Banning the sale of such animals will also not solve the problem and
    actually make it more difficult to for state animal control officers to
    enforce. All this would just go underground and there will be a huge lack of
    control on the breeding because it will go undocumented just as there is in
    drug trafficking.

    I know I'm preaching to the choir but want to give my thanks to lndmonk for
    bringing this to our attention.

    I will send my 2 cents to the Governor and state congress people ASAP even
    though I'm not from Florida.

    -Bob
    (Its my God Given right to responsibly own a lion and support those who do.)

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