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Big Cat Attacks 2008 Big Cat Attacks 2008
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December 26, 2008 Mexico City, Mexico: Lions and tigers were confiscated during drug raid. A gardener detained along with more than a dozen members of an alleged drug trafficking ring testified that police threatened him to feed him to lions and tigers during a raid at a Mexico City mansion. The gardener, Fernando Maya, testified that police dragged him to cages with lions and tigers and threatened to throw him inside. "They kept saying, where is he? And that they were going to throw me to the lions, they were going to throw me to the tigers, which had not eaten." Eleven Colombians, a U.S. citizen, two Mexicans an Uruguayan were detained in the raid. Prosecutors said the gang allegedly arranged for cocaine shipments from Colombia to Mexico's Beltran Levya cartel.
December 9, 2008 Albion, IN: Noble County 911 Director Mitch Fiandt said an18-year-old female tiger escaped from the Black Pine Animal Park. Park officials say the tiger returned to the property 8 hours later and was back in its enclosure about an hour after that. An Albion firefighter alerted authorities after spotting the tiger on his property. Authorities shot the tiger with a tranquilizer, but were not immediately able to capture it.
December 8, 2008 Hamilton TWP, NJ: Santa Claus bit by pet bobcat in Petsmart. Scratches and bites cover the hand and arm of Jonathan Bebbington, after being mauled by a pet bobcat who was brought to Petsmart for a photo session. Bebbington says, "It hurt, it had a lot of power in its jaws." He struggled to control the cat for nearly 5 minutes while it bit him repeatedly. "He locked on here, grabbed the skin," he says as he points to his left hand. The cat's owner left after the incident without providing her name, though she did tell volunteers with Penny Angel's Beagle Rescue, which ran the event, that she had it shipped from Wyoming for $1,500. It is illegal to own a bobcat in New Jersey and allegedly this owner was keeping hers tethered in yard. There have been other cases of bobcats in South Jersey, including Mr. Peepers at the Cape May County Park Zoo, which was rescued from Bridgeton. Anyone with information about the bobcat or its owner should call the Atlantic County Division of Public Health at (609) 645 5931.
December 6, 2008 Wisconsin Dells, WI: Alan Borud was greeted by a 50 lb Siberian Lynx in his yard. Borud watched as the cat came up on the porch, stood on its hind legs, at which point it was about chest high to Borud, and looked in the window. He called DNR who took the cat to a local humane society. Big Cat Rescue called the authorities and offered a home to the cat, but Derick Duane of the McKenzie Wildlife Center said the owner was coming to retrieve her. They have had issues with this owner before, and have taken our name as a placement option if the owner cannot keep the Siberian Lynx contained. An anonymous tipster said the owner bought this cat and her mate in MO and then raised them as pets. When the cats reached about a year of age, the male began attacking the husband and son in the family and both the male and female were said to have been turned loose on purpose. No one has caught the male, and the owner denies that there ever was a male cat and denies that he turned this female loose.
December 1, 2008 Cass, WVa: Davide Cassell killed his pet tiger today said Hoy Murphy, spokesman for the state Division of Natural Resources. Murphy said the snowmaking crew at Snowshoe Mountain Resort saw the big cat on Monday morning. Cassell, who works at Mountain Lodge on Snowshoe Mountain, was trying to find the animal and tranquilize it, but ended up killing the cat instead. Cassell had a permit for the animal. In May 2006, an Asian brown bear owned by Cassell escaped and the 400-pound bear was not seen again.
November 27, 2008 Kansas City, KS: An exotic African cat (a Serval) roaming a Kansas City neighborhood has been shot and killed by police. Residents worried the cat was dangerous to children. But efforts to trap it over several weeks were unsuccessful, and an officer shot it Thursday with a patrol rifle. Police think the cat was dumped or had escaped from people who were keeping it as a pet. The identity of the owners is not known.
November 26, 2008 Harrisburg, PA: A Chester County farm caretaker says he thought he was shooting a bobcat in the chicken coop -- then his heart sank when he saw it had a collar. The animal he killed was a Serval cat that someone was keeping as a pet. Heim says once he realized he'd shot a pet, he was sad for the animal -- and angry at its owner for allowing it to be out.
November 19, 2008 Columbus, GA: Wildlife officials say a cougar killed at West Point Lake was an illegal pet. The 140-pound, 88-inch cat was shot by deer hunter David Adams of Newnan on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land near the Georgia-Alabama border. Officials said the cat had not been living on wild game and had callouses indicative of living on concrete her whole life.
November 17, 2008 Miami, FL: A 16-year-old girl mauled by a 150-pound cougar required more than two hours of surgery to repair a large gash in the back of her neck suffered when the animal clenched its powerful jaws around her head. "It's really a miracle that she's alive," said a family spokesman. Because the male cougar, named Chaos, was declawed, the girl did not suffer scratches to her face or body. Saturday's attack was witnessed by the girl's mother, who had brought her daughter to work cleaning out cages at a private wild animal sanctuary in a North Miami-Dade home to earn community service hours required to graduate from high school. The cougar lunged at the teen in the yard of the home of Alan Rigerman who keeps the animals at his home in the 17900 block of Northwest 84th Avenue. Rigerman owns a second cougar, snakes, tortoises and alligators. The girl and her mother had been brought to the home by Anthony Zitnick, 21, who after the attack was arrested on a charge of burglary of an occupied dwelling. Rigerman told The Miami Herald that Zitnick entered the property with a key he had given him after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but that Zitnick only helped with the animals while under Rigerman's "supervision." Zitnick casually knew the girl's mother and had asked her if any of her children would be interested in the nonpaying job. The girl and her mother had no idea Mr. Zitnick did not belong on the premises, which they entered with a key.
Chaos got agitated, suddenly lurched and pinned the girl, and put his mouth around her head. A neighbor who heard the girl's screams jumped over the fence and helped free her from Chaos' jaws by punching the animal in the face. At the time of Saturday's attack, Rigerman was out of town at a reptile show in Tampa. Rigerman often attends public meetings of Florida's Wildlife Conservation Commission praising them for their lax regulations and enforcement and opposing new rules that would curb his behavior. He has publicly threatened other attendees who favor tougher regulations.
November 16, 2008 Luray, VA: A 15 year old keeper lost her finger to a 5 year old tiger named Star at the Luray Zoo located at 1087 US Hwy 211 West, in Luray, Virginia 22835 owned by Mark Kilby and Jennifer Westhoff. She was showing off and petting the cat in front of visitors at the time. The Page County Sheriff's Office says the girl's finger was amputated as result of a tiger bite. The private zoo's web page is covered in pictures of people petting exotic cats and behaving recklessly. The Luray Zoo has frequently employed people as young as 14, said Kilby. It is a violation of VA's Dept. of Labor laws that teens under 18 work in any "occupation that exposes them to a recognized hazard capable of causing serious physical injury or death." Kilby declined to discuss whether the zoo carries insurance for such attacks. Besides the tiger, the zoo's 37 mammals include five other breeds of what Kilby terms "big cats" - two lynxes, one serval and one bobcat.
November 14, 2008 Camperdown, So. Africa: 12 lions escaped the Lion Park after a storm downed the fences. Ten lions have been recaptured and are being kept in cages, while two others are still roving about the reserve. "Two lions were found at the front gate [of the park] and this was when we first became aware that the others might have escaped," Boswell said. A search party of about 20 Lion Park staff members, a helicopter pilot and a district official from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) conservation authority searched for the remaining 10 lions throughout the morning. The police and the EKZNW officials were notified, but were asked NOT to alert the public of the potential danger lurking in the tall grass. Boswell said that the park did not want to involve the public because they did not wish to cause public panic.
November 13, 2008 Singapore: Three white tigers mauled Nordin Bin Montong, 32, a Malaysian working as a cleaner at the zoo, to death after the man jumped into their enclosure. "Keepers managed to separate the worker from the tiger. While waiting for the ambulance, our vets attended to him," said Guha. "The worker
tragically succumbed to his wound." Nordin was seen behaving in an agitated manner before he fell into the moat. Terrified visitors near the section watched the vicious attack in horror and screamed, the paper said. Aziz Ansari, 16, a student, filmed the initial part of the horrific attack with his handphone. The video clip showed Mr Nordin's desperate fight to save himself, first by trying to get up and back into the moat, then by kicking one of the two tigers.
November 11, 2008 Mexico City, Mexico: A tiger escaped from an unlocked cage at a commercial zoo and fatally mauled its caretaker before it was captured and killed. State officials said that Bioparque Estrella had closed Monday when the tiger escaped his unlocked cage and fatally attacked 26-year-old Herminio Rodriguez Palma. Some 150 police officers and zoo veterinarians began an intense search for the tiger at the 740-acre wild animal park in the countryside northwest of Mexico City. Mexico has had problems with dangerous animals escaping from their caretakers recently. In September, a five-ton elephant got away from his trainer at a circus, wandered onto a highway outside Mexico City and was fatally hit by a bus. The bus driver also was killed. Three tigers escaped from a circus truck and took shelter in a house in western Mexico last week and in August, a 500-pound lion escaped from a local lawmaker's private zoo in southern Mexico, killing two dogs and a pig and attacking a woman and child on a donkey before it was sedated and captured.
November 11, 2008 Maddaloni, Italy: A 700lb Siberian tiger which can grow to 12 feet long prowled the streets of Maddaloni, southern Italy, for more than five hours after escaping the circus.
November 9, 2008 Junsele, Sweden: A keeper was mauled by a white tiger at the zoo. The keeper, who has worked with the zoo's tigers for 16 years, was trapped in a cage with the big cat unti the zoo's owner, Ulf Henriksson lured the tiger away with a piece of meat so rescue workers could get the man out of the cage and into an ambulance. The keeper was bitten in the foot and the shoulder and would be hospitalized for a couple of days to ensure against infection from the wounds, Henriksson said, noting the tiger saw the keeper more as a playmate than a threat.
November 8, 2008 Anchorage, AK: In the past week, three reports of the cat wandering near Fort Richardson and Point Woronzof, some 10 miles apart, have reached Rick Sinnott, Anchorage-area wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The cat's reported spots and size appear to describe the serval, an African wildcat sometimes kept as a "designer" pet, he said. Possessing such an animal is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine, he said.
November 5, 2008 Mexico City, Mexico: A family in Mexico was in shock after finding a tiger, which had escaped from a circus, lying on their patio, police said. The tiger terrified the town of Zitacuaro, in western Michoacan state, as it wandered the streets for an hour and a half before entering a house. The tiger "went through the house and lay down on the patio," the officer said. "The family was terrified and they hid." A total of three tigers escaped from their circus cages when the doors were left open the day before.
November 3, 2008 Ratchaburi: A male Bengal tiger has been on the loose in Ratchaburi since Thursday, when it escaped from its cage at a wildlife research station after attacking a keeper. The tiger, named Silathong, attacked Bunma Thongkerd, at the Khaoson wildlife research centre as he opened the cage for cleaning. Mr Bunma was mauled but survived. The tiger slipped out of the cage and ran off.
October 29, 2008 Broken Arrow, OK: Safari's Interactive Animal Sanctuary is home to 27 big cats. Former keepers have warned for years that the practices there of allowing contact with adult tigers would lead to injuries, escapes and death. SIAS' website is covered in the typically ignorant photos of the President, Lori Ensign Scroggins (ex-wife of Joe Estes who runs Safari Joe's) bottle feeding tigers and walking them on leashes. That kind of irresponsible behavior can only lead to tragedy for humans as well as the animals when they pay the ultimate price. Now the liger named Rocky may be killed for mauling to death a volunteer named Peter Getz who walked in the cage while feeding the cat a deer carcass. The mauling happened in the presence of more than 40 pre schoolers who were ushered away from the scene.
October 29, 2008 Winston, OR: Two cheetahs headed for the Memphis Zoo aboard a Delta flight made a stop at the Atlanta airport where it was discovered one of them had gotten free in the plane. The cheetahs are one-year-old sisters from Wildlife Safari Park in Winston, Oregon.
October 29, 2008Cambridgeshire U.K.:Hamerton Zoo offers 'Face to Face with a Cheetah' sessions but today the face to face happened with a little boy after the Cheetah escaped the zoo. The 6ft long animal was just 15 feet from 9 year oldToby when he spotted it. Toby dropped the bicycle he had been playing with and fled. As he reached the house the three-year-old, 66lb cheetah named Akea bit chunks out of the saddle and ripped the tires with his claws. Toby has since had nightmares over the incident. He said: "I panicked. It looked massive and really scary. I thought it would attack me. I ran as fast as I could."
October 28, 2008 Latham, NY: Many attacks and escapes go unreported as those who deal in exotics do not want the bad press, but they can't help but brag about it on what they think are private chat groups. This was posted on Phoenix Exotics by a breeder of Savannah cats: "Hell I got seriously bitten by a serval and I went to the ER and said I fell out of a tree and landed on barbed wire..." signed Deborah-Ann Milette, The home of the best known Savannah"MOTZIE" In 2005 USDA fined her and revoked her license 21-C-0218 for because she allegedly drugged and killed a tiger cub among other things. See 911AnimalAbuse.com for more.
October 28, 2008 Berlin, Germany: Rescue workers saved six tigers from a blazing 43-foot wagon by turning them loose on the highway. One tiger appeared to have suffered some smoke inhalation, but the other five were in good condition, owner Daniel Renz said. Renz said his show would go on, as planned on October 30, but the six tigers involved in Monday's blaze -- Queeni, Aschima, Lena, Sonja, Sibi and Goldi -- will be given a break and some of the circus' seven other tigers will perform in their place. The suspected cause was an overheated suspension system on the truck, said Renz.
October 14, 2008 Johannesbrg, So. Africa: Nelson Silaigwana of Three Streams Farm in Mangwe was found mauled to death by escaped lions. Two weeks ago, the eight-year-old daughter of a farmer was mauled by a lion and a lioness her father kept caged. Courtney Sparrow, who suffered a hole in her throat and serious injuries to her arms, face and head, underwent ten hours of surgery in Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg. Her father, Ron Sparrow, said he used the lions to deter attackers, but two lions broke through a weak window and the lioness attacked Courtney. A domestic worker was injured when she tried to rip Courtney from the lioness's grip.
October 13, 2008 Fallon, NV: A volunteer named Emmie was invited to pet the big cats at Tiger Touch owned by John and Barbara Williamson. She was petting a cougar named Kicky when the cat latched onto her palm and tried to drag her into the cage. See photos of the injury and read more about the mauling HERE.
October 4, 2008 Palm City, FL: A 50 lb, declawed Siberian Lynx disappeared from 3560 SW Wood Creek Trail at about 4:30 a.m., shortly after owner Tina Love fed her on the screened patio. "She's not the type to walk around," Love said. "But I thought she might have just wandered off." The property was unfenced. Love bought Simba from a breeder in Wisconsin for $2,500 after she gave away her bobcat because it was too wild. The Siberian Lynx was found again a couple weeks later, a mile and a half away, hanging out in a children's playground. She was confiscated by authorities as the owner did not have current permits and lacked appropriate caging. Often Big Cat Rescue has to turn away cats, from irresponsible owners who are trying to dump them, because the owners refuse to sign a contract stating that they will never again fuel the exotic pet trade.
September 16, 2008 Gaveston, TX: Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough said Tuesday that a tiger is out of its enclosure from an exotic pets center. The news follows reports of a lion holed up in a Baptist church with its owner on Bolivar Peninsula. Yarbrough said, "I understand he's hungry ... so we're staying away from him." Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13 but a week later, the tiger still had not been found. The lioness and her owner were waist deep in water in the church along with several people who had fled there for shelter. "They worked pretty well together, actually," said the lion's owner, Michael Ray Kujawa. "When you have to swim, the lion doesn't care about eating nobody."
August 20 Reno, NV: Washoe County Regional Animal Services originally responded to a call about a large black dog on the roof of a home in the valley east of Washoe Lake. When they got there, they found not a dog, but two black leopards on the roof. State Wildlife Department spokesman Edwin Lyngar says the cats are exotic pets that escaped from the home of their owner Andy Kay who could not be reached for comment at telephone numbers associated with the West Coyote Drive address or the Ann Road address. Washoe County Assessor's Office records indicate the Washoe Valley property is owned by Coyote Irrevocable Trust and that Kay is a trustee. In March two black leopards were fired on by the police after allegedly mauling a puppy 200 yards from their home. Those cats were never found and are suspected to be the same as these found on a rooftop. Regional Animal Services Center Director Cindy Sabatoni said two Siberian tigers were found in Washoe County two years ago and a bobcat was found last year in Stead. The problem in NV is so prevalent that the tigers never even made the news.
August 19, 2008 West Palm Beach, FL: Authorities found and sedated a missing tiger from McCarthy's Wildlife Center. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the adult lion and tiger escaped and were loose overnight at McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary (a breeding compound and not a true sanctuary) about 20 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. Three schools, Golden Grove Elementary, Acreage Pines Elementary and Western Pines Middle, were on lock-down until the tiger was found and sedated at 11:00 am the next day. Authorities say they don't know how the big cats escaped. A person who answered the telephone at the sanctuary on Wednesday said they couldn't comment and abruptly hung up. Marc McCarthy houses 22 big cats on what appears in aerial maps to be about 8 lots in a subdivision. In May, McCarthy was rushed to the hospital after being bitten on the leg by one of his tigers, Sabi, on the set of a rap video being filmed in Miami.
August 5, 2008 Richmond Township, IL: Larry Dean said he was practicing a circus act at the Hawthorn Corporation farm near Richmond when the tiger suddenly became aggressive and grabbed him with its mouth. "He had numerous scratch marks and bite marks," said Richmond Township Fire Chief Rick Gallas. "I would say that was a mauling... he was pretty bloody." Gallas said workers told paramedics they had to beat the tiger with baseball bats to get it to release Dean. Gallas said Dean told paramedics it was the second time a tiger had attacked him at the farm, but Dean declined to comment when asked about that on Thursday and Hawthorn's owner, John Cuneo says Dean should not have been near the tigers. Hawthorn owns about 50 tigers but only about 30 of the animals are at the farm, Cuneo said. Others are performing at circuses around the world, Cuneo said. In 2003 the U.S. Department of Agriculture accused Hawthorn of failing to care for its elephants properly. But in 2004 he agreed to give away his elephants in exchange for keeping his circus tigers. Cuneo has tried to get rid of his tigers when they won't perform by asking Big Cat Rescue to take them, but Big Cat Rescue does not enable bad behaviour. Cuneo's Sarasota neighbors are concerned that he plans to move his tigers to their neighborhood as he has purchased 5 acres of beach front there and asked for permits to install n 8 foot high wall. FL law requires 5 ac and an 8' fence for people to keep tigers in their back yard.
August 4, 2008 Branson, MO: A 16-year-old boy named Dakoda Ramel is in the hospital after an attack at the Interactive Zoo and Aquarium( fka Predator World) in Branson West owned by Breck Wakefield. Rescue crews say a 16-year-old employee entered the tiger exhibit to take some photos for guests. Witnesses tell rescuers the teen was knocked to the ground. That's when they say two other tigers joined in, dragging the teen to the water trough. "We have two puncture wounds on the neck, one big one on the leg, a big gash on 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 four days later in critical condition. The father of the boy, Jim Barr said, "It was holding him down by his leg and tearing his calf off, eating it right in front of him." A lot of people remember Predator World from last year, when some wolves, a fox and a bear escaped. The bear killed an adult tiger at the park. What this park is known for is its interactions with animals like sharks, tigers and alligators.
August 3, 2008 Warren County, MO: A 26 year old volunteer named Jacob Barr was mauled by a tiger at the Wesa-A-Geh-Ya Animal Facility and lost his leg below the knee. The Warren County Sheriff's Department responded, to a report of a dog attack. Staff at the compound described not a tiger, but rather a pitbull attack. "This was not a dog attack, it was indeed a cat (800 lb tiger) attack on the person," Sheriff Kevin Harrison said. "And that they had tried to mislead my investigators and cover it up." The victim lost his leg below the knee and was airlifted to Barnes Hospital by Arch Air Medical. The tiger named Hercules who was said to have hopped the fence was shot to death by the owners, Ken and Sandra Smith. They then hid the body at a family member's house. The farm is home to 50 exotic animals and has been criticized by animal protection groups and USDA. About four years ago, the USDA filed allegations against the Smiths that included not providing proper veterinary treatment and lacking adequately trained employees. The Smiths gave up their exhibitor license and later had it revoked for operating without a license. They are no longer inspected by USDA and the Sheriff's office has no resources to devote to managing these kinds of operations. More HERE.
July 17, 2008 New Zealand Safari Park: Lisa Baxter, a 19 year old tour guide knew that if she screamed it would wake the rest of the pack and she would be killed, so she quietly worked to free her hands from the piercing bite of 18 month old Timba, the lion. Lisa, of Gullane, East Lothian, said: "I was stroking Timba's nose when he just grabbed my hand. His teeth were razorsharp and went straight through my skin." Later she added, "My hands were so swollen, I thought they were going to explode."
July 10, 2008 Atlanta, GA: A serval was found wandering near 14th Street and Georgia Tech in mid-town Atlanta and picked up by Animal Services who said the problem is more prevalent than most people think. Owning an exotic cat as a pet is illegal in GA unless it is being used for "education" so when exotic cats escape their owners rarely come forward. Big Cat Rescue received a report from a neighbor saying that the owner had become fearful of the cat as he matured and turned him loose on purpose. The cat, dubbed Ozzie, has been placed in a licensed facility. GA has no accredited sanctuaries, so that probably wasn't a happy ending for the cat.
June 20, 2008 Thailand's Tiger Temple: In a report on the Tiger Temple released today is documented and account of a Thai woman who came with her partner to help raise funds for the Temple, put her hand into the tiger, Dao Ruang's, cage to pet her. Dao took hold of the woman's hand with her mouth. When the
frightened woman tried to pull her hand away, Dao Ruang bit through it and held on. The woman's partner came over and hit Dao Ruang over the head. The woman's hand was badly torn between her 3rd and 4th fingers and required numerous stitches to close the wound. On other occasions, investigators observed tigers attacking staff and volunteers. One resulted in an injured finger, which needing suturing, another a French volunteer whose shirt was ripped, narrowly missing her neck and another a Danish volunteer who was tackled to the ground by and bitten on the leg. The resulting injury got infected and the volunteer need medical treatment at a hospital. During an interview with a journalist in January 2008, the Abbot was asked why the tigers do not bite. The Abbot said, "They want to bite and one day they will bite." Meanwhile the Monks spray tiger urine in the cats' faces to subdue them. Animal Planet has removed all references to the show. Read the entire report HERE.
June 19, 2008 Newton County, MO: A deputy shot and killed a 6 month old, declawed, black jaguar after being called to the home of a woman who thought she had seen a cougar. The jaguar had body fat, but no food in its stomach, and his paw pads indicated having been kept on concrete, which means he had escaped from captivity. Missouri does not regulate non-native wildlife, so the agency has no records that might have revealed where the jaguar was being kept. Last month, a declawed black leopard was shot to death in Neosho, MO.
June 17, 2008 McAllen, TX: Police said Michelle Ashton, 49, who was arrested while exchanging carriers filled with six tiger cubs in a parking lot, could be linked to a suspected tiger-smuggling ring. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Alejandro Rodriguez says it appears the cubs were bound for Mexico when they were seized. According to the feds, smuggling wildlife is a lucrative business that ranks second only to drug smuggling. "It's a very huge problem," Fish & Wildlife Service Agent Nicholas Chavez said. "It's been prevalent for years. It's something that we see definitely every week." "You could get anywhere from probably $3000 to $25000 a piece for them depending on what color they are, what they look like," he said. Ashton allegedly told police that she was a representative of Spring Hill Wildlife Ranch outside of Calvert in Robertson County. If convicted Ashton could face a $250,000 dollar fine and up to five years in prison for violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Wildlife trafficking earns billions of dollars annually. Smuggling wildlife products feeds into multipurpose criminal distribution networks that generate what Younger called "peripheral
crime." This includes corruption of officials, falsification of documents, intimidation and murder. "Once we start to dig into these things we find that not only are they smuggling wildlife, for example, but they'll be smuggling narcotics, or diamonds or gold bullion," he said.
June 12, 2008 Shifang, China: Following an earthquake on May 12 and mudslides that caused 400 people to flee on foot, a circus turned loose many of their animals and left 3 lions and 2 tigers behind in cages. On June 3 soldiers shot one 2 year old tiger to death in his cage. One white lion had starved to death already. When Chen Qinghua, head of Wanguan Group, was informed that a tiger and 2 lions were still alive, he organized a rescue party who transported the big cats by helicopter to the Bifengxia Zoo. They had gone without food or water for 25 days.
June 7, 2008 Tokyo, Japan: Zookeeper, Atsushi Ito, was mauled to death by an 11 year old, 330 lb. male tiger while cleaning the animal's cage at the Kyoto City Zoo in western Japan. Police suspected Ito had failed to lock a door that connected two cages.
June 6, 2008 Winnepeg, Canada: Kelly John Clarke, 38, sometimes called the Tiger Man of St. Clements has been charged with two counts of first degree murder in connection with the brutal killings of Joel Labossiere, 34, and his pregnant wife Magdalena, 33, who were found shot to death inside their St. Vital house on April 20. Clarke first made headlines in 1997 when his Midwest Exotics – a business that bought and sold exotic animals to pet stores, zoos and universities – brought to his St. Clements home Sheena, a Siberian tiger. When his trailer burned to the ground 1998, surrounding residents pressured council to bring forward a restricted exotic animal bylaw. Most of the animals were confiscated, but in August 1999, Winnipeg police seized the 250-kilogram Sheena after the tiger was spotted in a cage in the back of a van in River Heights. In December 2001 Clarke was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison and a 10-year weapons prohibition for 14 armed robberies. He went on the spree to fund a $1,000-a-day crack cocaine habit. In August 2007, Clarke was arrested in Selkirk and charged with intimidation after allegedly disrupting a Winnipeg trial and following a Crown attorney while she drove home from work. These are the kind of people who have big cats as pets.
May 27 So. Africa: A man in his forties was attacked and killed by six lions on a lion farm in Setlagole, near Mafikeng, North West police said. Superintendent Koos Degenaar said the man went into the lion's cage to give the animals water. He was then attacked by six lions. All that was left of the man were fingers and intestines. This is the sixth such incident to be reported in the province in two years. Other incidents include a 13 year old boy who was killed by lions at Tosca, two people who were killed on two different farms at
Zeerust, anther fatal lion attack at a farm near Swartruggens and a fifth occurred near Potchefstroom.
May 26, 2008 South Bend, IN: A Potawatomi Zoo worker was attacked by a leopard as she cleaned the cat's holding area, leaving her with head wounds. Zoo visitors watched Saturday as veteran zoo keeper Jeri Ellis was wheeled away on a stretcher, her head wrapped in bandages and towels spotted in blood.
May 24, 2008 Detroit Zoo, MI: Royal Oak - An animal handler at the Detroit Zoo has received stitches after being scratched and bitten by a lioness named Katie. The Detroit Free Press reports the attack happened shortly after Saturday's 5 p.m. public closing time. Zoo spokeswoman Patricia Mills Janeway says Brett Kipley, who in his 20s, received stitches at a hospital. The newspaper says Kipley used pepper spray to fend off the animal during the attack.
May 21, 2008 Neosho, MO: A 61 year old woman was chased into her house by a black leopard. An officer on the scene said he shot the cat with a shot gun two or three times as it approched him and then fired several rounds from a .45 caliber Glock into the cat's chest before stopping him. The cat was pawing at the door to get into the house when the police arrived. The leopard was a declawed pet that had escaped or had been dumped.
May 14, 2008 Russia: A drunken Russian zookeeper, who was mauled by a lion after climbing into its pen May 1 at a zoo in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, died in hospital Tuesday, investigators said. The man, who had been suspended from work for being drunk, entered the animal's enclosure while the lion slept and was attacked by the big cat as he tried to tap it on the nose.
May 11, 2008 Toledo, OH: The Toledo Zoo said that a zookeeper suffered three lacerations to the chest while caring for the tigers. The tiger's paw made it through a double mesh barrier at an odd angle, enabling the tiger to come into contact with the keeper.
May 10, 2008 Carrollton, IL: Authorities have seized an African Serval named Max from Tammy Ruehl who was keeping it as a pet without a permit. Ruehl says she received a $75 fine. Carrollton Police Chief Mike Kiger says the state had the right to confiscate the animal.
May 9, 2007 Loxahatchee, FL: According to PR-inside.com and Palm Beach Post: "Mark McCarthy who took his tiger onto the set of rapper Rick Ross' new video, was savagely attacked by the white tiger. The big cat, which featured in the background of one of Ross' scenes with Nellie was being used as a prop to look like the rapper's pet. The tiger turned on the unnamed trainer when he tried to coax the fierce creature out of its cage during filming. Reportedly agitated from being in chains all day, the tiger bit the trainer's leg as he tried to remove it from its cage. The tiger's keeper suffered severe bite wounds to his right leg and was rushed to hospital after the attack. Now laid up, McCarthy had to cancel some of his other gigs. "Won't be the first time I've been bit, won't be the last. I've been bit by everything from venomous snakes to tigers and leopards and monkeys and who knows what else," said the 52-year-old owner of McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary. He said the $5,000 bonus he got for the video will barely make up for the shows he missed. "
May 9, 2008 Muskegon, MI: Both a serval and a bear are believed to have escaped April 28 or 29. Numerous residents in Fruitport Township reported seeing the bear early this week before it was recovered. The serval, a declawed cat with no way to protect himself or hunt, is still missing. He escaped through a window in the room where he was kept. DNR spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said the agency probably will seek a misdemeanor charge against the owners for failure to report the missing bear, as required by the SPCA's permit.
May 1, 2008 Quebec: The 70-kilogram king of the jungle, who goes by the name of Boomer, has been on the lam since he escaped last night from a house where he was kept as a man's personal pet. The lion, which is about four feet high, was last spotted beside Highway 105, near Maniwaki, about an hour north of Ottawa.
April 18, 2008 Los Angeles, CA: Five Circus Vazquez tigers have been evicted by Los Angeles animal welfare officials because the big-cats earlier attacked and killed another tiger in their small cage. Department general manager Ed Boks says the tigers killed one of their own in Huntington Park on March 31 and the U.S. Department ofAgriculture cited Circus Vazquez for having too many tigers in close proximity to each other. Los Angeles officials went to the San Fernando Valley where the circus was performing across from the Panorama City Mall and the tigers were close together in the same cage. Boks says it was believed to be a public danger.
April 18, 2008 San Francisco, CA: Nicki Phung, 31 and Steven Tieu, 38, admitted in federal court to trying to illegally import a real, stuffed tiger into the United States. The two were caught in December when a U.S. Customs official at San Francisco International Airport inspected a box labeled "toy tiger" mailed from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and bound for the couple's home in Hercules, CA.
March 29, 2008 Wellington, FL: Judy Berens, owner of Panther Ridge Sanctuary, was showing off her two male cheetahs, Matt and Charlie, that she says she paid $40,000.00 for in Africa, when they knocked her down and punctured her arms and back more than 40 times before volunteers were able to rescue her. Berens says she has to pay another $10,000. to the Cheetah Conservation Botswana and Cheetah Outreach as part of her deal with the US Fish & Wildlife Service who are not supposed to allow the import of endangered species unless doing so somehow enhances their species chances at survival. Many of these Cheetah conservation centers are merely breeding facilities that supply cats to zoos and private collectors. (The cats are not set free.) Berens has more than twenty exotic cats in her 5 acre back yard and said, she fashioned herself after Katharine Hepburn's leopard-owning character in Bringing up Baby. "I figured if she can have a leopard, why can't I..?." Judy Berens' comment is exactly why displaying big cats as tractable is harmful to people and the cats. If show biz had not portrayed Hepburn as a master of the leopard, Berens might not have shelled out 7500.00 for her Jaguars nor the 50,000 for her pet Cheetahs. As long as people, like Berens continue to exhibit exotic cats as if they were tame, others will say, "...why can't I?"
March 28, 2008 Davenport, FL: Darryl Atkinson of Horseshoe Creek says the animals have to go now that he won't be able to exhibit them for money. He has more than 30 big cats in cages that have been cited more than 40 times for being too small and too flimsy. When Big Cat Rescue called to see if they could help they were told that Atkinson was going to work with Bhagavan Antle (T.I.G.E.R.S. in SC and FL) and that his cats were going with him. There isn't much the state or federal government can do to stop him if another dealer is willing to let him continue to operate under their license.
March 20, 2008 Ontario, Canada Bowmanville Zoo: A martial arts teacher knocked over by a lion during a photo shoot for Desi Life at Bowmanville Zoo says she is happy to have come away with four broken ribs and a bloodied lung. "To be honest, the sensation I have is a great deal of gratitude to be alive," Gitanjali Kolanad said yesterday. In the video, one minder kicks the baby lion in the neck while the other pulls on a leash. The lion takes a second, unsuccessful lunge at Kolanad as she lies gasping, before he is hauled out the door. "I couldn't breathe – that was the terrifying part. The muscles in my chest seized up and they didn't relax until I was in the emergency room and they gave me a muscle relaxant." See it here: http://www.thestar.com/DesiLife/article/347684
February 23, 2008 Miami, FL: A pet serval was turned in, no questions asked, at an exotic pet amnesty day sponsored by the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission. 100 owners dropped off bags full of pythons, scorpions and assorted other reptiles, birds and mammals. "This is garden-variety stuff," said exotic pet veterinarian Thomas Goldsmith, who examined the submissions. "This is Miami. People have sloths and leopards and God knows what else." The FWC then gave the dumped pets to new owners. One of the people surrendering her pets, Christie Lyon said, "People have no idea what they're getting into."
February 21, 2008 Honolulu, HI: A 245-pound Sumatra tiger named Berani was discovered wandering around an unsecured area just before the Honolulu Zoo's opening on Thursday. A startled female volunteer reported the escape after the tiger brushed past her. Zoo workers describe 8-year-old Berani as the tamest of three tigers at the zoo. Quintal says staff members who cleaned the tiger enclosure failed to properly latch a gate.
February 21, 2008 Johnstown, OH: Ben Uditis was driving when he noticed a fire at 3159 S. County Line
Rd. Editis woke Rick Armstrong and helped him get his animals out of his garage, including a caged tiger. Firefighters arriving on the scene had to work around the big cat to put out the blaze. ( Since no one was harmed, this is not included in the totals above as an incident although the first responders would certainly call it one. )
February 13, 2008 Bracebridge, Ontario: Provincial police were forced to shoot and kill a six year old jaguar named Bhino after he broke through a chain link cage at Guhu Exotic Animal Reserve. When officers arrived, they found the jaguar with the family's pet dog in his mouth. The dog was on a chain and therefore couldn't escape the jaguar and had to be put down because of severe injuries.
February 9, 2008 Davenport, FL: Brenda Chapman was clawed by a tiger named Kheira while cleaning out its cage, at Horseshoe Creek said Gary Morse of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.The incident comes on the heels of Darryl Atkinson's Feb. 1 arrest on charges of grand theft and signing a forged instrument. The commission said it found Atkinson accepting money from people on court-ordered probation in exchange for signing off on community service work they did not do. "That's just not what I need with all this other stuff," owner Darryl Atkinson said.
January 24, 2008 Seattle, WA: Two declawed, yearling servals were found wandering around West Seattle. Animal Control picked up one on Jan. 1 as it was going after some cat food left on a doorstep. Officers picked up the second one on the grounds of Madison Middle School. Officer Don Baxter suspects they both belonged to the same owner, who has not claimed them.
January 18, 2008 Mayes County, OK: The fire at Safari Joe's Exotic Wildlife Refuge destroyed a large barn that housed big cats, monkeys, birds and reptiles. Joe Estes, who owns the refuge, says he was able to save some tigers and lions but at least two tigers housed on the property died in the flames along with about 100 other exotic animals. - Blog post
- 1 year ago
- Views: 941
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McCarthy's Wildlife Cited Unsa McCarthy's Wildlife Cited Unsafe
- From: TheirVoice
-
Description:
Owner of lion, tiger cited for conditions that led to escape in
Loxahatchee
Palm Beach Post Staff
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A Loxahatchee wildlife sanctuary has been cited by the Florida Fish
and Wildlife Conservation Commission after a Bengal tiger and a lion
escaped their pens as Tropical Storm Fay passed through town.
Mark McCarthy, owner of McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary was cited for
keeping the animals in an unsafe manner, resulting in a threat to the
public.
The citation is a second-degree misdemeanor, with up to a $500 fine or
60 days in jail, Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.
Investigators determined that the gate hinges on the enclosure were
improperly secured Aug. 20, the day the animals went missing. The
animals were apparently able to push the gate off its hinges.
The escaped Bengal tiger was cornered and shot twice with tranquilizer
darts after the brief scare that forced three schools to take special
precautions. Officials waited for the big cat to become groggy before
returning it to a cage. The adult lion was quickly recaptured.
Following the incident, the FWC inspected the entire property. In
addition to the citation, FWC inspectors issued three warnings
relating to other cages on the property, Ferraro said.
This is McCarthy's first citation, and Ferraro said that since the
incident he has made several improvements to the property.
McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary has been operated by Mark McCarthy as a
traveling educational exhibit since the mid-1980s. McCarthy also holds
a wildlife rehabilitation permit. McCarthy's houses 22 big cats who
"consume 1,000 pounds of meat each week," according to its Web site.
In May, one of McCarthy's tigers, Sabi, bit him on the leg on the set
of a rap video being filmed in Miami.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/local news/content/west/epaper/2008/09/10/0910mccarthy.html - Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 722
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Lion & Tiger Escape Marc McCar Lion & Tiger Escape Marc McCarthy
- From: TheirVoice
-
Description:
Wildlife officials catch missing tiger and lion
Reported by: Carson Chambers
Email: cchambers@wfts.com
Last Update: 12:47 pm
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A Bengal tiger that escaped from its cage at a sanctuary was tranquilized and captured Wednesday morning, authorities said.
The adult tiger was last seen by caretakers at McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary about 11 p.m. Tuesday, said Gabriella Ferraro, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Authorities had warned residents in the area Wednesday morning to remain indoors while they searched for the cat. Three schools also were put on lock-down.
Ferraro said the tiger was captured at about 11 a.m. Wednesday on the sanctuary grounds. It was tranquilized and put back in its cage.
A lion also escaped its cage at the sanctuary sometime overnight but was quickly captured, authorities said.
A person who answered the telephone Wednesday at the sanctuary said they wouldn't talk and abruptly hung up.
The facility is located about 20 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. It houses about 90 animals, including one lion, six tigers, five cougars and five leopards.
Fish and Wildlife officials last inspected the facility on Jan. 29 and found no problems, except for an unlocked venomous reptile cage, according to the agency.
"The sanctuary has a good record with the FWC," said the agency's Capt. John West.
FWC officers were investigating how the animals got free.
In 2004, a 600-pound tiger named Bobo escaped from the nearby five-acre home of Steve Sipek, who once played Tarzan in movies of the same name.
A wildlife officer eventually shot and killed the cat after 26 hours on the loose.
That shooting set off a public outcry and led to at least five death threats aimed at the state FWC.
An agency report later found the officer used sound judgment and complied with the agency's guidelines when he shot the Bengal-Siberian tiger. However, the report also noted that the officer's lack of training in dealing with big cats, his proximity to the animal and a tranquilizer team's delay in getting to the scene factored into the cat's death.
At the time, Sipek and others complained that killing the cat was unnecessary. - Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 542
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Tiger Attack on Rapper Set Tiger Attack on Rapper Set
- From: TheirVoice
-
Description:May 9, 2007 Miami, FL: An animal trainer on the U.S. set of rapper Rick Ross' new video is recovering in hospital, after he was savagely attacked by a white tiger. The big cat, which featured in the background of one of Ross' scenes with Nellie was being used as a prop to look like the rapper's pet. The tiger turned on the unnamed trainer when he tried to coax the fierce creature out of its cage during filming. Reportedly agitated from being in chains all day, the tiger bit the trainer's leg as he tried to remove it from its cage. The tiger's keeper suffered severe bite wounds to his right leg and was rushed to hospital after the attack.
- 2 years ago
- Views: 444
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Ex-Tarzan Steve Sipek 4 Ex-Tarzan Steve Sipek 4
- From: TheirVoice
-
Description:
LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. -- A two-day search for a 600-pound Bengal tiger named Bobo that had escaped from a five-acre compound ended Tuesday when a wildlife officer shot and killed the big cat as it lunged toward him.
Bobo, a 6-year-old declawed cat owned by former Tarzan actor Steve Sipek, escaped from his home on C Road in Loxahatchee Monday afternoon.
"This has been a long 26 hours for all of us," Maj. Brett Norton, regional commander for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission said. "We made every attempt to try and capture Bobo."
Norton said an officer saw the tiger along a fence about 5:30 p.m. and radioed for the dart team. As the unidentified officer waited for the team, Bobo turned around and faced him. With his ears down and teeth showing, the cat lunged. Fearing for his life, the officer fired his rifle and shot Bobo.
Sipek was distraught.
"I told them, `Please do not go out there without me,'" said a tearful Sipek, who was smeared with blood after cradling the body of his pet. "They promised."
Sipek said he could have brought Bobo home if he was called. He said he got a call that Bobo was seen in a neighbor's yard. As he approached, he heard five shots, he said.
"They murdered him. They murdered him. They murdered my Bobo," he wailed.
Wildlife officials would not reveal how many times Bobo was shot or the name of the officer. A necropsy will be performed.
The reaction to Bobo's death was swift and passionate from neighbors, big cat experts and animal lovers.
Friends and acquaintances who had known Bobo came from all over the county to comfort Sipek.
Roxanne Feola, who pulled onto the shoulder of Okeechobee Road as Sipek was addressing news crews, threw her arms around his chest and buried her head in his shoulder.
"Bobo was the last cub Steve bought and I raised him from a baby," cried Feola, of Lake Worth, who helped Sipek care for his animals for 10 years. She remembered Bobo drinking from a baby bottle, the "sweetest tiger you ever could imagine."
Cheryl Churchill, a friend of Sipek's, hadn't seen him in more than a year.
"I knew Bobo and he was not an aggressive animal," she said. "I've petted him. I've given him water."
About 40 friends and neighbors gathered at the corner of C Road and Okeechobee Boulevard at 8:30 p.m. for a candlelight vigil. Many in the community have pets such as peacocks, goats and even a camel. They're united in their affection for these animals.
After hugging neighbors and well-wishers waiting for him on the road, Sipek trudged up the dirt drive, pressed open the gate and went to the first fenced area. Princess, a 15-year-old tiger who limps because of an early injury, ambled over to the gate and rubbed her head against the bars.
"Hello, baby, I've got something to tell you. They murdered Bobo," sobbed Sipek, letting himself inside the tiger's cage. Flies and bugs dotted his stained shirt and jeans.
Postal worker Jan Mahoney first noticed Bobo outside the compound around 2:30 p.m. Monday. He was lying behind a mound of freshly cut palm fronds and appeared harmless as he chewed on grass next to Sipek's property.
"I was nervous, but I didn't feel threatened," Mahoney said. "He was close enough to touch."
Throughout the day Tuesday, scouting teams combed the woods looking for Bobo. Officers were stationed at three vantage points: up high, in open spaces and along fence lines. The search involved rotating shifts of 12 to 15 state wildlife officers, four to six sheriff's officials and Sipek. State wildlife's Special Operations Group provided a five-man team, armed with 9mm pistols, 12-gauge shotguns and M-4 rifles. Three other state wildlife investigators were armed with 50-foot-range tranquilizer rifles, wildlife commission Lt. Charles Dennis said.
Officer Jorge Pino, a wildlife agency spokesman, said all options for capturing the animal were considered. The notion that the wildlife officers aren't trained to catch large animals is a common misconception, he said.
"The investigators are certified to do exactly what they did," Pino said. "I'm talking about investigators who have 20-plus years doing just this."
Part of that training means using lethal force only as a last resort, Norton said.
"Our officers were made very clear on the rules of engagement," he said. "They were not to take direct shots unless their lives were in imminent danger."
Officers initially set up to contain Bobo so that he would go back home on his own, said Dennis, lead investigator for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. "He's more than likely trying to get back home," he said at 2 p.m. Tuesday. "We're trying to assist him."
Sipek could be billed for the as-yet undetermined cost of the search if he is found to be negligent, though no decision has been made, said wildlife commission spokesman Willie Puz.
Officers were within seven feet of catching Bobo late Monday afternoon before a news helicopter hovering above scared Bobo away, wildlife officials said.
Sipek holds one of about 10 licenses in the state allowing him to keep exotic animals as pets, said Henry Cabbage, a wildlife commission spokesman in Tallahassee. Sipek has four other large cats on his property. Sipek has an excellent record, with only one violation in 1993 for not renewing his license, which he corrected, Cabbage said. He hasn't had any violations since.
After an investigation about two years ago into an incident in which Bobo pounced on and hurt Sipek's friend, Carol Pistilli, state wildlife officials found no evidence of negligence by Sipek, wildlife officials said. Sipek renewed the license this year.
Some experts warn of more exotic animals meeting the same fate as Bobo.
"There is an epidemic of people keeping big cats as pets and that problem needs to be addressed in a fundamental way," said Wayne Pacelle, chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States. "These animals belong in their native habitats in Asia or Africa and they should not be languishing in cages in people's back yards or basements."
Still, he didn't think the animal should've been killed.
"You would think that the animal could have been tranquilized," Pacelle said. "But the blame really rests with people who somehow think that they can safely keep one of the largest and most lethal predators in the world as a pet."
Judy Berens, who owns Panther Ridge Sanctuary, has 16 large cats, including a tiger, seven cougars, leopards and others. She was saddened by the news of Bobo's shooting. But she said she couldn't blame wildlife officials for what happened.
"I can't criticize the police for this," Berens said. "They don't deal with this on a regular basis."
Staff Writers Diane C. Lade and Sam Tranum and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6641.
http://www.newsday.com/news/ nationworld/nation/ny-ustig0715,0,3455271.story?co ll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
Woman who offered pig to lure tiger faces cruelty charge
By Scott McCabe, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 15, 2004Someone squealed on the lady who brought the pig.
The Loxahatchee woman who offered her pig as bait to capture Bobo the tiger will be cited for animal cruelty for hauling the 5-month-old porker in her trunk, according to Animal Care and Control Director Diane Sauve.
Linda Meredith drove from her home to C Road and Okeechobee Road with her Yorkshire pig Monday shortly after learning that the 600-pound tiger belonging to a one-time B-movie Tarzan Steve Sipek had escaped his 5-acre compound.
Meredith, wearing a tiger print and a gold lion medallion, pleaded with deputies to take the piglet named Baby by its hind legs or twist its ears to make it squeal and attract the hungry tiger.
Animal Care and Control Director Diane Sauve immediately ordered her staff to check into the incident, she said, even before complaints from animal rights activists poured in.
"I was appalled," Sauve said. "Carrying an animal in a trunk in 90-degree heat, where it's probably 140 degrees inside, is not acceptable."
Even pigs transported for slaughter are required by law to be moved humanely, Suave said.
An investigator told Meredith that she'd get at least a $91 citation, Meredith said. Suave said she'll meet with her counterparts in the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office today to determine the charges.
Meredith said her Cadillac's trunk is air conditioned and that she was going to eat the pig anyway when it got full grown. Meredith's upset that state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials didn't try to use a live animal to lure the exotic animal before shooting it to death Tuesday.
"I can't believe they have the gall," Meredith said. "I was just trying to help the tiger find his way back home. Apparently, it's not nice to be nice."
scott_mccabe@pbpost.com
htt p://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto
/epaper/editions/thursday/local_news_045fce 3ca30630b4004a.html
State wildlife agency slammed over shooting of pet tiger
By Nancy L. Othón, Shahien Nasiripour and Akilah Johnson
Sun-Sentinel
Posted July 15 2004LOXAHATCHEE -- State wildlife officials defended themselves against an onslaught of criticism Wednesday for killing Bobo, the nearly 600-pound tiger that made international headlines by escaping from a former Tarzan actor's home.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission again refused to name the officer who shot Bobo Tuesday, because of an ongoing investigation and to protect the officer, officials said.
Since the shooting, which happened a few hundred yards from the 5-acre C Road compound where Steve Sipek lives with five other exotic big cats, local residents have harassed wildlife officers about Bobo's death. The agency has received thousands of irate e-mails and calls from around the globe.
"It's a really bad scene for our agency right now," Maj. Brett Norton said. "If this had gone the other way and my officer was laying there mauled, what would be the take on this now?"
Sipek, who portrayed Tarzan in two movies and keeps his animals in a maze of cages, appeared on three network television morning shows Wednesday, accusing wildlife officers of killing his beloved pet without provocation. He appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and was to appear early today on ABC's late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
As well-wishers visited Sipek Wednesday to offer condolences and express their rage and frustration with state wildlife authorities, he fought back tears while offering his account of the killing.
"They murdered him in cold blood," Sipek said. "They killed a poor, defenseless animal. They killed him deliberately."
Sipek said he has been overwhelmed by the public support, getting calls from as far away as England, Germany and Sweden. He plans to bury Bobo on the property, next to the cat's two friends Tony, a tiger, and cougar Misho.
Bobo escaped Monday afternoon through gates opened by someone who knew the cages had hidden locks, Sipek said. He has cared for 102 exotic cats since 1969, and now wants more tigers.
"I'll get 50 more tigers. They think Tarzan is crazy, but he's not," he said. "They've been trying to get rid of my animals for 35 years. I'd like to see them do that now. I'll die with my babies."
But the mission for wildlife officers and a wildlife expert who helped with the search was always to reunite Bobo with Sipek, officials said.
David Hitzig, executive director of the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, hoped for a happy outcome.
"It made perfect sense that what we needed to do was to get Steve Sipek and the cat together. There was never any dispute or discrepancy over that," he said.
If they saw Bobo, wildlife officers were told to immediately radio for the tranquilizer dart team -- composed of Hitzig and two lieutenants -- and keep the cat in sight without disturbing him, Hitzig said. The plan then called for Sipek to come to the scene, and to tranquilize Bobo only if he couldn't be coaxed home.
Hitzig was on his way to Bobo when he heard gunshots. Immediately, there was radio traffic and a flurry of questions, Hitzig said.
"We were in a dead run at that point, going to where the cat was," Hitzig said. "The cat was still alive when I got to it. I did everything that I could."
Fatally wounded, Bobo was bleeding from his mouth and nose.
Within moments, Hitzig said, the officer was apologizing for shooting Bobo, but repeatedly said he had no choice. Bobo had hissed and lunged at the officer, who shot it with an M-4 rifle.
Norton said five bullet casings were found but officials don't yet know how many times Bobo was shot. The cat will be taken today to the University of Florida so the head of pathology can perform a necropsy. Norton said the agency decided to have it done there to get an unbiased opinion.
Bobo was shot in the shoulder area, but the necropsy will provide forensic evidence showing how many times Bobo was shot, the bullets' trajectory and an exact cause of death.
Not all wildlife officers have tranquilizer guns because the narcotic in darts is strictly regulated and each officer would have to receive additional training to carry a dart gun, Norton said.
But even if the officer had a tranquilizer gun, Hitzig said, Bobo would have been able to attack the officer because a tranquilizer can take one to six minutes to take effect. If Bobo was lunging at the officer, the dart would not have stopped his actions, Hitzig said.
Sipek rushed to the scene after the shooting. Because the officers were moving west and Bobo was found facing in that direction as well, Sipek think the cat posed no threat.
"He never had a chance to escape," he said.
Wildlife officials said they had sent someone to get Sipek at home and a lieutenant tried to call Sipek but couldn't find his phone number on his cell phone. Norton said he authorized lethal force only if an officer's life was threatened.
Wildlife commission Lt. Patrick Reynolds was part of the dart team sprinting toward Bobo. He said having an officer with more experience dealing with large, caged animals as first responder might have changed the ending.
Bobo showing his teeth and hissing might have been nothing more than a bluff, said Reynolds, an investigator with 25 years of experience.
"I would tend to think all that a bluff," he said.
Still, Reynolds said he was not second-guessing the officer's actions.
Two investigations, one to determine how Bobo escaped Sipek's compound and another into the shooting, will be conducted. Sipek could face criminal charges and be billed for the search if the investigation concludes he was negligent.
At least two animal advocacy groups on Wednesday called for the state's wildlife commission to revoke Sipek's exotic animal license.
The Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition, a group representing 20 zoos, sanctuaries and animal organizations, said Sipek should conform to current laws. Sipek holds one of a handful of licenses in Florida allowing him to own exotic animals as pets.
"He's putting the community at risk," said Kim Haddad, a veterinarian and coalition manager. "And he's putting the tiger at risk."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the wildlife commission, listing two other incidents involving Sipek's cats: Bobo's attack on a friend of Sipek's two years ago that left permanent injuries and a 1985 escape of a three-legged black panther that returned a day later.
"Given Sipek's history and this most recent occurrence, revocation of his license is justified, and Sipek's remaining big cats should be confiscated and transferred to an accredited sanctuary," wrote Lisa Wathne, an exotic animal specialist with PETA.
Staff Writer Luis F. Perez contributed to this report.
Nancy L. Othón can be reached at
nothon@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6633.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorid a/sfl-pbobo15jul15,0,6121707.story?coll=s fla-home-headlines
Tiger Loose in FL
Cat owner devoted to his animals, friends, peers say
By Rachel Sauer, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Say what you want about Steve Sipek, but the man loves those cats. That's the one thing people who know him agree on.
So when Bobo, a 6-year-old, 600-pound Bengal-Siberian mix tiger escaped from his Loxahatchee compound Monday night and was killed Tuesday, Sipek was devastated.
"Bobo's his baby," said Roxanne Feola, who has worked with Sipek's cats for 10 years. "I think he stayed out there all night looking for him."
Sipek, who is 62 and has a 38-year-old son, has raised big cats for more than 30 years. He came to his love of cats through a love of Tarzan, who he portrayed in two Spanish-language movies. In a 2000 New Times story, he said he grew up in Croatia watching Johnny Weissmuller play Tarzan and was mesmerized. At 17, he fled Croatia through the mountains, bouncing from Austria to France to Canada and landing in Miami in 1959.
Lion saved him in 1972
Sipek told the newspaper he sent a photo of himself to a movie producer, who arranged an audition. In 1970, he starred under the name Steven Hawkes in Tarzán en la Gruta del Oro (Tarzan in the Grotto of Gold) and in Tarzán y el Arco Iris (Tarzan and the Rainbow) in 1972. He also co-wrote and starred in 1972's Blood Freak.
However, he told New Times, it was an incident that occurred while filming Tarzán y el Arco Iris that turned him on to big cats. He said a fire lit for dramatic effect got out of control, burning 90 percent of his body. The crew ran, he said, but a lion on the set dragged him to safety.
Shortly thereafter, Sipek moved to South Florida . He has lived on 5 acres on C Road in Loxahatchee for more than 10 years.
He supports himself doing granite and fencing work.
A constant concern, he told New Times, is money -- not so much for himself, but to support his cats.
"He just loves those cats," said next-door neighbor Hertha Horner, in whose driveway Bobo was discovered lounging Monday afternoon. "He's an eccentric, he's different, but he loves the cats."
"That's something you never question about him," said Barbara Harrod, who co-owns Vanishing Species Wildlife Sanctuary in Pembroke Pines .
Compound called confusing
What some do question, however, is the way in which Sipek and the cats live. Mark McCarthy, owner of McCarthy's Wildlife Sanctuary in The Acreage, said he doesn't feel comfortable at Sipek's compound because "I can't tell if I'm in a cage or out of a cage."
"I personally think he takes good care of his animals," McCarthy said. "However, his place is, how should I put this, it's kind of like Sanford and Son with cats. It really needs to be brought up to code. You go to his place and it's very confusing."
Carole Lewis, director of Big Cat Rescue in Tampa and president of the Association of Sanctuaries, said Sipek and other big cat owners like him concern her because for $150 they can get a state permit to have big cats, regardless of whether they know how to care for them.
Sipek's friends contend he does. Feola said his bond with his animals is obvious, as evidenced by the fact that he mingles freely with them and sleeps in a room that the cats can wander into whenever they want.
"The other day Steve was showing us out on the street where he'd fallen asleep next to Bobo on the floor and that big ol' 700-pound cat will still suck on his thumb like a baby," said neighbor Doug Cuthbert, whose son Josh loves the big cats. "He was talking about the cat started having a nightmare... and he popped ol' Steven's side and bit him a little. He had a couple marks on his side. But I guess that's your choice if you want to live with a freakin' animal."
Sipek knows they're animals, Feola said, and knows they can be dangerous. But he loves them just the same.
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One-time Tarzan actor mourns after wildlife officer kills tiger
By Luis F. Perez, Shahien Nasiripour and Akilah K. Johnson
Sun-Sentinel
Posted July 14 2004
Loxahatchee -- A two-day search for a 600-pound Bengal tiger named Bobo that had escaped from a five-acre compound ended Tuesday when a wildlife officer shot and killed the big cat as it lunged toward him.
Bobo, a 6-year-old declawed cat owned by former Tarzan actor Steve Sipek, escaped from his home on C Road in Loxahatchee Monday afternoon.
"This has been a long 26 hours for all of us," Maj. Brett Norton, regional commander for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission said. "We made every attempt to try and capture Bobo."
Norton said an officer saw the tiger along a fence about 5:30 p.m. and radioed for the dart team. As the unidentified officer waited for the team, Bobo turned around and faced him. With his ears down and teeth showing, the cat lunged. Fearing for his life, the officer fired his rifle and shot Bobo.
Sipek was distraught.
"I told them, `Please do not go out there without me,'" said a tearful Sipek, who was smeared with blood after cradling the body of his pet. "They promised."
Sipek said he could have brought Bobo home if he was called. He said he got a call that Bobo was seen in a neighbor's yard. As he approached, he heard five shots, he said.
"They murdered him. They murdered him. They murdered my Bobo," he wailed.
Wildlife officials would not reveal how many times Bobo was shot or the name of the officer. A necropsy will be performed.
The reaction to Bobo's death was swift and passionate from neighbors, big cat experts and animal lovers.
Friends and acquaintances who had known Bobo came from all over the county to comfort Sipek.
Roxanne Feola, who pulled onto the shoulder of Okeechobee Road as Sipek was addressing news crews, threw her arms around his chest and buried her head in his shoulder.
"Bobo was the last cub Steve bought and I raised him from a baby," cried Feola, of Lake Worth , who helped Sipek care for his animals for 10 years. She remembered Bobo drinking from a baby bottle, the "sweetest tiger you ever could imagine."
Cheryl Churchill, a friend of Sipek's, hadn't seen him in more than a year.
"I knew Bobo and he was not an aggressive animal," she said. "I've petted him. I've given him water."
About 40 friends and neighbors gathered at the corner of C Road and Okeechobee Boulevard at 8:30 p.m. for a candlelight vigil. Many in the community have pets such as peacocks, goats and even a camel. They're united in their affection for these animals.
After hugging neighbors and well-wishers waiting for him on the road, Sipek trudged up the dirt drive, pressed open the gate and went to the first fenced area. Princess, a 15-year-old tiger who limps because of an early injury, ambled over to the gate and rubbed her head against the bars.
"Hello, baby, I've got something to tell you. They murdered Bobo," sobbed Sipek, letting himself inside the tiger's cage. Flies and bugs dotted his stained shirt and jeans.
Postal worker Jan Mahoney first noticed Bobo outside the compound around 2:30 p.m. Monday. He was lying behind a mound of freshly cut palm fronds and appeared harmless as he chewed on grass next to Sipek's property.
"I was nervous, but I didn't feel threatened," Mahoney said. "He was close enough to touch."
Throughout the day Tuesday, scouting teams combed the woods looking for Bobo. Officers were stationed at three vantage points: up high, in open spaces and along fence lines. The search involved rotating shifts of 12 to 15 state wildlife officers, four to six sheriff's officials and Sipek. State wildlife's Special Operations Group provided a five-man team, armed with 9mm pistols, 12-gauge shotguns and M-4 rifles. Three other state wildlife investigators were armed with 50-foot-range tranquilizer rifles, wildlife commission Lt. Charles Dennis said.
Officer Jorge Pino, a wildlife agency spokesman, said all options for capturing the animal were considered. The notion that the wildlife officers aren't trained to catch large animals is a common misconception, he said.
"The investigators are certified to do exactly what they did," Pino said. "I'm talking about investigators who have 20-plus years doing just this."
Part of that training means using lethal force only as a last resort, Norton said.
"Our officers were made very clear on the rules of engagement," he said. "They were not to take direct shots unless their lives were in imminent danger."
Officers initially set up to contain Bobo so that he would go back home on his own, said Dennis, lead investigator for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. "He's more than likely trying to get back home," he said at 2 p.m. Tuesday. "We're trying to assist him."
Sipek could be billed for the as-yet undetermined cost of the search if he is found to be negligent, though no decision has been made, said wildlife commission spokesman Willie Puz.
Officers were within seven feet of catching Bobo late Monday afternoon before a news helicopter hovering above scared Bobo away, wildlife officials said.
Sipek holds one of about 10 licenses in the state allowing him to keep exotic animals as pets, said Henry Cabbage, a wildlife commission spokesman in Tallahassee . Sipek has four other large cats on his property. Sipek has an excellent record, with only one violation in 1993 for not renewing his license, which he corrected, Cabbage said. He hasn't had any violations since.
After an investigation about two years ago into an incident in which Bobo pounced on and hurt Sipek's friend, Carol Pistilli, state wildlife officials found no evidence of negligence by Sipek, wildlife officials said. Sipek renewed the license this year.
Some experts warn of more exotic animals meeting the same fate as Bobo.
"There is an epidemic of people keeping big cats as pets and that problem needs to be addressed in a fundamental way," said Wayne Pacelle, chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States . "These animals belong in their native habitats in Asia or Africa and they should not be languishing in cages in people's back yards or basements."
Still, he didn't think the animal should've been killed.
"You would think that the animal could have been tranquilized," Pacelle said. "But the blame really rests with people who somehow think that they can safely keep one of the largest and most lethal predators in the world as a pet."
Judy Berens, who owns Panther Ridge Sanctuary, has 16 large cats, including a tiger, seven cougars, leopards and others. She was saddened by the news of Bobo's shooting. But she said she couldn't blame wildlife officials for what happened.
"I can't criticize the police for this," Berens said. "They don't deal with this on a regular basis."
Staff Writers Diane C. Lade and Sam Tranum and Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.
Luis F. Perez can be reached at lfperez@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6641. Email story
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